In September 2006, a small fan website dedicated to Tamiya radio-controlled cars, scale models and Mini 4WD was launched around a very appropriate subject: Tamiya’s 30th anniversary of radio-controlled cars. Twenty years later, in September 2026, TamiyaBlog has completed its first two decades online.
What began as a personal fan project has developed into a long-running archive of Tamiya news, product announcements, events, vintage material, custom builds and model-making culture. Looking back across the years, the story of TamiyaBlog is also a story of how the Tamiya hobby itself changed—from the forum-and-blog era of the mid-2000s to today’s rapid flow of digital images, videos and product information.
Here is a timeline of those twenty years.
2006 — The beginning
September 2006 marks the starting point of TamiyaBlog. The occasion was Tamiya’s 30th anniversary in the R/C market, and one of the first subjects covered was the special Tamiya Porsche Turbo RSR Type 934, kit #49400, an updated version of the company’s first R/C car. The model used a TA05-based chassis and was presented as a commemorative release.
The timing was almost symbolic. TamiyaBlog began documenting Tamiya’s history at exactly the moment when the company was celebrating its own R/C history.
Early posts covered news, new releases and events, establishing the basic concept that would remain remarkably consistent for the next two decades.
2007–2009 — Building an archive
During its first years, TamiyaBlog concentrated on collecting information that could otherwise disappear quickly from the internet: new-product announcements, event reports, photographs, vintage information and details of Tamiya’s expanding R/C and model ranges.
The blog’s archive gradually became more than a news feed. It began functioning as a searchable reference for older and newer Tamiya products.
This was also a period of considerable activity for Tamiya itself. Tamiya America moved to Irvine in 2007, while 2008 saw changes in the company’s management, the opening of the Tamiya Plastic Model Factory in Shimbashi, Tokyo, and further development of the Kakegawa Circuit.
2010–2012 — From blog to community resource
By the beginning of the 2010s, the site was firmly established as a destination for Tamiya enthusiasts.
The content increasingly covered several distinct sides of the hobby: R/C, static scale models, Mini 4WD, vintage Tamiya and customized builds. This broad approach would eventually become one of the site’s defining characteristics.
The blog also benefited from the growing international nature of the Tamiya community. Information from Japan could reach enthusiasts around the world almost immediately, while photographs and reports from exhibitions helped connect otherwise geographically distant hobbyists.
2013–2015 — A changing Tamiya world
The middle of the decade brought another important development: Tamiya’s heritage increasingly became part of its future.
Tamiya continued to revisit historic products while simultaneously developing new chassis, bodies and technologies. One particularly memorable example was the 1/1 Mini 4WD Real Car Project, announced in 2015 and culminating in the life-size Mini 4WD Aero Avante.
For TamiyaBlog, this combination of history and new products fitted perfectly with its existing editorial approach: documenting what was new while preserving what was old.
2016 — Ten years online
September 2016 was TamiyaBlog’s first major anniversary milestone.
The site’s own tenth-anniversary retrospective revealed just how far the project had grown. By then it had published 941 articles, received more than four million visits, accumulated around 2,000 reader comments and built a Facebook following of more than 6,000 people. The team had also reported live from the Nuremberg Toy Fair nine times, presented customized builds and organized an award competition for readers.
The anniversary article also explained an important principle behind the site: TamiyaBlog was deliberately maintained as a fan project rather than turned into an advertising-driven business. Its stated long-term ambition was to become a complete, easily searchable database of Tamiya-related news and articles.
That ambition would become increasingly important as the years passed.
2017–2019 — Preserving Tamiya history
The late 2010s saw TamiyaBlog increasingly combine current reporting with historical documentation.
In 2017, the blog published an expanded history of Tamiya, covering the company’s development from its post-war origins through its later international expansion. The chronology included milestones such as Tamiya’s first R/C developments, its overseas operations and major changes in its corporate history.
