Shields compare

Hi all. A while back there was some talk about different shield options out there, quite a bit of consternation that Yoshi seems to have taken his site down and talk about the other option out there. Hopefully some may find this useful but I decided to go out and get the different options that are available so we can hopefully see a direct comparison and the rest of you can maybe make more of an informed decision if you want to get shields on your car.

I'd like to say that this is a personal opinion and if I put your shields down as being either pointlesly more expensive or inferior in quality, please forgive me; the intention is for those who do not already have shields to make a decision based on a side by side comparison not to get into an argument about different shields.

Right, scanning the Bay of E in several different countries as well as some other places you've basically got three options. A shield made in the far east (quoted as India in most cases), a shield made in Europe normally shipped from London, and a Yoshi if you can find them.

I'll start with the far east shields.....

 

Ok got to admit that as cheap as the Indian shields are, I didn't buy any. I know it would have been more thorough but I just couldn't do it. To my eye they just don't get our beloved pony right. Here's a shot of a genuine Scuderia shield and a picture of the Indian ones. To my eye the lower rear leg is just not good - I doubt the pony would be prancing on that. For that reason alone I didn't buy one to compare, in my mind if it doesn't look at least reasonably similar to an original it isn't good enough so it fell at the first hurdle so to speak.
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That brings me on to something a tad contentious and I'm going to be dead careful about what I say. On ebay.com at the moment there are some shields that are on for $195.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FERRARI-SCUDERIA-FENDER-SHIELDS-BADGES-308-328-348-355-Mondial-456-550-575-Other-/221153364235?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item337dc4890b&vxp=mtr

Must be better than the far east ones, far more expensive etc. What concerns me with these is that they are clearly 'copies' of the Indian shields, just look at the lower rear leg, it's nothing like an original and exactly the same as the cheap far east ones. Why would they do that? You know what? I'm going to let you all come to your own conclusions on this one. Here's a shot of the $195 ones though and if you look at high res images of the far east ones they are exactly the same as these - all the same mistakes especially in the lower rear leg. I mean EXACTLY the same. Right think I've made myself about as clear as I'm willing to do on an open forum. Either they're stupid for copying a bad copy or...... well or something else

 

A pair of the $195 ones next to the far east ones. Note also front left knee joint......
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Right now we're down to the only other options around at the moment, the ones that often ship from London and Yoshi Shields or YoShields.

Right, a couple of side by side comparisons. On the left is a Yoshi Shield, the right is the others. First impressions are that the Yoshi shields are a richer yellow although I'm guessing that this can vary a bit from set to set. One small difference as well is that the green stripe at the top of the shield is the exact colour mine is on my bonnet mounted badge - sort of a bit of turquoise in there. Over all the Yoshi was better on colour to my eye.

The other thing to note is that you can see on the non-Yoshi that around the rear legs it looks like the surface is coming up. It isn't but it looks like it might. On the Yoshi you can run your finger nail across the surface and although you can feel the metal lines, your nail doesn't catch. That's not the case on the non-Yoshi shield, there's a definite edge to the lines and in places it at least gives the impression that it could peel or water could get under the edge.
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A couple of individual pics, first a Yoshi, then the other......
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Lastly the backing is much the same. Earlier Yoshis had a thicker tape but later ones came with a thinner one. Both the Yoshis and other one are about the same, the non-yoshi is slightly thinner but not by much. I'll let someone who knows these things say which is stronger. Yoshi on the left again.
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Right, that's it. As I said at the begining, just my opinion but went out of my way to see if the hype about Yoshis being the best was well founded and while I'd like to waive the flag about the ones made over here being just as good, the truth is they aren't, no matter what ebay wants to tell you.

End of the day the Yoshis will be going on my car, the others won't.

Hopefully some out there will have found this of some use.

BTW there are still places which have Yoshis in stock over here in Europe but (and there's always a catch) you have to pay for it. Mine cost £250 but frankly, and this is just my opinion, they're worth it.

 

Thanks.

Hadn't seen the Ferrparts ones but have tracked them down. No price on the site yet but here is a picture. Other than the lack of a really spindly rear leg that some from the far east seem to have, there are a lot of similarities. First is a Ferrparts one, second is the one from ebay that's identicle to the far east ones, but obviously not a far east one you understand.

Note the the mouth is closed, left front knee detail is a circle rather than a line, neck detail is circle circle line where a Yoshi is circle circle circle (hope that makes sence!). If anyone is in a position to compare a Ferrparts one to a Yoshi it would be interesting. For my money it'll have to be pretty good to be better than a yoshi. I started this not convinced that the premium for Yoshis was worth it, I'm now convinced it is. The company I bought from said they were in contact with Yoshi and hinted that it was not the end of the line for YoShields. In any case if you're willing to pay the premium they have Yoshields in stock for every model (Type A, B and C). Hope this isn't advertising, just passing on to other FChatters, but the company is called Super Tweaks over here in the UK although they also trade out of Germany.

 

And now the pics, connection dropped out on me.....
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No problem. Was curious so thought I'd try to help out as the odds of getting the different types next to each other is slim bearing in mind where they're from.

 

There are small differences in the details between the Yoshi I've got and the Ferrparts one. Neck detail is slightly different, left front knee detail is a bit different, that sort of thing. The company I bought from said they were in touch with Yoshi, the director knows him and they deal directly with Yoshi. In fact I had a question regarding the backing and they spoke to Yoshi about it (so I'm told anyway) and got back to me a day later, said they could get in touch with him any time they wanted.

 

Hi. The photo I posted was from the net, it said it was original but who knows? I was looking at it and wondering why the front legs don't overlap at all as I thought they were supposed to. Maybe there's more than one type over the years?

 

Thinking the same myself. Only thing would be that they may have changed over time. Just been browsing the net between posts and there does seem to be some variation between them. On a 288 GTO, for example, it seems to be lines not ovals. On some more modern examples it's definitely ovals though.....

 

On a 288 GTO.....
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Maybe a good excuse to pop down to my local main dealer and have a 'snoop'. Last time they had a couple of F40s and an Enzo in as well as all the current range so may be able to compare older with newer. Good excuse to go anyway