Tower Hobbies, a well-known hobbyist company, has been providing excellent service to hobbyists for over 32 years. However, a letter from the District Court of Delaware in 2020 revealed that the case concerning Tower Hobbies had moved from a case with ARF’s to a case with Traxxas. A small percentage of hobbyists still build, so Horizon Hobbies decided not to keep in stock what doesn’t sell.
In addition to the issues with Tower Hobbies, Hasegawa has absorbed Hobbico quickly and is now the U.S supplier of their kits. The company has released a list of their releases for March 2022, but there are only a few truly new releases in March 2024. Hasegawa has a number of old tooling kits that get reissued periodically in addition to their new tool kits. Their P-51 was an old tool kit that was never released.
Hasegawa is a well-respected kit maker, especially for aircraft. They have not released new designs for aircraft much in the last 10 years. Since being acquired by Horizon Hobby, things seem to have gone downhill. The website is a mess, and it’s impossible to speak with customer service. Hasegawa has seemingly abandoned the 1/32 market.
The Border Model BC-004 Kirov Airship is expected to become available in October 2024. HobbyLinkJapan lists the BC-004 for 11840 JPY or around 88 USD or 5200 PHP. The company’s website is a mess, and customer service is difficult to reach.
📹 New kit arrivals from Hasegawa – plus giant kits from Takom! The Model Kit News Report
Whoa! Glen takes a fresh look at the our model kit shelf, and this time we have kit build subjects you’ve always loved, and kit …
What is the history of Hasegawa models?
Hasegawa, a Japanese brand, is a pioneer in plastic model manufacturing, transitioning from wooden models to plastic in 1961. The company’s success began with the launch of the 1:450 scale replica of the Japanese battleship Yamato, which remains a benchmark for modelers worldwide. Hasegawa’s collection includes military and civilian aircraft, as well as models of ships, submarines, military vehicles, and racing or sports automobiles.
Is Hasegawa a samurai?
Hasegawa, born in Chōshū, served under Chōshū forces during the Boshin War and the Meiji Restoration. He was commissioned as a captain in 1871 and later as a major, commanding a regiment during the Satsuma Rebellion. Hasegawa saw action at the relief of Kumamoto Castle in 1877. He traveled to France in 1885 to study European military strategy and tactics, and was promoted to major general upon his return to Japan in 1898.
What does Hasegawa mean in Japanese?
The Hasegawa surname, which translates to “long valley river” in Japanese, has its etymological roots in the same place as the name Hase, which translates to “river at the beginning of the rapids.” It is a topographic name found in eastern Japan and the Ryūkyū Islands.
Who is the CEO of Hasegawa?
T. The HASEGAWA CO., LTD. company is headed by President and CEO Takao Umino. As of September 30, 2023, the company’s capital stock was valued at ¥5, 364, 850, 000, and it had issued 42, 708, 154 shares.
Why is Hasegawa called Madao?
Taizou Hasegawa, a former government official, initially appeared as a hopeless old guy. However, he lost his job and became a MADAO, short for marude damena ossan, meaning “totally hopeless old guy”. Hasegawa was born into a family of lowly samurais and fell in love with his wife, Hatsu, who married him into her family. Despite their social status differences, Hasegawa married Hatsu and adopted her family name, “Hasegawa”.
He was given a job by the Hasegawa family, but he never wore the suit, feeling unworthy of the job. He wore his dirty kimono to work, which was complained to his superior. MADAO has various meanings throughout Gintama.
Does Hasegawa ever get a job?
Hasegawa was given a job by the Hasegawa family, but he never wore the suit he was given. He felt unworthy and wore a dirty kimono to work, which was criticized by his superior. Hasegawa wore the suit to apologize and saw Hatsu kneeling for forgiveness at his superior’s house, even though the superior was of lower social rank. Hasegawa cut his suit, apologized, and they apologized. Hasegawa eventually became the head of the Immigration Bureau.
Why did Hatsu leave Hasegawa?
The story revolves around a woman who leaves her husband after he loses his job for punching Prince Hata. Despite her worries, she briefly dates a lawyer but turns him down. Her husband faces legal issues with the lawyer, but manages to get through. The anime series’ episode 155 suggests Hatsu’s birthday is 3rd May, based on the date of the horse-racing newspaper Gintoki holds dating 2nd May. The manga’s birthday is 2 October/Libra.
Is Hasegawa made in Japan?
Hasegawa Corporation is a Japanese company that produces plastic model kits of various vehicles, including aircraft, cars, ships, military vehicles, armor, spacecraft, and science fiction kits. Based in Shizuoka, Hasegawa competes with its neighbor, Tamiya, but has a smaller product line. The kits are primarily made of polystyrene and are considered very accurate, though not as easy-of-assembly as Tamiya kits. Hasegawa kits are currently imported into North America by Hobbico’s Great Planes Model Distributor division.
