Category Archives: Tamiya Company

Exhibition with boxes of Tamiya plastic models from 1965 to 1975 piled up high like a toy store of that period

Half a century of Showa model collection from Inami

Yasumasa Matsui says, “I want people to go back in time to the Showa era and feel nostalgic,” in front of plastic models he has collected over half a century, at the Inami Sculpture Museum in Inami, Nanto City.


Exhibition of free TV announcer Matsui
Yasumasa Matsui, a 60-year-old freelance announcer who retired from TV Asahi in March, is from Nanto City. Monozukuri~” will open on the 12th at the Inami Sculpture Museum in Inami, the same city. Until September 17th.
Mr. Matsui is known as a global collector of plastic models made by Tamiya (Shizuoka City), a major model maker, and is called “Japan’s number one Tamiya fan” by the company’s chairman, Shunsaku Tamiya. He fell in love with models when he was in the third grade of elementary school, and even after joining TV Asahi, he continued to collect them at model stores and auctions nationwide.
This is the first time for Mr. Matsui to exhibit his collection. We exhibited more than 700 items, including some of the models that we have collected so far and dioramas that we assembled ourselves.
Boxes of Tamiya plastic models from 1965 to 1975 are piled up high like a toy store at that time and displayed. In addition to the elaborately reproduced Tamiya classic tank series, there are also valuable wooden kits that even Tamiya does not own. There is also a 1/144-scale diorama of the 2015 Kinugawa levee breach that Matsui covered.
Mr. Matsui said, “I think you’ll be surprised if you just come here. I want you to slip back in time to the Showa era and feel nostalgic.”
The admission fee is 500 yen for high school students and older, and 250 yen for elementary and junior high school students. Second and fourth Wednesdays off every month. (Kazuya Hirota)
Source of article in Japanese language: Chunichi Shimbun Web

“If there is no Shizuoka model, overseas will be in trouble” – World capital of models “is not just words”- Chairman Shunsaku Tamiya talking about the hobby industry


The 61st Shizuoka Hobby Show opened on May 10th. On the morning of the 10th, the first day of the invitation day for domestic and foreign buyers, the “living legend” who has long been a leader in the hobby industry, Shunsaku Tamiya, chairman of the Shizuoka Model Teaching Materials Cooperative Association (Chairman and President of Tamiya) will be the annual reporter. A press conference was held, and we talked about this hobby show that will be held while the effects of the new corona are settling down.

Q. What did you think when you saw the venue for this year’s hobby show?

(* 2023 will be the third time for “Elementary, Junior High and High School Students Invitation Day”).
This is a very good idea of ​​the prefectural governor (Governor Heita Kawakatsu). I thought that children in Shizuoka would come to the hobby show, but that is not the case.

Q.Is it important for the industry to have children come to hobby shows?

“Yes. It would be strange if they didn’t come. It’s more fun to come to a hobby show than to be at school.”

Q. Corona is converging, how about foreigners?

“Foreigners couldn’t come here because of Corona. We couldn’t use this venue even during Corona, but we were holding events in some way. Orders have increased since before Corona. This year, we will be able to use the (Twin Messe Shizuoka) South Building, and even after we sell, there will be exhibitions where customers will come (*The last two days of the Shizuoka Hobby Show are open to the public free of charge. That’s one of the features of the Shizuoka Hobby Show.Another feature is that the Self-Defense Forces are participating.It’s a great time to be very grateful.Only the Shizuoka Hobby Show is doing this kind of thing.”

Q. How are foreigners responding?

“Plastic model business cannot be done without Japanese products.In the past, the United Kingdom and the United States were the leading countries for plastic models, but the Japanese plastic model industry has grown larger, and many new products are being released. Everyone is happy to come to Shizuoka.”

Q. How was the industry looking back during the corona crisis?

“Corona was a tailwind for this industry. Starting in March, we (built) a new factory in Cebu, Philippines.”

Q. Was Corona a tailwind for the industry?

“It’s a tailwind.”

Q.Will this tailwind continue?

“Now, the world is in trouble without Japanese plastic models. Southeast Asia is no longer a developing country. All the Southeast Asian people are going to concentrate on Japan.”

Q. What about domestic demand?

“Of course, it’s local, so it’s the cheapest, but now in Tamiya’s market, domestic and export are half and half.”

Q. What are your ideas and directions for the industry?

“The Japanese market alone is not enough. Foreign distributors come to us and give us various ideas, so we follow them. For 50 years, we have continued to participate in hobby shows in Nuremberg (Germany). I learned a lot from hobby shows in the US, hobby shows in Europe, and hobby shows in Kensington, England.”

Q. I think, what kind of requirements are there from foreign agents?

“We also sell female figures separately. If Tamiya doesn’t do figures, it doesn’t matter. If we do that, other figure makers will get in the way.”

Q. When considering overseas demand, what are the strengths? Airplanes, tanks, cars?

“That’s not all. The ‘fun craft series’ is a modest series, but I’m doing it with the help of a professor at Shizuoka University’s Faculty of Education. Craft classes, making things with your own hands, that’s the model.”

