Tamiya
| Tamiya Inc.
|
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|---|---|
 |
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| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1946 |
| Seat | Shizuoka , Japan |
| management | Shunsaku Tamiya, President |
| Branch | Toy maker |
| Website | tamiya.com |
| As of November 14, 2016 | |
Tamiya Inc. ( Japanese 株式会社 タ ミ ヤ Kabushiki-Kaisha Tamiya ) is a Japanese manufacturer of model kits and remote-controlled vehicles and ships. The company's headquarters are in Shizuoka . The Dickie-Tamiya brand is sold in Germany by the Simba-Dickie-Group .
history
Tamiya Yoshio (田 宮 義 雄: 1905–1988), the founder, was in the transportation business before World War II, but since the Shizuoka air raid in June 1945 burned down most of his company, he switched to the sawmill business. In 1946 he founded the company Tamiya Shoji and in 1948 set up the wood and woodworking department, which mainly produced wooden models for ships and airplanes. In 1951 there was a fire in which the wood stocks were lost. From then on the company became a pure model manufacturer.
Models
The model series range from various military vehicles to ships and civil aircraft to motorcycles and cars. The scale ranges from 1/700 to 1/6.
The remotely controlled vehicles and ships are operated either with electric motors or with internal combustion engines ; remote-controlled sailing ships are also manufactured.
In the aircraft and ship sector, the focus is on high-quality kits of lifelike exhibition models. In the shipping sector, TAMIYA is represented with models in the well-known 1/700 waterline series (initially mainly based on Japanese models, now also a selection of American, British and German ships), but also offers large models in 1/350 (full hull), including the Bismarck and the US aircraft carrier Enterprise . Aircraft kits are mainly available in 1/32, 1/48, 1/72 and 1/100 (mainly military models). As a manufacturer of plastic kits for free-standing models, TAMIYA has become known through the extensive series of military vehicles in 1/35 (later also in 1/48) as well as through passenger, delivery vans and racing vehicles (in 1/20, 1/24 and 1/12) as well as motorcycles (in 1/12 and 1/6).
The logo
Before the first Tamiya kit was produced, Shunsaku Tamiya, Yojiro's son-in-law asked his younger brother Masao, a student at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music Design Department, to create a logo for Tamiya. The star on the left on a red background stands for creativity and passion and the star on the right on the blue field for youth and sincerity.
The packaging design
From the first models through 1967, the illustrations on the packaging were mainly done by Shigeru Komatsuzaki, Yoshiyuki Takani and others. Complete scenes were shown in which the respective model is the focus and should tell a story. That was common practice at the time. With the start of the slot cars in 1968, an illustration of the included model appeared isolated on a white background without any accessories. This style of representation became very popular and has become a typical stylistic element of Tamiya products.
History of plastic model kits
The company was founded in 1946 by Yoshido Tamiya (May 15, 1905 - November 2, 1988) as Tamiya Shoji & Co. (Tamiya Company) in Oshika, Shizuoka City. At first it was a sawmill with an attached wood shop. In addition, from 1947 the newly founded Mokuzaigyou Company's wood products division offered ship and airplane models made of wood. In 1953, the sale of classic wooden products for house building was stopped in favor of toy production.
From the mid-1950s, plastic model kits came onto the market from abroad and the sales figures for wooden models fell significantly. This led to the decision to enter this market in 1959. The first plastic model of Tamiya was a replica of the Japanese battleship Yamato. Yamato models were on the market from other manufacturers at a price of 350 yen. Tamiya could not keep this price because the production of the injection molds in Japan proved to be difficult and expensive. Tamiya again relied on wooden models in a market that was now clearly fixated on plastic models.
Using used injection molds, Tamiya began to bring a kit of a small racing car onto the market. The kit was a hit and enabled Tamiya to raise the cost of new injection molds. At first, Tamiya worked on a model of the German Panther battle tank. The panther's straight surfaces made mold making relatively easy. Shigeru Komatsuzaki was initially won over to design the packaging. The model of the Panther was motorized, worked well and had very clear and concise building instructions that greatly simplified the construction. The scale was set at 1:35 because it was ideally suited for the use of a small electric motor with a gearbox and one or two batteries.
The production of metal molds for injection molding repeatedly led to problems with deadlines and costs. Therefore the company looked for toolmakers and in 1964 founded the metal mold department. From 1966, some employees were employed in mold production and slowly acquired the knowledge necessary for injection mold construction. It was only later that CAD was also used to create the shapes.
Tamiya quickly became known for the extreme attention to detail of their models, which of course also had an impact on the appearance of the models produced. In the time when the forms were still being created with manual work and construction plans, screw heads and nuts, for example, were made visible as simple, hemispherical elevations. Tamiya, on the other hand, reproduced these construction elements very naturally as a hexagon. Tamiya products are also known abroad for this excellent accuracy.
History R / C
The history of the remote-controlled models began on December 4, 1976 with the appearance of a faithfully reproduced Porsche 934 Turbo RSR, which is now a sought-after collector's item. The first model in the off-road sector is the American military vehicle XR311, which came onto the market on December 16, 1977. Further milestones in the development of remote-controlled replicas of real vehicles are the first so-called “Special Racing Buggys” Rough Rider and Sand Scorcher (late 1979), for which collectors also pay high prices today.
Another point in the development of detailed 1:10 replicas of real vehicles is the Toyota Hilux 4 × 4 Pick Up and the American Blazing Blazer , which for the first time realized a real working 3-speed manual transmission . In addition to accelerator / brake and steering, another channel on the RC system was necessary to be able to choose between the gears via the remote control.
Up to this point in time, the kits consisted mostly of metal parts, and soon the first models came on the market with a chassis made of ABS plastic in order to save weight. Examples from this “plastic era” are the Wild Willy, which could drive on the rear wheels, or the Porsche 959 with its detailed Lexan body that replicates the Paris-Dakar vehicle. Examples of racing buggies are the Frog, the Grasshopper, the Hornet or the Fox. The first all-wheel drive “competition buggy”, the Hot Shot, represented a performance advantage in the off-road sector.
In addition to the further development of the 3-speed models with the Toyota 4 × 4 Pickup Bruiser, some models on plastic chassis followed, which can be described as the first "monster trucks". Here, too, inexpensive entry-level models were available, some of which are still in production today, e.g. B. the Midnight Pumpkin or the Lunch Box based on the same chassis.
A racing season for young drivers of remote-controlled electric cars is held every year under the name Tamiya Fighter-Cup , the German final of which has been held in Sonneberg since 1997 .
Tamiya connector
The Tamiya connector for low voltage sources developed by Tamiya has meanwhile become a widely used standard.
Web links
Footnotes
- ↑ * Short biography, Japanese
- ↑ http://www.tamiya.de/de/eventscups/tamiyafightercup.htm , accessed on February 15, 2013