Tamiya, the company

Tamiya Incorporated is a Japanese manufacturer of models, radio controlled vehicles, eductational models powered by batteries and solar energy, paints, tools and other supplies for modeling. The company was founded in Japan in 1946 by Yoshio Tamiya but only entered the model world in 1948 with the production of a wooden ship model.

The brand logo is "First in Quality Around the World" that is found in an outstanding moulding quality and parts accurately fitting close to perfection. This precision combined to a high scale detail standard make Tamiya productions quality famous among hobbyists around the world. The two star logo can be found on every Tamiya product. The red color stands for passion and the blue color for precision.

Talking about Tamiya without mentioning the static models would skip most of the manufacturer history: this activity is its core business and what makes its worldwide renown. But if Tamiya's first radio-controlled models were advertised as "suitable for remote control" and considered as "models in motion", there is a good reason. At Tamiya's, RC modelling was born thanks to static modelling and this heritage is still alive in their current production.

The beginings of radio-controlled models

On december 4th 1976, Tamiya debutes into the RC world by releasing the kit RA1201 Porsche Turbo RSR Type 934 at the price of 9.800 Yens (about 90 of our today's euros, a little fortune by the time). Especially since adding the radio equipment would raise the amount up to more than 17.000 Yens.

A few months before, Tamiya had massively invested in order to release the static model of this Porsche in the 1/12 scale "Big Scale" series: they even bought and dismantled a real-size Porsche 911 to repoduce it with better accuracy (the 911 is the racing 934 street version). The static model reached an unseen realism and quality level by the time, but sales quantities remained too low to recoup the mold astronomical cost (tens of millions Yens). A solution was required.

The real Porsche 911 (© Tamiya Perfect RC Guidebook 1976-2006)

12020 Porsche Turbo RSR Type 934 (Big Scale series)

12040 Porsche Turbo RSR Type 934 (Big Scale series) re-release

One day, Shunsaku Tamiya (Tamiya's President) met one designer who was playing with a radio-controlled car on the compagny's car park. This designer, Fumito Taki, loved anything radio-controlled and often used the company's car park at spare time to fly his gas-powered planes. Fumito Taki had already been in charge of transforming one of Tamiya static model into an electric-powered model: the model was the 1/16th scale M4 Sherman tank released in 1974. That day, he was driving a car but Mr Tamiya was surprised not to hear the usual sound of the engine, so he asked for a closer look to this custom made model. Suprise: the body was an 1/12th scale Formula 1 static model from the Big Scale series and the chassis featured an electric motor powered by dry cells. Right away, Mr Tamiya knew he got the idea.

So Fumito Taki naturally got assigned to transform the static Porsche 934 into an electric-powered radio-controlled model in order to reuse and recoup the mold cost. At that time, a gas-powered radio-controlled car was a sales hit when it sold about 6.000 units a year: the kit RA1201 hit the 100.000 unit barrier before the end of its first year.

Tamiya RA-1201 Porsche Turbo RSR Type 934 (1976)

The key for success was quite simple: it was the first electric-power radio-controlled model when other products at the time were either detailled static models or gas-powered radio-controlled vehicles on which the body was mainly meant as a chassis protection.

Thanks to Fumito Taki's passion and ingenuity, Tamiya made its debutes in the electric-powered RC car world by releasing an inovative concept: the static model in motion. This model heritage is still alive in Tamiya's today's production and is a leading aspect of its success.

Mr Fumito Taki is a very important man in Tamiya history since he personally designed many static models, but also most of the brand's RC models. This interview he gave to the Radio Control Car Racer magazine was published in september 2008 demonstrates his key role at Tamiya:

Click here to enlarge

© Radio Control Car Racer

The last 30 years of radio-controlled modeling history wouldn't certainly be the same wihtout Tamiya's "three musketeers". This website wouldn't exist too .

Mr Yoshio Tamiya (founder)	Mr Shunsaku Tamiya (President)	Mr Fumito Taki (Designer)
Source	At the 2010 Nuremberg fair with Walter real-size Sand Scorcher

This is the end of this Tamiya "historical" presentation that was inspired from Shunsaku Tamiya book Master modeler Creating the Tamiya style. I want to thank the person at Tamiya Japan who helped me in my searches, my friend Otax for many searches and translations from japanese material, and Paul from Tamiya Treasure in my searches for photos.
The two books below present the Tamiya company and explain many interesting aspects about our favorite models design and production. I warmly thank TamOR for scanning them.