Q. Do you want to make content with your own hands that can be used overseas?

“In Germany, when you put out a hand-made model, the Germans will say, ‘This is a real scientific model.”

Q. What do you see as the organizer?

“If there is no model of Shizuoka, it will be difficult to go abroad. The ‘world capital of models’ is not just a word. They must come. They are enjoying themselves in Shizuoka.”

Q. Look at how you are, how do you see it?

“I’m very happy about that. We’re having fun, too.”

Source in Japanese language: SBS Shizuoka Broadcasting

Tamiya 63303 “Tamiya Model Work” book written by Shunsaku Tamiya


From wooden models to plastic models, RC models and mini 4WD, Tamiya Models’ Work, which describes the path taken by Tamiya Models through numerous interesting episodes, is now available in a paperback edition of a reasonable size and price. In addition to the contents of the long-selling hardcover edition, the book also contains secret stories about the development of aircraft models, waterlines and F1 models, as well as a large number of valuable photographs. (A paperback and e-book edition are now available.)

Contents

Chapter 1: A happy encounter with wooden models
This is how I met models. Is that the inverted gull-shaped wing?

Chapter 2: Turning to plastic modelling in tears
The first model “Battleship Musashi” suffered a huge deficit and made me hungry.

Chapter 3: The Mold is the Life of Plastic Models
The arrogant mould maker, but we have no choice but to endure. Why? The rapid decline of the slot car boom

Chapter 4: Research is the basis of model making
The Aberdeen Tank Museum: a series of discoveries ●The Tamiya Hall completed at the Bovington Museum ●Participation in the restoration of the “Seiran” at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum ●Flying to Israel to cover Soviet tanks ●Covering snow at the Patton Museum at seven degrees below zero ●The wonderful staff who will never be forgotten ●The rival is “Air”! Fix Magazine”? The first issue of “Tamiya News” ●The launch of “Soldier Dolls” greatly expanded modeling expression ●”Pose before two frames”, a secret of Yasuo Otsuka ●Modelling the Schwimmwgen, a famous supporting character on the battlefield ●The joy of dioramas is to weave stories ●Why are tank models so popular ●The birth of unique water lines ●Take Ueda Meeting Hachiro-san

Chapter 5: Going all out is the world of the hobby
The only way is to buy a real Porsche 911 and take it apart ●Former accounting department employee who developed a “quiet RC car” ●Electric RC cars are developed through education that respects employee autonomy Tamiya’s RC cars kick up sand in California. Solar-powered cars – The face of Tamiya in the world, created by F1

Chapter 6: 18 Years of Mini 4WD with its peaks and valleys
The first Mini 4WD failed to win the hearts and minds of children ●The Mini-4WD developed as the younger brother of the Wild Wheelis ●Let’s completely change the design to the speed type ●Children are geniuses at modification and inventors ●Popularity plummets! The Mini 4WD boom is back with a full cowl ●Ingenuity and determination are the real appeal of Mini 4WD racing ●Tamiya’s “Seriousness” is packed into the Mini 4WD.

Last Chapter: A Foreigner’s View of Tamiya Models
Memories of Shunsaku Tamiya Towards Tamiya’s 21st Century

Commentary by Richard Koo (Economist, Nomura Research Institute)

Shunsaku Tamiya, Bunshun Bunko
An e-book version of The Work of Tamiya is also available. Please use the electronic version, which can be easily read on a variety of devices. (Contents are the same as the paperback version.)
To purchase the e-book version, please click here.
Bungeishunju BOOKS e-book ‘The Work of Tamiya Models’

Masami Hirosaka visiting the Tamiya Plamodel Factory Shimbashi store with 20,000 yen


There are Japanese & English subtitles (with Japanese & English subtitles) Legend Masami also urgently participates in the popular category “U20000 Challenge Class” of the G-Force Cup to be held on June 12th! Legend Masami heading to Tamiya Plamodel Factory Shimbashi store to buy a car for racing ✨ What does Legend Masami choose under the shackles of 20,000 yen or less! ?? Introducing the shopping process with the cooperation of Tamiya Corporation. Legend Masami also urgently participates in the popular category “U20000 Challenge Class” of the G-Force Cup to be held on June 12th! Legend Masami heading to Tamiya Plamodel Factory Shimbashi store to buy a car for racing. What does Legend Masami choose in the shackles of less than 20,000 yen! ?? Introducing the shopping process with the cooperation of TAMIYA Inc. U20000 What is an off-road class? The car body is manufactured at a list price of 20,000 yen or less (excluding tax) including the chassis kit, body / wing, optional parts, tire wheels, etc. It is a class that competes with a car body manufactured within a limited budget. What is the U20000 Off-road Class? The car body, including the chassis kit, body / wing, optional parts, tire wheels, etc., http://www.gforce-hobby.jp/event/GFCC-2022/image/regulation-GFCC2022.pdf
Source: G-FORCE Hobby