Monday, March 2, 2015

Visit to Tamiya Plastic Model Company

In my 12 years plus in Japan every time  would visit my in-laws I would always mention wanting to visit Tamiya, the world famous model kit manufacturer. This time I made it, we went down to Shizuoka by car therefore I had a means with which I could reach The Tamiya HQ.


To visit the company you are required to make a reservation, it is only possible to visit Tamiya during the week and. Not during weekends. 



The visit starts from the hall displaying the full range of 1/48 scale vehicles and miniatures. Following is the 歴史館 the history area that displays some of the oldest products from the company together with some famous dioramas. The best diorama on display is one depicting Japanese WW2 soldiers fighting a dinosaur!


Before another display area there is a nice plastic moulding machine popping out souvenir sprues of a Samurai model. 

In the hall there is also a large display of sport cars and bike. The last bit of the visit is the display hall.


The is also the ever present shop, but besides some tshirts and stickers it only had the standard products you can find in any model shop. I hope you liked the report.

Giovanni 
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8 comments:

  1. RobertMarch 10, 2015 at 10:16 PM

    Looks like being great fun, Giovanni- always meant to get down there one day.

    Hmmm, wonder if I can paint up a Tyrannosaurus Rex in French Imperial Guard markings?

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  2. LaffeMarch 11, 2015 at 4:21 AM

    Interesting report, thanks.
    That diorama with the train... what scale was it? And was the train also Tamiya?

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  3. Brian S.March 12, 2015 at 11:29 PM

    Looks like it was a great trip!

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  4. jkinchibaMarch 13, 2015 at 2:51 PM

    I hope you got enough free sprues for everyone. ;)

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  5. PrufrockMarch 14, 2015 at 12:53 AM

    Very cool! Thanks for posting

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  6. DarrenMarch 16, 2015 at 9:52 AM

    I hope Tamiya will get into the action of making new 1/56 stuff... lots of companies are going to China to get their miniatures done for hard plastics... even Italeri is doing some tanks and such for Warlord Games.

    Tamiya makes great stuff but they seems still stuck in the 80s.

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  7. OddjobMay 31, 2015 at 7:50 PM

    Thanks for sharing that! Really loved looking through the photos! :-)

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  8. DeanMJune 7, 2015 at 11:55 PM

    Amazing place and models! The Japanese soldiers battling the dino is cool - may have to steal the idea :)

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