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It's Been 13 Years Since...

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... Tamiya has produced an all-new ABS body for the RC lineup?

The 58415 Tundra, in 2008, 13 years ago. That was the last one. A full third of Tamiya's entire 44 year RC model history. :blink:

 

I was just musing about how with expensive licensing, dwindling interest in crafting hobbies, and the general state of the world economy, it's no wonder why Tamiya is reluctant to invest in new molds and tooling. Is it possible that they're done with producing all-new injection molded bodies for the RC lineup? The economy may recover, but licensing and lack interest in the hobby? These are things that can't be willed into happening. I know that Mr. Tamiya is making every effort to try and encourage the new generation to see the value of scale modelling and crafting, and that's great! Will that alone be enough to turn things around? 🤔

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Tamiya missed the boat in producing hardbodies of icons like the FJ40 and Land Rover D90. These bodies can be produced for a long time without losing the interest of the RC community. Are there any icons left for Tamiya to d o a hard body? Land Rover 110 maybe?

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Thanks to lockdowns the last year has seen unprecedented demand for RC model kits, at least in the UK. I remember Fusion Hobbies and Modelsport having notices up saying they couldn't take any more orders because of the amount of demand. Perhaps people just aren't buying tamiya kits......:ph34r:

13 minutes ago, No Slack said:

Tamiya missed the boat in producing hardbodies of icons like the FJ40 and Land Rover D90. These bodies can be produced for a long time without losing the interest of the RC community. Are there any icons left for Tamiya to d o a hard body? Land Rover 110 maybe?

The bandit Trans Am. That will still be cool when the sun fizzles out and we're all living on Alpha Centarui.

Speaking of which, when was the last time there was a scale hard body on something in 1/10 that wasn't a monster truck or a crawler  ? Looks to me like it was the FAV ??

 

 

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3 minutes ago, No Slack said:

These bodies can be produced for a long time without losing the interest of the RC community.

No doubt that the interest would be there, but the licensing isn't open ended. Eventually it runs out and the mold goes on the shelf. It's a terrible model for recovering investment, but once lawyers discovered they could sue for IP, the terrain changed to the detriment of smaller manufacturers like Tamiya.

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17 minutes ago, MadInventor said:

 Looks to me like it was the FAV ??

 

 

Was thinking the Lancia 037 with the smaller wheel arches for the ta03/02 reissues maybe?

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On 3/13/2021 at 10:58 AM, MadInventor said:

when was the last time there was a scale hard body on something in 1/10 that wasn't a monster truck or a crawler  ? Looks to me like it was the FAV

23 hours ago, Superluminal said:

Was thinking the Lancia 037 with the smaller wheel arches for the ta03/02 reissues maybe?

 

Depends on what you consider as a "new" design. I wasn't counting the re-re's because there wasn't any investment in entirely new molds.

Tecnically speaking, the 58268 Tamiya Mammoth Dump Truck isn't a monster truck or crawler, but I feel like that's a stretch because it's not 1/10 scale and the chassis is sourced from a monster truck.

I think that makes the 58184 Fighter Buggy RX the most recent introduction of an ABS body that isn't some type of truck? ... October 1996. You make a really good point here. That was 25 years ago :wacko:

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Uh, actually strike that. The Fighter FX body was sourced from the 1991 57501 Rookie Rabbit, 30 years ago. :wacko:

 

People have become grandparents since Tamiya have released a new hard body that wasn't a monster or crawler.

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Speaking of the Mammoth Dump Truck, the Heavy Dump Truck on the GF01 is hard body and it was introduced in 2015.  Now, that's not a licensed body that is particularly accurate to any real-world model; it just conveys the feeling of a mining haul truck on a comical chassis.  It can be made to look scale with extra effort sourcing different wheels/tires and scratch-building details.

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@OCD is spot on re the cost of licensing vs high volume in sales revenue required to break even, let alone turn a profit 

For some reason we don’t seem prepared to pay for premium licensing these days - Porsche, Ferrari etc - yet many readily blow nearly £1k on top end Traxxas RTR that, for me, is just a v fast truggy ?

