What is going on with Tamiya ?

[viperofoz]

I have recently noticed that Tamiya car kits seem to be in really short supply at some online retailers.
Check out HLJ for example, ALL 1/20 kits are out of stock or back ordered and its pretty much the same for the 1/24 kits too, there only seems to be about 5 or 6 kits available and they are marked as "low stock".

I tried to order a few 1/20 F1 kits from one of my favourite Japanese online stores a couple of weeks ago (Banzai Hobbies) and my order was cancelled twice saying that the items were not available.
A week later they had removed ALL of their Tamiya car and bike kits from their site. I messaged them and was told they were having supplier issues and didn't know if they would be selling them again.

anyone know what the issue is?

Regards, Dan

[MidMazar]

Fukishima? Maybe a financial collapse in the works soon?

[GTRfan01]

Nothing official I can tell you but I dont think there's anything to worry about.
They just released a few new ones and they are available on pre order from some japanese sites so surely if they were in trouble they wouldnt be designing and releasing new stuff?

I noticed 1999.co .jp have about 5-6 pages of instock 1/24 kits so maybe just an issue with HLJ??

[ZoomZoomMX-5]

The only issue is that HLJ doesn't have a lot in stock, but if you order something it usually comes in very quickly. A lot of people are afraid to order something not in stock. That used to be a problem before the private warehouse deal came along. It totally changes the game, because of the comfort of knowing they will attempt to get the stuff in a timely manner (and usually do), and then you have 60 days to ship after they have it in stock in your private warehouse.

I ordered a couple new-ish but out of stock kits from them late winter/early spring (Gazoo Racing Toyota 86 & BRZ Street Custom), and they were in my private warehouse in 2 days.

Sunday I ordered a couple of sets of Tabu decals, one set showing out of stock everywhere I checked (aside from one very overpriced set on Ebay), and "long sold out" on Hobby Search. Both sets hit my private warehouse overnight. I could have been impatient and ordered from eBay vendors, and paid 2-3X as much.

I don't worry much anymore if something isn't in stock at HLJ. You don't pay until it's in stock, and if it's available, they'll have it very quickly.

[tonioseven]

Tamiya had a decent presence at the Shizuoka Hobby Show...

http://www.speedhunters.com/2015/05/...st-hobby-show/

[viperofoz]

Thanks guys.
I wasn't suggesting Tamiya was in financial trouble or anything silly like that, just wondering if they might have been having distribution or supply issues.
I currently have a 1/20 Lotus 99T on back order at HLJ, it has just taken a lot longer than usual to come in, plenty of other items have turned up in my private warehouse in the meantime... including a whole pile of aftermarket stuff for the 99T... just not the kit itself yet..lol
That's OK, its not like I have nothing else to build.

Regards, Dan

[hirofkd]

It's just a matter of luck (or bad lack in this case), that HLJ's distributor doesn't have the Lotus 99T kit. Plenty of Amazon USA affiliates have it, so it should be in production and distribution.
Your observation about longer waiting time is correct. Aoshima blog repeatedly urges customers to pre-order as soon as information (about any new kit or reissue) comes out, because the per-lot production has got smaller and smaller because the Japanese distributors don't carry several months of supply any more. So if you want to buy something between production cycles, you'll end up waiting longer than before.

[willimo]

That's a really interesting note, hirofkd

[viperofoz]

I just went to check on the (lack of) progress of my order at HLJ, thought I might add another kit but noticed HLJ's usual 20% discount on Tamiya has dropped to 5%.
I wonder if they were waiting for their Tamiya stocks to clear out before upping the prices?

Looks like I'm off to ami-ami.

Regards, Dan

*EDIT : I just checked ami-ami and all of their Tamiya kits are "unavailable" and have no prices listed. I guess it must be Tamiya themselves increasing prices.

[ZoomZoomMX-5]

I wouldn't be surprised if HLJ's 20% discounts evaporate across the board pretty soon. The yen has taken a beating. Couple that with rising prices and less discounts, the sales will be less...and there will be less $$ invested in new kits. Not a good sign...but it's been fun while it lasted.

A few weeks back I noticed HLJ not publishing the discount as a percent, but in yen. At the time I figured this was their way of attempting a price increase that wasn't quite so obvious, and voila...it's happening.

[Modelstate]

Originally Posted by ZoomZoomMX-5

"Couple that with rising prices and less discounts, the sales will be less..."

I noticed there exchange prices go up too and still they had a picture and text in there mail that the Yen has never been so low (asked them if that wasn't a constriction but it's still there).
Don't like it at all that all over the place everything is getting more expensive.

Tamiya makes such good kits and I want even more even though I can't even finish the ones I have now in my lifetime

[TheStashProject]

Everyone who had pre-ordered a Toyoda AA from HLJ should have been billed in the past hour or so, and even with a 5% vs. 20% discount and PayPal's less than transparent exchange rate (although I'd rather "pay" them than get dinged by my bank) the AA came out to $22.80.

For a new tool kit, I'm not going to argue over a couple of bucks, as I'd like to continue to get new tool kits. Also that HLJ price means you could buy TWO of them and ship them and come pretty close to beating the U.S. MSRP of $53.

[Niro750]

Recently I watched a video from some show, Tamiya are not happy at hlj etc... Selling kits overseas well below the rrp in that region. It's affecting business for distributors there. They promised to fix that scenario so that's probably what's going on.

[chris24]

Originally Posted by Niro750

Recently I watched a video from some show, Tamiya are not happy at hlj etc... Selling kits overseas well below the rrp in that region. It's affecting business for distributors there. They promised to fix that scenario so that's probably what's going on.

Oh really ? I suggest them to fix THAT scenario : how is it that europeans have to pay twice (at least) the price of what Asians and others pay ? Shipping ? Translation ? Taxes ? Come on...
Or maybe they have really hungry distributors ? Twenty percent more would be fair, not 100 percent.
A kit ordered in Japan, even with shipping, taxes, import duties costs far less than at the local shop.

[Some_Kid]

Really wish they would restock their replacement parts. I've beeded a new glass parts tree for the Tamiya Supra (93) for a year now and they still haven't restocked.