Tomix - New Releases

[Kiha66]

Wooooooooo!  Very excited for the HO Kiha 40.  Now just some Kiha 47s and maybe 66/67s please tomix....

[JR 500系]

Defintely the Kamome. hands down one of the most beautiful N700s! (unless they decide to make a N700s with an Eva or Sumikko Gurashi livery 😛

[1954G]

The Kamome really is special, isn't it? The black triangle on the nose makes it look a bit like an Alfa Romeo car - not something I ever thought I'd say about a shinkansen, but somehow it looks good.

I got so used to seeing the N700 in JR Central colors that the dark red was a bit of a shock.

[disturbman]

It's really love or hate. I think there is a lot of people, like me, who think that Eiji Mitooka lost his touch. The red is nice, but the overabundance of text and logos lacks any kind of finesse.

[Kamome]

I would also say Eiji Mitooka didn’t really get a lot of choice with the externals. The shinkansen design is as is and I do like the red skirt but I agree with @disturbman about the over abundance of external graphics, even if they named it after me. 😂

 

Looks a bit like it was used for a Kamome stamp rally. Better to have a single emblem in a specific place and the large red Nishi-Kyushu Shinkansen Kamome graphics, especially, take away any sense of refinement. Looks like it was designed by a committee rather than allowing a single designer to have a vision. 

 

I would like a model of this but a very large part of me wants to wait for the Kato offering. 

 

 

[disturbman]

I imagine the scene as this:

“-The Eiji Mitooka brand is about elegance and refinement…

-Yes, we need texts, and logos. Moar. And everywhere!”

Edited September 11, 2022 by disturbman

[jappomania]

17 hours ago, disturbman said:

It's really love or hate. I think there is a lot of people, like me, who think that Eiji Mitooka lost his touch. The red is nice, but the overabundance of text and logos lacks any kind of finesse.

 

again, I agree at 111%, I'm not sure if I order one, is just a 6 cars set so is not so expensive, but excluding some wrapped trains and the "underpants on the head" style of renewed E3, for me is the worst livery ever applied on Shinkansen....

[Kiha66]

On 9/10/2022 at 12:57 PM, disturbman said:

It's really love or hate. I think there is a lot of people, like me, who think that Eiji Mitooka lost his touch. The red is nice, but the overabundance of text and logos lacks any kind of finesse.

 

I feel similar, I was reading an article where he discusses how he wanted to paint the whole train black or red but was overruled.  I feel that this looks much nicer than a black train in the warm Kyushu sun would have turned out.

[200系]

I'm probably biased as I've never been a big fan of the work of Mitōka Eiji, especially railway related. I think his buildings are fine, and his interior designs truly shine in my opinion, but the trains he designed have simply never done it for me, with perhaps the only exception being the 787 series, perhaps not surprising as I prefer more reserved, understated and/or functional designs, which his designs are most certainly not. That said, I can perfectly understand those who like his designs, and the general JR Kyūshū esthetic he helped create, in the end it's just not my cup of tea (I'll take a more traditional maccha please 😉).

His Kamome livery though...

 

Personally, I think an ideal livery emphasizes the strong points of said design in question, while de-emphasizing points which may be, perceived to be, unflattering. In this sense I think the classic (modified) 300 series livery fits the JR Tōkai N700S formations perfectly fine, its business like functionalism gives it a certain conservative elegance, which perfectly fits the understated elegance of the N700 series family design, while the minor changes help de-emphasize the less flattering aspects introduced with the slightly modified nose design of the N700S.

 

Conversely, to me the Kamome livery does the exact opposite. one of the more distinct visual changes between the N700/N700a/N700A series design and the N700S design is the design of the wing part of the Aero Double Wing nose design. On the N700/N700a and N700A series the wing (lower part of the main nose section) this section actually slopes downward when compared to the folds raising up to the shoulders, which then continue into the roofline. As both the design of the wing itself and the livery, the blue cheatline flows into the curvature of the wing at the ends, work together to de-emphasize the rather flat and wide cross section of this part of the nose, it minimizes the visual impact of this area which helps it retain it's elegance, especially when viewed in profile. The N700S design on the other hand is slightly different, with the wing part no longer sloping to the same extend but rather forming a straight line from the hem, the N700 series family has a more pronounced hem squeeze because of the body tilt system, almost to the tip of the nose. This was done to improve the micro pressure alleviation effect of the nose shape compared to the original N700 series design, very important when taking into consideration that modern shinkansen nose designs (ever since the introduction of the E1 series in 1994, though research into micro pressure alleviation through nose designs date back as far as 1985 with the proposed SUS (Speed-Up Shinkansen) high speed test trains) are designed specifically to keep within the environmental (sound) standards even at higher speeds.

 

Because of the change in design she looks, there's no other way around it, quite thick (tm) when compared to her older sisters, especially when seen from the front or in profile.

To de-emphasize this thickness a little, JR Tōkai (and JR West by default) changed the livery slightly, adding an additional stripe above the traditional cheatlines, which runs between the crew door and slightly forward of the forward tip of the drivers cab, with the stripe narrowing towards the tip.

 

By contrast, the added eyeliner around the headlight clusters and the Lamborghini logo at the center as used on the Kamome design, in my opinion, manages to emphasize the added thickness of the N700S design, while the excessive use of black around the drivers cab actually de-emphasizes the elegance of this section, making it stand out to such a degree that it actually removes the natural balance and makes it look like a separate, almost unrelated part of the design, rather than making the lines flow into one another as in the original design. Add in the busy lettering people have mentioned before, and the end result to me would feel much more at home at one of the Gulf states, something built as a plaything for some rich oil sheikh for whom the entire world resolves around expensive cars, and for whom everything has to look like one.