Have we got too used to paying >£200 for new kits each year whilst costs rise and squeeze margins ? 

Def wasn’t like that back in the day if you wind back inflation ? Work out what a vintage 959 price inflates to in real money + it goes a long way to excusing bonkers NIB prices ...

In terms of attracting the next generation of youngsters, everyone wrote off Lego vs Minecraft but - by embracing digital crossover - they just had their best year in 15 ... and look set to continue 

That then (a) arms them with coffers to fund premium licensing and (b) provides resilience to honour their 10k requests and we’ll build it promise - which I confess I joined for the the Orca set in Jaws 😂

Now I know that bump is largely down to lockdowns around the World but Tamiya benefited from the same market - yet haven’t moved with the times ?

How to bring 7+ year olds into the hobby ?

Premium licensing would clearly help but maybe also by moving with the times ?

Possibly by making the best kit manuals ever easier / interactive on kids’ iPads ?

Then add cheap onboard cameras / gyros so kids can clip their phones onto RC + drive their the cars first person ?

Maybe even let them enter their kit + hop up bar codes, link the output online + race virtually with friends when parents can take them to the track ?

Its not the build / drive that puts kids off - it’s the experience not catching up with modern competition 👍

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2 hours ago, OCD said:

... Tamiya has produced an all-new ABS body for the RC lineup?

The 58415 Tundra, in 2008, 13 years ago. That was the last one. A full third of Tamiya's entire 44 year RC model history. :blink:

 

I was just musing about how with expensive licensing, dwindling interest in crafting hobbies, and the general state of the world economy, it's no wonder why Tamiya is reluctant to invest in new molds and tooling. Is it possible that they're done with producing all-new injection molded bodies for the RC lineup? The economy may recover, but licensing and lack interest in the hobby? These are things that can't be willed into happening. I know that Mr. Tamiya is making every effort to try and encourage the new generation to see the value of scale modelling and crafting, and that's great! Will that alone be enough to turn things around? 🤔

presumably you mean the 1/10 stuff? the trucks are all hardbody still

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4 minutes ago, Wetman said:

presumably you mean the 1/10 stuff? the trucks are all hardbody still

Yeah tractor trucks, the Type 10 Abrahms and Jagdpanther...

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2 minutes ago, berman said:

Yeah tractor trucks, the Type 10 Abrahms and Jagdpanther...

I agree with @OCD mind. We should have more hardbodies although I can understand the cost implications, I said in the dream models thread a hardbody Defender would be good

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Re the cost of licencing, how long does copyright last for...  Just thinking that it's 50 years since all the cool muscle cars, so is licencing still an issue ?

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I've mused on the subject in the past, but it's worth adding tuppence here too... I do find it bizarre that Tamiya, with their history (and other product lines) in injection moulded plastic have seen to abandon the 'scale' hardbody market in recent years, especially when the demand [and interest] has never been higher in the scale crawler community - after all, there are only so many HiLux's and Defender 90s one can build (at least RC4WD have expanded the choice slightly with the 1980's 4Runner and Extra Cab, plus there is a FJ/BJ40 Land Cruiser too)...  

Tamiya had such a varied back catalogue, and I'm sure still have some sway/good will with the Japanese vehicle manufacturers particularly - I can't imagine Nissan and Isuzu and even Toyota would want much n the way of a licence fee to have a few of their 'classic' 4x4 models replicated for the more lucrative middle-aged RC driver market who remember the 1:1s fondly from the past - there are any number of potential Toyota Land Cruisers, the Nissans Patrol/s, Isuzu Trooper, and my personal favourite the Daihatsu FourTrak/Rocky for example, along with re-issuing their existing Mitsubishi Pajero and Isuzu Mu moulds...  It would be great to see a hardbody G-wagen too, especially since they appear to have that licence (along with Traxxas apparently) for the CC-02; plus the D90 (in lexan) is a current model, so there could easily be a 110 too as @No Slack suggests; and not least make a hardbody version of their FJ Cruiser - they would clean up!

