Tamiya, one of the world’s leading model manufacturers and the pride of Shizuoka City, has welcomed a powerful new member in 2024. The new advisor, who will be responsible for researching the history of models, is a Tamiya fanatic with a background as a news announcer.
The Mini 4WD cars are what catch the children’s attention. The Tamiya Fair was held on November 16th and 17th at Twin Messe Shizuoka in Suruga Ward, Shizuoka City. Tamiya fans from all over the world came to the fair.
“A blue body is coming from behind! Let’s see what happens! Let’s reach the goal! We’ve hit an alien! We’ve flipped over!”
A long line of children was waiting for the tank diorama race experience corner, organized by the “Moving Model Enthusiasts Club.” The commentator for the race was former TV Asahi announcer Yasumasa Matsui (61), who is also an executive officer of the club that organized the race.
“Ordinary homes don’t have courses like this, so children are excited to build a course, have live commentary, and set up a system. I hope that when the children of Shizuoka grow up, they’ll remember playing like this and turn it into something they make.” (Yasuma Matsui)
Matsui, who first encountered plastic models when he was in elementary school, has made collecting, building and studying Tamiya models his life’s work. He has a collection of over 3,000 plastic models at home, and his collector’s spirit is extraordinary.
<Matsui Yasuma>
“I probably have 98% of the original Tamiya model advertisements from the company’s founding up until 1975.”
<Aoki Ryuta, announcer>
Q: Why do you have them?
<Matsui>
“Because I’m a collector.”
As an announcer and reporter, Matsui was in charge of “News Station” and live sports commentary. He also used models he made to explain the news. He also wrote commentaries for Tamiya’s official guidebooks, deepening his interest as a car enthusiast.
I was approaching retirement age at 55 and was just starting to think about my second career when this opportunity came up.
“About six or seven years ago, Chairman (Tamiya Shunsaku) asked me,
‘Mr. Matsui, how old are you now?’
’53.’
‘Well, you have seven more years. When you leave TV Asahi, would you help us out?’
I said, ‘Can I take him seriously?’ I was hoping he could help me if I could, and around the time we were talking, the new president, Tamiya Nobuo, also said, ‘Please,'” Matsui said.
In March 2024, he was appointed Tamiya’s model history research advisor, and Matsui’s life’s work has now become his job.
That history is collected at the Tamiya History Museum, located within the Tamiya headquarters (Suruga Ward, Shizuoka City), where approximately 1,300 items are on display.
“The new and old versions of ‘Hunting Tiger’ have different box sizes. There are three soldiers in the background, but a consumer group in the US complained to other manufacturers that ‘what is shown on the box is not what is inside,’ and Tamiya was the first to notice and realized that this was not good, so they changed the picture,” says Matsui.
Matsui’s mission is to renovate this history museum. While the museum is filled with models from the past that are sure to draw you in, there are also challenges ahead. Because of his love for Tamiya, he works day and night to come up with ideas for a more accurate depiction of history.
“There are captions saying what year each item was released, but there’s almost no explanation of the flow of the series. People who come for the first time end up thinking, ‘Oh, these are kind of old things lined up.’ I want to show this in a systematic way,” says Matsui.
Having left the news scene to begin a second career, Matsui continues to pursue her endless dream.
“I don’t have a specific plan, but I keep saying it. A huge Tamiya Land. To achieve that, first we need to renovate the history museum in one area. If the employees think, ‘Mr. Matsui has completely changed things since he came here. This is interesting,’ then maybe the momentum will pick up. If they think, ‘Tamiya is great!'” (Mr. Matsui)
Source in Japanese language: Shizuoka Shimbun SBS