Thankfully, Tamiya has a fairly well-organized numbering system for each model they have ever released, and the remakes all have different numbers to the originals.īetween 19, Tamiya released only 100 models. But they might be as much as 3, 4, or 5 times more expensive, depending on the model.īut what happens if someone is simply selling a remake kit for an inflated price? Well, just look a little closer at some other things, like… 2. No prizes for guessing which one is the original unbuilt kit from the 1980s.įact: Original kits are worth at least twice the value of the remake kit. ( *Note: both of these examples were current as of 2013. Here’s a new kit that recently* sold for AU$192.50Īnd here’s one that recently* sold for AU$551.65 Let’s take the example of a really popular model like the Tamiya Frog. But after those kits were remade, naturally some people were happy to grab the cheaper remake, causing a temporary dip in demand (and value) of the original kits.ĭespite this, original kits remained a lot more expensive and collectible than remake kits. Priceīefore Tamiya began remaking many of their classic cars from the 1980s, the values of unbuilt kits were soaring. The Top Ways To Spot An Original Tamiya Kit 1. But before we even get into those technical differences, there are some very quick and easy ways to identify an original kit from a remake kit.
The main differences are of course in the cars themselves – parts, bodies, tyres, electronics etc. So if you’re just beginning your search on eBay or Google for a vintage Tamiya R/C car from the 1970s or 1980s, this article is intended to be a one-page cheat sheet to help you understand how the remake kits differ.
The new version might be good – the familiar tune is there, the lyrics are there… But it just doesn’t have quite the same meaning as the original. It’s a bit like listening to a remix of a classic rock song, rather than listening to the original. an example that actually sat on a toy store shelf when they were children, as opposed to something that was manufactured just last week. So for them, it’s often important that an item is truly vintage – i.e. But collectors are usually driven to collect out of nostalgia and memories. Most companies have launched remakes of popular vintage toys over the years.
And this view is shared by many collectors, in all areas of toy collecting… from Transformers to Care Bears. However, for me personally, this experience just isn’t quite the same if the product isn’t the same. Many people are happy to buy the remake Tamiya kits because they offer a relatively cheap way to re-live the experience of an R/C car they used to own back in the 1980s. So what are the differences between original Tamiya kits, and the remakes?įact: Every single Tamiya remake kit is different to the original kit. To date, Tamiya has issued remakes of dozens of their most popular models. In 2005 this process gathered pace as Tamiya began to remake some of their most popular off-road buggies and trucks of all time, and the process has continued to this day. Seeing this popularity and seeing the value of some of these collectibles, in the early 2000s Tamiya began to remake one or two vintage Tamiya kits, in order to cash-in on everyone’s nostalgia. Either to relive the process of building it, or just display the kit with all it’s beautiful internal blister-packing (something long-gone from today’s model kits). Naturally, these began to soar in value as thousands of fans could think of nothing better than to own one of these classic kits – still in brand new shape. It even turned out that, thanks to old leftover shop stock and treasures found in the vast mall districts of Akihabara in Japan, there were still some whole unbuilt Tamiya R/C kits out there in the world. When the Internet arrived, and in particular eBay in the late 1990s, many out of stock vintage Tamiya collectibles began to change hands around the world for ever-increasing prices. With their superb marketing and massive parts support, Tamiya became the iconic brand that most people grew up with (if they were lucky enough to own a hobby-grade R/C toy).īut in the early 1990s when I first started collecting Tamiya cars, spare parts for the early and most popular kits were becoming hard to find, as those kits had been discontinued. Tamiya was such a ubiquitous brand back in those days, that their models were sold at hobby stores, toy stores, electronics stores, and even department stores and discount stores. A quick guide to Vintage vs Remake Kyosho R/C kits.A detailed guide to Vintage vs Remake Tamiya R/C kits.
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