TAMIYA (!) Lotus 79

[indycals]

According to Hobby World, Hasegawa's Lotus 79 German GP Winner is due out late July, and JP MSRP is 3780 yen (incl.tax).
Of course, Hasegawa can cancel the project at any time, but I don't think they will, especially because Hasegawa offers better value than Tamiya (price, silk-screen vs offset, Goodyear vs no-Goodyear). Most Japanese stores usually start taking pre-orders of Hobby Show items approximately a month before, so we'll find out more about the details on the Hasegawa kit around April 13.

Hi,

Thank you Hiroaki for these news
Gilles

*2

I really hope Hasegawa push on with their release. Its certain to have some positives (and potentially some negatives) over the tamiya version. I'll get both.

Maybe I should change my pre-order to 1 and get my second as the Hasegawa version?

[iamf1]

A couple of things here.

I would think Tamiya probably were working on this a while ago. And Lotus (Classic Team Lotus) are the ones that grant the license to produce the kit.

CTL only used to grant an exclusive license, in other words 1 license for a 1:20 scale version of 1 car. Perhaps Hasegawa did not get their license before starting work on the model.

However, just to throw a spanner in the works, when I was talking with CTL I told them it would be better not to issue exclusive licenses, allow more companies to make the same scale and create competition, and CTL would probably get more money.

The other thing that some of you are comparing price with the F60. The F60 is actually cheaper. The F60 came with PE parts for 5000JPY the Lotus 79 kit is 4000JPY, but you have to pay 1800JPY for the PE set.................math anyone....... = 5800JPY for the Lotus 79. That is all full retail price. Pre-order total = 4930JPY.

And finally you can pre-order from me as well at the same price as HLJ. So if you are in the States or Canada, it will probably be cheaper than going to HLJ.

Mac

[smbrm1]

Agree with the point about PE except that the PE for the 79 is quite a bit more than the PE in the F60.

I guess we will have to see what Hasegawa does?

[Dalin1]

The other thing that some of you are comparing price with the F60. The F60 is actually cheaper. The F60 came with PE parts for 5000JPY the Lotus 79 kit is 4000JPY, but you have to pay 1800JPY for the PE set.................math anyone....... = 5800JPY for the Lotus 79. That is all full retail price. Pre-order total = 4930JPY.

And finally you can pre-order from me as well at the same price as HLJ. So if you are in the States or Canada, it will probably be cheaper than going to HLJ.

Mac

But the Lotus is much nicer Of course you pay higher price for a nicer car...

[jaykay]

But the Lotus is much nicer ;-) Of course you pay higher price for a nicer car...

Well, by that logic the F60 should come with some money in the box... :-)

[XCOM]

can someone send photos of versions and convertions that can be made with new tamiya kit? how many kits do I need to make all of them?

thanks

Xcom

[smirkoff]

can someone send photos of versions and convertions that can be made with new tamiya kit? how many kits do I need to make all of them?

There's a lot of options. Just to mention some:

- the off-season 1977 prototype, chassis #1,
- the same #1 at the first race of the car, the International Trophy,
- the 1978 variations (cockpit, mirrors, rollover bars, radiator openings etc., with options for Andretti, Peterson and Jarier),
- the 1979 variations (mirrors, radiator openings, front wheels, rear wing and all rear section in the "B" version, with options for Andretti, Reutemann),
- the 79X test car of late 1979,
- the Rebaque 79 (chassis #1 again) and the Rebaque F1, which was very much a modified 79,
- the 80 used many parts of the 79 in the chassis, so it's possible to do an 80 from a 79,
- the 81 was basically a reinforced 79 chassis with new sidepods, new aerodynamics, new suspension geometry, new wheels and exhausts.

And not to count other teams' copies of the car. So there's plenty of options, and now seems plenty of kits, too!!

[lezdep]

The other thing that some of you are comparing price with the F60. The F60 is actually cheaper. The F60 came with PE parts for 5000JPY the Lotus 79 kit is 4000JPY, but you have to pay 1800JPY for the PE set.................math anyone....... = 5800JPY for the Lotus 79. That is all full retail price. Pre-order total = 4930JPY.

I would not agree here. We were forced to pay for PE in F60. And it is not very useful, especially if you already have seat belt
hardware and proper stencil. For Lotus 79, PE is optional. You can buy just a kit and build it without PE, I believe. So base
price of the kit is less. I bet there will be more detail and PE sets on the market soon after kit release, and Tamiya's PE set
might be not the best option.

And finally you can pre-order from me as well at the same price as HLJ. So if you are in the States or Canada, it will probably be cheaper than going to HLJ.

I don't know about 1/20 kits, but for 1/12 scale kits it definitely make sense. Shipping for 1/12 from japan is minimum Y5000
via SAL, and even more expensive via EMS. Shipping from Mac inside North America would definitely be cheaper, even with
tracking.

Btw, another note regarding prices. Just received my Fujimi FW16 and MP4/5 and I see they were able to get licences from
McLaren, Honda and Williams in addition to Ferrari license they had already. So, all those talks about high licensing fees
preventing new kits development don't seem to apply to Fujimi at least. I also believe price increases we saw for F641/2.
MP4/6 and FW16 have more to do with popularity of subjects and pricing policy of Fujimi, then with licensing costs.

[Robban]

well the F60 was overpriced for sure but bought the kit a month ago for 30 euros here in sweden so waiting a few months the price often goes down at the hobby shops

[scaleautofactory]

Just for information:
The Tamiya-Kit will not include Goodyear-Decals!