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The logos can be opened with Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand, CorelDraw or Adobe Photoshop. All the logos are also available in format EPS.
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.............................. Tamiya
Logo and Trademark..............................
Tamiya Incorporated (株式会社タミヤ, Kabushiki gaisha Tamiya) is a Japanese manufacturer of plastic model kits, radio controlled cars, battery- and solar-powered educational models, sailboat models, acrylic and enamel model paints, and various modeling tools and supplies. The company was founded by Yoshio Tamiya in Shizuoka, Japan in 1946 . The company has gained a reputation among hobbyists of producing models of outstanding quality and accurate scale detail, a philosophy reflected directly on the company’s logo “First in Quality Around the World” as well as winning on a regular basis each year, the prestigious Modell des Jahres (Model of the Year) award, hosted by the German magazine Model Fan.
The company was founded in 1946 as a sawmill and lumber company by Yoshio Tamiya (田宮 義雄), which it was then known as Tamiya Shoji & Co. (田宮商事) in Oshika, Shizuoka City, two years later, as with the high availability of wood, Tamiya organized a wooden model department is within the lumber company, forming the foundation of the company.
The oldest category in Tamiya's export line has been the "Military Miniatures" series of 1:35 scale figures and vehicles. The series has focused on World War II military subjects though a growing minority of kits in this line come from later periods. The collection of German vehicles is especially strong.
The products are characterized by striking full colour paintings on the boxtops. Tamiya molds are generally very clean and almost no flash is found on their products. It was Tamiya themselves that established the 1/35 scale for military models (now the accepted standard size in military modeling in general); the scale was the result of the design of the initial kit, the motorized Tiger tank, being designed just large enough to contain the motor assembly and battery pack. In addition to vehicles themselves, the category includes soldiers and weapons sets, and scenery items (e.g., brick walls, signs, barricades) for use in dioramas.
Tamiya also produces an expanding line of 1/48 military vehicles, designed as a smaller alternative to the larger 1/35 kits. Kits from this new series features metallic chassis, which serve to add weight to the models of this smaller scale.
In the 90s, Dragon (DLM) kits used to be generally inferior to Tamiya. However, Dragon's quality has improved and Dragon elected to compete in the high quality end of the market, offering photo etched parts, aluminum barrels, individual track links, and often overwhelming number of parts; up to 500-700 parts per tank. Dragon's recent kits are very accurate, but putting together 500 parts can become very tedious. Tamiya, on the other hand, often offers simpler construction in efforts to keep model building fun. Tamiya's kits often use vinyl tracks for tracked vehicles. Another Chinese maker, Trumpeter is also competing from lower end of the market. Trumpeter's kits offer vinyl tracks, as well as plastic tracks molded in several peieces, such as upper part of the tracks, and lower part of the tracks and several individual tracks in between. Tamiya's recent inclusion of two kinds of tracks made out of different materials suggest that Tamiya might also follow the trend. As Trumpeter's quality also improves, Tamiya's static military lines are being pressured from both high end and low end.
Recently Tamiya has found a niche market of smaller 1/48 scale military miniatures. As average Japanese household is much smaller and cramped than any other amongst developed nations, smaller kits that can be neatly put into smaller kit boxes after assembly and stored away are proven to be more popular by necessity. Tamiya has great experience in 1/35 scale military vehicles. Utilizing the specs of 1/35 kits, many parts in 1/48 scale kits are simply scaled down version of 1/35 counterpart, with a notable exception of tracks being molded in plastic in 1/48, instead of somewhat less detailed vinyl tracks often seen in 1/35 kits. Tamiya is putting out about 1 new kit a month for the past 3 years, as a way to blocking entry of Chinese makers into 1/48 scale market. Already over 30 models are available from Tamiya in 1/48 scale, representing most of the popular tanks and vehicles. New entry into the 1/48 market would have to offer more than what Tamiya already does. HobbyBoss, yet another Chinese maker, offers 1/48 tanks with full interior details for about the same price.
