14 thoughts on “Tamiya future releases to be presented on 50th Shizuoka Hobby Show 2011 – TA06, M06 RX-7, M05 S-Spec, F104X1, TB-03 VDS, Red Holiday Buggy & Fast Attack Vehicle re-release! (Updated 14.04.2011)”

1. Black Hole Sun April 13, 2011 at 9:23 am

   You definitely have a direct line with M. T

   Attack Buggy 2011 means FAV? Original chassis?
2. GreatDane April 13, 2011 at 9:23 am

   Thanks for the list guys 😉

   A lot of vintage Tamiya RC guys will be thrilled to see the re-release of tha Fast Attack vehicle – although I am a Wild One man my self.

   But I am happy for them.

   Best Regards

   GreatDane c”,)
3. admin Post authorApril 13, 2011 at 9:27 am

   @Black Hole Sun:
   Time will tell 😉
   Regards,
   Admin
4. GreatDane April 13, 2011 at 12:39 pm

   Ahh, more models. Nice 😉

   It is nice to see Tamiya is releasing a Porsche in the 959/961 range. That Porsche I like in particluar, it’s a great looking car IMHO.

   Hmm…F104 X1 and M05 S spec? What’s X1 and S spec i wonder?
5. Taro April 13, 2011 at 1:11 pm

   Great!
   I’ve longed for TA05 gear diff because I’m using high power brushless motors.

   TA06 prototype looks so strange, but I believe it’s TAMIYA’s eccentricity like TA03, which is far away from uniform high-end 417.

   BTW, there are TA06 F one-way ,direct and ball diff, and R ball diff as option, so I assume that kit’s F and R diff are gear diff.

   I’m waiting for the time which tells!
6. Taro April 13, 2011 at 3:42 pm

   Shotohoirubesu = short wheel base
   Riyagurippu Arumiriyasasumaunto = Rear grip aluminum suspension mount
   Pondamaunto = Transponder mount
   Furontodanpasute = Front damper stay
   Haitorukusaboseiba = High torque servo saver
   Arumisutearinguposuto = Aluminum steering post
   Riyaarumiappuraito.= Rear aluminum upright (knuckle)

   Can’t you read katakana?
7. admin Post authorApril 13, 2011 at 3:56 pm

   Thank you, wish I could read katakana.
   Regards,
   Admin
8. Ken April 15, 2011 at 10:38 am

   Would love to see the FAV, the Porsche 961 and the Dax Honda!

   Off-topic, in the Tamiya website sometimes I see there are some items on the new product list which are under the brand name Italeri. And I see there are some Tamiya military models with the words “Parts manufactured by Italeri” printed on the box. What is the exact relationship between Tamiya and Italeri?
9. Erik April 15, 2011 at 12:05 pm

   @ Ken: Tamiya’s relationship to Italeri is an interesting and complex topic, where we at Tamiyablog not by far have a complete overview. However, we have spent some time during the last years gathering information, and this makes it possible to say something about it.

   As you may know, Tamiya has marketed the models of several other manufacturers in the past, partially under the Tamiya brand, sometimes under the original brand. The first one I know about is Italeri’s model of the 1/84 SR-71 Blackbird, that Tamiya sold as a Tamiya model from 1983 onwards. In 1984, further 4 Italeri models were sold by Tamiya.

   Then in 1990, Tamiya sold Revell’s BMW 850i repackaged as a Tamiya model, and with Tamiya manual, and in 1991, the same idea was repeated for Revell’s BMW 325i. I have these models in my collection, but I can’t recall if the decals and/or wheels and tires are Tamiya’s own or the Revell originals.

   As you probably know, Italeri and Revell used to have a pretty close business relationship too, including Revell distributing Italeri models and later also partially selling them in Revell packaging. When the company Esci went bankrupt, Revell aquired a lot of Esci’s molds, and practically simultaneously, it seems that the rebadging of Italeri models stopped. If so, no wonder as the quantity of Esci molds now in Revell’s possession is clearly huge, and on top of that, they have started reviving old Matchbox and Monogram molds too. Add to that the repacking of Hasegawa and Fujimi models as Revell models, and it would be understandable that Revell may not feel any need to source kits from Italeri anymore. Anyway, the cooperation between Revell and Italeri may have spurred the short cooperation between Revell and Tamiya too, but that’s just an assumption from my side. It would fit well in the picture though.

   As far as I know, it would take until 1993 before Tamiya again sold Italeri models under their own brand, this time by launching a complete range of Italeri models, the 1/72 Warbird Series, which currently consists of 78 models, of which roughly the half is of Italeri origin. A few Italeri 1/48 airplanes and 1/48 armour kits, and 1/35 armour have appeared in different series since 2005, but mostly just as single models now and then. Parallel to that, Tamiya established the “Tamiya Italeri Series”, which to my knowledge are all sold by Tamiya in their original Italeri packaging, simply sold as Italeri models in Japan and possibly some other market where Tamiya are established, but not Italeri themselves. Tamiya have allocated their own 5-digit item numbers to them though, rather than depending on Italeri’s own 3- and 4-digit item numbers. This is an ever-growing series, and currently consists of roughly 360 models, but by far not all Italeri models, so I expect further models to be steadily added to the series.

   As a curiousity, I’d like to mention that some of these models have both been offered as “Tamiya Italeri” models in their Italeri packaing and in other series as “Tamiya models” in Tamiya’s own packaging and different item numbers, adding to the complexity. Also, there exists kits that are a combination of Tamiya and Italeri parts.

