Celica Forums » Customization How-To Guides » General Articles & Guides » Replica Body Kits

Do NOT support companies that rip-off body kit designers by producing counterfeit, aka "Replica" versions.

Top manufactures such as Veilside and Kaminari spend a lot of time and hard work designing and manufacturing quality products with superb fitment.

You would hate to invest $20,000 to $50,000 on a high quality body kit design & production - and within a week after releasing it, a schmuck duplicates your product and sells it for a fraction of the cost (usually $40/sides to $120/front & rear for each piece, with a markup of at least $175 to $250, respectably). Not only is he taking a cut away from your hard work by using inferior materials, but because often his parts have poor fitment, they look bad when painted/installed to a customers vehicle - often times, giving the genuine manufacture a bad name.

If you were Veilside and saw persons asking for counterfeits of your design and others telling their peers to "buy a replica version because it is cheaper", how much longer would you support that community? You probably wouldn't. Some manufactures continually produce innovative products to keep them ahead of the curve. Sometimes manufactures keep cutting their manufacturing quality so they can compete *OR* they offer their products in higher-quality urethane or fiberglass version which the knock-off companies cannot easily duplicate. But usually they just stop designing AND selling products for that particular vehicle.

Have you ever wondered why Veilside hasn't already produced a body kit for Honda's 7th Gen Civic, released several years ago? Now you know.

Very good point....thats why i got WINGS WEST

Plus why would u want to buy something that the quality is horrible and u will probably spend more money fixed the kit than u would of from the beginning buying the real kit

not free but deffinatley more affordable. when i first saw the veilside kit, i instantly fell in love with it. then once i found the price for an authentic one, my heart was crushed because i knew i could never afford that. and even if i saved that much money from my dead end job, id rather spend that hard earned sum of money elsewhere. with the replicas, i can have that same look my heart so desired at a fraction of the cost. and with that extra money saved, you might even get the kit molded on, which would instantly hide any fitment issues. even authentic kits dont fit 100%

yeah... too bad you cannot afford a Lamborghini or other exotic - I guess the lambo manufacturer's should lower the prices on them too.

there is a reason why its called a LUXURY... it means that not everyone can afford that item - so it becomes a LUXURY - such as Veilside is more of a LUXURY style bodykit.

oh well, at least you know you have a fake... and you are proud to own your fake. I have a "type-r" badge for you at a reasonable price

Very good point Isaac...

I agree though i hope ur proud of ur ripped off body kit. Thats like buying a lamborgini kit for ur celica and sayin its a lamborgini....NO its still the same slow 4 cylinder

Personally id rather have a quality product instead of a ripoff. I was gonna buy a rip off of the trd kit bc it was cheaper and i couldn't find the real one but i decided to go with the real thing instead bc its made of polyeurethane not fiberglass, like the ripoff. Im glad i spent the extra time and money and bought the real trd kit bc ive already hit my bumper and side skirt on a curb. It has minimal paint damage but if it had been fiberglass, it would have been shattered and i would have had to replace the whole thing. Plus the toyota dealer tints the body kit to match the faded paint color of your car.

Whatever floats your boat, me personally I like the VS kit but it is too expensive, so I'd rather opt for the best looking one after that (in my opinion) the Octane or Blitz kit both of which I can afford real ones, so hey I'd be supporting the real companies!!

actually im not proud of my kit at all. i used to be but not anymore. i even posted about selling it, along with my entire car. the celica is not a "luxery" car so why should i get "luxery" pieces such as the real veilside? and id rather have a skyline over a lamborghini which costs way less.. anywho, you used to sell replica kits isaac, obviously there wasnt a problem back then huh?

I never sold replica bodykits.... name one.

The kits that were on sale in the ecelica store were:
Blitz US Style (No such thing as 'Genuine' for 00+ Celica)
Blitz JDM Style (No such thing as 'Genuine' for 00+ Celica)
Genuine APC' Blitz US Style Urethane
Genuine Bomex
Genuine TCS Buddy Club
Invader 6 (No such thing as 'Genuine' for 00+ Celica since it was a concept project from Kaminari that Veilside never completely took over)
Genuine Kaminari Urethane
Genuine Kaminari Fiberglass
Octane (No such thing as 'Genuine' for 00+ Celica, its an Nissan Design)
Genuine R2 (from BRS' Mike B, of RaceReady/R2 Autodesign)
Genuine MB Autosport Revmotion
Genuine MB Autosport Raised Hoodscoop
Genuine BRS
Genuine TCS
Genuine WingsWest
Genuine APR GT300

Style != Replica

When speaking of bodykits for vehicles, "replica" means that it is intended to be a "duplicate copy by a third-party" of a genuine version.

If there is not a genuine version of the piece available for your vehicle, then one which has the same look but is adapted to fit is called "style".

Blitz US Style (No such thing as 'Genuine' for 00+ Celica)
Blitz JDM Style (No such thing as 'Genuine' for 00+ Celica)

thats what i meant. no such thing as a genuine blitz kit. not trying to attack you, just getting a point across ill stop here tho.. i seem to be upsetting people..

so isaac your saying since the blitz kit is a REPLICA kit nobody should buy one....even though there is no "official" Blitz kit the ones that are out there are REPLICAS so dont say dont support people who rip off body kit designs because obviously someone has ripped off the blitz design and made a kit for the celi. (thats just my little input on the whole thing)

replica or style....


there is no BLITZ replica for the celica.... its all "BLITZ STYLE"

Blitz never produced a kit for the Celica, so there isn't a Celica kit to replicate from them

good info.

replicas


Thats why I got me an authentic Kaminari kit!

hey guys! what do u think about the c-one body kits? i found some on ebay, i'm not sure if its the original or if they made a replica.

Respectable manufactures don't need to sell their products on ebay

YOUR A BITCH

^Ummm ok?

I think that replicas are both good and bad. Sure it hurts the orignal company, but it also allows people to afford the kit.

Like someone said, it's like buying a Lamborghini kit for you Celica and calling it a Lamborghini, but there is more to it than that.

Lamborghinis and cars of that nature cost a ton because of they are not mass produced. Each car is slowly built to perfection which is why the cost is so high. Many people can not afford theses cars and that is why there are kit cars and even many affordable sports cars, such as the 350Z and even our own Celica.

You could also look at it from another prospective... Lets say you want some Volk wheels, but can't afford them. Instead, you buy some Exel wheels that look like the Volks. Wouldn't that be considered a replica?

I had a replica VS1 kit and wished that I had bought the Authentic VS1 kit because my kit was not the best. That is why I sold it and bought an Authentic Kaminari kit!