Tamiya USA Model Club

This is an open invitation please read to the bottom. :smile::smile:

I'm not really sure if anyone outside of the LA / Orange County California area is aware but for a number of years now, since about 2001 or 2002, Tamiya USA has had a model club that meets on a monthly basis.

It was originally started by a gentleman named Bob Ohler. After Bob retired from his club meeting duties the meetings were taken over by Richard Poulson. Richard organized the meetings until early 2008. At that point is when Tamiya America sold the building they had built in Aliso Viejo and moved into a smaller facility due to the economic crunch. When Tamiya moved the club lost it's location to meet because the new facility did not have meeting rooms big enough for the group. This was also a down size time in terms of employees at Tamiya and Richard decided to move on and is now working at Squadron Signal.

It was in early 2008 that the club became independent of Tamiya though we have kept using the name. Since 2008 the club has morphed for reasons unknown into more of a car club though there are still a few active members who build the occasional aircraft, ship or tank model. The club has never been nor will it ever be a Tamiya only model club. Even when we met at Tamiya proper there was no rule that said you could only bring Tamiya models to share with the group. In fact they welcomed the bringing of any model and they only really had one simple rule. That was you only talked about the model you brought at any given meeting.

I for one like to see the other types of models being built, I.E. Aircraft, Ships & Tanks and would like to see more members join in from those areas of modeling.

So it is with that, that I extend an open invitation to anyone in the LA / OC area that would like to come down and join in. Or if you are a member and have not been to a meeting in a while I'd like to re-invite you to come join us.

Meetings are held on the second Friday of the month (though this month, February, we are meeting on the third Friday due to valentines day) and they start at 7:00pm. Some members meet for dinner before hand at a local restaurant. So if you think you are interested please send me a PM and I will give you further details. Would sure be nice to see & meet some new faces.

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This sounds very neat but Friday traffic on the 5 freeway, or any freeway in and out of L.A., is hell on earth. I used to drive from downtown L.A./dodgers stadium area to bellflower and, i kid you not, would do 2 hours on what should have been a 40 minute drive. 2 hours is what I normally do from L.A. to San Diego. Good luck gathering a nice sized group of folks to show up and support the club.

This sounds very neat but Friday traffic on the 5 freeway, or any freeway in and out of L.A., is hell on earth. I used to drive from downtown L.A./dodgers stadium area to bellflower and, i kid you not, would do 2 hours on what should have been a 40 minute drive. 2 hours is what I normally do from L.A. to San Diego. Good luck gathering a nice sized group of folks to show up and support the club.

Thanks, I'm well aware of the pit falls of driving / living in LA, work in Van Nuys, live in Anaheim. The meeting day and time have never changed and is the same as it was when we met at Tamiya. A person just need to decide how much they want to participate and make it happen if they want to be involved. We have guys who drive from as far away as UCLA and San Diego so it can be done if you want to do it bad enough.

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Hi All,

Meeting is coming up the end of this coming week. if you are interested in attending please send me an PM and I will forward you the details.

:smile::smile::smile: