Tamiya models, a brief history
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 มี.ค. 2020
- A short history of the Tamiya Model Company of Japan and its founder Yoshio Tamiya (Tamiya Yoshio),
Thanks again to: boxartden.con, oldmodelkits.com and scalemates.com
Music: Sakura, , Beatles cover in Japanese by Koyama Rumi, Karaoke version if Poor poor pitiful me - บันเทิง
I've been a Porsche technician for 30 years. The level of detail on Tamiya kits is amazing. Currently building a 1/12 scale Tamiya Porsche 934 RSR kit. Its very impressive how close to the real thing it is.
I never felt ripped off with a tamiya kit .
That says it all
They do make great kits...but I did find a design flaw in one of their earlier R/C rough rider cars I bought. They used a flat piece of FRP for the main chassis then tied the front to the rear using the weak styrene body. It broke the first time I took it into the dirt. (the body not the rest).
@@muskokamike127 i would usually save a week longer as a kid for a tamiya kit. if i could have a superpower it would be the ability to build the entire catalog in one years time.
@@roberthill3207 Tamiya wasn't around when I was a kid so I didn't do that. I didn't discover them until I was in my 20's. I will say this: I was poor. No way would I ever have been able to afford a tamiya kit when I was a kid.
Yeah, building the catalogue in a year WOULD take superpowers lol.
Hell, with human powers it would take you 5 years just to paint all the parts! hahaha
@@muskokamike127 grocery bagger at 16 tamiya kits followed. Army brat who never received an allowance and if i wanted clothing other then what was issued i was responsible for purchasing it. Started mowing lawns at 12 giving myself purchasing power. When there is a will there is a way.
Tamiya kits are the absolute pinnacle of the hobby. I'll always suggest a Tamiya kit to anyone looking at their first build. Worth every cent.
I discovered them way back in 1973 and certainly have built my share of military kits as well as figures. I can't believe how expensive they have become.
Tamiya simply has the best fit, best instructions, and best quality.
OOPS! Thanks
When I want the best kit available, I’ll gladly pay the premium for a Tamiya kit. Their dedication to detail is unsurpassed. All the pieces are well engineered to fit with no modifications. I consider them to be the best in the model kit industry.
I am an experienced model builder - over 63 years of building mostly cars. I know I have built literally hundreds of kits from the simplest AMT kit with maybe 50 parts, to the most complex kits like Pocher 1:8 scale cars with upwards of 2,000 parts. In all my years of building many brands, I will say without reservation, that Tamiya kits are absolutely the finest available at any price. The clarity of instructions, quality and variety of materials used and close to perfect molding of plastic parts is superior to any other maker, in my book! The Caterham Super Seven kits are my pick for the very best. Miniature machine screws, perfectly formed aluminum body panels and the most accurate working suspension I have ever seen in a mass produced model. Their acrylic paints are top notch too. All in all, a superior model company that deserves a great deal of credit!
I was just thinking the same thing. As much as I am a buy American kind of guy, I have never found better kits. It's a bit like buying Toyota. Granted subjectively I think Toyotas are often more ugly upfront then from the back but it's a small price to pay for the quality Toyota represents and offers it's buyers.
@R.a. Wheeler - The funny thing is younger ones today have no idea that Japanese products right after WWII were pretty bad. I'm old enough to have seen the improvement, and now the Japanese make some of the finest products around - totally opposite of what once was.
@@Loulovesspeed Yeah even when I was a kid in the early 80's I knew many older fokes who would claik that Honda are for poor people and to a point that probably was true. They worked hard to correct that problem it seems.
You wouldn't believe how crappy their metal (tin) toys were! Even the boxes they came in were more like cheap paper than cardboard.
@@Loulovesspeed Ironically many of the goods coming out of China...make that look like quality, lol. I'll build computers for clients that will sometimes order their own parts and often times in this industry you really don't get what you paid for. But clients on a shoe string budget will order stuff out of China.. I will often warn them about doing that. But I'll get in devices to build up such as fake 1060 GPUs.. ad of course I care about quality and so I won't install it. Still it's amazing people will do that.
We're lucky that Yoshio Tamiya hurt his foot.
so was he I think
Yea because if he was as good at war as he was at making models we'd have lost.
@@colinjohnston8519 He was 39 and had not joined the army though it had been fighting since 1937. He hurt his foot in 1944, by that time the Japanese were on their back foot. Why would you pull someone out of weapons production to put him in the field?
@@robertmartens7839 desperation.
Buying a Tamiya always hurt my wallet, but that turned to happiness when I built the kit. The best!
That's called "money well spent."
Started with Airfix and swore by them, then got a Tamiya kit as a birthday gift and never looked back. Yes, they cost more, but you'll soon forget that price tag from the moment you unbox that kit.
Tamiya keeps its molds in better condition than most companies. That has a lot to do with price.
Actually it's more a replacement game. Tamiya replace their moulds after about 10,000 cycles, some other companies it's more like 20,000. Believe it or not injection moulding plastics is quite harsh on even stainless steel moulds. Each mould produces only about 4-6 sprues at a time for Tamiya as well compared to up to 10 for some companies. That means the moulds are smaller and have less of a temp difference after pre-heating. The result is less warping of the plastic in the more evenly heated Tamiya moulds.
@@gordonlawrence1448 Wow. Coming from a packaging background where 10,000,000 cycles prior to replacement would be less than ideal, 10,000 seems extraordinary low, but I guess the sales volumes are somewhat less than an ice cream container and the end product somewhat more pricey which brings the replacement of a mould after 10,000 cycles into perspective.
@@robossuperchannel9434 If you think that's bad, the company I used to work for had a project that I was project manager of where the material injected was a combination of Nylon and 0.2mm glass beads. Those moulds showed signs of wear by 4000 and were useless by 5000. For packaging you are often using for example expanded polystyrene, and the tolerances and flashing are not so much of an issue. Expanded polystyrene by comparison to coloured polystyrene is not even 1% of the wear. With a packing mould if it's 1mm out of tolerance and it's for a large item it would not be an issue with expanded. 0.1mm is an issue on a 35th scale part. Also Tamiya really avoid flashing like the plague. With packaging you can just remove it by hand.
Oui c'est vrai la qualité se paye mais quand même d'autre sans citer de nom se tire une balle dans le peid .
@@gordonlawrence1448 Yeah extruding plastic does damage metal, even the hardest ones. I have a professional 3D printer array and I have to replace nozzles quite often to keep quality up. The best ones I have on 0.2 are 0.215 within a month of use. That is from hardened steel (Corten) which I turn myself.
When I was WAY younger than I am today my parents would give me $20 for my birthday- I would ALWAYS go to the local hoppy shop and snag me a Tamiya model kit- couldn't afford them otherwise- was a once a year treat
cool
I'm a Toolmaker and have worked making plastic injection mould tools.
Tamiya mouldings are always absolutely superb.
My dad was a Doctor. He made Tamiya kits back in the 60's. My Dad used to make Billing Boat kits, so he was really really good, bending the wooden strakes with steam and all that jazz, so Tamiya must have been good. Which they are.
I love Tamiya kits, they're awesome to build. I even have a 40 year old Sherman tank that survived several moves.
Tamiya military armor and aircraft kits have some of the most awesome box top artworks in the model industry. 🇯🇵
Tamiya set and upheld the standard many other companies strive to acheive even after all these years....Thanks for the good times Tamiya, childhood wouldn't have been the same without you.
In 1971 I built a Tamiya 1/25 scale Tiger-I model as a 12 year old kid; it cost me about $10 at the time in Japan - a very expensive kit but it was truly one of my favorite models. Fast-forward 45 years later: I see the exact same original Tamiya kit from 1970 unopened on ebay going for $95; I had to have it! Talk about reliving my childhood! It now sits proudly on my shelf. Thank you Tamiya San!
I grew up with airfix. A friend had some tamiya and I was hooked. A few trumpeter. Now tamiya pricing online is the best option. Still modelling at 55
I've never experienced such generosity and respect as I did when I was fortunate enough to be their guest in Japan in 2005. It gutted me when I heard about Mr. M Tamiya. He was very kind, accomdating, and funny. Not many know that. S Tamiya is one of the oldest kids I've ever met. And I mean that in the utmost respectable way. His enthusiasm, wonder, and passion has never waned. It's no wonder this company is the leader that it is today. Their kits are as open to scrutiny and criticism as any others. But I will never accept an unkind word about the Tamiya family.
