Now the Mimic is also called the LaserTek!
Friday’s blog about the Mimic being “reborn” as a beamer hit a couple “hot” buttons as several European and Australian dealers flooded me with comments that were laced with profanity and veiled threats.
And another name for the Mimic was also provided along with a link from a US distributor that is not only dumping these on the international market as the “LaserTek Pro 20” but also is using a product image photo that I took of the product and posted on my original review of the mimic without my permission.
I was also had a couple private postings on RadarDetector.net from users to provide the history of the Mimic, so here goes:
Six years ago Bob Gibson was fired from Blinder USA during the time the first M-5 and M-10 units were produced. Bob had the original design of these units and figured that he would go into business himself mass producing his own laser jammer.
Bob took these M-5/M-10 plans and hooked up with a subsidiary of Attowave in Korea. Attowave is the same manufacture of Rocky Mountain Radar’s C-450 and the Stealth Ninja radar jammer that I’ve discussed in previous blogs.
As Bob was having thousands of these jammers produced in the sweatshops of Korea, he started calling US distributors. When Bob called me to ask if I was interested I told him that I would only carry the product after I did my own due diligence. Bob said that he would be pleased to send me a prototype; I told Bob that I wasn’t interested in any “juiced” units that I would make a “blind” purchase from one of his dealers after they came out on the retail market.
Chris Deaderick (JTW) was one of first to test Mimic’s prototypes. Chris was an ex Rocky Mountain Radar retailer who was attempting to change his colors and become an “independent tester” of laser jammer products.
Chris gave high marks for the Mimic on his website(s) and approached the Lance, the developer of the Phantom Laser Jammer, to become partners to sell the Mimic on Lance’s website.
I warned both Lance and Chris to use caution, as I suspected that after the product went into production the quality and performance could be questionable. Lance and Chris’s first order was a 100 Mimics, five of which I purchased for my own testing.
After receiving these units, I took them with me to the annual Radar Detector Shoot out in El Paso for an independent test. We installed a pair of Mimic’s on a white sub compact and the results were dismal. The Mimic had a success rate of only 14% in jamming at distances between 500 and 1000 feet.
We published our review on RadarBusters and within a few weeks several other customers did their own reviews which mirrored ours experiences and they posted their comments on RadarDetector.net.
Needless to say Mimic sales were dead in the water. So Bob Gibson and JTW regrouped and came out with several new names of the product and tried unsuccessfully to sell the product on other websites.
It seems now that Bob Thompson, who manages a international sales distributorship, decided to buy into their scam and rebrand the Mimic as the LaserTek Pro 20 and to sell them overseas.
I’ve done business with Bob in years past and he seemed like a very honest businessman, so I don’t suspect that he is knowingly taking part in this fiasco and when contacted he took my “HiJacked” image off their website immediatelly.
The saga continues….
9 Responses to “Now the Mimic is also called the LaserTek!”
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Looks like he took it off the site…
Roy,
I do believe Bob is a decent bloke who simply was unaware of the historical context of this family of apparently-related products, as he was merely fulfilling a request by some of his international clients for such a product at such a low price point.
He has since informed me that he is dropping the line and removing the references to them entirely from his website and is appreciative of gaining this information…
Veil Guy
Seems like this unit has surfaced again in Australia! Just check out Delonix Radar selling this unit, he now calls it a Conqueror M18 and says its a great product.
Can someone please review the Conqueror M18 Laser Jammer being sold in Australia?
Its a POS knock off that I wrote about at the CES show.
http://www.radarroy.com/2009/01/cheap-ass-radar-detectors/
OH! i very nearly bought one until I did some research! THANKYOU!
Hi all, have been scanning the web and was considering a Conqueror M-18 laser jammer from a local supplier. I guess not now! I was told some other information about this supplier too, seems like a dodgy car sales man to me!
Jezus. I was just talking to Jeremy Morgan who nearly convinced me to buy this Piece of Sh*t laser jammer. Thank heavens for this web site! Kudos.