Instead we've seen other manufacturers (and smaller independents like Loops RC) take up that mantle while - in 1/10th scale at least - Tamiya seem content with producing more budget-orientated kits with Lexan bodies for 'bashing', which is particularly ironic when that market is more than well enough catered for by the RTR manufacturers these days - bashers don't want to build... I suppose the only thing going for Tamiya is that by assembling the car initially, at least you ought to have some idea about how to replace parts when they do inevitably break?

Oh how the mighty have fallen!

Jx

 

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20 hours ago, speedy_w_beans said:

the Heavy Dump Truck on the GF01 is hard body and it was introduced in 2015.  Now, that's not a licensed body that is particularly accurate to any real-world model; it just conveys the feeling of a mining haul truck on a comical chassis.

Ah that's right! I totally forgot that one. Are the other Comicals ABS as well?

20 hours ago, SuperChamp82 said:

For some reason we don’t seem prepared to pay for premium licensing these days

Depends who "we" are. I feel like there's a lot of people both young and older who are spending big money on premium licensed products... and not stuff like extremely niche "toys" that you are required to assemble. Maybe it's a chicken or egg situation, but I suspect it's not that we won't pay for it, but rather because it's expensive for Tamiya to produce kits that don't sell in huge numbers, and possibly making them not worth offering in the first place. Although that doesn't explain the existence of the big rig line which gets new injection molded bodies on a regular basis.  Hmmm... Maybe there's a bigger market with deeper pockets than I realize? Then there's all of the Lexan stuff which I imagine gets greenlighted for licensing because the cost of production has a waaay better margin than injection molding, which in turn may keep the retail price of all those TT01/2 kits down considerably.

20 hours ago, SuperChamp82 said:

Work out what a vintage 959 price inflates to in real money + it goes a long way to excusing bonkers NIB prices

Inflation is a funny thing when it comes to the value/price of Japanese products in the 70's/80's -- The JPY was worth a lot more than the US dollar back then, so inflation doesn't necessarily track with retail pricing. The cost of production has also come down considerably with the innovations in manufacturing. I remember how eye-watering the price tag of the 959 was when I was a kid. I saved my money for what seemed like ages, and then had to compromise by buying a Mud Blaster instead. Pretty sure the entire kit combo price was nearly the same as a re-re Blackfoot combo would cost you today.

20 hours ago, SuperChamp82 said:

everyone wrote off Lego vs Minecraft

Lego starting turning it around in the mid 2000's, right around the time they ramped up the licensing and expanding the market by targeting adults. Think Star Wars, Technics, scale architecture, Micro Bus, etc. -- All things that captured the wallets of Gen X'ers. It was a brilliant plan. I could never accept the premise that Minecraft would bt the death knell for LEGO. Instead I figured it would inspire both kids and adults to think of building things block by block as a fun and creative activity. If anything, Minecraft was just a gigantic and free advertising campaign for LEGO. It's really hard to imagineTamiya being able to follow in their enormous footsteps though.

 

20 hours ago, berman said:

Yeah tractor trucks, the Type 10 Abrahms and Jagdpanther...

Boom. I have no idea how I overlooked these. Does that make the 56360 Volvo Fh16 timber truck the more recent introduction of a new hard body?

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1 hour ago, JennyMo said:

I've mused on the subject in the past, but it's worth adding tuppence here too... I do find it bizarre that Tamiya, with their history (and other product lines) in injection moulded plastic have seen to abandon the 'scale' hardbody market in recent years, especially when the demand [and interest] has never been higher in the scale crawler community - after all, there are only so many HiLux's and Defender 90s one can build (at least RC4WD have expanded the choice slightly with the 1980's 4Runner and Extra Cab, plus there is a FJ/BJ40 Land Cruiser too)...  

