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Random boxart thoughts again

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Love the thread, i am a big fan of building/restoring to box art. There is one box art that stands alone as unique though, and that is the 58053 Road Wizard. This as far as i am aware, is the only time the box art has shown the car from a top/frontal aspect, and the box was vertical rather than horizontal.

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On 5/6/2019 at 4:18 AM, Stefan(2) said:

While i was reading this...  i remembered something out of another topic.

tamiyaoperations2.jpg?ssl=1

Should show to the trained eye how its done i think :)

( what technic they use to ... draw them ? )

It's funny how evocative that picture can be, even from my lame old photo scanner :P 

Every time I look at it, it's really reminds me of what effort the company went to with box art. Is he painting the entire thing, free handed? Also, I would like to know which old Japanese magazine or book this is...

image.png.94ac853b4946253d39591f9c3294cd75.png

The page appears to say "Mini Monsters". With also some Japanese writing. Apparently this was a resource for the Porsche picture. Or they were just posing. I can check the Tamiya book if you like, and see if I can analyze more detail...

cheers,

H.

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9 hours ago, Hibernaculum said:

Is he painting the entire thing, free handed?

This is apparently a lot harder to do than it would reasonably seem to be... It's necessary to wildly distort the actual proportions to get the finished product to look right to the human eye. Book recommendation below. 

20190507_224051.jpg

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Awesome thread!

I have my Avante box hovering in the stair well of my house. Walk past it every morning and ask “Is this the greatest painting in the history of the world?” It isn’t (but I think it is) 😊.

I’m a big collector of Mini 4wds, and have often thought that some of the boxart is batter than the cars themselves. Realised after many years that I really prefer them unbuilt, just awesome paintings (and cool typography, on the box, and I the cars themselves).

This came up up on Tamiyavlog a few weeks back: https://tamiyablog.com/2019/04/74-year-old-painter-why-draw-more-elaborately-than-a-camera/

It’s about the commercial artist Atsumi Onishio.  Seems like this guy painted a lot of Tamiya box art, though hard to pin down specifics. Googling his name in Japanese brings up a few things. Looks like her did the Mini 4wd Dash 1 Emperor.

Like the rest of you, I can just stare at these for hour on end. Might go and do that now ...

box_58489_01.jpg

 

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On 5/6/2019 at 4:18 AM, Stefan(2) said:

While i was reading this...  i remembered something out of another topic.

 

tamiyaoperations2.jpg?ssl=1

Should show to the trained eye how its done i think :)

 

( what technic they use to ... draw them ? ) 

 

 

Wow that's awesome!

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So which is the greatest ever Tamiya RC box??  Hotshot, SuperShot, Avante, Wild Willy, Porsche 959 Rothmans??

Also, which is the most disappointing??  I alway feel that the Fox box is a little disappointing, I mean it's still nice but maybe doesn't quite do the buggy justice.  I love the Fox, it may actually be my favourite, but the box is a little underwhelming.  

What's the greatest discrepancy between box and car - great box, terrible car, or vice versa

I touched on this in another thread - when I/We buy NIB's, are we buying based on the lure of the buggy/car itself, or the box, or a mix of the two?  

For me, it's more the box.

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6 minutes ago, Hudson said:

So which is the greatest ever Tamiya RC box??  Hotshot, SuperShot, Avante, Wild Willy, Porsche 959 Rothmans??

Tough question. Its too subjective for me to answer (and I love them all). 

7 minutes ago, Hudson said:

Also, which is the most disappointing??  I alway feel that the Fox box is a little disappointing, I mean it's still nice but maybe doesn't quite do the buggy justice.  I love the Fox, it may actually be my favourite, but the box is a little underwhelming.

Oddly, for me, it wasn't the art but the size reduction that disappointed me. For example, I like the Stadium Thunder or Dirt Trasher boxart but their boxes are much smaller than usual which takes away from their grand presentation a bit. Don't get me started on photograph boxes. I was not a happy camper when I first saw the Super Blackfoot box.

11 minutes ago, Hudson said:

What's the greatest discrepancy between box and car - great box, terrible car, or vice versa

While not necessarily bad cars, the rally car trio, original Lancia Rally, Audi Quattro Rally and Opel Ascona, are all very different in person than depicted on the box. They took jut a few liberties when drawing them ;).

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For me "The Master of Box Art" is Roy Cross with his work for Airfix back in the day.

re-sized.jpeg

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Good question @Hudson

If we get into kit design, angles, decals, research, colours, dynamism etc everyone will (quite rightly) have their own view on the best box art. 

And tbh I’m fine with that - because debating box art is, for me, as interesting and telling as the guys who know every screw on a 77 Black 934.

That said, if it’s purely about small scale automotive art, I’ll happily argue the case for the 959 being the best ever.

Tamiya spent a small fortune on that kit - and were hugely unlucky in how a number of things panned out. 

The cut away alone is extraordinary.

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I think I agree with you, the Porsche 959 Rothmans box is truly stunning.

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This thread seems to have (temporarily I hope) run out of steam.  I'm keen to know other peoples favourite vintage Tamiya boxes..........

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I think the first box art that caught my eye was “The Frog”. It was the first car I wanted way back, the image of it flying towards you is just too hard to resist

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On 5/9/2019 at 6:44 PM, Hudson said:

So which is the greatest ever Tamiya RC box??  Hotshot, SuperShot, Avante, Wild Willy, Porsche 959 Rothmans??

Also, which is the most disappointing??  I alway feel that the Fox box is a little disappointing, I mean it's still nice but maybe doesn't quite do the buggy justice.  I love the Fox, it may actually be my favourite, but the box is a little underwhelming.  

