Clemency and Concern from the
Chief
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all rights reserved, Model Graphix magazine Japan ---
----By the way,
Kiya-san, the Lotus 72C was your first try ever at developing a plastic model
with 3D CAD/CAM, right? How did that
turn out for you?
Because your processing accuracy is far
better with that, than it is when scaling down tri-dimensional volumes or
working from two-dimensional blueprints, you can maintain that processing
accuracy, and you can also do interference checks on-screen. And because we can make all our design
corrections before turning to CAM, not having
any mold correction costs is a big merit.
----But you
Kiya-san, who can see 3D images of car surfaces in his head, or anyone else who
can turn those surfaces round and round in his head as if they were 3D CAD
blueprints, must think “I regret having lost that specialized advantage that
once was mine”.
Yeah, well, even if you can turn them round
and round on a 3D CAD screen, I think there are some people who can see those
car surfaces and some who still don’t. There
are some people who’ll notice “Ah, this surface isn’t quite right” when they’re
rotating the data, and some who’ll just say “I’m sure glad the data rotates”
and leave it at that. It’s the same with
two-dimensions. There are the people who’ll
say “I’m sure glad I’ve finished drawing up the blueprints” and leave it at that,
and there are the people who can see the expressions that those surfaces will
take.
The one thing I do regret, however, is not
being able to feel the wooden mockups in my hands like I used to. That sensation where you can discern that “This
curve is a bit too strong” while feeling something in your hands doesn’t come
with 3D CAD until you’ve done your CAM machining, and it would be nice if you
could get that same sensation by looking at rotating 3D CAD images one day… Maybe there are some talented designers
somewhere out there in the world, who can do that already though.
----I’m
backtracking a bit, but about when did you convey to Chief Executive Shunsaku Tamiya
that you were returning to the world of plastic models?
Almost immediately after Sugiura-san left.
----I’ll just
come out and ask you, but did you say something like “I’d like to work together
with Sugiura-san” when you put it to the Chief?
Yeah.
First I said “So Sugiura-san has left”, then I said something like “We’re
thinking about doing plastic models, so would it be alright for Sugiura-san to
help us?” Then the Chief said “Having a
job would be good for him, so yeah go ahead”.
Sugiura-san must’ve had some reason for leaving the company, so I half
expected to be told “What do I care what happens to him?”, but I was left with
a “The Chief really cares about this guy” impression.
----When you
brought your subject up, Kiya-san, how did you feel the Chief responded?
I’d been throwing curveballs at the Chief
every chance I got (laughs), saying things like “I’d like to do plastic models”
and of course he’d been telling me things like “Hey, you of all people should
know how tough the plastic model business is now”, but I felt those were
positive reactions and I was grateful for that.
He’d also tell me “Well, what you and I wanna do are two completely
different things” and I’d come out saying things like “What Tamiya and little
guys like us do should be different” when we spoke on the subject.
Of course he asked “What are you going to commercialize?”
so I also told him “There’s a lot I left unfinished in my Tamiya days, so old
Lotuses”. And then he’d tell me “That’d
be good”, but he’d leave it with a question mark when he’d add “Gee I hope they
sell…” (chargin).
----What was
Clive Chapman’s reaction, Kiya-san, when you formally made an offer and said “I
want to commercialize the Lotus 72C”?
Well, it was like “Why not?” He was pretty “Is that so?” matter-of-fact
about it (laughs).
But then we made a promise for them to let
us see the Lotus 88 owned by the Chapman family this year, not the one at
Classic Team Lotus, and we researched that one on our return from the Nürnberg International
Toy Fair. Katsuaki Yasuda-san ran the
88B owned by Classic Team Lotus Japan
at the Japan Lotus Day 2012 held last year, didn’t he. When I told Clive “I’d like to commercialize
the 88” then, he said “Come to think of it, the 91 shares the same monocoque,
so if you commercialize the 88, you could easily progress to the 88B and the 91
too” and was pretty keen about it. Then
later he was saying “The original 88s are in England so come see them”…
----… If that’s
so, can we consider commercialization of the 88 a done deal?
Well it hasn’t been decided yet, but yeah, what
to do… I know there are lots of people
who’re crazy about the 88, but what are their absolute numbers after all?
Of course, if we really do decide to commercialize,
there’s a 91 sitting in the lobby of Tamiya headquarters, so we could research
it as much as we want. And we’ve already
researched the 88B.