12 thoughts on “Future Tamiya releases to be presented at 50th All Japan Model Hobby Show (Updated 15.09.2010)”

1. Ken September 9, 2010 at 7:19 am

   >>> * 1/10 R/C Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-24 (F104)
   Finally got something new. In the last few years it seems that for new models only Ferraris would appear….

   >>> * 1/20 McLaren M23 1976
   >>> * 1/12 McLaren M23 1974

   Checking the old catalogues, there were a “Texaco” McLaren and a “Yardley” McLaren back then. For these two re-releases, which one is which? And if it is the “Texaco” one, will the “Marlboro” sponsor be kept?

   >>> * 1/12 Valentino Rossi Rider Figure (High Speed Riding Type)

   Ah, Tamiya eventually have something new for this rider figure category… haven’t seen this for sooo many years 😉

   The Mini-4WD class is getting more and more boring, all about Avante IIs and IIIs, Neo Falcons, Manta Rays.

   Read from the Tamiya JP site that Tamiya will release the 1/18 McLaren M8A too… pity that it still don’t re-release the 1/18 Volkswagen Buggy.
2. GreatDane September 9, 2010 at 8:12 am

   Thank you for the pics. 😉

   Thats why it took Tamiya so long to release a M-06 chassis – it’s a brand new chassis in layout with the motor being in the rear and the battery located down the chassis lengthwise. Nice!

   Now the VW Beetle (the Fiat and the Renault) can go even more scale in it’s driving appearence with the motor placed in the rear as per the 1:1.

   I do wonder what bodies Tamiya will release with the M-06 chassis taken the obviouse VW, Fiat and Renault aside. Do Tamiya have a new body in the works?

   And it is nice to see the 1/12 Mclaren M23 (but Marlboro and Yeardly?) I believe the Marlboro edition is one of the mostly sought after 1/12 kit from Tamiya.

   Best Regards

   GreatDane c”,)
3. GreatDane September 9, 2010 at 5:52 pm

   @Ken:

   Maybe the Buggy moulds got lost or destroyed in a fire/earthquake or something.

   I understand that Tamiya has been hit by earthquakes from time to time. That could be the reason.

   Next to the Buggy they’d also had a small Honda (city?) in there 1/18 range, with opening doors and bonnet with full engine details – no curbside back then, Tamiya went full monty 😉

   I do hope Tamiya will re-release the Nissan and Chaperal (wrong spelling or did I nail it?) down the line to. And the Buggy an Honda if possible. 🙂

   It was Marlboro and not Texaco? But I do recall Texaco, though…Don’t no, maybe I am way off.

   Cheers and best regards

   GreatDane c”,)
4. miramar September 9, 2010 at 8:55 pm

   @ Ken:

   Apart from the classic F1 RC cars released, there have indeed been quite some time since Tamiya released anything but Ferrari F1 cars, and the McLaren is a very welcome release indeed! The general lack of other new releases than Ferrari models is most likely down to licensing issues and not lack of motivation from Tamiya’s side.

   The car manufacturers have a very shortterm view on licensing as on so many other things. So instead of looking at toys and models of their products as free advertising and image builders (longterm investment), they instead look at the toy and model manufacturers as an shortterm income source, trying to sell licensing as expensively as possible.

   I work in the automotive industry myself and have looked into this issue several times, and car manufacturers often try to explain the licensing as a method of ensuring that only quality toy/model products are sold with their names and designs. In some cases this might be true, but there are countless examples of fully licensed and approved products with so low quality that it’s very hard to understand that the car manufacturers can want or even tolerate being associated with them.

   One example is the Mercedes SLR “722” (M02-based with a non-Tamiya low quality body) that Mercedes-Benz sold in their Classic Collection series of merchandise. Further examples are several of Tamiya’s Porsche models that were sold as official Porsche merchandise, but were so poorly built, painted and decalled (not by Tamiya, but in Germany on order from the German distributor) that they weren’t at all worthy of the Porsche name. Or the terrible 1/10 VW Scirocco and 1/10 Audi R8 models officially licensed by VW and sold through VW/Audi dealerships. I could go on forever.