Click to display the book	Click to display the book

The Vintage phenomenon

The Vintage is an interest for something old that left its mark on its era. As an extend, it is also something that left its mark on someone at a given moment, even if the rest of the planet passed over it. To make it short, it is a kind of nostalgic cult, a meaning to own something one had sometime ago, or somehting that one did not owned at that time and he wants afterwards. In RC modeling, models prior to 1990 are concerned.

Tamiya is a major manufacturer in the RC model hobby and some of its models are considered as outstanding. This is especially the case for the 50 first models ("metal" era), but also for the next 50 even if some purists have a different point of view (the 51st model marks the transition to the "all plastic" production).

Whatever the number of concerned models, the vintage phenomenom can be explained with the following reasons:

Many information can be found on internet, both on fan sites and forums. I recommend you to visit these very interesting sites:

Tamiya kit references

Tamiya kits references evolved over more than 30 years of activity.

The first reference type was used on the 30 first models. The reference was made of a series of letters and digits: RA-1201 (Porsche 934 Turbo RSR), RA-1015 (Rough Rider) until RA-1030 (Honda Formula 02 (CS)). "RA" refers to the production line (RC models), the first pair of digits (10, 12) to the kit scale (1/10th or 1/12th), and the last pair of digits is the kit number.

The second reference type made it simpler by removing the scale reference and by changing the production line letters by the code 58. So kit references became 5831 (Brabham BT-50 BMW Turbo), until 5865 (Clod Buster) when Tamiya realized the series would end with kit number 99.

That is why the "0" digit was then added after the "58" production line code. The Super Sabre (kit 58066) started this new sequel that still goes on. That leaves room for a thousand of models.

By extension and to make it easier, old models references where modified afterward to comply with the new reference type.

The kits can receive a 49xxx reference if they are produced in limited edition. This includes some re-releases (49154 Tyrell P34 Six Wheeler), the Chrome Metallic editions (49337 Wild Willy 2), the Gold editions (49459 Lunch Box) or competition chassis that yield world championship titles to Tamiya (49394 TRF415MSX Marc Rheinard). This reference type is also used for limited series of spare parts (specific color or material).

Finally, factory assembled and painted models receive a 57xxx reference type. Normally, they are identical to their counterpart kit, but they may feature different dampers (friction instead of hydraulic) or speed controller (mechanical instead of electronic). On the other hand, the body is already painted and decorated and the model is provided with a complete radio set, stick pack and charger. In my collection, the Madbull, the Xsara WRC and the Sand Viper are XB Expert Build models.

Tamiya distribution in Europe

Tamiya created a network of exclusive distributors who are granted a territory to distribute the product through their resellers network (mostly local hobby shops and chains specialized in toys). Quickly said, a distributor's job is to import the products (logistics, custom procedures), to make them comply with local laws (sticker with translated instructions and security warnings...), to distribute the products to a resellers network and to promote the products.
In France and Belgium, the territorial exclusivity was granted to T2M and to Dickie for Germany (among others). Other countries have their exclusive distributor too. The territorial exclusivity is a way to avoid destructive competition between distributor and features two other advantages: there are no price wars and this allows long-term commercial relations.

Nevertheless, it could be interesting for a distributor to sell to stores located outside its exclusive territory as well as stores may be willing to take advantage of distributors strategy differences (especially prices). For a better serenity between distributors (and stores), Tamiya established a system offering guaranties to everyone: trademark registration.

In fact, Tamiya Japan owns its brand and its logo worldwide. Like every brand, Tamiya registered its brand and its logo in particular to protect it from conterfeits (copies): so far, nothing special. What's original with Tamiya is they granted their distributors to register their brand and logo in the country where they operate (where they are granted a territorial exclusivity). So the fact is Tamiya brand and logo are registered by T2M in France and by Dickie in the other European countries. The proof can freely be found on the INPI website (the French bureau for registered trademarks): I made a screenshot of this information I found performing a rapid search on the brand. You can click on each image to display it full-size.

Worlwide registration

Europe registration

Europe registration (ext)

France registration

The most attentive of you probably noticed that distributors brand and logo registrations have no interest since it had already been done before by Tamiya worldwide. This proves that the European registrations can be cancelled anytime since Tamiya registered its brand worlwide before them. In practice, this means Tamiya can recover its European brand and logo ownership anytime. But these European registrations grant serious guaranties to the European distributors and also demonstrate the trust between Tamiya and their partners.