Hasegawa ended its long-term agreement with Dragon Models Limited for US distribution in early 2010. Hasegawa also imports Revell kits into Japan and sells them under both the Revell brand and its own label.
Is Hasegawa still in business?
T. Hasegawa, which was established in Tokyo, Japan, in 1903, expanded to California in 1978 and currently employs 1, 600 individuals. With over 30 locations across the globe, the company generates over $500 million in sales and has a 3. 6 million square foot operational footprint. The company places significant emphasis on the development and implementation of world-class manufacturing technology, the creation of exceptional flavors, and the provision of excellent customer service.
How old is Kobato Hasegawa?
Kobato Hasegawa is a character from the Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai anime and light novels. She is Kodaka’s thirteen-year-old sister and a second-year junior high transferee to St. Chronica. Kobato claims to be a centuries-old vampire named “Reisys V. Felicity Sumeragi” and becomes the sixth member of the Neighbors Club. In the AWA fics, she is a student at the AWA Academy. Kobato has golden-blond hair and blue eyes, with two small horse tails on each side. She wears a Gothic Lolita dress, thigh-high socks, a black barrette, and a red-eye contact lens to match her anime character.
How old is Madao?
Madao, a character in the Gintama universe, stands at 5’10. 5″ and is 38 years old. He lost his job and became a vagrant, drowning in drink and gambling. Despite his constant messiness, he is a noble character and has a high relevance to the main story. Otose, the owner of Snack Otose and landlady of Gintoki, is one of the most frequently recurring characters in the series. She is also one of the oldest, around 60, and stands at 5’5. 5″ with an average height for women in the series.
📹 HOW PLASTIC KITS ARE MADE from design to delivery – 1080pHD
Ever wondered how plastic kits are made? here I talk you through all the steps, from choosing what kit to manufacture all the way …
Congratulations, very interesting article. As a modeler for the last 54 years, just perusal the plastic parts and decals when opening the box has a unique magic to me. I keep some kits for many years before building them but open the box from time to time just to revive the magic. Thanks for sharing the article.
Million thanks for the great article… One of the enjoyable part of my engineering life.. Started an injection molding factory, nearest town area in 2003.. to make bottles for various medicine suppliers.. Polyethylene, and PVC.. even last week, made a new mold for a new work, from my lathe facility, from a copper block.. a new chubby bottle..
A fascinating insight into the production plastic kits. Well presented Gary. Thank you. Modern kits are getting so refined and sophisticated now one wonders how they’ll evolve further, especially with computers to assist the engineers. Makes me realise that all credit must surely be given to mold makers of old. How did they manage without CAD? How did, for example, Hasegawa and Tamiya achieve such quality in their kits regarding precision of fit and surface detail over 40 years ago? Airfix attaining awards for their original 1/24th Superkits from half a century ago…… all without the aid of computers. Now, THAT’S skill!
Absolutely fascinating, Gary. Despite all the modern computer-controlled mold cutters, CAD/CAM design, 3D printing, laser cutting,etc., it’s amazing how much of production is still hands-on. It may be a hobby to us but it’s very big business to the people who make the kits that show up on the store shelves. Thanks!
as a kid I must have made every machine used in WW2, Airfix 1/35 scale mainly, back then (50 years agao) a releasing agent was used to release the plastic parts from the moulds, I used to soak the parts in warm soapy water and rinse thoroughly with clean water. if I didn’t do this the paints would not adhere to plastic parts properly and would eventually fall off with flexing etc, QUESTION. . Do you still have to wash the plastic parts before you assemble the kits, cheers,
I’ll be turning 70 in 3 weeks, and been building since about 1961. Your article of the design process, with computers and LIDAR and 3D printers, gives me an even greater appreciation for the people who did this when I started out. They were artists and artisans, with skills that have largely been replaced. Yes, models like the original Airfix BP Defiant were widly inaccurate, but most of us wouldn’t be able to make anything even that close, using the methods of the 1950s. (/nostalgia)
Two things will rarely if ever come together, superb flawless quality and insane fast production speeds. I previously worked in Automotive here in Michigan, USA. The companies that eventually fell and went under were the one that put quantity above quality. The 🇯🇵 Japanese took American production mindset and used it to produce the most precise model kits and Automobiles in their industries . Here in America, greed and hubris has taken a front seat and now our manufacturing processes are a joke ! I hope the Brit’s have great success with these fabulous kits ! Just keep it real and fun for the employees and success will be inevitable.
Can you do me a favor, can you send this article to Trumpter in China. They could really use the help in creating the build order on their instructions for their ship models, and maybe they might try building some of them before deciding on the final design. I know it is not earth shattering stuff, but concepts Trumpter do not see to be aware of lol
A very interesting article, it’s a complicated business. I enjoyed the article Gary, but I could have done without the background music (muzac). I think it was unnecessary and intrusive. I always look forward to, and enjoy your articles, especially Monday Matters and the amusing tenuous link to a song lyric.