   As for Tamiya using other companies’ molds or repackaging their kits, Trimaster is important. Several molds from the defunct company Trimaster found their way to Tamiya and Dragon Models and have been released again as Tamiya models and Dragon models respectively. Also, Tamiya has sold Amtech models with Tamiya’s own packaging.

   Furthermore, Tamiya has released several of their own models in combination kits with models from the Japanese company Finemolds, and also re-released some of Tamiya’s older armour kits with figures from the Czech company CMK and Ukranian company ICM, and also repackaged and sold CMK armour kits under the Tamiya brand without combining with Tamiya parts. Complex indeed!

   As a sidemark, several Tamiya models have been released under the brand “Ben”. I have some of these models and it’s not clear to me if they are illegitimate clones or made from molds that Tamiya have rented to a separate company or if they are manufactured by Tamiya themselves and just sold under the “Ben” brand. An argument that supports the last idea is that boxes and manuals identify the company “Ben” to have the same address as Tamiya Japan, but this is of course no evidence of Tamiya origin. The Ben models are majorly or all from older and outdated Tamiya molds and thus models that I can understand that Tamiya wouldn’t want to market with their own name anymore. So though being still easily better than many current models from other brands, Tamiya may have decided that selling these models under a separate brand name may be a way of not hurting their own image. Please note again that what I have stated about the Ben models are just reasoning based on the little firm and credible information I have available, and reality could be somewhat different.
10. Ken April 16, 2011 at 2:20 pm

    Thanks Erik for the comprehensive explanation! I had tried to look for an answer to this question, but neither the Tamiya or Italeri website or wikipedia could give me a clue as nothing was mentioned about this. I used to guess there is a formal partnership or parent-subsidiary relationship between the 2 companies.

    I noticed that Italeri is particularly good at making 1/24 truck & trailer models (e.g. Scania/Benz/IVECO/MAN/Volvo) or heavy duty work vehicles (e.g. wrecker trucks, fire engines) while Tamiya almost has none of these products. Wonder if it is due to some sort of business cooperation between these 2 companies.
11. Erik April 17, 2011 at 3:50 pm

    @Ken: You’re welcome. We guys at tamiyablog.com have entered information about all Tamiya products into a database, trying our best to cover all Tamiya products from the company’s very beginning. We started this “work” in the early ’80’s, and have continued meticulously and without disruptions to this day. Only verified information is considered to be facts, so rumours, guesses and other vague information is not registered in the database. On one hand, this means that there are still a few “holes” of information, but on the other side, it means that the information available in the database is very trustworthy and credible. This “work” is finally paying off a little.

    As for 1/24 trucks, Italeri of course has a large selection of models, but are often criticised for using generic chassises and don’t caring much about the small differences between different versions of a specific type of truck. Obviously an approach Tamiya would never make, which again means that Italeri can develop truck models at a smaller cost and effort than Tamiya could (relatively). Still, Tamiya currently has 37 of the Italeri trucks and trailers in their selection of Italeri products, so they are obviously considered good enough for import.

    I believe the main reason why Tamiya isn’t into 1/24 scale truck models is because Japan is Tamiya’s most important market and there, 1/32 scale is the most popular scale for truck models. And the Japanese fans are seemingly mostly interested in “Dekotoratrucks”, a niche that is well catered for by primarily Aoshima, and to some extent Fujimi and GSI Creos (formerly Gunze Sangyo). Now defunct companies Otaki, Nitto Kagaku, Imai and Mitsuwa also used to make 1/32 (and to some extent 1/28) scale truck models.

    A Japanese colleague of mine pointed out that the real world of Dekotoratrucks is evolving so fast that the model companies have difficulties keeping up, so even the Aoshima-trucks that look the most extreme to us non-Japanese are already dull, boring and “yesterday’s news” to the Japanese fans. A tough market to keep up with indeed!

    I don’t know why Tamiya hasn’t entered this market though. As you may know, there is a certain cooperation between the Japanese plastic model companies in the 1/700 scale waterline market. This means that they are generally trying to avoid that several companies offer models of the same ships. Similar ideas may influence the Dekotoratrucks model market, or a company as big as Tamiya may consider this market to be too small for them.

    Either way, 1/24 truck models would mostly be interesting for Tamiya’s export market, which is probably rather small from Tamiya’s point of view and where companies like Italeri and Revell are well established with their European (and US) trucks and Revell-Monogram and Round2 (AMT/MPC) with US trucks.
12. Taro April 25, 2011 at 11:22 am

    Hello Eric,

    I’m from Japan and agree with you about the paragraph about Dekotora.

    I think one more reason that Tamiya doesn’t release 1/24 scale trucks is the size. As you know we Japanese have difficult housing situation, so we have no place to display such large trucks.

    I’d like to buy 1/14 trailer trucks RC, but unfortunately there is no place for it in my apartment. I think they will be for export, in addition, NO Japanese trucks were released by Tamiya although it is Japanaese model maker.
13. Neil Rodrigues June 16, 2011 at 7:34 pm

    I honestly think it would have been a better idea to just rerelease the TA03F Pro. Its a better chassis for drift. All they do with these new kits is transfer the weight of the battery and motor, it all ends up being in essence the same. The one thing they did do right was the parallel battery mounting. The TA03F Pro was always their best drift chassis and the only true front mount car. Oh well I guess it wasn’t as sexy for the advertising dept.
14. admin Post authorJune 16, 2011 at 8:04 pm

    I liked also the layout of the TA03F for drifting but the rest was outdated (transmission, suspension play), would rather see a “TA06F”, till then I have replaced my TA03FD with a TB03D full spec and I really enjoy it.
    Regards,
    Admin

Comments are closed.