I would loved to have met him.
@@maxsmodels I would love for you to have also. I wish every modeler could. And this used to be a common thing.
Another quick story, if I may...
TamiyaCon 1995. The second TamiyaCon, I was attending, and had entered my Spitfire Mk.V. A pair of older Japanese man came to me and one of them asked very quietly if that was mine. We think nice he said, bowing slightly. I thought nothing of it, other than that must be two of the office staff. Later I saw the samegentlemen standing at the podium for awards. I asked who they were to a friend. "That's Mr.Kiya. He's the head of marketing. Also one of the judges." Oh, nice. And who's he standing with? "You mean you don't know? That's Mr. Tamiya"
I didn't win a trip to Japan that year, but I got a second place certificate, signed by Mr. Kiya, and Mr. Tamiya.
@@Habu12
That's awesome
I have the fondest memories of my cousin & me running to the back of the K & K Toys at the Fredericktowne Mall in Frederick, Md. around 1973-75, to see the new stacks of Tamiya models. He wanted planes and I wanted armor! The store had them all! We even got threatened by the manager- "There's no running in this store, or I will throw you out!" We each left with another prized kit our mothers paid for. I still have a couple on the shelf. Tamiya was always the best back then. Thanks for the memories & that hilarious ending!m
So Tamiya has been making zeros since 1944
And financial zeroes ever since!
Having just made ships from Airfix, Revell, Fujimi, Aoshima and Tamiya - Tamiya was the best in terms of accuracy, plastic quality, fit, and build instructions. What’s more, their paint is more than adequate - and I was brought up on Airfix and Lindberg as a kid.
I bought a Tamiya model in 1974 and it was the best model I ever built. It was an F1 race car and it was wonderful! Like the music:)
I’ve been building models since the 1980s and Tamiya is my favourite brand, both for models and paints
As a kid in the 70s to early 80s, I got obsessed with WWII diorama construction. I used Tamiya kits for the "subject matter" exclusively, precisely because of the quality detail.
I should re-make some of those... all are lost to time now. I had a lot of fun creating those "stories" in model form.
My granddad is 63 and still build 1:35 WWII military kits, he makes diorama stories out of them, he still does but lot less these days. The great thing about them is they are all on display in his basement den which is so awesome because they all tell a story. Some of them will even make you laugh. Tamiya is somewhat pricey, but well worth the cost as their kits are the best out there.
I didn't do a diroama, but one Christmas my parents bought for me, the Tamiya Tiger tank...I think itks 1/32nd, but it may be 1/24th (can't remember), and after painting it in Afrika corps colors, then European theater gray, I still wasn't happy.
Then one day, I discovered "Kelly's Heroes": that model has been wearing that camouflage ever since!
It's a big/heavy kit, and can be made R/C, and the one thing I absolutely LOVED about it, was being able to assemble the tracks link by link, because, unlike any other kit I've played with, they have NEVER come apart, not once. Even the suspension works, to a point.
I should note, this was about 1975-'76, I was 10-11 years old, and that was about a $100 kit back then! Still, worth every penny, and I still have it, when lesser kits have since fallen apart.
I'm 47 and my first R/C was a Tamiya. Thank you, that was great!
Man the precise crisp detail of the mouldings of my first Tamiya kit tank in 1970 was superb! So much so that I wanted to display the sprues!
I have been building Tamiya models since 1975...still have a lot of them to be worked on :)
I have been building model kits since I was 4 years old. My first kit was Aurora's Superman.I have since built kits by every model company there is, anywhere in the world and I've collected kits from around the world. And if there's one thing and one kit that I know Tamiya kits are the very best and pinnacle of modeling in the world. I have spent time and treasure hunting down lost and forgotten Tamiya kits around the world and around the USA I love this company and I love these kits!