In the traditional 1/35 scale military miniature market, Tamiya's is offering clever innovations such as spring suspensioned road wheels, but these offerings are not outstanding enough to give Tamiya the clear dominence it once had in the static miniature market. More over, many Chinese makers offering numerous outstanding kits every year pressures Tamiya's static 1/35 line. Tamiya still is a giant in static miniature market. Because of the visibility, Tamiya could highlight obsecure vehicles that no other makers were willing to build. Tamiya could drive the market better than any other maker. Sturmtiger 38cm was an obsecure vehicle, only a handful of the massive mortar tanks were built in real life, but Tamiya made it aware to builders by introducing it to the market. Although nemerous and powerful, Char B was not a very glamorous tank, no other major maker was willing to invest in it, but Tamiya built it. In this role of pioneering the market, Tamiya is best suited due to high visibility in the market.
Their line of static model aircraft, primarily in 1/48 scale, are widely considered to be state-of-the-art. The 1990's release of the Spitfire, for example, was especially hailed by Modelmakers for its ease of construction , and attention to detail , with the new molds having very fine raised details .
Many of the same aircraft have been repeated in 1/72 scale to a similar standard with a few subjects only available in this scale. Within Japan, the 1/72 scale line includes a large number of re-badged Italeri kits, which are priced significantly lower than Tamiya originals.
Tamiya is also one of the few manufacturers of 1/100 scale aircraft. Originally called the Minijet Series and consisting of jet fighters plus a B-52, it was terminated in the 1980s, but revived in 2004 renamed the Combat Jet Series. Tamiya used to produce a few 1/32 scale kits.
In aircraft models, Tamiya offers a few clear skined kits, showing interior parts of aircrafts. A few motorized kits are available also. These feature spinning props. Some kits even include sound effect modules. Also Tamiya's aircraft kits often include metal weights that prevents aircrafts from sitting on its tail. Compared to other kits such as Hasegawa, where the builder has to glue in bearings or fishing line weights, Tamiya's kits are convenient. These gimmics and often cleverly designed simpler construction help Tamiya stay on top of the miniature aircraft market. In this effort, Tamiya's philosphy of best quality around the world is realized in the form of simple consturction leading to superb finish.
Tamiya and their racing division TRF have evolved into one of the most successful racing teams on the electric scene of worldwide R/C Racing over the last few years. They are most famous for their work in the field of 1/10th scale electric touring car racing.
At the request of many Tamiya enthusiasts, in 1999 Tamiya started work on a car made purely for racing, to replace their aging, gear-driven TA03R-TRF and TA03F David Jun Edition cars. The car that resulted was the TRF414X (built in very small numbers), which evolved into the TRF414M, and then to the more popular TRF414M2 (and the budget-oriented TA04 series), all employing the then-novel twin-belt drivetrain layout, with the center layshaft mounted above the motor. The TRF team's reputation shot up after the 3rd IFMAR ISTC world championships in Mogale City, South Africa, in 2002. The Thai driver Surikarn Chaidajsuriya shocked the world by winning the world championships driving a modified Tamiya TRF414M. The car he used was eventually released to the public as the TRF414M-World Championship Replica, of which only 1500 were built, making it one of the more desirable Tamiya kits from the last 5 years.
Since 2002, the TRF division has continuously been growing with an expanded team in Japan and worldwide. In late 2002, Tamiya released their third shaft driven car called TB Evolution III (or TB Evo3) which won the YamaYama Cup in Japan two months later, with Satoshi Maezumi at the wheel. On the European scene, the Dane Steen Graversen along with Surikarn Chaidajsuriya and team manager Kiyokazu Suzuki managed to join the A-main of the big LRP Masters race in Germany, April of 2003. Surikarn then won both the 23T stock and the Modified classes in the Thailand International Touring Car championships (TITC), using an updated TB Evo3. Surikarn's Evo3 was eventually released to the public as the limited-edition TB Evo3 Surikarn Edition (SE) to commemorate the victory. It features red anodized aluminum components, new upper arm mounts, titanium turnbuckles and screws, delrin differential halves, a thicker 3mm carbon chassis, and new one-way carbon gear brace. The TB Evo3 SE was eventually replaced with the TB Evo4 in the first half of 2004. The Evo4 addressed the Evo3 owners' complaint about their car's bevel gears' durability by incorporating a three-piece center shaft design, doing away with the Evo3's single-piece center shaft. The Evo4 was also equipped with Tamiya's Lightweight Reversible Suspension Set, incorporating smaller wheel bearings, stiffer material, and reversible longer suspension arms, which allows more cornering speed and more precise adjustment of the car's suspension characteristics.