Consequences on Tamiya brand and logo usage in Europe

Because each distributor owns the brand and logo rights in the country where it is granted a territorial exclusivity, the laws on trademark propriety say the following: any product located in a European country is legally considered as a counterfeit if it was not imported by the exclusive distributor of that country. Here, the word "counterfeit" is directly linked with the rights on the brand and the logo: conterfeit does not mean "copy" here but it applies to the fact that the product wears the intellectual property (the brand/logo) without permission of the owner (the distributor). For legal European aspects, an authentic Tamiya product from a Tamiya factory is a Tamiya branded product only when the local owner of the Tamiya brand imports the product in the country where the product will be located.

You'd better carefully read again the last paragraph to fully understand it. Now, let's take a concrete example to see how all this works and what are the consequences:
 a German fan lives in Germany and buys his Tamiya products in a german store who bought the products at Dickie's => his collection is authentic
 this German fan decides to move to live in France, so he brings his collection => all his Tamiya collection (that wears the Tamiya brand belonging to Dickie) suddenly becomes counterfeits since it now wears the Tamiya brand and logo that belong to T2M in France.

Alright, still alive? I may have warned you to take Aspirin before you start reading . Wait, it's not finished: now let's see more examples (easier).
 a European fan buys a Tamiya product in Hong Kong => counterfeit
 a French fan buys a Tamiya product in Germany => counterfeit
 a French store buys a Tamiya product anywhere but at T2M's => counterfeit
 a German store buys a Tamiya product anywhere but at Dickie's => counterfeit

Now, let's try different versions (excluding local exceptions I don't know about) :
 an Amercian fan or store buys a Tamiya product in Hong Kong => OK
 a fan or a store somewhere in the world (apart from Europe) buys a Tamiya product anywhere (apart from Europe) => OK

Now ladies and gentlemen, just for fun, here are two more examples. For each, we pretend that all drivers bought their model at their local hobby shop and that all of them drive a Tamiya model:
 World Championship anywhere in the world except Europe => no problem
 World Championship in a European country => every driver drives a counterfeit model except local drivers living in the host country

What? You said absurd? Read again with care: it's pure logic! Examples listed above can really happen: the logic implied by laws on intellectual property leads to unexpected situations, but these situations are real legally-wise.

Practical consequences for European fans

On the purchasing aspect, no consequence for those who know how to use the internet to order Tamiya models or parts. For the others, or for those who prefer to buy at their local hobby shop, this means that Tamiya RC modelling is more expensive and that products are available if the exclusive distributor wants to import them (just try to find a TEU-302BK in France). Concerning new items availability, they are available when they arrive even if they may have been already available for weeks or months somewhere else in the world. Exagerating a lot, European fan have a privilege: we can buy the lastest new item when it is already almost considered as vintage in the rest of the world .

About consequences derived from the counterfeit legal aspect, wherever Tamiya fans purchase their products, nothing to worry about: Tamiya and their European partner distributors are hopefully smart enough not to stupidly claim their rights on the brand. Especially because they don't hire armies of lawyers to scan internet all day long. On the other hand, if you are running a parallel business, you'd better prepare yourself to face serious problems...

About national or international meetings, the ridiculous and absurd situations I described as examples can all happen. In practice, Tamiya and their European partner distributors never claimed or would claim their rights in such a silly manner, especially since Tamiya Japan can always force everything to be OK thanks to their worldwide rights. This would solve any potential problem derived from local brand registration.

Consequences for internet websites and forums

Property rights on the brand also apply to the virtual world. But like with fans, Tamiya and their distributors do not scan the internet all day long searching for sites, forums, personal pages and videos uploaded on Youtube. Publications on internet are a sort of promotion, useful "showcases" for the brand and thus for the distributors. Supposing an extreme case where a site or forum would severly harm the brand, then Tamiya or their distributors could act (like to force the site/forum to delete offends). This is highly unlikely to ever happen (since other laws exist like libel action), but it is theoratically possible.

Conclusion

The goal of this article is to inform you and certainly not to scare you: don't hide your collection because you bought a pair of dampers or all your collection abroad. The legal protection granted by the brand registration is before all menat to guarantee smooth operations between Tamiya, their partner distributors and stores. This protection is also an insurance in case a professional would try to cheat: an individual is not concerned by all this in practice. Tamiya and their distributors always had a very kind politic with fans and there are no reasons why this would ever change. But the system allows it, and it can even lead to ridiculous situations that makes you grin .

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First publication: september 08, 2008 Last modified: october 27, 2010

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