When did Tamiya acquire Italeri and what does that mean for some of Italeri kit’s . Will they get a make over or will they disappear.
On another subject I see that a 1/32 scale B-17 is in the work’s . In some past post’s when the subject of 1/24 or 1/16 scale armorer was brought up replies were about how much space they would take up. A B-17 1/32 scale thats a lot space .
It will be very interesting what comes from the manufactures , 15 to 20 years ago 1/72 sub’s, 1/35 PT boats and B-25, B-17 in 1/32.
As said, Tamiya hasn’t bought Italeri. They simply re-box some Italeri kits for release in the Japanese market. They have done this for about 15 years.
It’s been closer to 30 years. I remember seeing some Italeri kits such as the Hetzer and the M 7 Priest in Tamiya boxes in the mid 80’s at a hobby shop in California back then.
As to size of kits, there have always been large “footprint” kits. Look to the large Constitution and some 1/350 ship kits. Modelers will always find room.
Agreed, it’s been over 30 years. They often reboxed Italeri kits for sale in Japan. The first Italeri kit reboxed by Tamiya that was widely available in the US was the “one of” prototype Hummer with M242 Bushmaster gun released in the late 1980s. I snatched up all the HMMWV kits in the late 1980s; the Esci TOW carrier, Tamiya M242 and Italeri TOW carrier. I was very surprised to see the Italeri kit inside the Tamiya box. The later M1046 and M1025 Tamiya HMMWVs are not related to the Italeri kits though.
Another kit is the 1/35 Staghound. It is the Italeri kit inside a Tamiya box with a set of Tamiya figures from the newer release of their old Universal Carrier.
I’ve been wondering, does Italeri send them the sprues or the original mold. I’ve seen complaints of Italeri plastic being soft, so would Tamiya boxings have a better grade of plastic?
I don’t know about the Armor kits, but, I would think that the same business deal applies to any model boxed under this arrangement
The 1/72 aircraft models boxed by Tamiya come in the same “Made in Italy” bags as the Italeri kits do
It would appear that the models are molded and bagged, then shipped in bins, to whoever is going to box them up with their own boxes and instructions and decals,the same as the Hasegawa “re-releases”,those models are run in a large batch, some of them are used for the current release, the rest are stored in their bags, in bins, and pulled down for the “next boxing”, with the decals, box and instructions being newly printed
that is one of the sources of those old “bagged kit sales” that used to happen at Squadron,Testors had more bagged kits than boxes,so, they sold the bags off cheaply
Thank you all for the enlightening feed back. My information was based on an article on militarymodels.co.nz about Renault FT-17coming in 2013 from Italeri.
I quote . There’s been rumors of a Tamiya FT-17 for a while so interesting to see it coming out under Italeri brand ( for those who weren’t aware Italeri is now part of the Tamiya stable) end quote.
The part about now part of the Tamiya stable could be taken a couple ways.
An interesting bit of trivia that I just heard from a Tamiya dealer here in the US. Apparently Tamiya’s Armor modeling profit is only around 2% of their company’s gross sales–the majority of it comes from Auto Modeling (?!)–and this explains their anemic output of kits.
Perhaps Tamiya has somehow paired up with Italeri as some sort of market strategy to increase income streams?
One could only hope that they somehow rectify Italeri’s Worst-in-the Industry’s tracks?
Actually, it’s their RC cars that make up the vast majority of their profits, and that’s mainly Japanese. The US armor model market is relatively small.
I’ve wondered this too Jack. My guess would be its the Italeri plastic in the Tamiya kit? You’d think it would be difficult to ship moulds back and fourth and then set them up. I have the Eduard yak kits in the stash-They are a re-box of the Accurate Miniatures kits. The sprues come already bagged up the the AM logo on them and are simply put into an Eduard box, but eduard prints up their own instructions and has their own decals, pe, and masks.
One friend recently told me he purchased a 1/72 aircraft kit of a BV flying boat; the instruction sheet was in Italian and English.
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Unfortunately I don’t recall whose box it was in, but it was not in an Italieri box.
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Regarding the comment on RC cars: I recently purchased a couple of 1/25 RC Panther upper hulls from Tamiya America during a sale.
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I noticed Tamiya still markets a number of very expensive RC tanks.
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Does anyone know what their profit percentage is for the RC tank market ?
Not sure, I own a couple of Tamiya’s 1/16th scale tank kits. Neither one I bought; the Tiger I full RC kit was won in a random drawing. It retailed new at $1000 but the shipping invoice that came with the kit was $750. The other is the non-RC Tiger II. I traded for it, but I believe it originally cost close to $300.
Even a 1/25 scale Tamiya Tiger I static kit I bought in 1991 after Desert Storm was $50, an enormous price for a tank model kit back then. I was young and had a bunch of money burning a hole in my pocket at the time.
I bought a Tamiya 1/25 static Tiger I early last year. Sale price has increased to nearly double the $50 you paid and the kit isn’t as super detailed as I remembered when I first saw it in 1971.
Still a one-of-a-kind in that scale despite a flawed suspension caused by the track design, but the kit provides a starting point for improved, scratch-built duplicates.
Though I’ve never heard of a battery powered Tamiya 1/25 Tiger I, the tracks appear to have been designed for movement like the wired remote 1/25 Panther A and Jagdpanther ( which I also now own ).
I have never met anyone in the Chicago area who actually uses the 1/25 Tamiya kits as powered replicas.
My luck : someone will introduce an accurate CAD / CAM designed version in that scale after I scratch build one; happens every time I do that…[^o)]