Really really enjoyed this one, thank you Gary. My first peek into a model kit production facility. Didn’t realise so much time and effort from so many people goes into producing a kit. And I now understand why some state of the art kits can cost as much as they do. Kudos to Airfix as well for making this look into their factory possible and many thanks to everyone there who helped make my 1/24 Spitfire IX kit.
With the use of different markings/liveries and for interesting subjects I wonder why civil airliners are so poorly reprresented especially in 1/200th scale. Hasegawa have reduced their selection but I would have thought there would be a market as a lot of modellers fly commercial aircraft and would enjoy replicating that experience. The markings of different airline companies can be updated to do further runs of the kit, enhancing the investment in production. My personal opinion is that there would be a good market for 1/200th scale A380, A340, A330, VC10, Boeing 707, Trident, with some ground equipment as additional purchases.
All very well, but what about the days before computer aided design? Way back in the 1960’s there were real model makers and draughtsmen. As a young lad I made my first airfix kit around 10 or 11 years old. It was the 1/72 scale Boulton Paul defiant aircraft. When finished there was more glue than plastic on it, however I was on the modelling stage from then on. Almost from that moment, my inquisitive mind realised that the plastic parts had to be made from a mould. I surmised that was where the real skill was. I did an engineering apprenticeship (and still working as an engineer) but never got into injection mould making, although I am familiar with the process and have visited several injection mould companies in my time.
A great article and it is interesting to see the mould making and moulding process. The cost of making the moulds must be quite high. You mention that we don’t make model kits but rather assemble them. I agree but back in the early 2000’s a group of us did get involved in scratch building plastic models from sheets of polystyrene and the shapes you could get. I made a 1/16th scale Diamond T truck and a friend made a very good 1/16th Mk1 Spitfire. It takes ages but is very rewarding.
3D printed models may be the future but their costs are high and they are fixed costs. Their quality also leaves a lot to be desired in the meantime current state of technology. 3D printed models are a lot of extra work removing printing grain artifacts from the surface and all their hundreds of base sprues. You 3D print when there is no model kit available but you will pay dearly for them.
Wow at the research needed for those things. I mostly built spaceships from anime, or fictional spaceships that are just designed be cool models without having a specific source. I imagine my Space Battleship Yamato model wouldn’t need that kind of research, especially since the ship in the show is already an animated 3d model. These days I mostly build mechanical wooden models from Ugears, I feel better not contributing as much plastic plastic to the world, with the only plastic being in the packaging wrap encasing the box it comes in. The models don’t have the same level of detail of course, with all the parts being laser cut in plywood sheets, but they still end up really pretty, and are designed in a way that doesn’t require any glue. There is also a special satisfaction assembling a mechanical model and manage to put it together so actually works! I have built a pendulum clock with all the gears made of wood that actually works. (Though I don’t actually use it because I can’t handle the ticking even of a common modern alarm clock, and as you can imagine the ticking of a wooden clockwork is on another level entirely.) And I really like the spring powered Ugears six legged walking robot. You really have to make sure you sand any surface that is part of the moving mechanism really carefully (and rub them with candle wax) to minimize friction or the spring won’t have the power to make it walk. Sanding all those cogs takes a while. (I got it working but not on the first try, I’m just lucky that it was even possible to get to the one surface I had forgotten to sand after it was assembled.
Great article, I just found your website and look forward to perusal more builds. I worked in a molding shop for over 20 years, so seeing those presses brought back a lot of memories. If you’re looking for feedback, I would rather watch without the background music, but I really enjoyed the production irrigaurdless.
Thank you for this very well made article. You don’t often see something this concise on YouTube. I guess it took quite some effort to keep it so refreshingly brief, especially when talking about something one is obsessed with. Does anyone know any good articles on pre-computer plastic kit design? That would be very interesting, too.
I am so surprised at the amount of 3D design that still goes into it. A part of me knew this from my experience in engineering, but until you see the work that goes into it, you don’t really appreciate the amount of work cause a part of your brain says it should be easy cause you have a full size airplane (or truck or you name it) that you working from
Thanks for making this article. I’ve seen a few model factories in action, now. I’m always amazed at the amount of work that goes into designing the models. When people remark about how good the models come out, I always give make sure to give credit to the designers, because they did most of the work. I’m basically putting together a puzzle.
Great article. I am fascinated by mass production, a fan of the Discovery website show “How It’s Made” and I found your article highly informative and entertaining. Great explanation of the design, planning, and creativeness that is required to produce model kits and presented very well, sir. Thank you. I have subscribed to your website and look forward to more great articles.