Tamiya Underground Malaysia
Hi TC'ers! I'd like to share our little Tamiya Mecca here on our side of the world namely Tamiya Underground Malaysia. For some who know of me mentioning our one and only Malaysian HQ store (see related item below) is situated intelligently in one of our best shopping malls. Reason being in busy Asian metropolis cities, where traffic jams, lack of car parks, hot, humid and at times unpredictable tropical weather make malls a great place to do practically everything including practicing at their humble short basement carpark carpet track. The store is owned by a friend of mine Mr Chee-Yong and with strong backing from Tamiya Singapore so parts and kit availabilities are no longer an issue. A brief history recap on Tamiya Malaysia - rights to distribution of this brand changed hands three times since the late 70's. Hobby Jaya our 1st official authorised dealer lost their rights when they went bankrupt during our late 80's recession. It was later taken over by Daisheng Toy Co in the early 90's but was revoked in the late 90's by Tamiya Japan for selling clone Tamiya models (yes clones) along side official products. From there the brand took a sharp down turn (and thank goodness I was living in Australia so it didn't affect me! ;p) until my friend joined forces with partner Tamiya Singapore to reacquire the rights back in 2005. With the backing, better business ethics the brand has taken a sharp upturn in popularity. Today the trend is 1/8th gas and 1/10th racing and vintage buggies with the surprise majority market share coming from the Mini 4WD cars (yes MINI 4WD! ie Avante Jr, etc). So during weekends this outlet turns into our equivalent of a weekend fish market full of such enthusiasts making lots of commotion, splurging dollops of cash on their tiny pocket rockets. Most RC enthusiasts prefer to race our other dedicated competition outdoor asphalt tracks but personally for the sake of my little brothers I prefer them to practice here in comfort with all the conveniences that a mall like this provides. Thanks for looking! :)
If you liked those pictures, you should see these...
A nice Tamiya outing with my lil brothers 23/09/12
Comments
Percymon
Wow- what a shop and facility - very jealous !
Ram318
That is a super cool looking store! Ild love to visit that someday...
Grastens
*drool*... The kind of place I thought only existed in dreams! Looks amazing!
Skottoman
That's really cool! Thanks for all the photos!
Poul_F
Thats a sweet shop you found there ! I would love it if there was one like that around here. So how do the prices compare to ebay prices ?
MAD-BEE
I would love to get locked in there!!!
Great pics to see!
Cheers Sunny.
matman
Great story & some great shots . The smell of an rc shop , you just can't beat it . Now for my shopping list , I ........ :LOL:
sunnyjai
Thankyou gentlemen, it's really great that Tamiya has made a nice comeback over here. When I came back I was worried that there were no official Tamiya HQ until I was surprised my friend openened this!
sunnyjai
@ Poul_F: It depends. I know the owner personally so I get prices comparable to Hong Kong dealers. So items that I can get I get here but the ones I can't or vintage items for example I get from eBay....
wilton84
Very nice shop !! I live in wellington NZ and we only have 3 hobbie shops and will be lucky to have 4 rc kits between them no wonder we shop over seas. I'm very jealous of this shop lol
steve3smart
Mmmm, I think I need a holiday
JWeston
Absolute Quality post!
Crash Cramer
That is my vision of a great hobby store, I wonder how I would get Tamiya to sponsor and underground where I live.
sunnyjai
Thankyou gentlemen for the comments! Wouldn't it be great if our hooby room was like a Tamiya shop! Absolute dream!
Want to leave a comment?