This period demonstrated that the site was no longer simply reporting tomorrow’s products. It was also helping preserve yesterday’s.
2020–2022 — The digital archive becomes increasingly valuable
The early 2020s changed how hobbyists consumed information. Events, exhibitions and product presentations increasingly appeared through online photographs, videos and digital announcements.
TamiyaBlog continued to catalogue this material alongside its traditional news coverage.
Its categories had by then developed into a substantial archive covering Future Releases, Event Reports, Media, Vintage, Corporation, Customized Builds, Reviews and Opinions. The site’s structure made it possible to move backwards from the latest release to years-old material.
The distinction between “news website” and “historical reference” had effectively disappeared.
2023 — Another generation of Tamiya
By 2023, TamiyaBlog was documenting a Tamiya hobby that had become broader than ever.
The blog covered the latest scale-model releases, R/C chassis and Mini 4WD products, while also reporting from major exhibitions such as the Shizuoka Hobby Show. The 2023 coverage included new subjects ranging from the 1/35 Jagdpanzer IV/70(A) to the 1/24 GMA T.50 and Porsche 935.
At the same time, Tamiya itself continued expanding internationally, including the opening of a new factory in the Philippines in 2023.
2024 — Fifty years of Tamiya R/C
2024 was an especially appropriate year for TamiyaBlog because Tamiya’s R/C history reached its 50th anniversary.
TamiyaBlog covered the anniversary from several angles, including new products, historical material and events. The anniversary also generated publications documenting the company’s complete R/C history, from the M4 Sherman through the Porsche 934 and the many hundreds of models that followed.
Tamiya’s own history continued to evolve too: the TAMIYA PLAMODEL FACTORY TOKYO opened in Shimbashi, while Nobuo Tamiya became President and Representative Director later that year.
2025 — History and modern hobby culture meet
During 2025, TamiyaBlog continued its characteristic mixture of new releases and historical material.
The site reported on the continuing evolution of Mini 4WD, new R/C models and major hobby events, while also documenting anniversary products such as the Trail Mini 4WD Kumamon Version, commemorating 15 years of Kumamon.
The continuing publication of historical and vintage material showed how closely the present-day Tamiya range remained connected with its past.
2026 — Twenty years completed
And now comes September 2026.
Twenty years after that first Porsche 934 announcement, TamiyaBlog is still following the same basic formula: report what Tamiya is releasing, document what is happening at exhibitions and events, preserve older information and share interesting developments with fellow enthusiasts.
The scale of the contemporary archive is considerable. The website now spans hundreds of pages and continues to publish frequently across its different categories.
The anniversary year has itself provided an especially fitting stream of material. 2026 is Tamiya’s 50th anniversary of R/C cars, and the blog has been following the anniversary releases, including the return of classic names such as the Cheetah and Falcon.
Recent coverage also demonstrates how the blog’s original interests remain intact: the September 2026 release lists cover R/C, static models and Mini 4WD, while reports from the All Japan Model & Hobby Show document new products across the same broad spectrum.
2006–2026: Twenty years of keeping the hobby’s history alive
The most remarkable aspect of TamiyaBlog’s twenty-year history is perhaps its consistency.
The technology changed. Blogs became social media feeds. Online video became central to product presentations. Hobby information became faster and more visual. Tamiya introduced countless new models and revisited numerous classics.
Yet the fundamental purpose remained remarkably simple: share interesting Tamiya information with other enthusiasts and preserve it for the future.
In 2016, the tenth-anniversary article described the goal of creating a complete and searchable collection of Tamiya news and articles that might otherwise disappear. Ten years later, that idea provides perhaps the best way to understand what TamiyaBlog has become.
From the Porsche 934 of September 2006 to the Porsche 934 50th-anniversary generation of 2026, the blog’s history has followed Tamiya’s history while simultaneously creating a history of its own.
Twenty years, hundreds of pages, thousands of stories—and an archive that continues to grow.
Happy 20th anniversary, TamiyaBlog.
