Cobra Stickers vs. Ruben?

[navy viper]

Jaimanstone,
do you know why he was thinking of not doing the repo stickers ? I'm just asking for your opinion here if you dont know for certin ? Do you thnk I should save up & buy all that I plan on restoring from him in case he does decide to quit ? I've read many threads about him & his stickers & what you said really kinda surprised me? I would have thought he just about had the market all to himself ? I've used "COBRA STICKERS" with great succes (until it's time to pay for them) .The other "faction" stickers do get you thinking of really- would be /could be customs and are really cool I think ? let me know if you have the time

[Flophouse]

I've supplied Ruben with about 75% of his decal sets, in fact I just sent him another template with 5 vintage vehicle sets and I have another ready to go once the others are done, He's never mentioned anything to me about quitting. I know he just bought his own business down there and I'm sure is very busy with that and his kids, but as far as I know, as long as I keep sending him decals he'll get them made.

I recently sent him some Canadian conversion decals for Mobat, Vamp MkII, Rolling Thunder, and Dragonfly. I was also going to see if he'll do some 25th decals as Hasbro's were crap.

[FireFox91]

Thanks for the answers, guys!

For those of you who have gotten both, have you noticed the resolution better on one?

I don't really see a difference. Both look very sharp, as good as Hasbro.

On the Cobra Stickers Night Force sets, I actually like these. The original stickers were glow-in-the-dark which was one of the hooks for the sets. I would assume reproducing those on a small scale like this is not easy or cheap. But the alternative they came up with is just as nice. I got a set to put on some Night Force customs I did and they came out great. Sure, I like the glow-in-the-dark ones better, but these are a close second.

[WildBill]

DPrime,

I've used dozens and dozens of sets from Ruben and really won't use anything else. I did however use one set from Cobra Stickers for my Condor when Ruben wasn't sure he was going to continue to make his stickers about a year ago. The pre cut was nice, but I found that the large black areas on the wings were not very well done. The prininting lines are visible in the black, and are noticable. Also, their stuff is about 3 times the cost of Ruben.

The print line issue has been solved quite some time ago actually. Our stickers are now printed on a completely different machine with improved ink.
I can only assume that we are more expensive because our production costs are higher and our material and ink differs from what our competitors use.
I am not familiar with our competitors product although from what I have seen posted by other users they appear to be exact copies while our sets are re-designed and redrawn by us.
Our NF sets do not glow in the dark as the originals. As such we took creative liberties that we felt matched the theme of a night stealth vehicle.
As for other differences from originals and our products, well there are pictures on the site.
I am more than happy to answer any questions you might have. Please contact us through service@cobrastickers.com
Regards,
RJ

[navy viper]

wild Bill,
its nice of you to reply to the comments of other members. buisness is buisness -there's allways someone better & cheaper and not allways at the same time. I'm glad we have you & Ruben . I would be happy to see another who does more custom stuff , such as the same sticker set for like the skystriker but done in different colors (grey/silver) to give it a "realistic millitary" color scheme ? I don't know if that could ever happen but if the hobby grows bigger w/ after marker suppliers, I guess it could be possible ? anyway welcome & keep up the good work . I wonder if it is possible to do surveys on here to see what collectors would like to see from you guys ? I'm not sure if thats possible on here (?) but it would be nice

[AmbroseKalifornia]

I would be happy to see another who does more custom stuff , such as the same sticker set for like the skystriker but done in different colors (grey/silver) to give it a "realistic millitary" color scheme ?

That's a great idea!

[Flophouse]

I'm all for anyone who puts money, time, and energy into keeping this hobby alive and enjoyable for collectors, so I wish success to Cobrastickers, honestly. I just happen to have a long association with J. Ruben so I deal with him.

I realize the internet is a huge cauldron of borrowed and reused images so I just thought I'd point out a little irony. Cobrastickers uses a lot of images from Yojoe on their website, images that are actually mine and that I let Yojoe use. The irony is that all my vehicles I photograph have J. Ruben repros on them. So I just thought it funny that one business selling repros is using sample images from a competitor on their website.

Again, no ill will to Cobrastickers, I don't even care that much that my photos are being used, it's just funny that the vehicles shown are covered in J. Ruben's decals.

[Tolan]

All my vehicles I photograph have J. Ruben repros on them.

Shouldn't you mention that in each of the vehicle pages that you have done.

While some of the decals are nearly exact there are a bunch that aren't.


BTW Do any of your pictured vehicles have repro parts ??

....Does it matter ??

[Flophouse]

Shouldn't you mention that in each of the vehicle pages that you have done.

While some of the decals are nearly exact there are a bunch that aren't.


BTW Do any of your pictured vehicles have repro parts ??

....Does it matter ??

I would hope and think that collectors looking at the newer vehicle pages would know these are new decals. No vintage decals look that crisp and bright. After this many years, no vintage decal can look that good. Even unused vintage decal sheets are not what they used to be; color in the ink dulls, glue breaks down. I just received an unused original Raider decal sheet, that looked very good, but when the decals were peeled off to apply, the glue was next to gone and the decals would never hold in the long run.
So I will get repros made of them.

I know repro anything is a fence divider. For the record, no parts of any kind on my vehicles use repro replacements. No Flagg parts, no Moray searchlight lens, no Maggot radar dishes, nothing. I only seek the best original parts I can to photograph. But I view decals differently. They are simply not built to last. Even vintage decals in nice shape, still don't look fantastic to me, but that's just me. I've used this analogy several times before, but I'll do it again; You can restore a vintage '69 Mustang using only vintage engine and body parts and avoid using modern replacement parts, but you can't buy gallons of original vintage paint that is still of use. You need to buy new paint. What you can do though is buy specialty matching paint that is matched to your vehicle's production year. That's how I view repro decals.

I don't know of many decals that aren't exact matches from Ruben, at least the decals I've provided him. When they are finished, he emails me images of the repros and I point out any errors that don't match. I know there is an error on a few Terrordrome decals, but I never submitted those to him and I eventually noticed the error and the decals have been corrected, I just haven't re-photographed that toy to show the fixes.

My goal with volunteering to "remaster", as we call it, the vehicle archives was to show these great toys in a bright, clinical, showroom condition manner. I fully clean and restore each toy I get and then I give them new decals to complete the look. I do this because Yojoe is regarded as the best archive website, but when I first started searching the archives I was amazed at just how crappy the photos were. Granted most of those photos were from last decade and web technology and digital cameras were also crappy.

So yes, my vehicles have repro decals but do not have repro parts. If there's anyone out there who is bothered by this, I gladly invite them to take over for me. It would save me lots of money and not be such a vampire of my free time.

[darthdrew13]

Dude! Thanks Flophouse! I really appreciate your desire to make the archives the best they can be. Your work is truly amazing. I honestly thought you were using vintage stickers with a few photoshop edits here and there. Nice to know the real deal. I agree with the restoration analogy.

I do have a question though. How are you determining the original retail price on the vehicles (or is someone else doing that)? I ask because some prices just don't seem right and also we all know different stores had different prices. What if there was a range? That way you could update the page as new pictures of boxes with price tags came in.

Thanks again for all your hard work! I LOVE the Remastered vehicles! I'd love to see the same treatment on figures someday!