Tamiya had such a varied back catalogue, and I'm sure still have some sway/good will with the Japanese vehicle manufacturers particularly - I can't imagine Nissan and Isuzu and even Toyota would want much n the way of a licence fee to have a few of their 'classic' 4x4 models replicated for the more lucrative middle-aged RC driver market who remember the 1:1s fondly from the past - there are any number of potential Toyota Land Cruisers, the Nissans Patrol/s, Isuzu Trooper, and my personal favourite the Daihatsu FourTrak/Rocky for example, along with re-issuing their existing Mitsubishi Pajero and Isuzu Mu moulds...  It would be great to see a hardbody G-wagen too, especially since they appear to have that licence (along with Traxxas apparently) for the CC-02; plus the D90 (in lexan) is a current model, so there could easily be a 110 too as @No Slack suggests; and not least make a hardbody version of their FJ Cruiser - they would clean up!

Instead we've seen other manufacturers (and smaller independents like Loops RC) take up that mantle while - in 1/10th scale at least - Tamiya seem content with producing more budget-orientated kits with Lexan bodies for 'bashing', which is particularly ironic when that market is more than well enough catered for by the RTR manufacturers these days - bashers don't want to build... I suppose the only thing going for Tamiya is that by assembling the car initially, at least you ought to have some idea about how to replace parts when they do inevitably break?

Oh how the mighty have fallen!

Jx

 

Wow, you make some good points there. On the one hand, Tamiya made the original "scalers" which eventually blossomed into a whole other sub genre populated by a host of new manufacturers. It really does appear that Tamiya missed a solid chance of capitalizing on it. On the other hand, it seems that Tamiya may have intentionally avoided competing with these manufacturers and went their own way with it instead (which they are well known for). I think it sort of makes sense when you consider that none of these other makers produce a single thing in Japan, which is expensive, and probably cuts deeply into margins. And that's the thing -- what is it that keeps us buying Tamiya stuff for more money, when you can buy something very similar for a lot less? For me it's the fact that Tamiya is adhered to their standards of production and national identity, which means a lot to me personally. There's only one Plastic Fantastic. The nostalgia is real. ;)

 

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39 minutes ago, OCD said:

 

Wow, you make some good points there. On the one hand, Tamiya made the original "scalers" which eventually blossomed into a whole other sub genre populated by a host of new manufacturers. It really does appear that Tamiya missed a solid chance of capitalizing on it. On the other hand, it seems that Tamiya may have intentionally avoided competing with these manufacturers and went their own way with it instead (which they are well known for). I think it sort of makes sense when you consider that none of these other makers produce a single thing in Japan, which is expensive, and probably cuts deeply into margins. And that's the thing -- what is it that keeps us buying Tamiya stuff for more money, when you can buy something very similar for a lot less? For me it's the fact that Tamiya is adhered to their standards of production and national identity, which means a lot to me personally. There's only one Plastic Fantastic. The nostalgia is real. ;)

 

I agree - I've typically conceded and indeed championed Tamiya in previous posts for not trying to compete directly with other manufacturers; after all, not everyone has to make the same thing - and as you say, Tamiya is still very much a domestic brand, and know what sells well in their home territory.

I just wish they'd mould another batch of their old hard-body shells again - I really need another YJ Wrangler! ;o)

Jx

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17 hours ago, OCD said:

 Boom. I have no idea how I overlooked these. Does that make the 56360 Volvo Fh16 timber truck the more recent introduction of a new hard body?

It's only because I take an interest in that genre, the same way I am baffled by your acquisition and knowledge of rare/coloured parts :blink:

It's recent, then there is the Volvo tow truck (possibly same cab) and now an 8x4 Mercedes tipper due (possibly same cab as one of the other 4 mercs).

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4 hours ago, berman said:

It's only because I take an interest in that genre, the same way I am baffled by your acquisition and knowledge of rare/coloured parts 

Hahahaha, you got me there :lol: I suppose it's my lack of knowledge on the big rig series that causes me view them as a separate thing from the 58000 models, but you're totally right. It's just a different subset of RC enthusiasts, and honestly speaking, all of the 56300 series trucks are more detailed/scale than 90% of the 58000 line. https://www.tamiyausa.com/shop/radio-control/trucks/114-tractor-trucks/?discontinued=true

As for the rare limited releases that I seem to be "obsessed" with ;) -- It's a bit of a "gotta collect them all" kind of impulse, and I really enjoy documenting the vanishingly rare event release stuff. Can't really call that a subset though; there's only myself and maybe a handful of others that hold a real interest in what is nothing more than some parts in "exclusive" colors. C'est la vie ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

4 hours ago, berman said:

It's recent, then there is the Volvo tow truck (possibly same cab) and now an 8x4 Mercedes tipper due (possibly same cab as one of the other 4 mercs).

