Bit of nostalgia

[The Rat]

Never knew Tamiya made a model of it, might have to start searching.



http://www.lsrinmin.co.uk/bluebird_cn7.html

[zenrat]

Bet that's rare.

[PR19_Kit]

So rare I've never even heard of it before. 

That electric motor in the corner dates it to early to mid-60s, when a lot of Japanese car kits came with a motor and gears, and a battery box too. I did some of the English instructions for some of them, but I never saw that one.

[zenrat]

Apparently putting a motor in the kit meant it was classed as a toy and avoided tax.

[PR19_Kit]

Apparently putting a motor in the kit meant it was classed as a toy and avoided tax.

That explains a lot, I never knew that, thanks Fred. 

[NARSES2]

Apparently putting a motor in the kit meant it was classed as a toy and avoided tax.

Until such times as those nice people at Southend cottoned on 

[zenrat]

Apparently putting a motor in the kit meant it was classed as a toy and avoided tax.

Until such times as those nice people at Southend cottoned on 

I always assumed it was those nice people at Tokyo who were the ones to be persuaded.

[sandiego89]

....... I did some of the English instructions for some of them......

So are you the guy to blame for some of those "interesting" translations!?  There were some real comical ones. Ha

[PR19_Kit]

....... I did some of the English instructions for some of them......

So are you the guy to blame for some of those "interesting" translations!?  There were some real comical ones. Ha

Definitely NOT!

I got so fed up with having to explain to customers of my mate's model shop in Oxford how to build some Tamiya kits with those crazy instructions that we complained to the late Glyn Pearson, Riko's sales manager, that they needed a native English speaking person to write the instructions.

He suggested that I do it, so I did for 2-3 years, until Tamiya got a better English speaker to do the job in the factory. I wasn't complaining, they effectively sponsored my hobby for all that time. 

[The Rat]

Definitely NOT!

"My Spitfire is full of eels!" 

[PR19_Kit]

Definitely NOT!

"My Spitfire is full of eels!" 

In their quasi-English instructions period Tamiya frequently used the word 'vis' and no-one had a CLUE what it meant. Luckily one of my fellow students when I was doing my HND was Japanese and he told me it meant 'screw' or 'bolt', which helped make sense eventually.

But that was just one of the mis-translations!

[Mossie]

Very nice.  I'd love to see a modern mainstream LSR collection.

[Hobbes]

In their quasi-English instructions period Tamiya frequently used the word 'vis' and no-one had a CLUE what it meant. Luckily one of my fellow students when I was doing my HND was Japanese and he told me it meant 'screw' or 'bolt', which helped make sense eventually.

Vis is also the French word for screw...

[JayBee]

Yes translations can be rather wonderfull.
I remember an issue of Punch magazine which was aimed at that years motor show in London.
One article was about an early translation of the British highway code into Japanese.
What they gave was a litoral translation back into English, such as :

"If a passenger of the foot hove into view, tootle on the horn. If that is ignored tootle more melodiously."

And my favourite :

"Beware the muddy places, for there lurks the skid Dragon."

[NARSES2]

"Beware the muddy places, for there lurks the skid Dragon."

Well doesn't it ?