ALLCON,

I was searching through E-bay listing today and came across a guy out of HK who was selling a "New 234/2 Puma" from Tamiya. I further saw two or three other tamiya kits he had for sale which I have not seen in a catalog. What gives? I tried to get to the Tamiya web site and drill into it, only to be shut down each time. Is there new armor on the horizon? The picture looked like it had a jerry can set and a 55 gal drum set with it (so did the others I looked at). What do you all think about this?

Have a great New Year!


Tracy

Tracy,if I am not mistaken,Tamiya is the importer for Italeri products in Japan They usually add a few extra stuff to the kit

I have not heard of any new Tamiya armor of that kind, I did hear a rumor that they were releasing an SdKfz 222, but don't quote me on that.

Tiny,that SdKfz 222 is the old kit with a metal barrel and some PE added That seems to be about all Tamiya is doing lately Taking some of their kits and adding AM stuff to it I do hope Tamiya does release some actual new kits in 2004 Here is a link to that SdKfz 222 info

http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/tamiya/tam35270.htm

what you have sween is the old italeri kit re-boxed as Tamiya it's the only time you will see it unless you are a Tamiya kit collecter dont bother you may get an extra sprue with some figs or jerry cans. If you look you will see that there is quite a few re-boxes just look if you know italeri done it in the past have a look as they have re-boxeed the blitz/merc/hortch/puma ect

This is the Italeri Puma with the new Tamiya Fuel Drum set (35186), boxed for the Japanese market.

I saw the SdKfz 222 or 223 at the local shop, it looked like the same old kit with photos of a PE fret on the box side. The PE fret was just the frame and mesh for the turret roof. This replaces the old black cloth mesh they used to include that had to be glued to the plastic frame.

Yup, Tamiya imports SOME Italeri kits, and those that they do they usually spruce up with a new sprue or two, usually small things like a figgie or two, some 55gallon drums...etc.

These kits are only intended for the Japanese LOCAL market, so those that get overseas are looked at in a strange way.

it's so funny as people over here bid daft money for them on ebay must think its a new kit bot are they going to be pissed off when they find out what it really is!

I wonder this as well. Whenever I see a "new" kit, I try to do as much research as reasonably possible to see if it is a new kit or just a reboxed one. An older reboxed kit is not necessarily bad. Take the old Esci M60 series. The US M60A1 and M60A3TTS went for a lot of money on eBay until Italeri and Revell of Germany reissued them. Now the old ones go for little money.

Ola People

I saw them too at a small local hobby shop in my neighbourhood and did not knew what I saw. The Italeri Mercedes L3000 and the Blitz both with a set of Jerrycans and oildrums were sold for over 30 Euro (36 Euro I believe I remember) While the Italeri Blitz and L3000 Do not sell here for over 15 Euro. I Don`t know how it is called in the rest of the world here in Holland we call it "Theft".