Reproduction parts "FAIL."

[Tinman]

I got a couple of the reproduction rear doors from Steve Flowers, for the Matchbox 44c fridge truck. They are now made of plastic, like the originals were. Previously, the reproductions were cast in white metal. The white metal replacement doors were cheap, the new plastic ones are more expensive (why?). The new plastic door looks great, until you install it on the model. The first pic shows the plastic door installed. It contributes to global warming as the refrigeration unit on the truck must run overtime to keep everything cold and the stuff at the rear of the truck would surely be spoiled very quickly. This part is a complete fail and a new mold needs to be made - unacceptable!  It gets a "Do not buy" rating from the TinMan.

In the second pic you can see the old cast white metal door. It looks great and fit great. The inside edges were even tapered inward for an excellent fit.

Mr. Flowers, please discontinue the non-fitting plastic door and go back to the excellent fitting cast metal door (or replace the mold for the plastic door with a new mold that creates a door that fits)!

[Tinman]

Shand Mason replacement driver FAIL. Instead of a new Fireman I received Captain Hook (minus the hook). I guess hand failed to form. I can understand that spotting the missing end of the drivers arm might be a little difficult when your working with a bunch of different parts and castings all day. But then again, it's the same bunch of castings all day and every day. Would a little quality control be too much to ask when you are filling an order?

[Tinman]

OK, so I used the driver cause I've been waiting forever to get one. But these steering wheels are just going in the trash can. The small end is supposed to be a sphere, a ball and the actual steering wheel part - Oh Please! Then there are these useless booms for the 13a. If it were not for the cross member underneath (with the huge blob of flash) I might be able to open up some of the webbing with a needle file. As it is these are just junk too. Obviously, my hopes for any quality control ... well all hope is lost with this stuff.

[Tinman]

There are more far less than ideal replacement parts, maybe discussing more of them is boring. On the other hand, maybe it would be nice to have a list of which parts are not worth the effort to purchase. I know some of these white metal castings are not that expensive, yet when you order several of them it bumps the weight and shipping overseas is expensive. Not to mention the wait time from placing an order to the time you receive it, only to find a bunch of stuff that's unusable. If there is enough interest, we could compile a list of parts (including decals) that are not worth the effort and save us all some time and money.

I also want to mention that there are a ton of really great parts (metal & plastic) that are made to help us restore and repair our beloved vintage models and I'm super grateful they are available. My comments are not meant to pick on any one dealer or manufacturer of these parts.

[AJR]

I have to say that most of the plastic repro parts that I have bought from Steve have been very poor.
The canopies for the MB1 Mercedes and Trailer are a very loose fit and a wishy washy orange.
The canopy for the MB61 Alvis Stalwart (see photo) is also too small and arrives with the sprue attachment point hacked away and therefore needs a bit of filler which is a shame as the colour is good but because of needing filler will then require painting.
The ladder, hoses and raised lettering for the MB63 Alvis Fire Tender are also too small .. none of the three components fit and must be the worst purchase I have made.
In addition, the lettering is so covered in flash that they are fit only for the bin even if they were the right size.
I ended up using Slater's plastruct ladders and rod instead and left the lettering off with the idea of making a decal instead.
My first lot of lettering had parts of the letters missing and although Steve rectified the problem, because of the fit and finish issue, even the "good" ones were thrown in the bin. The attachment lugs do not line up.
Plastic wheel hubs for Dinky are also hit and miss and best to catch Steve at a swapmeet to sort through the best ones.
It isn't all doom and gloom though, the aerial and cameraman for the Dinky BBC TV Karrier were good.
The problem with these plastic parts is that they must be reverse engineered. The moulds being made from original parts are always going to shrink smaller.
If the plastic item fits into a single hole then it will most likely be okay but if there are two or more attachment lugs, then they most likely won't fit.

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[GHOSTHUNTER]

The title and nature of this thread is enough to make it 'The' place to come to and read about problem replacement parts so it has actually got off to a good start.

Please carry on posting here any replacement parts and decals anyone has that are of poor quality but please note, I don't think we should make it an official 'Name and shame' thread, just your views and findings when working with these parts.

I would also agree with a listing of suppliers we should avoid because of their problem parts but I am sure not everything they sell is bad so a listing certainly but with...Be aware these parts in the past have been a problem from this seller, type of stance.

Ghosthunter.

[AJR]

Agreed Ghosthunter. Without Steve we would probably have no reproduction parts as most of the other sellers around the world use his parts with of course the appropriate mark up.
I find Steve very helpful and his parts generally very good but repro parts are what they are and are never going to be nob on but it does help if they actually fit.
White metal is always going to require a bit of work and fettling but plastic is usually near finished.
The sad truth is that we complain about a bad product but seldom give praise for a good product.
Re- the Stalwart canopy, I would prefer it attached to the sprue so that I can trim it myself. I can live with it being a tad small as it only has to sit there.
While here, is it appropriate for me to mention Black Square Decals (aspiringhippo on eBay)? He does some excellent repro waterslide decals for Matchbox and other diecast that are pretty close to the originals (although his BP decals are rather poor). He adds to the catalogue more or less weekly and he does bespoke if you get in touch.
I might add that these are NOT cheap inkjet efforts and he mainly does the decals that Steve doesn't.
Back to Steve Flowers ... as we all know, the Matchbox hard tyres on plastic hubs become loose over time (some do - some don't depending on how they are stored). It is the hubs that shrink leaving the tyres to be lost. Apparently, the repro replacement tyres are made to fit the shrunken hubs and although I have found this to be so, I suppose that all depends on how much the hubs have shrunk or if they have shrunk at all. Fitting on to metal hubs would therefore require a bit of reaming.
Any feedback on those hard Matchbox tyres?

