Gary Kato informs us of the news that the President and Chief Executive of Tamiya Mr.Shunsaku Tamiya announced at the 2008 Shizuoka Hobby Show that he will retire in June.




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Thanks!

Is it too much to ask that half of Tamiya's 1/35th catalogue will also enjoy a long and (discreet) retirement?

Now Jim, be polite.

Not that I am not with you on this.

Except that maybe I would like them to have the same kits, only redone with all new molds!

it was Tamiya's kits that got me into armour kits (I have to blame someone) so lets hope the new person at the top gives them a higher priority

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Except that maybe I would like them to have the same kits, only redone with all new molds!
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I`m with you on this,i love Tamiya`s kits mainly coz i can`t do individual track links,however some of their earlier kits still hark back to the days of battery powered toys.
So if someone at Tamiya does read this - updates please but keep your wonderful rubber band tracks,i could`nt do it without them.

Apparently, Mr. Tamiya's son-in-law is supposed to take over.. and keep things going according to what Mr. Tamiya wants

So, I don't know if we're going to see any substantial changes!

some tamiya kits amazing, (new opel bitz, 1/32 f 16, swimmwagen) some bad (but only because thay are old moulds, ( bmw w/side car, some older figures sdkfz 222)
nothing againts the company tho, i got started on tamiya and italeri.
but i remember being very dissapointed one christmas as my paretns went for quantity not quality and i got some old kits!

Come on tamiya, pull your finger out lets have kits as nice as dragons but easier to buildl!!!

I have always loved Tamiya since I was a kid and that was quite some time ago.
With the change of the guard I do hope they keep most of the old kits,BUT,moving forward I also hope they can keep up with such companies as Trumpeter and AFV with more modern kits and figures.

Don't know much about the history of Tamiya but they brought out some great stuff and probably put 1/35 modelling on the map, although I could be worng and probably am.

Happy retirement is all I can say Mr T, and I hope the new head continues to develop he range and bring us some of those long awaited vehicles that no one is still producing.

Al

I really like the newer Tamiya kits and grew up building the 1/35 motorized kits. I remember the first time I saw the HUGE (for an 8 year old) 1/35 Tamiya Tiger I. I was hooked and never looked back. Happy Retirement Mr. T.

Jeff

At the risk of coming across like the Grinch, and keeping my eyes totally clear of nostalgic tears, while recognizing the ENORMOUS contribution made to the hobby by Tamiya, it's a bit like getting all dewy-eyed over how many NBA rings were won by the Bulls. What counts is nowadays - apart from 1/48th scale, they aren't doing a hell of a lot for armor modeling now, or in the forseeable future.

Most companies are judged (and should be rated) by what they have in the pipeline or in their current catalogue. For me (and many of less nostalgic turn of mind) they aren't exactly at the top of their game. . Yep a few releses announced at Shizuoka (especially the Pz II) but not a lot that causes a dangerous level of adrenalin....

Well, happy retirement. Tamiya did a lot for the hobby and they should have credit for that, although they have been overtaken by DML and Trumpeter over the last decade or so.

Hi, couldn't help but to add to this post, my first.

I've had many years of enjoyment building Tamiya armour and figures. The price factor keeps me away from them now.
In terms of market share in 1/35th scale, they used to be the leaders. Nobody could touch them as they catalogued most of the armoured vehicles and kits that are now being repeated by other brands with newer tooling and detail. I guess their marketing team just didn't see it coming, this revolution.
An old Tamiya kit can still be finished to acceptable standards with a little extra work put in and that's the hobby we're in, to put it together. But it's much easier if they were re-tooled with better detail.

Whatever it is, thanks Mr Tamiya for the good old days.

Richard

Not wanting to perpetuate an urban myth here, (but I will forge on nonetheless ) but I think it was an inital release Panther or some German thingy that was supposed to comply with current 1/32 scale at the time (early 70s) but for whatever reason scaled out instead to 1/35, so they stuck with it and the rest is history... Thoughts?

You're off by twenty years. According to his memoirs, Mr. Tamiya's company's first tank kit in the late 1950's was a Panther tank (with five road wheels), and the "fit the box" scale worked out to 1/35th, which became their company standard. He insisted that it had nothing to do with Monogram's adoption of that scale around the same time. The kits from that era are long gone, now.
The Panther Ausf. A kit from the 1970's was part of the current Military Miniatures series, and most were approximately 1/35th (though chassis proportions were distorted on some kits to accommodate Tamiya's standard electric motor and gearbox).

After all is said and done, a job well done to Mr. Tamiya. Who of us has not gotten seriously into modeling with out this company. They, as most companies, get old and forgotten as new ones crop up with better and newer kits, but where would we all be as modelers without the efforts of the Tamiya company, probably still with linburg and life like who were good in their days too.No matter, enjoy your retirement Mr. Tamiya , and thanks. And yes, I still have older Tamiya kits around to be built.

i´ll agree with Jacques, let´s hope they keep their portfolio of 1:35 kits even after this man is gone, you can always buy an old Marder III on eBay and build it along with some nice photoetch from one of the aftermarket manufactures. OR they (Tamiya) can do something new with their old ones like Dragon does...fill the box with metal barrels, and extra material such as resin and pe.

/Thomas

I absolutely LOVE TAMIYA kits. Especially the older kits. I know they don't have as much detail as today's Dragon super kits (which I also enjoy). But their ease, simplicity, thought, and clever engineering make for some excellent builds. I think other companies should adopt TAMIYA'S way of thinking- if the modeler can't assemble it, why bother? Even today, Dragon cannot seem to make a simple, well thought-out, good looking instruction manual. Even the 1970's, TAMIYA had this perfected. TAMIYA also had a heavy impact on graphic design (which no other company has rivaled). Their use of white-space on not only the box-art, but the instruction manual is beautiful. Their instructions should be used as a graphic design case-study in layout. I find myself buying TAMIYA kits just due to their graphic design. Even though they may have been passed-up in detailing on kits, their graphic design standards will remain unrivaled.

I salute you TAMIYA-SAN!
for beautifying the model-industry in not only kits, but what the kits come in.

Now THAT is a reasonable point...

However, even as being somewhere between the two (principal) schools of thought on accuracy, I do believe that many of Tamiya's products are, for those who take accuracy issues seriously, nowadays, unacceptable. I wasn't being (entirely) flippant when I said that a number of their 1/35th models should also be put into retirement. Their Grant/Lee, their KVs, Stuart/M8 or their 88mm should all be dumped (i'm sure there are more, but they're the only ones I can think of at the moment) along with 99% of their figures...

As to their graphic design, I completely disagree. Ron Volstad's artwork for Dragon and the graphic designers used by Masterbox are, IMO; FAR above anything Tamiya has done.

However, what is also unarguable about Tamiya, is what they HAVE done - no other manufacturer ever tackled as many of the German softskins as they did, No-one else ever did the Cromwell (never mind the Centaur) the DragonWagon, the Pibber, or even (albeit flawed) the Universal Carrier. It took another manufacturer decades to tackle U.S. Halftracks (and then, only an M2).

So, in conclusion, more pluses than minuses but it's a company who (if they put their mind to it) CAN do it...

Well said mate