What's the greatest discrepancy between box and car - great box, terrible car, or vice versa

I touched on this in another thread - when I/We buy NIB's, are we buying based on the lure of the buggy/car itself, or the box, or a mix of the two?  

For me, it's more the box.

I honestly can't choose just one box.

To me, the Tamiya boxes and cars themselves were all part of a "collection" of incredible toys far beyond my wildest dreams. We forget sometimes in this adult internet age where we are able to search for anything and spoil ourselves, just how remote and untouchable things like Tamiya cars once were as little kids.

I don't find the Fox box disappointing - far from it, the kit is amazing inside and out. One of the greatest, probably :D Although again, how can I rank them? Another aspect to this is... I never really felt disappointed by any Tamiya based on the box and car being a bit different.

The box was always a fantasy rendering... portraying the toy as a 1:1 illustration, as if "brought to life". There were no batteries, aerials or wires visible. I knew even as a kid, that the thing inside the box was a bit different - wonderful in it's own way. And that you could only achieve the "spirit" of the box art image, in your own imagination when you played with the car.

The car inside the box was fine if it was different. It was wonderful in it's own way - and I spent just as much time looking at the catalogue photos, as I did the box art. In fact, probably more so...

image.png.f8385814f0a63f2b54efb55294e4714a.png

I used to stare at this photo in particular, for hours. Sometimes I'd be like: "Dad, this is the one with the oil bottle on the back, which feeds into the rear suspension!"

"Yes son, I know about the oil bottle."

He'd heard the story 16 times before. And we'd peer at the pixellated detail of the photo once again, at the kitchen table, in the singular old catalogue I had. Feeling pretty confident we'd never actually see this model (or most of the other discontinued 80s models) in real life. There were none in the local classifieds, nor at the few hobby stores within 2hrs drive.

Even by the end of the 1980s, I had the dawning sense that there had been something extra special about the early years of off-road R/C models. Each one had been so unique, colourful, detailed... and realistic. Each one looked like a complete adventure on wheels - how would you build it? How long would that take? And how fast could it go? They all seemed like the "Rolls Royce" of toys, and just as far beyond my reach.

 

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11 hours ago, Hibernaculum said:

I don't find the Fox box disappointing - far from it, the kit is amazing inside and out. One of the greatest, probably :D Although again, how can I rank them? Another aspect to this is... I never really felt disappointed by any Tamiya based on the box and car being a bit different.

 

Ok I stand corrected, the Fox box is in fact pretty awesome, just like the buggy itself.   @Hibernaculum - but what if you absolutely had to choose a favourite, or maybe a top 5??

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1. Porsche 959

2. Wild Willy

3. Supershot

4. Bigwig

5. Top Force Evo (though not convinced about photo on side)

 

Very tough though, could easily swap those out for 5 others!

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On 5/9/2019 at 9:44 AM, Hudson said:

So which is the greatest ever Tamiya RC box??  Hotshot, SuperShot, Avante, Wild Willy, Porsche 959 Rothmans??

Also, which is the most disappointing??  I alway feel that the Fox box is a little disappointing, I mean it's still nice but maybe doesn't quite do the buggy justice.  I love the Fox, it may actually be my favourite, but the box is a little underwhelming.  

What's the greatest discrepancy between box and car - great box, terrible car, or vice versa

I touched on this in another thread - when I/We buy NIB's, are we buying based on the lure of the buggy/car itself, or the box, or a mix of the two?  

For me, it's more the box.

I always thought the thunder shot box art looked far better than the actual model itself because the wheels are more in proportion with the body🤔 the actual model looks a bit weedy!

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21 hours ago, Hudson said:

1. Porsche 959

2. Wild Willy

3. Supershot

4. Bigwig

5. Top Force Evo (though not convinced about photo on side)

 

Very tough though, could easily swap those out for 5 others!

Number one has to be the sand scorcher (quickly followed by the Toyota hilux)👍

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The thing is (as is being highlighted here) is that there isn’t 1, 2 or even 10 box arts that are the “best”. So many of them appeal to all of us enthusiasts B)

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On 4/28/2019 at 12:58 AM, Hibernaculum said:

As far as I know, they don't have shareholders. So technically, they could have let the R/C market run ahead. Keep doing plastic kits in high numbers. But downsize the R/C business in the face of change, and become purely a boutique manufacturer of a smaller number of high quality R/C products. The practicalities of this style of market capitalization... I cannot speak to. But maybe some of us know of other long-time, family owned brands who "could have become multinationals", but chose instead to contain their size, in service of a particular level of output? Because they do exist.

Morgan? But seriously, no sane businessperson would choose to deliberately slow down their own production and evolution in the way Morgan have. It works for them as they have a fanatically loyal fanbase who are happy to buy a car and keep it for the 10 years it takes to wait for their next one to be built. I can't think of anyone else it really works for and it's certainly not a business model any company would actively aspire to.

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On 4/28/2019 at 12:58 AM, Hibernaculum said:

As far as I know, they don't have shareholders. So technically, they could have let the R/C market run ahead. Keep doing plastic kits in high numbers. But downsize the R/C business in the face of change, and become purely a boutique manufacturer of a smaller number of high quality R/C products. The practicalities of this style of market capitalization... I cannot speak to. But maybe some of us know of other long-time, family owned brands who "could have become multinationals", but chose instead to contain their size, in service of a particular level of output? Because they do exist.

Morgan? But seriously, no sane businessperson would choose to deliberately slow down their own production and evolution in the way Morgan have. It works for them as they have a fanatically loyal fanbase who are happy to buy a car and keep it for the 10 years it takes to wait for their next one to be built. I can't think of anyone else it really works for and it's certainly not a business model any company would actively aspire to.

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