TOPIC:

As I received a piece of history today...


I had to take another picture, because I can take  that picture, as this page of this  specific catalog is the inspiration of a massive project... A picture, that I'm literally the only one who can take it at this stage...

 

The similarity in the layout and presentation of that Marui catalog and the Tamiya catalogs and guide books of the same time period is pretty hard to ignore.  I wonder who copied whom?

Good call Blakbird, especially that right hand page. Blimey !!!

Well, as usual... They probably get inspired by Tamiya RC guide books.
But they made it their own way on the layout side.
- each page with cars have 2 models; and for each model, on the left half of the section is the picture of the car without and with the body, all oriented the same, the box on the top right, some text and some details drawings...
- looking at other chapters of that catalog which are not related to rc, each one have its own specific organization, but always structured the same way within the chapter. And some time a full page of action shots...

Looking at the Tamiya RC guides, they are not that homogeneous (i've checked and downloaded some scans I could find online), and if you are opening a Kyosho catalog, this is another world with the main part being given to action shots... So each one brand had its own way...

On that right hand page : you can find similar stuff on every single manual or rc catalog, whatever the brand is, not sure Tamiya was the one initiating it, because Kyosho started RC quite long before Tamiya... (at the notable exception of Kyosho : those cars were not made for kids).