Tamiya chairman Shunsaku Tamiya dies at 90 • Hacker News Board

Re: Tamiya chairman Shunsaku Tamiya dies at 90

#11

Post by rjray » Fri, Jul 25, 2025, 9:22 PM UTC

aardvark179 wrote: post #5

mbrd wrote: post #2

I’ve found scale modeling to be a very rewarding (and screen-free) hobby since Covid times, and I’ve built more Tamiya kits than any other manufacturer. I’ve heard that Mr Tamiya was very hands-on in choosing their topics for kits so it will be interesting to see how things change. But what a company he built! Edit: here is the official Tamiya announcement https://www.tamiya.com/english/pressrelease/20250722/index.h.…

I have also found scale model building to be a deeply relaxing hobby, and Tamiya kits are definitely some of the most rewarding and pleasant to build. They also make superb tools and paints which I would hate to be without.

I've been a modeler since very very young. I took a break during college while getting my CS degree, but was drawn back into it when I learned that there were local clubs (IPMS/USA chapters) where I could meet other like-minded people and learn how to up my game. I've been balancing this non-screen hobby with being a professional dev for about 35 years, now. It's a fantastic way to relax and take my mind off of code.

Re: Tamiya chairman Shunsaku Tamiya dies at 90

#12

Post by diggernet » Fri, Jul 25, 2025, 10:17 PM UTC

I've got their R/C Flakpanzer Gepard in a box somewhere. It was great fun to build and run, except maybe the part where you had to assemble the tracks piece by piece.

Of course the old NiCad battery is long since dead. And R/C frequencies have changed since then, so the controller and receiver are probably useless. But from time to time I wonder about what it would take to modernize and revive it.

https://tamiyabase.com/tamiya-models/56003

Re: Tamiya chairman Shunsaku Tamiya dies at 90

#13

Post by hyperpl » Sat, Jul 26, 2025, 12:51 AM UTC

mthoms wrote: post #8

I'll never forget my Tamiya Grasshopper (it was the most affordable of their RC kits). I spent more time upgrading and tweaking the thing than I did driving it, but I loved every minute of it.

My first RC was almost the Grasshopper but I ended up with a Nissan King Cab instead. Great memories!

Re: Tamiya chairman Shunsaku Tamiya dies at 90

#14

Post by pengaru » Sat, Jul 26, 2025, 7:54 AM UTC

My first hobby grade RC car was a $20 second-hand Tamiya Boomerang from one of my friends down the street.

It was a bunch of plastic and nothing competitive but I must have rebuilt it a dozen times just for fun. Then at some point I got a Motown Missile 48,000 RPM motor for it. It was a battery connector melting ballast resistor glowing riot. But eventually my parents got tired of taking me to the hobby shop for replacement spur gears... next xmas I got a rc10 graphite and never really looked back at Tamiya anything.

But it was a great low-cost introduction to how cars work and the hobby in general, super fun times.

RIP