Hobby Industry Inside Vol. 25: Tamiya Plastic Model Factory, Shinbashi Store: "The Present State of the Model Hobby" (Japanese only)

What image comes to mind when you hear the name Shinbashi, Tokyo?　Shiodome City Center, a skyscraper office building, and the New Shinbashi Building, which retains the scent of the Showa period (1926-1989) ...... Whether you look to the right or left, it is a town of business and salarymen.
The Tamiya Plastic Model Factory Shimbashi Store is located a few minutes' walk from Shimbashi Station, facing a low-traffic red brick street, and has a quiet atmosphere.
Although most of the customers are middle-aged or older, some elementary school students accompanied by their mothers can be seen. Why is there a model store in Shinbashi, anyway?　We interviewed store manager Takamichi Hanya.

A place where you can "reunite" with the models you couldn't afford as a child

─ Is the "Tamiya Plastic Model Factory Shimbashi Store" under the direct management of Tamiya?

Hanya No, it is operated by a subsidiary of Tamiya and is not directly managed. I am an employee of Tamiya and am on loan to this store. Tamiya Plastic Model Factory Tressa Yokohama is also operated by a different company under a different name. Of course, we exchange information with each other and cooperate with each other to make the store more prosperous.


─ ─ Who decided to open a specialty model store in Shimbashi?

Hanya It was President Masayuki Tamiya, who passed away in May of this year. I have worked at several model stores, and when I heard that you were going to open a store in Shinbashi, I was surprised and said, "What? I was surprised. I had an image of Shimbashi as a businessman's town. However, President Masayuki was of the opinion that it would be meaningless to open an antenna shop in a place where the model culture was already firmly rooted and Tamiya was already well known. We wanted to remind people who used to build Tamiya models of Tamiya once again. Or, we wanted to reach people who had heard of Tamiya, but were not sure of the company's name. That was the concept. On the first day of the opening, I immediately understood President Masayuki's intention. Customers who entered said, "Wow, this brings back memories! they say. It was the first time I had heard such words in all my years of working in model stores.
Because, when people come to a model store, they are people who are currently building models, and they come with a purpose in mind: "I came here today to buy XXX". However, those who came to the store on the day it opened said, "I missed it. President Masayuki's goal of "a place where you can catch up with the return of models once again" was exactly what Shimbashi was all about.

───The interior of the store is also very chic and mature.

Hanya Yes, our emphasis is not on getting customers to buy, but rather on getting them to see the models up close and personal. We want people to open the box in their hands and feel the product, including the smell. That is why we display dioramas created by famous modelers, and before the release of a plastic model of a motorcycle, we display the actual model in the store. You can come here and see all the Tamiya products on display, but we take the stance that you can just look at them, check them out, and then buy them at another store or by mail order at .......


─ ─ The customers who enter the store and say "I missed it" are people who used to make plastic models, right?

Hanya That's right. Tamiya's product line is divided into age groups. Mini 4WD is for people in their 20s to late 30s, RC (radio controlled) cars for people in their 30s to mid 40s, and scale kits and plastic models for people in their 40s to 70s or 80s. The people who come to the Shinbashi store and say, "This brings back memories," are those in their 30s to 70s.
Another factor that brings out the word "nostalgic" is that Tamiya products from those days are still being sold. There have been some minor modifications to the molds, and the prices have gone up a bit, but the box art from that time is still there, and is sold as current products. It may be because of the location of Shimbashi that people realize that they could not buy Tamiya products in the past, but now they can buy them if they can hold off on drinking for a little while.