Just did a quick scan and it looks like the 56362 Volvo Fh16 Globetrotter 750 Tow Truck (2020) sourced its cab from the 56360 Timber Truck (2019). The 56365 Mercedes Arocs 3348 Tipper Truck (not yet released) shares the same cab as the earlier 56351 Mercedes Arocs 3363 Classic Space (2017). If I got that right, that would make the Timber Truck the most recent introduction of a new injection molded body?

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2 hours ago, OCD said:

Hahahaha, you got me there :lol: I suppose it's my lack of knowledge on the big rig series that causes me view them as a separate thing from the 58000 models, but you're totally right. It's just a different subset of RC enthusiasts, and honestly speaking, all of the 56300 series trucks are more detailed/scale than 90% of the 58000 line. https://www.tamiyausa.com/shop/radio-control/trucks/114-tractor-trucks/?discontinued=true

As for the rare limited releases that I seem to be "obsessed" with ;) -- It's a bit of a "gotta collect them all" kind of impulse, and I really enjoy documenting the vanishingly rare event release stuff. Can't really call that a subset though; there's only myself and maybe a handful of others that hold a real interest in what is nothing more than some parts in "exclusive" colors. C'est la vie ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Just did a quick scan and it looks like the 56362 Volvo Fh16 Globetrotter 750 Tow Truck (2020) sourced its cab from the 56360 Timber Truck (2019). The 56365 Mercedes Arocs 3348 Tipper Truck (not yet released) shares the same cab as the earlier 56351 Mercedes Arocs 3363 Classic Space (2017). I got that right, that would make the Timber Truck the most recent introduction of a new injection molded body?

Seems like it with the dates you`ve given for each model.

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13 hours ago, OCD said:

Hahahaha, you got me there :lol: I suppose it's my lack of knowledge on the big rig series that causes me view them as a separate thing from the 58000 models, but you're totally right. It's just a different subset of RC enthusiasts, and honestly speaking, all of the 56300 series trucks are more detailed/scale than 90% of the 58000 line. https://www.tamiyausa.com/shop/radio-control/trucks/114-tractor-trucks/?discontinued=true

As for the rare limited releases that I seem to be "obsessed" with ;) -- It's a bit of a "gotta collect them all" kind of impulse, and I really enjoy documenting the vanishingly rare event release stuff. Can't really call that a subset though; there's only myself and maybe a handful of others that hold a real interest in what is nothing more than some parts in "exclusive" colors. C'est la vie ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Just did a quick scan and it looks like the 56362 Volvo Fh16 Globetrotter 750 Tow Truck (2020) sourced its cab from the 56360 Timber Truck (2019). The 56365 Mercedes Arocs 3348 Tipper Truck (not yet released) shares the same cab as the earlier 56351 Mercedes Arocs 3363 Classic Space (2017). If I got that right, that would make the Timber Truck the most recent introduction of a new injection molded body?

I am not fully immersed in the trucks per say, I just knew Tamiya would get mileage out of the bodies and while the licence is still active, why not use it again? Bit of a bruiser/mountaineer/Hilux situation I guess. I also imagine when you are paying a premium for a truck/tank kit, you are going to get the highly detailed styrene/abs bodies (putting aside either would look stupid with a polycarbonate lid on them).

Great job on the body research, I hadn't really looked into it. But hopefully Tamiya do take their main drawcard being one of, if not the, best plastic model manufaturer seriously and continue to make hard bodies for RC, especially with the more scale models...

I am half-heartedly collecting the m-chassis range, need the M-07, the MF-01X, and the M-05RA to have all the chassis designations, so I feel you somewhat on the "gotta collect them all" aspect, although on a lesser scale. I DO love reading your showroom entries, and learning about rare and hard to find kits and parts, so please don't stop! 😁

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