   The reality is that licensing has become a difficult and costly issue also for serious model manufacturers like Tamiya, and in my humble opinion, nobody are winners in this game, except possibly the car manufacturers in a shortterm perspective.

   As for the coming 1/20 and 1/12 models of the McLaren M23, the original release of the 1/20 model only came in the Marlboro livery, whereas the 1/12 model came in both a Yardley and a Texaco-Marlboro version, as you correctly state. With regard to your question which livery the re-release will get, it remains to be seen. However, though Tamiya may go for the Texaco-Marlboro colours, Marlboro decals will surely not be included.

   I don’t remember the exact time, but in the early ’90’s, Tamiya made the decision not to include tobacco sponsor decals/stickers in their products anymore. It was argued that many of Tamiya’s customers are young people, and Tamiya didn’t want to contribute to young people being influenced by tobacco advertising. (Please note that this is not a perfect quote of Tamiya’s statement, but the contents of the statements were basically the same.)

   This was a self-imposed “rule” by Tamiya, and not the result of any country’s law. Long before this rule, several Tamiya products were offered with alternative decals/stickers for countries where tobacco advertising was illegal, like for instance the Porsche 959 and 956 with “Racing” rather than “Rothmans” logos. These two phenomena are often mixed up by Tamiya enthusiasts, but are in fact not at all related.

   Anyway, kit no. 24098 “Nissan R90V Cabin” ended up being the last Tamiya model with tobacco logos. It was released in July 1990 and discontinued already in 1992 as a result of the new “rule”. I think it’s highly unlikely that Tamiya will change this “rule” back. We are now in 2010 after all! So further Tamiya models with tobacco logos will hardly ever be released, but we may see models in typical tobacco liveries, however without tobacco logos or with substitute logos as seen on fullsize cars also, especially on F1-cars until the ban in F1 was introduced.

   For those that want fully authentic liveries with logos and all, the company Tabu Design offers correct (although not politically correct!) tobacco decals for several models, both for Tamiya products and other brands.

   As for the never ending stream of Mini 4WD models with what you consider to be boring designs, I fully understand and respect your opinion, but it’s nonetheless important to remember that Japan is Tamiya’s by far biggest market for most of their products and especially the Mini 4WD’s. If the market would have reacted in a negative way, Tamiya would surely have changed their strategy a long time ago, so obviously the “boring” designs are massively popular and selling well in their main markets. As Tamiya enthusiasts we are of course not obliged to like all Tamiya products, but the success of any Tamiya product is beneficial to all of us, by ensuring that Tamiya stays prosperous and competitive!

   As for the 1/18 McLaren M8A, I’m very surprised but happy to see it being re-released. It was originally released in November 1969 and discontinued in 1977, and unless there has been an inofficial limited re-release for it in the Japanese market in the meantime, it has now been continously off the market for 33 years! This is also strongly reflected in the prices the original release achieved in the market until the upcoming re-release was announced.

   As you, I also hope the 1/18 VW Buggy will be re-released. It was originally released in July 1970 and not discontinued before 1982, and is not even remotely as rare and hard to find as the McLaren, but should prove popular if released again. I have a couple of the buggy kit myself, and to me, a big part of this kit’s appeal is that it’s sort of a predecessor to the SRB-series with its authentic and working VW suspension and drivetrain. Let’s keep our fingers crossed!
5. miramar September 9, 2010 at 9:10 pm

   @ Great Dane:

   The 1/18 Honda you mention was a Honda N III 360, released in 1970 and discontinued already in 1973, and as far as I know, never re-released again. There was also another “K-car”, the Subaru R2 SS, released and discontinued virtually simultaneously with the Honda, but re-released again around 1986.

