The Tamiya story started in the lumber business, diversifying into wooden toys, and then just like LEGO on the other side of the world from their Shizuoka base, into plastic injection mouldings.

Shunsaku Tamiya, who turned his family’s plastic model business into a global brand, held a scale replica of a German World War II Tiger tank at the hobby show in Shizuoka, Japan, in 2003.