Japanese Plastic Model Kits

There are many model companies in Japan and they all sell to American markets. 

The most common ones you will find are... Tamiya, Fine Molds, Kotobukiya, and fujimi if I remember correctly.

You can find these in most, if not all American retailer's stock. 

For other countries there are many many companies from different countries, Zvedza for example is a Russian (I think, might be Ukraine) company that produces some very nice armor kits.

If you want a good look at all of the companies available in japan check this site out.  http://www.hlj.com/  It is one, if not the largest online store for model kits in that country and the best place to get new kits before they are available in North American retailers.

What is your favorite manufacturer?

And what was the best  kit?

Do you have any information of best sellers?

Depends, what subject matter do you like to build?  Cars, Planes, Tanks, Boats, Figures?

Hello,I see you are new to the forums,welcome,why do you need to know,for your own info as which kit to buy,are you talking planes,ships,cars,or armor.or are you starting a business and looking for marketing info about which kits to stock,just wondering 

I'm working in a manufacturer in Japan.

And would like to know which product is popular and selling well in North America or Europe.

Sorry if you don't like this kind of survey. 

Fummy

It's not much a a survey since the questions are too vast and open. Possibly, if you could be more specific, more modelers here might answer.

As far as I've been able to tell, there are many truly knowledgeable modelers here and most are very friendly if you approach them correctly. What I don't know though, is if a survey of this type is against the forum rules.

Best of luck with your project.

Dan

Umm..Thank you for your gentle erply. Not like a professional survey or any project. I just wanted to grasp what kind of product is selling well in North America.  I understand that MM is the most popular category in US.

MM  ->  Aircarft  -> Warship  -> Car/bike/truck

Any information is appreciated.

Or,...what would be your dream plastic model kit..?  ....dream car, dream ships..etc.

I don't know what modeling subjects are the most popular but you've come to the right place.

Searching through this FSM site will give you an idea of the most popular manufactures and the strongest on-line retailers as well.

Since the forums are divided into subject sections, you be able to get a lot of information there about the most popular subjects as well.

Dan .

Fummy, The National Museum of the United States Air Force is into the last two years of the restoration of the "Memphis Belle", a national icon of the massive bombing effort over the Third Reich in WWII.  If you and your company were to engineer and produce the B-17F in 1/48 scale, you would realize great profits.  Nearly every airplane modeler in the free world would want to buy at least one.  You would have to produce a kit that had accurate detail and lots of interior components.  Surprisingly, modelers like to create great detail even though it eventually gets closed up in the body of the aircraft.  That is one little opinion from one modeler.  Rick.

Thank you for your precious opinion. I definitely utilize this information for my work.

Well I can tell you WWII armor is one of the best sellers, specificly 1/35th scale. 

If your company is looking for subjects I SERIOUSLY suggest you to consider looking at subjects that are either done but are expensive (Fine molds japanese tanks) or aren't done that much at all, French tanks for example.

Also WWI is VASTLY untouched outside of planes and 1/72nd.  NEW WWI armor and figure kits would be a VERY welcome sight.

Also on that note, Medieval to Renaissance to Napoleonic era soldiers and artillery in 1/35th scale that are not solid pieces like Italiari would be EXTREMELY welcome by many people.

Thank you very much.

I will talk to colleauges.

As far as my favorite Japanese companies,I like Tamiya and Hasegawa.I like modern jets in 1/48'all armor in 1/35 and WWII ships in 1/350

Modern armor and armored trucks are gaining popularity because of their relevance in the world today. Will all the conflicts going on, many people who may want to start model building may turn to see models of vehicles they see in the news to build.

Additionally, movie based models do well. Model kits based on vehicles seen in war movies or action movies, like Transformers, tend to do well.

Rob Gronovius

Modern armor and armored trucks are gaining popularity because of their relevance in the world today. Will all the conflicts going on, many people who may want to start model building may turn to see models of vehicles they see in the news to build.

Additionally, movie based models do well. Model kits based on vehicles seen in war movies or action movies, like Transformers, tend to do well.

Rob is dead on with this, getting a license from a movie, TV show, or Video game would bring in more money then you would know what to do with, especially big name franchises like Halo, just to name one.

Also, my favorite company, since I forgot to mention, is Bandai.  They make very nice products and while their prices do keep increasing with every price increase the quality and detail of their kits rise exponentially.

Fummy

I'm working in a manufacturer in Japan.

And would like to know which product is popular and selling well in North America or Europe.

Sorry if you don't like this kind of survey. 

What do you have planned so far?

You must have some subjects in mind and are checking here for validation.

Smeagol touched on something that I see is RE-gaining popularity, and that is the the mythical category.  I see more and more video game kits being sold and build.

I say WWII aircraft and armor is what is big in North America.  And. like Rob said, modern vehicles are slowly gaining popularity, specially with younger modelers. 

What's the mythical category?

Fummy

I'm working in a manufacturer in Japan.

And would like to know which product is popular and selling well in North America or Europe.

Sorry if you don't like this kind of survey. 

Konnichi-wa, Fummy-san and welcome to the forum!