The same year, Tamiya discovered a new young star under Tamiya's belt, a boy named Marc Rheinard from Germany. Marc debuted at the indoor race DHI Cup of 2004 with Tamiya's new belt driven car (designed in conjunction with Tech Racing) the TRF415. He and Steen Graversen finished 2nd and 3rd, proving the capability of this newly designed chassis. Two months later, the Marc won the LRP Masters in a dominating fashion, beating the world's best drivers. Things looked good for the upcoming 4th World Championships in Florida, USA. Few believed that Marc would actually win the world championships at an age of 17, but he did. Tamiya brought their new and improved version of TRF415, the TRF415MS which stands for Maezumi Satoshi, one of the car's designers and a Tamiya factory driver. The new car had improved handling characteristics on asphalt through the adoption of a thinner chassis and Evo4's Lightweight Reversible suspension. Marc took pole position and won two of the three A-mains. The other Tamiya driver in the top ten was former world champion Surikarn, driving the TB Evo4, who finished 9th.
After the 2004 Worlds, Tamiya released the World's upgrade kit for the 415, containing the direct center pulley (as opposed to the center one-way included in the standard 415 and 415MS kits) and narrowed suspension mounts, further improving the 415 handling and acceleration. In early 2005, Tamiya released an updated version of the TB Evo4, called the TB Evo4 MS. The Evo4 MS was equipped with one-piece aluminium bulkheads (as opposed to the Evo4's 4-piece bulkhead), aluminium center brace and one-piece center shaft input cups (as opposed to plastic ones in the Evo4).
In July 2005, Tamiya further updated the TRF415MS, by releasing the TRF415MSX. Released both as a conversion kit (for older 415s) and as a complete kit, the design featured a three-piece bulkhead for easy maintenance, lowered and shortened upper deck that runs under the belt, and the deletion of the middle decks, all contributing to a lower CG and increased "tweak" resistance. Marc recently won the World's Warm-Up in April 2006 with a revised version of the MSX, sporting a new set of lowered rear bulkheads, shock towers, and steering mechanism. Unfortunately he only placed 4th overall in the 5th IFMAR ISTC World Championships held in August 2006 (in Collegno, Italy), but his car was eventually released to the public as the limited-edition, asphalt-racing oriented TRF415MSX Marc Rheinard Edition (MRE) in August 2006. It incorporated new alternated (having more widely-spaced teeth) pulleys, new lightweight delrin solid front axle, new internal drive ratio (through the adoption of the new pulleys), and the new steering mechanism. In July 2006, Tamiya released the TB Evolution 5, their next-generation gear-driven touring car, replacing the Evo4 MS. The Evo5 does away with the Evo4's front main shaft input cup, using a CV joint instead (but retaining a rear input cup), and also incorporates the new short arms for the Lightweight Suspension, which further increased the cornering speed and helped sharpen the car's turn-in. It is also equipped with a new, more precise steering mechanism (seen also in the TRF415MSX MRE), and a lowered top deck. In November 2006, Tamiya ceased the production of the MRE, and released the updated TRF415MSXX. This car returned to the standard front one-way differential (unlike the solid axle included in the MRE), and came with new, thinner upper and lower decks (altering the chassis flex characteristics), and a new aluminum air scoop to help cool the motor.
Between 1984 to 1989, Tamiya had its own mascot called Plastic Model Moko-chan, who has a rabbit sidekick called Rabbi-kun (プラモ Puramo) and sometimes they were titled Moko-chan no (and) Rabbi-kun (プラモのモ子ちゃん Puramo no Miko-chan). Drawn by manga artist Fujita Yukihisa, they usually appeared in various Japanese language pamphlets and in comics with Japan-released Tamiya models. They would teach kids about the various models they were building and there was even a series on how to build them, all in a comic format as well as its only bilingual series of leaflets titled RC Lecture By Moko Chan (モ子ちゃんRC講座), teaching children RC car care and maintenance. Despite being out of use by Tamiya, the characters still have a large following with devotees. In some plastic 1/35 scale tanks, there is usually a tank crewman who gives tips on the instruction manual.
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