Special Ordering Tamiya Parts

[europro975 75]

Dear all,

We are now in a position, to special order, any currently available part from Tamiya Japan.

Need that odd size screw, or that parts tree no one has, please message me, either here or through ebay with what you require.

Delivery usually takes around 4 weeks.

Antony

Tonys Tamiya Parts

www.stores.ebay.co.uk/tonys-tamiya-parts

[europro975 75]

Lots of special orders on there way from Tamiya Japan, many happy TC members.

Antony

[beefmuffin 1156]

Dear all,

We are now in a position, to special order, any currently available part from Tamiya Japan.

Need that odd size screw, or that parts tree no one has, please message me, either here or through ebay with what you require.

Delivery usually takes around 4 weeks.

Antony

Tonys Tamiya Parts

www.stores.ebay.co.uk/tonys-tamiya-parts

Hi Tony - is there any way to know which parts can be special-ordered?

[europro975 75]

Hi beefmuffin,

Please PM with what you are after and I can let you know if the part you require is available.

Regards,

Antony

[waterbok 1282]

Is the tumbling bull body available for order and the kumamon + figure?

[beefmuffin 1156]

Hi beefmuffin,

Please PM with what you are after and I can let you know if the part you require is available.

Regards,

Antony

** HEY! NOBODY LOOK! **

OK Antony, now that it's just you and me... can I order Novafox Z parts from the land of the rising sun? If not... and my friend at F+M Hobbies is correct that these are not set up to be a spare part than I will be forced to conclude that Tamiya - the entity itself - is a cruel, sadistic entity! BAD ENTITY!

** OK YOU CAN LOOK HERE AND BELOW! JUST NOT ABOVE! **

[Mokei Kagaku 2706]

** HEY! NOBODY LOOK! **

OK Antony, now that it's just you and me... can I order Novafox Z parts from the land of the rising sun? If not... and my friend at F+M Hobbies is correct that these are not set up to be a spare part than I will be forced to conclude that Tamiya - the entity itself - is a cruel, sadistic entity! BAD ENTITY!

** OK YOU CAN LOOK HERE AND BELOW! JUST NOT ABOVE! **

In my humble opinion, from an official Tamiya Inc. perspective, there is hardly such a thing as an "unavailable" Tamiya part. Admittedly, exceptions do exist. The rear upright weights for the M06R Chassis Kit is supposed to be one of them, at least according to Tamiya (Japan). The same goes for a few of the "special colour" versions of certain plastic and anodized aluminium parts. In virtually all other cases, the "unavailability" is down to the ignorance/incompetence/indifference of Tamiya distributors and/or shops. And I can understand that some shops decide to call parts "unavailable" in cases where the effort getting the parts is large in view of the often limited profit of selling them, combined with the risk that the customer doesn't buy the part when it's (finally) delivered. I worked for a Tamiya distributor for 17 years and experienced countless times how shops and even colleagues simply didn't care to get "unavailable" parts for customers.

After I moved to Germany 15+ years ago, it was suddenly impractical to buy from my previous employer, so I found two domestic sources which get almost all "unavailable" Tamiya parts I want and in the very rare cases they don't, I buy directly from Japan. And though I consistently buy a lot of parts generally considered to be "obsolete", "unavailable" or "ultra rare", it hasn't happened a single time that a part has been impossible to get. And with very few exceptions, it's been completely effortless for me.

As a general rule; if the part has an official part number (for instance in the assembly manual), it's dead easy to get, regardless what your hobby shop or your country's Tamiya distributor might claim. If it hasn't, it can sometimes be a little trickier, but virtually never hard. I have to emphasize again that exceptions do exist, but they are extremely rare. Tamiya parts aren't.....

As for the Novafox Z-parts, even "mainstream" online shops like Seidel and Tamico have it:

http://tamico.de/Tamiya-Z-Teile-Fahrerfigur-Fox-Novafox-19225151

http://www.modellbau-seidel.de/index.php?firma=Tamiya&best=9225151

[ChrisRx718 4470]

Mokei,

In the UK, all distributors / retailers have to buy Tamiya products through the official importer, which in this instance is The Hobby Co. - http://www.hobbyco.net

How it used to work, was that there was a huge (and I mean several pages long) list of all the 'available' parts which could be sourced from Tamiya, Inc. If it wasn't on the list, it wasn't available.

However, when I used to work at a retailer the list was very comprehensive and it wasn't until you ordered one of these illusive parts that you discovered that, 2 weeks later, actually it wasn't available all along and it would be scrubbed off the subsequent list. A pretty incompetant way of working I guess, but you had no choice.