 

So, tldr, guess I'm safe in that regard... The JR West 583 series on the other hand...😅

[jappomania]

On 9/12/2022 at 1:57 AM, Kiha66 said:

 

...I was reading an article where he discusses how he wanted to paint the whole train black or red but was overruled...

 

Kyushu Shinkalion! too expensive to pay fees for patented livery 😄  (maybe with teeth painted on the nose section...)

Edited September 16, 2022 by jappomania

[gavino200]

On 9/11/2022 at 7:57 PM, Kiha66 said:

 

I feel similar, I was reading an article where he discusses how he wanted to paint the whole train black or red but was overruled.  I feel that this looks much nicer than a black train in the warm Kyushu sun would have turned out.

 

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/372532200405952391/

 

The final version is a big improvement. I actually like it. I think the nose looks like an animal face. Two eyes and a nose. Like an anime arctic fox, or something. I'm really tempted to buy it. I probably won't though. I'm not a big fan of Tomix Shinkansen coupling mechanisms and also, I have to stop just buying trains instead of actually building my layout.

[marknewton]

On 9/8/2022 at 9:19 PM, Kamome said:

HO JNR Kiha 40 2000s?

 

Yes please. 

Even though I have KiHa40s made by MicroAce, Tramway and Neko Publishing, I'm very tempted to get one or two of these as well.

 

Cheers,

 

Matk.

[Yavianice]

Seems the newly released Tomix 97947 has some paint issues

 

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Yavianice said:

Seems the newly released Tomix 97947 has some paint issues

 

 

Took Tomix a year to get to that?!? Disappointing to say the least.  Mine is “preparing for shipment” at the moment.

Edited September 18, 2022 by Bob Martin

[JR East]

RG-Rokko has suspended the shipment, waiting for actions of Tomix. Masaharu is really a great pro !

 

JM.

[disturbman]

15 hours ago, Bob Martin said:

Took Tomix a year to get to that?!?

One or several people at the factory QC messed up, it happens. I wouldn't blame the entire company for it. The model itself looks good, and I don't think all the sets are affected. Some Tomix models had more worrisome issues; notably the bananing of some of their sets.

What will be interesting to see, is if Tomix issue replacements or a recall. I know of a few model railway manufacturers that wouldn't care about those printing/painting issues and sell the models anyway.

On the topic on the Kamome, I hadn't realized Tomix had already shown pictures of a decorated prototype. To me, the design decisions Mitooka took on this look even worse from a distance.
 

 

[railsquid]

23 minutes ago, disturbman said:

On the topic on the Kamome, I hadn't realized Tomix had already shown pictures of a decorated prototype. To me, the design decisions Mitooka took on this look even worse from a distance.
 

 

 

Good heavens, that looks like it went down to the Shinkansen tattoo parlour after a drunken night out.

[JR East]

It's a matter of personal feeling. 

 

I like this disruptive look. Either you love it or you hate it (like the famous "Marmite" in UK)

[railsquid]

I was exposed to Marmite as a child. Multiple times. That permits me to hold very certain opinions.

[JR East]

2 hours ago, railsquid said:

I was exposed to Marmite as a child. Multiple times. That permits me to hold very certain opinions.

 

 

 

 

 ..... one (very) small step for Man, a major failure for mankind

 

JM

Edited September 20, 2022 by JR East

[jappomania]

2 hours ago, railsquid said:

I was exposed to Marmite as a child. Multiple times. That permits me to hold very certain opinions.

 

I was exposed to this .. wait ... I'm still exposed to this 😍

anyway is better than the "ball bearing" grease

[cteno4]

Vegimite wins. We had an Englishman and an Australian in the club and of course this was of very heated debate many, many times. So we had a blind taste off using 3 neutral continent tasters who had no real exposure to either substance. Good new bottles provided from each side (not sure the stuff can go bad though). 3 to 0 for vegimite, much to the englishman’s distress! Although tastebuds may have been tweeted a little as this experiment was done after having our club’s annual trains n scrapple brunch.

 

jeff

[Dave K]

5 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Vegimite wins. We had an Englishman and an Australian in the club and of course this was of very heated debate many, many times. So we had a blind taste off using 3 neutral continent tasters who had no real exposure to either substance. Good new bottles provided from each side (not sure the stuff can go bad though). 3 to 0 for vegimite, much to the englishman’s distress! Although tastebuds may have been tweeted a little as this experiment was done after having our club’s annual trains n scrapple brunch.

 

jeff

Scrapple!

 

It's not just for breakfast!

 

My local Giant carries a brand of scrapple from Philly.  It's has sage and it is delish. 

 

Dave

Edited September 20, 2022 by Dave K
Minor edit.

[railsquid]

On 9/18/2022 at 11:26 PM, Yavianice said:

Seems the newly released Tomix 97947 has some paint issues

 

 

 

Some more issues: https://www.facebook.com/SupperKiyonaga/posts/pfbid0ggjLPG2ukFY5wbsuAwmC8ocSoLk6muUtLNb9Mc3LA3oPCtTWSQh9G25R7ddt4MPDl (Facebook, page currently publicly accessible)

Edited September 20, 2022 by railsquid

[cteno4]

2 hours ago, Dave K said:

My local Giant carries a brand of scrapple from Philly.  It's has sage and it is delish. 

scrapple, everything not fit to go into spam! Yes it was the start of our club. I like it, but the gray color out of the package takes getting use to as normally food that color is spoiled! Have not tried the sage, will have to next club annual meeting.

 

jeff

 

ps guilty admission, I do have spam maybe every month or two…