Nissan 180/240SX Kits - Tamiya vs. Fujimi

[Ken]

Okay, there is always a question of who is better. I recently purchased two 180/240SX kits one Tamiya and one Fujimi. I thought that I would use this as an opportunity to compare the two manufacturers on similar kits. I believe that both kits came out around the same time frame. So I think that they are a decent judge of the quality of molding and such. First the boxes

The Tamiya box is a bit smaller than the Fujimi box. Also the Tamiya box uses an artist's illustration where the Fujimi box uses a picture of the real car.

here are the respective bodies so far. Both look decently molded. The Tamiya has smaller mold lines as will be evident later.

The wheelbases seem to match along with the actual lengths in scale.

Here are the front ends side by side. Already evident is the delicate engraving and molding that Tamiya is know for. The Fujimi kit is well molded, but the details are not as refined.

Here are some close ups to show the differences. Both Tamiya and Fujimi mold the front vents and such open. You can see the heavy mold lines on the driver's side fender of the Fujimi kit. The mold lines on the Tamiya kit are placed better and almost imperceptable. Also, the open vents and such just show a bit more refinement on the Tamiya Kit.

Next post on to the chassis and such

[Ken]

Okay, the chassis parts break-down are about the same in both kits. Again, Tamiya gains the edge in fidelity and refinement of molding. Here is the Tamiya chassis.

notice that the bottom of the turbo and such are present in the engine bay. Also, Tamiya molded the gas tank to the chassis. Fujimi chose not to.

Notice that none of the turbo plumbing present in the Tamiya chassis is included in the Fujimi chassis. Also, as mentioned before the gas tank is a separate piece on the Fujimi chassis.

Here are the remaining Fujimi undercarriage parts. Fujimi chose to mold the rear end as one solid piece while Tamiya chose to mold them separately. Fujimi, while molding the brakes to the struts, did a beautiful job with these. There are delicate holes drilled into the rotor faces, while the tamiya brake rotors are smooth.

In the last photo, you can see the Tamiya dash. It is very nicely molded as are the rest of the interior parts. Interestingly enough, both manufacturers chose to include both left and right handed dashes and consoles. Here are the Fujimi dashes. Both make use of decals for instrumentation. Fujimi gives both dial and digital faced clusters, while Tamiya includes just dial faces.

Okay, so there we go. Two kits representative of the time period of each company's work. I think that Fujimi has made large gains in equalling Tamiya quality. I believe that Tamiya has made even bigger gains in fidelity and engineering of their molds. I also think that it really depends on from what time frame the mold comes from. Some of the much older Tamiya stuff is no better than the Fujimi stuff of the same time frame. In all, Fujimi does have some good points as they tend to do kits that Tamiya does not. If you have a choice though, between a Tamiya kit and a Fujimi kit of the same offering, go with the Tamiya... Now treaded and winged thingies are a completely different story.

[RodneyBad]

Nice.

tell me more.

I normally go for the one I can get (and the cheapest)

So, in Scoring

Tamiya is ahead?

so far?

[Ken]

I think that Tamiya is ahead. As far as price goes, if I can get the Tamiya cheaper (usually not hard to do) I get the Tamiya. In this instance, I believe that the Tamiya kit was cheaper by a couple of bucks, maybe... I will have to check the invoice before I commit to that though.

[Brendan]

You can find a lot of the older Tamiya kits for under $20.

[cruz]

It's usually pretty hard to go head to head against Tamiya but Fujimi offers a very good product nonetheless!