I imagine it might be different elsewhere in the world where you don't have the 'importer' / middle-man there to control retail prices and import stock levels. Of course, you can 'grey import' stuff from some of the Japanese distributors, of which there are many, but this would be frowned upon and you'd find yourself in hot water if the importer ever found out you had done it. For small parts orders I can understand it, but importing in bulk wouldn't go under the radar for long...

[Mokei Kagaku 2706]

I imagine it might be different elsewhere in the world where you don't have the 'importer' / middle-man there to control retail prices and import stock levels. Of course, you can 'grey import' stuff from some of the Japanese distributors, of which there are many, but this would be frowned upon and you'd find yourself in hot water if the importer ever found out you had done it. For small parts orders I can understand it, but importing in bulk wouldn't go under the radar for long...

Exactly! And that's why I wrote "In virtually all other cases, the "unavailability" is down to the ignorance/incompetence/indifference of Tamiya distributors and/or shops." And the main objective of my post was to point out that extremely few parts are actually unavailable and that Tamiya Inc. isn't the problem at all when people struggle to get parts. With a good distributor, ("unavailable") parts are as easily available as they are in Japan.

As for "grey import", I do order quite a lot parts and kits from Japan, but only for my personal use, so "bulk" would hardly be a fitting term in my case! I do of course agree that buying large quantities for resale and thereby bypassing the distributor, might cause problems though!

Also, I know about the UK distributor and the price level for Tamiya in the UK, and I feel sorrry for you! With a world getting "smaller" every day, I think it will eventually have to change for the better.

[Quandry 378]

Hey Mokei, can you source Dynastorm parts from Tamiya? specifically suspension arms, steering knuckles and arms, carbon chassis, shell and decals??

[ChrisRx718 4470]

Also, I know about the UK distributor and the price level for Tamiya in the UK, and I feel sorrry for you! With a world getting "smaller" every day, I think it will eventually have to change for the better.

Yup, bad isn't it. I have only one rule when it comes to Tamiya purchases which is that any kits must come from a UK retailer. To buy all spares and hop ups at UK RRP would be massively unsustainable and expensive. Others do it, but only because they are unaware of the true 'value' of Tamiya parts, with many online dismissive of Tamiya because of this perception that they're over-priced.

I'd love to support a UK retailer more but ultimately they're barely making a living off the margins required to be competitive on the market, the majority of that cost lines the pockets of the importers and HMRC in the form of taxes. Ultimately the money leaves the country bound for the Far East where an individual can obviously import their own goods at significantly less cost!

[94eg! 834]

Who else is gonna pay for the Queen's caviar facials?

[europro975 75]

Hi Waterbok,

I'm afraid the Kumanon figure, is one of those rare items that is not available as a spare. That is due to the licencing deal Tamiya have for it.

The Tumbling Bull body is available to order from Japan.

Please PM me, to arrange an order.

Regards,

Antony

[europro975 75]

Hi beefmuffin,

Yes, I have Novafox Z parts in stock.

Please PM me, to sort out an order.

Regards,

Antony

[europro975 75]

To answer a few question from above.

I have an excellent working relationship with the Hobby Co and Tamiya. ANY part Tamiya Japan have in stock or plan to manufacture, can be ordered by me.

Most model/hobby shops can't be bothered to order parts as they don't have the technical knowledge or any idea where to find the correct part/part number to actually order the parts from their importer.

There are massive changes afoot with the way Tamiya Products are to be sold. From the middle of this year, all people who retail Tamiya items, must purchase them from their counties Official Importer (Ebay/Amazon sellers, model shops etc.) Anyone found grey importing to re-sell will find themselves in court. Tamiya Japan have also instructed all their Far East distributors, that they can not deal with any of the re-sellers. Further more, no seller, can sell Tamiya products into a country, when they state they are based in that country and they actually are based in another (Two have already be shut down).

Form the UK's point of view, the Hobby Co, have last year reduced all there kit prices and from the middle of this, their top selling 300 parts.

To answer ChrisRx718's points.

I have a complete list of all Tamiya Parts currently available from Japan.

There is less of a difference now, between UK prices and the Far East. By the time you take in to account, UK Import Duty, VAT and Customs Clearance charges, you are not really any cheaper. Now, I know, you'll say, but I'll take the risk and see if it gets through! This is fine if you are only buying from abroad a couple of times a year. Once you start to buy items more than once a mouth, the Customs computers will log your address and any further items will be pulled aside and checked, then you get the charges.

Antony