Not to mention the Insanely Popular 4WD cars on the late 90s and early 2000s! Those little battery cars actually is the start of my modelling hobby!
mini 4wd kits is still popular 'till this day
@@paulvincentarriesgado3323 of course it is, but it's not like the 90s-2000s because literally every kid in the neighborhood buys it back in the day
I "discovered" Tamiya in 1970. It was a remote controlled German Leopard tank. It had twin motors in the gearbox(s)with a motor driving each track. I wish I still had it. That started my modeling hobby and I can truly say that I am better for it. I was fortunate enough to live near the Tamiya America location in Aliso Viejo, California and I spent many a Saturday in the 90's and 2000's with my buddies driving RC cars on their track. Some of the best times ever. Your video brought back a lot of that. Thanks.🤙👏👏👏👏😷
you can never go wrong with tamiya . ive always enjoyed thier kits . pricey yes but worth it. thier paints and glue are the only thing i use
I spent much of my childhood either in hospital or in bed at home. When a boy in the next cot in hospital showed me his models I was hooked. My parents brought me kits and assembled for me as I was only three. From there it became a real joy and escape from my surroundings.All the brands you have discussed i have enjoyed. Although being small they were a big part of my early life. Thanks for your reserach, time, informative, enjoyable and sometimes sad documenty on this subject.
Bought my first MRC Tamiya kit when I got into WW2 soldier figures and military vehicles. Then built their automobiles. Tamiya are the best quality plastic model kits I ever built. Worth every penny.
In the mid 70s I was building whatever kits the Drug Store had. Loved Monograms good fit & value.
Then a local train shop started stocking more diverse kits & I found Tamiya 😍
That store owner sold me his 1977 Tamiya catalogue, have it still🤗
same here
You forgot to mention tamiya box art is world renowned for it's quality. Now I may not be 100% on this, but I believe they've won a ton of awards for it as well. Their illustrations are some of the best, if not THE best packaging art I've ever seen and I worked closely with graphic artists for almost 17 years.
Even the box printing quality is top of the line.
Yes, that is why I mentioned the artists and how they set what would become the standard. I plan to do a dedicated box art video at some point.
@@maxsmodels sorry if I spoiled your surprise lol...my bad. :-(
I look forward to that video, really their box art is incredible.
When I bought a Tamiya kit I got a fine quality and precision in. Parts.
Their paint system is also very good.
the best I ever used....but you pay for it. I remember buying my first motorcycle kit. It had 4 different colours of black for crying out loud. Matte Satin Gloss semi-gloss. Now this was 30 years ago, but I remember buying a jar for $4.00 as it was listed on the box.....it ended up being used ONLY for the grips......GRIPS? I used ONE brush load of paint...ONE.
I was pissed. lol
I love Tsmiya model spray cans..never had a problem
Hi, new subscriber to this channel. My first model was in 1967,(age of 5). Still in the hobby to this day. I used for years pectra, & pactra international enamels. I remember buying some of the 1/35 ww2 U.S. halftracks, & armor kits by tamiya. Many had a color card showing "pactra/ tamiya " paints. They had the "hex" colors,& used the same "X",& "Xf" colors as pactra. Unfortunately pactra is sadly gone. But tamiya still uses that system. Thanks,& great video.
@@richardtallent8175 1867??? you were 5? that means you're 158 yrs old?
@@muskokamike127 ooops, sorry, & thanks for the notice. I meant 1967, not 1867. Thank you.
Tamiya set a new level of quality and detail in the modeling world. I loved my Tamiya models.
Here is a bit of trivia for you about how some tamiya kits were brought into the country pre u.s. release. I lived in L A. read scale modeler and wondered how the builders, Got their tamiya kits early.
Well it turns out that Woody who owned Valley Plaza Hobbies in North Hollywood, knew a few members of the airline industry and would pay them to bring in the kits from Japan and England.
So Valley Plaza was possibly the 1st hobby shop to have new release Tamiya and other kits from overseas prior to any other hobby shop in the u s..
its all about your connections
1/16 m4 rc Sherman tank is the last kit i built. Tamiya is by far my favorite model company. Thank you have a great day thumbs up stay awesome.
@walt7500 thats the idea.
