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Hey congratulations on your trip to Japan! Tired I bet, did you take many pics?

You are a tough competitor at Tamiya USA and a well deserved win to Japan for your efforts.

That's not half bad. I was worried they'd use the ugly Gen 1 or 2 Demios.

Thanks!

Thanks! I just noticed that I've forgotten to insert any kit stickers on the body, and that's probably why it looks a bit bare to me. It's not too bad, but I think I'll put on the window linings and the door handles at least.

That's a great looking Giulia you've got! It's my favorite out of the Tamiya bodies as well, though I do love the look of the ABC Datsuns as well. Might have to buy one or two eventually. I'll have to wait until Christmas to start building my GTA, but in the mean time I can at least design some kind of a custom decal sheet for it.

I'm a little worried about what bodies we'll be seeing in the future. Seeing how crossovers are beginning to dominate markets outside the US now, we could be stuck racing some seriously boring kid haulers soon.

All the new vehicles are boring, even the sporty cars. It won't matter what it is, a quote from Marv in Sin City sums it up. " Modern cars - they all look like electric shavers....."

I believe it has to do with getting licenses from the actual companies (to create these bodies). So either the license with BMW expired and/or BMW wanted too large of a percentage of the sales and/or Tamiya didn't think the deal was worth continuing.

Regardless, I guess I'll either switch to mid wheelbase and get the MX5 body OR wait for a long wheelbase body to come out before the 2017 season?? I figure Tamiya is aware of this issue and must be working on something?

In the meantime I put one of my JCW bodies up on eBay. I am asking a butt load of $$ for it, but considering the other JCW bodies are asking $150 each ...my deal is really really really good. If I sell it i'll put my other JCW bodies up. May use the proceeds to get a M05VIIr as an extra racer (last season I missed an A-main due to my ESC going out just 2mins before the race). WOuld have been nice to have had a spare car.

Licensing costs. It's also why Tamiya bodies cost more than others. They're one of the few that actually pays licensing fees for their tiny versions of real cars and to use their names.

Ah. The Lexus factor.

That doesn't explain why Tamiya still sells the RX7 shell and decals separately but discontinued the set.

Tamiya does many things that don't make sense. Embrace the insanity.

You misunderstood me.

Tamiya sells body sets and as well as bodies just by themselves.

The body sets include, body, decal / masking sheet and plastic part tree under a 5 digit part number. They have tendency to discontinue these body sets after a while, which leads to the misconception that they bodies are discontinued.

Meanwhile, the bodies, decals and parts trees continue to be available under the 7 digit part numbers. To find these part numbers can be tricky. They only place they are listed are on the manual that comes in the body sets. TamiyaUSA does a good job of making the manual available or parts listing but it's not 100%.

I have been running the Alfa Giulia Body for over 10 years. The "body set" has been discontinued for every year except 2012 when Tamiya released it under a 5 digit part number that starts with an 8 (eg limited). When the M06 Alfa Giulia Sprint was released the body set was still discontinued

Over the span of these 10 years I have replaced multiple worn out bodies by buying the separates.. Which can be pricey.

I have also resorted to harass the boys at Tamiya USA to make sure they keep the body, decals sheet and h parts in stock

Thank you!

Now we go full circle back to my original statement

"Why Tamiya discontinues the body sets, will always be a mystery"

money, they make more selling each part separately.