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Join Date: Mar 2001
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HLJ Auto News
I signed up on HLJ's mailing list for Auto Models; just wanted to let ya'll see what I got so you can go sign up for yourselves. 
Quote:
Subj: Welcome to HLJ Auto News!
Date: 4/18/2002 12:48:24 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: [email protected] (Scott at HobbyLink Japan)
Sender: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Welcome to the first issue of HobbyLink Japan's new newsletter dedicated to
news and information about Japanese car and motorcycle model kits.
If you didn't add yourself to this list, we have taken the liberty of adding
you ourselves based on your previous purchases with us. If you don't want
to receive updates about the latest releases, product news and rumors, and
special sales, you can unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting
http://www.hlj.com/hlj_ml.html and making the changes there, or by sending
an e-mail with "unsubscribe" in the body to [email protected]
from the address you want to have removed.
In addition to this mailing list, we have also started six other lists
devoted to other product genres. They are:
hljair - All the latest aircraft kit news, focusing on Tamiya and Hasegawa
releases
hljnaval - Naval kit news on the latest Waterline and Pit-Road kits
hljmilitary - Military vehicles and figure kit news
hljtoys- Transforming robots, dolls and more for the little kid in all of
us!
hljfigures - Resin figure kits as well as completed items such as action
figures
hljscifi - Gundam and more -- our largest mailing list, covering Gundam kits
and other sci-fi hobby kits
You can subscribe to any of these by visiting
http://www.hlj.com/hlj_ml.html, or by sending an e-mail to
<listname>[email protected] (make sure you replace the <listname> with
the name of the list you want to subscribe to from the list above, for
example, [email protected]).
And now, on to the news...
-----
UPCOMING NEW RELEASES
We're just a few weeks away from the annual Shizuoka Hobby Show, Japan's
largest hobby industry event of the year (held May 16-19 at the Shizuoka
Twin Messe). And as usual, ahead of the event, Japan's major hobby
manufacturers are announcing a slew of new releases. In auto kits, so far
there's nothing as big as the Ferrari F2001 from Tamiya that's already on
sale (http://www.hlj.com/cgi-local/hljpage.cgi?tam20052), but Tamiya has
announced a kit of the Honda Fit, a family utility car that has been a huge
success for the company over the last six months here in Japan. Somewhat
more interesting, though predictable, has been Fujimi's announcement that
they will release models of the new versions of the Honda Civic and the
Integra. All three of these kits are scheduled for release in May.
-----
R.I.P. IMAI PLASTIC MODEL COMPANY
Imai Plastic Model Co., best known in this arena for their kits of
Harley-Davidson motorcycles, collapsed into bankruptcy in February. This is
the third time the company has gone bankrupt, and this will be the last.
They have announced that they are liquidating their assets. At the present
time, we have no news about where their more attractive toolings may end up.
The company enjoyed exclusive rights to market Harley-Davidson motorcycle
kits in the North American market and our sources tell us that Tamiya is
already talking to Harley-Davidson about picking up where Imai left off.
Certainly we'd all love to see Tamiya's brilliant tooling technology turned
to the subject of Harley-Davidson bikes!
As news of the company's failure hit the market, we did scramble to pick up
stock of some of their more interesting items. "Speed Racer" fans take
note! Imai's last major automobile kit release was the Mach 5 from this
series. We still have some stock of their "The Mach H.G.S." kits, which can
be built as the submarine version of the car, as well as the regular road
version. We don't foresee any new stock of these kits for the foreseeable
future after they're gone, so act now! Check it out at
http://www.hlj.com/cgi-local/hljpage.cgi?ima83214.
-----
TWO GREAT BOOKS
Recently we've picked up stock of two limited-edition, soft-cover books that
we think will be of great interest to auto modelers. One is an extensive
photo essay of the life and machines of Michael Schumacher. Everything from
photos of him as a kid on a go-kart, to shots of his winning the F-1
driver's championship last year. Many closeups of the details of his cars,
even shots of his helmets! See it at
http://www.hlj.com/cgi-local/hljpage.cgi?snk014.
In addition, we have an extensive catalog of nearly every Ferrari car model
that has ever been produced, including both plastic model kits, and die-cast
display models. Even some goofy Ferrari toy cars are covered! Printed on
high-quality, glossy paper, this book features some nice closeups of the
more detailed of these models. Ferrari fans won't want to miss it. Details
are at http://www.hlj.com/cgi-local/hljpage.cgi?nkp67284-21.
Although both books are in Japanese, they're primarily photographic in
nature. So even if you don't understand all word of the language, you'll
still get all lot of value out of either.
-----
AN AMERICAN CAR KIT FROM A JAPANESE COMPANY!
I can't tell you when the last time it was that I saw a Japanese hobby
company release an all-new kit of an American automotive subject. Perhaps
that's why Fujimi's new kit of the Chevrolet Astro Van is selling so well!
they've just released the fourth variation in this series, but frankly, they
don't differ much, only in wheel type and size, and some other minor points.
Strong sales have got our stocks of little thin right now, but so far Fujimi
has been very good at getting us replenished. Check out the complete list at
http://www.hlj.com/cgi-local/hljlist...=2&from=search
-----
1970s RALLY GOD
The Lancia Stratos HF has got to be one of the most famous rally cars of all
time, being the first purpose-built rally machine, and now it's finally
available in a top quality scale kit from Hasegawa. This kit has been out
for a couple months now, but it's selling so well, and we believe that it's
such an important kit that we want to point out again anyway. But we
probably don't need to tell you anything else, because if you know rally
cars at all, you are no doubt already familiar with this famous design.
This initial release provides decals for marking the car as it appeared when
it won the 1977 Monte Carlo rally.
-----
That's enough words for one mailing. Thanks for reading through it. As
this is the first of our new mailing list newsletters, we're pretty much
playing it by ear here. If you have suggestions or opinions on how you
would like to see this formatted -- for example, would you like to see
little product photos included in the mail? What do you think about
HTML-formatted mail? -- feel free to drop a line to [email protected].
Happy hobbies!
Scott T. Hards
President, HobbyLink Japan
http://www.hlj.com
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