@walt7500 the tamiya 1/16 tanks are very involved kits. Half R/C half model kit. The 1/35 tanks are fun but fragile. I've been sculpting an infantry squad in 1/16 scale none exist to add to a diorama. Have a great day hope your hunkered down and safe thumbs up stay awesome.
Literally just getting into modeling. No tools, no kits, no paint. Just a lot of learning through reading and observing other builds. This video is awesome, I look forward to watching more.
Quality doesn’t cost. It pays! Thanks for more model fun Max! Entertaining and informative!
I am from the late '60's to '70's model generation. I stopped building at age 19 BUT have collected model kits over the years to build on when retired. (Stored in my closet) Trouble is, I don't plan on retiring. Having listened to 3 of your videos so far let me say, VERY IMPRESSIVE. (and the music isn't bad either). Thank you for this.
B. Pagan -- Similar background here. I'm 62 and haven't built a kit in 45 years, but have been buying and squirreling them away for so long -- for that "someday" leisure time -- that many now have collector value! I wonder if anyone can REALLY retire anymore, at least in the same sense as most of our G.I.-generation parents. Four major stock market crashes (including the current crisis) sure haven't helped my prospects! I guess we just do the best we can with the hand we're dealt ....
@@bitterclinger5876 Yeah. I've been offered good offers for some of them. I just smile and shake my head. I never really thought of retiring really. I could but I watched parents slowly fade away and that's not for me. Besides, my company doesn't want me to do so. It's nice to be appreciated. My father was a G.I. Generation and they had a great deal. Have a better one!
66 here. I "liberated" (aka $old) a bunch of my models from the closet. As a Mopar guy I had so many now rare-ish Petty cars, AMTs, MPCs, Monograms and then got into die-cast. Retired? I do music and graphics, what's to retire from? And even if I did - I'm going to sit and build models with the intensity (never mind eyesight and patience) I had in my 20s? Nope, You (well, I) will NEVER build those models in your closet - set 'em free because time is a valuable commodity and I can't see me being that bored to build a model nice as it was to collect them. Oh, I keep a couple rare Jo-Hans just in case - Sox & Martin 'Cudas but they won't get built because it would "spoil" them for when I need to buy a new guitar. 👀⏱
Love my Tamiya kits. First one I built was the KTM motocross bike back in the 80’s. Have several military kits waiting to be built. Found a 1/25 Tiger tank model last year at a train show. TAB, ah yes. This was a staple at my grandmas house. Couldn’t tell you how many ice cream and TAB floats were consumed on her front porch on summer nights.
It took ice cream to make TAB palatable. I was just told they still make the stuff. Who knew?
The art work of the boxes are something.
By coincidence I showed my son my forty five year old kits that me and my father made..., well we’re in for another generation!
Hurrah!!
As a kid in the late 70s and early 80s I spent a lot of birthday and Christmas money on Taniya’s 1/700 Waterline series ship models. I reconstructed a significant portion of the imperial Japanese Navy.
Tamiya- Legendary company ! Where Tamiya go every other company follows . The most read book I ever got was a Tamiya catalogue circa 1973 . My first Tamiya kit was a 1/35 Centurion for Christmas with a motor
👍
Great video. My brothers and I grew up building the Tamiya kits, especially the tanks and Military Miniatures, so this really brought back memories. The use of 1:35 scale helped us integrate my large collection of toy soldiers (primarily Airfix) into the battle. It was also cool hearing Day Tripper in Japanese, since that was one of the first songs I learned on guitar that actually sounded like music. BTW, my wife thinks these things are cool.
Fantastic kits. I mainly made the 1:35 military stuff, but also liked their 1:48 planes & the 1:20 F1 cars. I once made Lauda's Ferrari in 1:12 as well. Fit & quality was always superb, better than the (good) Italerie.
Tamiya were always my favourites in the 70s but Dragon Trumpeter IBG and Das Werk are now the standard
Another home run, Max. This video series is what the model world has needed for a long time. Thank you so much for your work. I'm looking forward to the Revell/Tamiya Mustang Showdown. in the video, you comment about the Tamiya, "This thing better build itself."