[Tinman]

Replacement tires for plastic and metal wheel hubs is a good subject.  I can't speak too much about other brands besides Matchbox, but I have used some Dinky replacement parts (some from Steve and some from other sources). With regard to the tires that fit on metal hubs (wire or solid) and plastic hubs I have much experience. I was around in the day when the models using these tires were created and sold individually in stores. With regard to the 1-75, Majors and Kings, there were no "Hard" plastic tires. At least they were not nearly as hard as some of the current reproduction tires are today.  I would call the original tires, when new, firm but not hard (they were malleable).

Some of the current replacements are so hard they require soaking in hot water and then still need to be carefully forced onto the plastic or metal hub. If that's a shrunken plastic hub, then that is a good thing.  Most of the replacement tires I've installed on plastic hubs do have a much better fit. That fit can range from perfect to "still loose" on plastic hubs.  I have come across some plastic hubs that have shrunk so much that I had to build up the seating edge with epoxy just to get a replacement tire to even try to stay on the hub. However, most of those badly shrunken hubs had lost so much of their original shape that they begin to resemble the shape of the chrome hubs for cars in the late 60's.  The profile of the severely shrunken yellow, red or orange hub was distorted enough that some are not salvageable.  Like all things, I suspect environment is a big factor in how badly the hubs shrink.

Since my geographic location is the sub-tropics, the ambient heat, humidity and strong rays of the sun tend to shorten the life of many things.  Plastics (even those with built in UV protection) are short lived here when exposed to the elements and/or sunlight (even indirect sunlight).  I would imagine that a sampling of models from the area around where Mr. Flowers is located would yield models that endured in a less harsh environment and have hubs with less shrinkage than some of mine. Overall, the replacement tires I have purchased and used were excellent in their fit and many are reasonable to excellent replicas of the originals. Some have a tiny remnant of the sprue (right on the center line of the radius or centered in the tread) and that can easily be removed using a fingernail clipper or cuticle trimmer. The black tires are hard to tell apart from originals, the gray tires are lighter in color than originals and I can spot those a mile away in most eBay photos.

Tires from other sources can be of much softer compounds and are likely synthetic rubber rather than plastic.  The tires available from the Dinky Club (for example) are very soft synthetic rubber and easy to adapt to slightly larger hubs of other models.  I use some of these Dinky tires for the rear tires on the 39c Ford tractors and some knobby tires for the 49b Unimog. The latter gives the Unimog a nice off road looking tire for my custom models.  The price difference is not much for the softer composition tires.  It's unknown what the wholesale difference is between the compounds or how different the process of molding these is between the two. Perhaps someone else has insight into that.Also unknown is if Mr flowers makes any or all of the tires he retails.  I suspect he does manufacture the hard plastic replacement wheels which is a completely different topic.  Without availability to these replacement tires, I would have to use rubber O rings for tires and that would rob some of the original appearance of models restored using O rings. Some larger knobby tires on Major & Kingsize models would not even have an acceptable appearance using O rings for tires.

Conclusion: I am very grateful that there are people who manufacture the replacement tires regardless of how hard or soft they are.

[Tinman]

Some notable decal "FAILS"

The 6b decals for the Euclid quarry truck should have the man point one way on one decal and the other way on the second decal. That way they both point forward when installed on the doors. FAIL.

The 47a Tea Leaves are like the men pointing on the Euclid, in other words the stems of the teas leaves should both face front (not one facing front & one facing rear as these do). FAIL.

The Allis Chalmers "260" should always be at the top. The decal is correct on the left side but upside down on the right side. FAIL.

The Scammell K8's door decals never came in this color and were always black lettering on a white background. FAIL.

The big three sell these decals (stickers in the case of Rick's Toy Box). However, Black Square does get them correct. Black Square also does a better job on getting the size or scale of some decals more accurate than the others.

[Tinman]

Since Black square has been mentioned in the above and another post, I'll turn my attention to his web page. 

There are 17 pages of decals for 1-75 "Regular Wheels" but the majority of those decals are for models that are NOT from the Regular Wheel era.  As he keeps adding more, it's getting a little eye straining to go through everything to sort out the regular wheel decals I need. It's time for him to reorganize the Matchbox selections into Regular Wheels and a separate selection for Superfast and beyond.

Also as the Kingsize pages keep growing, I would love to see the Regular Wheels era model decals listed first or they should also be divided into their own categorys.