Bracingly Honest Kit Reviews – A Proposal
Kit reviews are broken. Most of the time, they just scratch the surface. Sprues are pawed through, a few ejector pins are noted, and the kit is pronounced “highly recommended”.…
Tamiya’s 1/32 Release Pattern
Tamiya’s next big 1/32 release is a perennially popular topic around the modelling interwebs. I’ve written about it several times, including:
- Wait, Tamiya’s Doing a 1/32 P-51D Mustang? – 2011
- Thoughts on Tamiya’s Upcoming 1/32 F4U Corsair – 2013
- Thoughts on Tamiya’s New 1/32 Mosquito FB.VI – 2015
The current round seems to have kicked off from two directions. A clever post from what seems like a newish Facebook page, Fake Modelling News:
Heh.
And the second, a post on Large Scale Planes bemoaning the lack of a new 1/32 kit at this year’s Shizouka show, which is where Tamiya typically introduces new 1/32 subjects (LINK).
This confluence got me thinking – maybe an update is in order. I mean, every time it comes up, I hear two common refrains. On the one hand, there’s a sort of shrugging, “Tamiya is Tamiya and they’ll do what they want”. On the other hand, there’s “Tamiya will definitely do X”. Sometimes said by the same person, which is funny.
The truth is this. Tamiya is Tamiya and they’ll do what they want. But they’ve established a pattern going back to at least 2009 that they have not yet deviated from. And as long as they hold to that pattern, precedent can help inform prediction.
The way I see it, there are two separate but related tangents – timing, and subject selection. (more…)