Back in my day, Tamiya kits were called Shake-N-Bake. Keep up the wonderful work, Max! If shaking hands ever becomes a thing again, I'd surely like to shake yours. Best regards from NC. -Bolt
Tamyia Kits were the Best! Started building them in early70z, German Armor, the Coolest,kept building them till early 2000z D.M.L Italeri, very good kits as well...All very detailed with tons of Parts! Loved Em! Want to start building again! Thanx for video.
built a few kits back in the 80s, loved them, wish I still had them. Still have my nissan king cab rc truck and still works..
Tamiya recently has really upped their game regarding their armor and military figure kits. Their parts fit is exceptional and the facial and equipment detail on their figures comes close to resin quality. I particularly like their recent shift to link-and-length tracks for their tanks...well molded and very buildable. IMO their pricing for the 1/35 series is reasonable, given the recent improvements mentioned.
Agree 100%.
They have plenty of competition these days though.
though I love Tamiya, Dragon, Meng and Rye Field offer some amazingly detailed kits, I'm currently building a Eduard spitfire and the quality is top notch.
I can't think of a better time for modellers than right now..
Awesome video. I love Tamiya. I have model kits, spray paints, plastic cement, an RC buggy, and my modeling tools are from Tamiya. Some of there stuff isn't the cheapest but it's never let me down.
Tamiya turned the plastic model industry/hobby on its head...I remember seeing them on a local hobby shop in the late 60s...they were a revelation at the time!!! The 1/35th scale Armor became a standard and I became a huge armor fan... in fact, my decision to enlist for Armor was based on a armor kit...I needed to know what made up the tracks...and to get close to a tank to find out...yeah...I know...but it's the truth...
Thanks for all the great videos and memories! When I was @10 in the early 1970's, my dad was stationed in Okinawa, and the local hobby, toy, and department stores were filled with incredible models . My favorite kit was the Tamiya 1/35 scale M60 that came with a dual-motor, remote (not radio) control system. It cost $3.50 thanks to the great exchange rate at the time (@360 yen per dollar) which was still a fair amount for a kid with little cash.
Our last Christmas there, I got the newly released 1/25 scale Tiger tank with individual track links and a full interior and was blown away by it's sheer size and detail. What fun, and I still build a few models even today. Thanks again, and the music montage at the end was a brilliant touch!
I had my first Tamiya experience with a purchase of the R/C car, The Hornet. Followed by The BigWig, the Lotus F1 car, The Avante and The Astute, which is the only surviving one after all those years. The one I dreamed of owning in those early years was the amazingly detailed "The Bruiser". The beauty of those R/C cars, and half the fun was building them. Now I play with real cars, it's easy to see that those Tamiya kits helped grow my automotive enthusiasm.
TAMIYA had a memorable promo not long ago, displaying actual vehicles next to an empty full scale parts tree or the rectangular rack that molded parts stem from... it was a very cleaver idea.
Thanks for doing this video. I have around 15 Tamiya scale model kits, some half built. My brother and I bought the Tiger 1 and the deluxe Aber photo etch kit 10 years ago. It's a terrific building opportunity. We filed off a ton of detail and replaced it, along with a lot of parts with scale thickness components laboriously bent and soldered. I have a microscopic metal brake and an American Beauty current resistance solder tool as well as the tiniest wrench set that you can barely see with magnifying glasses. Sub-millimeter nuts and bolts were widely used to actually screw components together and to mount to the tank. Shovel, hammer pick, gun cleaning rods and jacking platform custom made from wood and brass. Metal tracks and aftermarket torsion bars were installed and selected lead-acid batteries were fitted for their excessive weight, to better simulate great mass when traveling. It weighs 12.4 kilograms. The tank was fully primed in red oxide before multiple coats of "Dunklegrau". The entire project, including a new airbrush and compressor set us back around $2,000 and took 10 months to complete. We made around 100 photo etch parts, including plenty on the inside, viewable only in awkward close ups. Some had up to 10 individual bits, soldered together. This build expanded my horizons a lot. The tools have come in handy for other builds since. There are a bunch of photos at Aber.net.pl/gallery in 1/16
Love the music.
