I have kept you waiting so long, it is resuming research in earnest. Our laboratory has been delayed in updating for about 1 year due to the editing of “Tamiya model whole job”, but for the time being we will update mainly the information compiled in the editing course. Tamiya ‘s first term kit “Thunderbolt” that we switched to a plastic model maker will be picked up this time.

Release is about June 40, 1961, almost 40 years ago. Speaking half a year ago from that Panther Tank’s release, you will find out how old it is. In May 1960 Tamiya launched the first plastic model battleship “Yamato” but lost to rival Nichimo and have a big deficit. The situation that I could not recover monetarily for a while, and I had to return to the wooden model against the era, I am familiar with the “Tamiya model work”, but the first story made by Styrofoam kit made into a product by struggle High-speed “boat is also released in June 1961, exactly this” Thunderbolt “is a product of a difficult age.

In conclusion, this “Thunderbolt” is the second work of a shining plastic model product following the battleship “Yamato” in Tamiya. Tamiya who lost after the business failure of the virgin battle ship “Yamato” could not set out the second work of the plastic model requiring a huge initial investment in the mold and replaced the boxed battleship “Musashi” (1960/10 ) And “Baby Truck” (1961/05) in the mold we received from the toy maker, we will barely connect the intention to switch to the “new material” plastic model. In the meantime, we continued to announce new products of wooden models of tanks and cars one after another. In the January 1, 1961 issue of Japanese Model Newspaper, Tamiya model teaching material company president Yoshio Tamiya said “… It is not an exaggeration to say that it is at a crossroads for wood manufacturers by the current plus offensive …. Please continue to look forward to my wooden model for a long time in 1961 … “and I feel the sense of urgency in the end.

And almost one year after the release of the battleship “Yamato”, this Thunderbolt will be released to the world. For the battle ship “Yamato” which is the first work of the complete Tamiya original, the second work in a situation where failure is totally unacceptable has become a copy kit is an unreasonable story from the point of the initial investment amount . It was the monogram “firebolt” that became the basis. There is a thing that is compatible with the Nautilus submarine of Marsan around here, but Tamiya has made its own major improvement on the driving system. The original of the monogram was also made of plastics, but the grip power is much different, replacing it with a real rubber tire. Furthermore, although the original uses propulsion by corotorion or solid fuel (!) As propulsive force, this is improved to the driving form using TKK Mabuchi 15 motor and gear box which Japan boasts boast. In the advertisement of those days, I sang up a high degree from the original (though most kids did not even know its existence) that “rubber tires fit in plastic foil caps and around good-fit legs around the style” Gear, Mabuchi Motor No. 15 AA 3 dry cell battery with 2 trios, the power surface is perfect. “We will show you the confidence of the part cultivated with the wooden model.

Actually Tamiya has modeled over this “firebolt” for over a year. It appears in the wooden model “Firebird” which was released in September 1960. As I already had the all-plastic model battleship “Yamato” in the world, it seems that this wonderfully designed “firebolt” was naturally developed in the same form, but for the reasons stated above it is obviously impossible to comprehend that it is inevitably a wooden model itself I made it into a kit. With a wooden model with difficult curved surface processing, its reproducibility did not wait for a theory, probably it was released with a desperate thought, it also appears in a box painting. Unfortunately we do not own this wooden model “Firebird”, but we have exhibited both boxes and finished items at the Tamiya History Museum in Shizuoka and introduced it to p154 of “Tamiya Model Task 2” So please have a look if you have one.

Let’s return the story to “Thunderbolt”. The book “Tamiya model whole job” is a book that sticks to putting all of the kit’s “finished product” and “box art”, but “finished goods” of this Thunderbolt is not in Tamiya History Museum in Shizuoka. So my assistant handmade a kit owned by our laboratory. It was supposed to keep the basic principle of editor-in-chief of Hirano “painted painted to tell the state of the time, without remodeling”, but sometimes you have to put a decal on the top and bottom of the body, putty putting and surfacer (In this respect, Saji 1 of p147 which is the work of the editor-in-chief of Hirano leaves the original completely and is a wonderful thing with things finished with delicate painting).

Deadline On a night when it is dangerous, Mr. Takami of the product which is in the cat which praised its purpose and assembled his own kit pleasantly, he visited with “Bluebird” which is not in the history hall again, It became a commemoration shoot of. After that, after finishing the studio shooting, when the next “Tamiya model whole job 3” visit to Shizuoka, the assistant himself brought it and decorated it in a corner of the historic hall show window. Is drawing to their close one of your helps was the in and feel the moment of bliss (* ^ _ ^ *)

By the way informed of the pagination of the “Tamiya model all work 2” when I was in the kit production, this “Thunderbolt”, ” Bluebird ‘finished color photos are too big compared to other kits so we protested to Hirano Editor-in, “I’d like to stick to one series with a double-page, this book has too much information Since I’m stuffed, I’ve been impossible at various places in the page layout, but I just wanted to stick to this page as a conscience as editor-in-chief “and it is up to it. Um, that ‘s why I did not become a big picture because my family made it separately.

By the way, there are excellent courses in contemporary Mini 4WD and Dangun Racer, and old slot racing cars had a wonderful course, but as a way to play this straightforward single spear sudden monk Speed ​​Record Breaker, Is introduced. Actually, the kit has mold threading holes for rotation for the left side and straight for the lower part of the car body. How many children really played like this? It is an interesting place.

Source in Japanese language