   Apart from that, the series consisted of a Porsche 910, Nissan R381 and Lola T-160TS, all of which were re-released in the late ’90’s, if I remember correctly, in 1999. So these are obviously potential re-releases again!

   There never was a Chaparral in this 1/18 series, but Tamiya indeed had a 1/32 scale Chaparral 2F in the “Mini Racer” series and later “Mini Racer Junior/Chibikoro Racer” series.
6. GreatDane September 10, 2010 at 7:50 am

   @miramar

   You are right about the Chaparrall. My mistake! 😉

   And now that you mentioned the Subaru R2 I do recall that model too.

   Best Regards

   GreatDane c”,)
7. Ken September 10, 2010 at 9:01 am

   Thanks miramar and GreatDane for your information 😀

   In the past few years I managed to get some of the 1/18 models (most are those late-90s re-res). If Tamiya would re-release the whole line again, I’d glad to see that because it saves me a lot of money… I enjoy assembling the models rather than just keeping them (and re-selling them), so I’d welcome they’d be re-released and come in a much cheaper price.

   The same with the 1st generation Mini 4WDs, I still desperately look for that. Though now there are 2 “Trucking Minis”, I hope one day those 5 “1st generation” would re-appear again in their original shape.
8. miramar September 10, 2010 at 9:54 am

   @ Ken:

   With regards to the first 5 Mini 4WD’s, I of course don’t know, but I believe it’s highly unlikely that they will be re-released. As you point out, the Sunny Shuttle and Jolly Joker of the Truckin’ series have just been re-released, but they have generic names and the original designs of the Ford Ranger and Chevy Blazer have been made “anonymous” by removing badges and logos, so aren’t subjects to licensing. The first 5 Mini 4WD’s would be however, and the fact that the Hotshot Jr. was chosen as the re-release to celebrate the Mini 4WD’s 25th anniversary in 2007 instead of the actually very first Mini 4WD, the Ford Ranger, could be an indication that it simply was too akward and/or expensive to get the Ranger licensed compared to the modest benefit associated with such a (relatively) low volume item.

   Possibly, also the body molds of the Ford Ranger and Chevy Blazer were modified to create the Sunny Shuttle and Jolly Joker. But as Tamiya has again proved with the 1/18 McLaren re-relelease, we should never say never! Also, as the Japanese car manufacturers seem to be more cooperative in licensing issues, the Toyota Hilux and Nissan Safari are possibly more likely candidates for re-releases than the Ranger, Blazer and Range Rover.

   From observing the price levels of the first 5 Mini 4WD’s for some time, I would actually recommend getting them as soon as possible, before the prices increase even more. They are especially expensive in their original Japanese boxes. The US-market versions, with their less attractive boxarts with the box lids most probably manufactured locally in the USA on order from the US distributor MRC, are considerably cheaper and should be perfectly OK for those who intend to build the models anyway.
9. Furai September 15, 2010 at 4:21 am

   It is quite intereting the design of the M-06, the body release will be quite interesting. The only thing I see missing from the line up is Kei cars and Trucks on the M-chassis, its a great size for them and there popular in Japan, that and the brands producing them probably wouldn’t want as much for licensing. Good job on the M06 Tamiya keep the good chassis and bodys rolling!
10. Nige March 2, 2011 at 12:20 pm

    Just wondered whether you;d heard any news when Tamiya are going to release the budget version of the TRF502 which I guess will replace the DF03?

    Cheers,
    🙂
11. admin Post authorMarch 2, 2011 at 12:31 pm

    Unfortunately haven’t heard anything yet.
    Best regards,
    Admin
12. sam chaloupka August 29, 2011 at 8:07 am

    Appreciate all the models that Tamiya has produced, still waiting for the US staff car in 1/35 scale. sure would be great if i knew they were even planning to release this model in 1/35 scale. The US staff car would be well received with all the 1/35 modelers, please consider adding this model to your releases. thanks

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