In the later 70's i was building Tamiya models, the cars, one early one was the lancia Statos, motorized if I remember right, in Alitaila colors. After a couple of their smaller kits I tackled the Tyrell P6 6 wheel F1 car, the suspension worked and tires were rubber! later on I built a tiger tank and some others. With my first job i picked up the sand scorcher RC off roader and found a club to race with. I have a lot of great memories with their models. You pay more, and get more, often far more. This is a company that respects it's customers. It shows in the very high quality of the kits, the fit and finish and the different materials used. What's the difference between a $15 and $30 kit? I've found with this company, quite a lot.
Always liked the waterline models.
The catalog page you show at 11:05 brought back such a rush of memories. I spent hours looking at that very catalog, trying to decypher every brushstroke of the professionals that brought those OOB kits to life. Man, I love this series of videos!
My first Tamiya kit was number MT121, 1/35 scale. The Hunting Tiger with a single motor. Inaccurate in detail and it came with 2 sets of tracks. Plastic for a display model and fully molded rubber tracks for use in motorized mode. It cost 8 bucks (8 hours work at minimum wage) and was imported into Canada by Tri-Ang. Had it for years. Second kit was the motorized Panther.
The 1/24 scale Tiger and Centurion tanks with interior in the late 1960's! That was really groundbreaking!
In the late 80's I found the Porsche RSR Type934 in a yard sale for $5. It was partially built but complete with box. I was 12 at the time. 10 years later, I sold it on FleaBay for $250. Very nice quality kit but I found it to be quite delicate for use as an RC racer. It is one of those toys I wish I could have back. Very well done video.
I'm amazed that even their wooden models look good compared to other companies when their early products looks goofy like gundam kits but eventually are getting good, but Tamiya since day one are beautiful crafted, i just build my very first 1/6 bike and the kit is so beautiful made and to my surprised i checked the manufacturing date it's way older than me and the kit still holds up today I'm blown away😮😮😮
I got started with Tamiya in the early 72’s with 1:35 scale motorized tank kits, wired remote control and to Radio Control kits.
Currently having fun by building Tamiya's 1/35 M3 Lee. The copyright label on the sprues says "1974" which makes it 15 years older than me... Oh well, kit is still great and looks like M3.
Best kits ever made. I built scores of them back in the 70s - including the R/C Porsche. Head and shoulders above every other company at the time. They still deserve accolades.
Good stuff! Tamiya is, all things considered, the greatest model company of all time.
Not mentioned was how Tamiya saw their shock win at the 2002 IFMAR ISTC Worlds, with a completely unknown driver, a marketing coup - before that, they were not taken seriously as a serious contender and had several missteps with cars such as the Avante - they still see that win as one of their best achievements
You get what you paid for, and I feel like every cents I paid for Tamiya worth way more! I find Tamiya kits are well and thoughtfully engineered with parts break down/assembly logically arranged for easy assembly.
My favorite in my early teens was the 88 field gun. Unbelievable detail.
I really enjoy these histories! You have quickly become one of my favorite channels. I would have liked more coverage of the automotive subjects, but you did say "brief" for a large and storied company. They are the only game in town for F1 kits.
Thank you
I know Tamiya mostly from their RC products. Somewhere in my garage I have a King Tiger RC tank I built back in the mid 90's. Maybe I'll dig it out some time. Thanks for the vids.
The Tiger currently runs about $1200. My Taigen was $330. Not Tamiya but the way I treat it I do not think I could relax with a Tamiya.
that's a collector item now. I have an old Porsche 959 that, if I hadn't built it, would be worth around $2000 cdn now to a collector. (that was the price the last time I looked about a year ago).
@@muskokamike127 Yep but you wouldn't have had much fun just keeping it in a box.
@@gordonlawrence1448 I know right? Like all my highly collectible dinky corgi and matchbox cars lol
I have a pristine 1970 Beatles Yellow submarine. $50 with the box? $500
@Rubizen What’s doing in your garage man!!?
Great documentary. When I was a kid I saw Tamiya ship models on the selves in the 80's. Now thanks to gunpla, the brand has been reintroduced into my life so it was nice to explore their history.
im a real car guy that just found out about tamiya in 2021... at 37 years old.... long story short... IM BUYING THEM ALL.... ( 1/10 car kits) thanks for the video.. i subbed
thanks and good luck with them
I remember longing for the FW-11B every payday when I was stationed at Lowery AFB in 1990...never could pull the trigger on it and regret it to this day
Tamiya has come a long way. My first build by them was a 1/75 Raiden and the upper wing panels missed the fuselage by more then 3/16"!
