Tamiya vs Hasegawa

Tamiya, with Hasegawa running closely behind.

-John

Simple:

"It depends on the kit."

In ships there is no distinguishable quality difference anymore. Take the new Hasegawwa Kongo class JMSDF Aegis-equipped ship kits, for instance, and compare to the Tamiya Osumi class landing ship kits.

Given that both companies typically turn out fine kits, and that each has the occasional lemon, this sort of question can only be meaningfully answered when one has a specific subject in mind that both offer, say

If you're simply looking for a nice kit and are not picky about the subject, picking one from either company at random off the shelf will 'probably' please you. Of course, you could get unlucky.

Mark Schynert

And each reissues kits made from old tooling from when standards weren't as high as now. Both make fine kits but both have gotten better. Don't expect every kit in a tamiya of Hasegawa box to be current state-of-the-art.

Tom

... and from the tooling of other manufacturers (at least in Hasegawa's case, don't know about Tamiya - can't, in fact, think of a non-Tamiya Tamiya.)

The X-1 originated with another company. They do release some other's people stuff in the home market, like the Amtech TA 183.

Tom

Both companies make quality kits. What you do to them is an entirely different matter. Cheers, Max Bryant

Tamiya sells Italeri in Japan, and Hasegawa does Monogram/Revell I think. Can't think straight tonight....

I opened both Tamiya's and Hasegawa's 1/48 P51D and did a "stare and compare". I preferred the Tamiya's detail. I have actually built neither, so I can't say anything about the fit. FWIW Doug Wagner

Do you have access to any of the Hasegawa 1/200 airliners in Disney Tokyo logos?

TIA

Tom

Tamiya rebox Italeri for the Japanese market and the AMTech Ta183 was released internationally by Tamiya

Charlie

Man! That's like asking which is better, Blondes, Brunettes or Redheads!

Bill Shuey (who has a helluva weakness for redheads)

I have the AMtech Focke-Wulf Ta-183 "Huckebein" in a Tamiya packaging lying around somewhere. The main difference from the original AMtech release (apart from the box) is that it also comes with the Tamiya

It got wider distribution than AmTech felt appropriate from their agreement, which was for the most part, their home market.

Tom

That's not an easy question to answer, but in general the age of the kit decides a lot, older kits tend to be less detailed and precise. Also some subjects are better from one manefacturer than others. Also there's personal taste, take a 1:48 scale P-51D from each, and some will swear to the Hasegawa and others to the Tamiya (And som to the Revell, Airfix or what ever).

Depends on the subject...

I like the Mary Ann v. Ginger debate better.....:-)

Craig

ABSOLUTELY!!!

I recently picked up an old (1972?) 1/72 Tamiya Raiden kit that had a canopy so roughly molded it looked like course sandpaper had been rubbed on it. There is virtually no interior and the fit is average at best. And the ancient 1/72 Hasegawa F-4J Phantom II kit (1968?) was an almost exact duplicate of the 1965 1/72 scale Revell F-4B kit with huge rivets added.

Seems like us "old-timers" forget about what used to be and the relative newcomers never knew how "bad" the early Tamiya and Hasegawa kits were. But, to their credit, these two manufactures made the steady progression from crawling, to walking, to running and have become the top of the craft. They deserve the accolades they now receive and are justly rewarded by their constant efforts to improve the quality of their products.

Martin