It's not so much that we don't like surveys, we're all modelers and we all love to sound off about what we like best But you want to be careful, because FSM forbid commercial activity in the forums, so you might want to be careful.

To your questions, among Japanese manufacturers, I like:

Tamiya, for 1/48 WWII aircraft

Hasegawa, Tamiya and Fujimi, for 1/700 ships (I'm a fan of the waterline series that they collaborated on)

All of the manufacturers of MaschinenKrieger kits

Various independent makers of resin anime figure kits.

I also like Tamiya's paints, in jars and rattle-cans, and Gunze-Sangyo paints, though those are little harder to come by around here.

Best regards,

Brad

The Navigator

What's the mythical category?

*chuckle*

I think he meant what's more commonly called Fantasy and Sci-Fi at most contests (a pretty broad designation, not always accurately applied, to be sure).

the Baron

 

The Navigator:

 

What's the mythical category?

 

 

*chuckle*

I think he meant what's more commonly called Fantasy and Sci-Fi at most contests (a pretty broad designation, not always accurately applied, to be sure).

Quite, he decided that he wanted to flush all modeling down to 5 categories and called Scifi 'mythical' for some reason.

To our new friend asking the questions I would make one more recommendation.  WWII is a fairly covered topic there is not much you can do that will not have been done by at LEAST three companies, two in Styrene and one in Resin.  If you want to stand out look elseware in subject matter

smeagol the vile

the Baron:

 

The Navigator:

 

What's the mythical category?

 

 

*chuckle*

I think he meant what's more commonly called Fantasy and Sci-Fi at most contests (a pretty broad designation, not always accurately applied, to be sure).

 

 

Quite, he decided that he wanted to flush all modeling down to 5 categories and called Scifi 'mythical' for some reason.

 

One mans mythical is one mans sc-fi, one mans garbage is another mans treasure.

I for one would love to see more Russian stuff, and I am always up for more IJN/IJA stuff

smeagol the vile

 

Rob Gronovius:

 

Additionally, movie based models do well. Model kits based on vehicles seen in war movies or action movies, like Transformers, tend to do well.

 

 

 

Rob is dead on with this, getting a license from a movie, TV show, or Video game would bring in more money then you would know what to do with, especially big name franchises like Halo, just to name one.

heck, yeah! I'd LOVE to see Halo kits come out in styrene! 

... Uh because it makes sense!  Its a good fit in a very high categorization of model genres.

 Air, Sea, Land, Space and Mythical.  

Anyway.. back to the topic at hand.   

I think the Halo vehicles would make awesome kits. I know I would definitively buy them.

smeagol the vile

 

Quite, he decided that he wanted to flush all modeling down to 5 categories and called Scifi 'mythical' for some reason.

That makes sense, a lot of the popular Sci-Fi of today have taken on a mythical status. And I'm sure the Odyssey was the sci-fi of it's day.

Now back to the topic at hand:

Here's some ideas:

WW1 stuff - Tanks, ships and aircraft. with the 100th anniversary coming up, there would be a market for affordable, well designed kits.

Video game models would be a good idea as well, start with snaps to get the kids building, then offer kits that could be customized to what they play (ex modern cars packaged like the old AMT 3in1 car kits for a popular driving game)

I'm very curious to see what you have on the drawing board and hope this helps.

Bandai's 1/35th scale Batman Begins/The Dark Knight Batmobile Tumbler is by far one of the cooler movie based models in that scale.

1/48 armor seems to be taking off in popularity. Tamiya's line of WWII vehicles are nice, but the selection is still fairly limited. Even with other companies like Hobby Boss in the mix, there are still a lot of subjects that have not yet been covered in 1/48 injection moldings. And Post War, Cold War, and Post Cold War have been completely ignored in 1/48, save for some horrid R/C toy ones by Academy.

Thank you all for your valuale tips.

I personally wonder of how you think of Mythical category of Japanese model kits.

Hasegawa is going to release Cosmo Fighter kit from Reiji Matsumoto's Captain Harlock.

Fine Mold released Laputa's robot in scale kit a while ago.

About Mythical and Car category, it is difficult to nail down the appropriate subject

for Asian / US / European market.

As I can see from your comments, MM might be a common caetgory for overseas market.

No one has mentioned it, but I, and more than a few other US Army and Marine Corps veterans would like to see STYRENE kits of 1960s-1980s era "Soft-Skinned vehicles", or what's officially known as Tactical trucks in 1/35th scale to compliment the towed howitzers, and command-post vehicles.

We're talking about the M1008/1009 series of CUCVs (Commercial Utility Cargo Vehicles) basd on the Chevrolet Blazer and Pick-Ups, M35A2 Series 2 1/2 ton trucks, with both cargo bed and communication van-bodies, and  M39, M40, M54, Truck 5 Ton, 6x6 series of Cargo (Heavy Artillery prime movers), Wreckers (from Transportation Companies), and Dump-trucks (Combat Engineers)  Also, the M151A2 series of 1/4 ton jeeps... Add to that list the "Gamma-Goat" M561 6x6 truck

Start with the CUCVs, M1008/1009 CUCVs and the M561 "Gamma Goat"... And keep 'em under 45.00 USD...