Great End Song, Great Video, Perfect April First gift. Tamiya lots of fun building their IJN models. Now I can't get that version of "Day Tripper" out of my head! That was your April Fools joke! Thanks Max
I always thought that it was strange that they didn't make
the SDKFZ armoured personnel
carriers (now seen in every
WW11 film since 'Saving Private
Ryan') in the early mid 70's. I'm
sure they have now. It was a
curious omission at the time.
The Acht-trad armoured car is
one of my absolute favourites.
They're rather interesting vehicles.
A decent amount of variants developed to fit a particular need...
I must say that particular line of machines is one of my favorites.
Best Kits! I had almost all the 1/700 waterline ships as a kid. Loved the Japanese and American Aircraft Carriers.
Always love your documentaries! Keep it up!
Just brought the new Tamiya P38 $60us & love it!🤗
I have just had a chance to watch your excellent video regarding the history of Tamiya. I’ve always found their kids to be of excellent quality. Sometimes detail is lacking, mostly from car kits designed and sold in the late 80s and early 90s. But they do have excellent instruction manuals, and everything fits perfectly.
In your brief review of the Tam Tech product line you cross over it pretty quickly. You show a glider and a boat. But in the TamTech line, there were also several RC cars in 1/24 scale.
One minor quibble, Max, I have never heard the term kit model when referring to plastic kits it’s always model kit. Please take this minor criticism with a grain of salt. Keep doing what you’re doing. Your videos are awesome!
In there military series they simply make kits no one else does.
There are a few where others do but the quality by comparison to Tamiya is rubbish. I'd rather pay the extra for a Tamiya every time.
Tamiya has some of the nicest to build kits around. I work at a mom and pop hobby shop and I too am sometimes baffled by their pricing.
Now in October 2023, we are getting Tamiya models with Made in the Ukraine labels on them.
Yup, drank Tab. Loved Wink (grapefruit soda.) Prefered the glass bottles over the cans (remember soda machines where you could get a 12 ounce bottle of soda for a dime?)
Tamiya doesn't disappoint and I learned to build my models with Tamiya my 1st kit was the 20mm flakvierling.
This is a great look at a model company that’s been in my life for a loooooooong time! Thanks!
Tamiya also had some great kits in an interesting 1:18 scale. I used to have a Subaru R-2 SS and a Honda NIII 360. They were labelled as "display models", so maybe they were also offered as R/C.
And thank you for the "Wall-e and Eve" reference in your credits. That's what my wife and I call ourselves, for reasons I wont bore you with here.
I love your historical recaps. You do some serious research with great video editing and a calm voice over. (I watched the whole thing.)Thank you and subscribed!
I like the music and have loved tamiya models since child hood and still love to build their classic range. Thanks for the video!
Tamiya has an open house every year (except this year) at the Shizuoka Hobby Show. Highly recommended to visit even if it's just to see the real life cars they have on display.
I love this series of the different model companies that i recognise from when I was a kid building their kits. Thank you for the time and effort you put in to each of these. I want to go see if I can find the old AMT site.
I built several 1/48 scale planes in the seventies when I was deeply into the craft. I always felt like I had to bring my "A" game to the kit, as the kit was always top quality, with far more detailed parts and superb fit and finish. The results? The best I ever built.
My physique is diminishing, and I have given serious consideration to returning to the hobby. While I would build a few 'lesser' kits first...to hone skills and muscle memory...I look forward to finding and building a Tamiya kit again.
Great video. Thank you. It brought back fond memories, as I spent a lot of hard-earned cash to purchase their 1/16 scale Tiger I, back in '76', when I was in high school. One of the mos satisfying kits I ever build (painted and detailed), including using a brush that I had trimmed all but four hairs on so I could paint the eyebrows, mouth, and pinstriping on the uniform of the tank commander that stood in the turret.
Excellent documentary, and very easy listening,
Great video. I love these histories. And yeah, I enjoyed the end credits and music. :D