Charlie's Shizuoka Hobby Show 2017 report, all that's new, weird and wonderful...

Our roving (freelance) reporter Charlie Prichett has sent us these pictures from the 2017 Shizuoka Japan model show. He has had some good access to look at all of the new, weird and wonderful models from the event. Some great stuff 

Shizuoka Hobby Show 2017 

Trade Days -Not open to the public.

May 11th (Thu.) 9:30～16:30

May 12th (Fri.) 9:30～16:30

Consumer Days 

May 13th (Sat.) 9:00～17:00

May 14th (Sun.) 9:00～16:00

The first 1,000 visitors of Junior High School age (15) and below on each day will be eligible for a gift!

Venue: Twin Messe Shizuoka

The largest plastic model fair in the country "Shizuoka Hobby Show" (sponsored by Shizuoka Model Teaching Materials Cooperative Association) began at the exhibition hall "Shin-Oku Twin Messe" in Suruga Ward, Shizuoka City on the 11th. 80 companies and organisations exhibited new models such as plastic models. The hobby show is the 56th event of this type. General visitors are given free of entry, and as a trade fair, more than 70,000 people visited the exhibition leading event.

Takom's new M-47 series was a feature on the Beaver Hobby Stall, and these were the focus of many modellers as many countries have operated a Patton of one marque or another.

Another focus were the other new releases including some revelations - see anything of interest here folks?

FV432 is turning out to be quite a head turner in the internal and external elements are all there

A new soviet made IDF tank is always popular

The marksman looks old but futuristic at the same time

The King Tiger in all it's internal glory was displayed

Hobbyboss in doyusha booth. Hobbyboss's new German MAN trucks look nice and tough even in scale.

Dragons new releases this year seem to be centred on the Middle East's conflicts from the 70's onwards. 

 AFV club's  new releases included an IDF New M109 Doher, resin idf soldier kit, a US M728 and a M113 from the Vietnam war era.

Tamiya booth - for us the 1/16 M1A2 tank from tamiya was a BIG surprise.

Japan's Navy destroyer "Shimakaze" (1/700th scale water line series) is July release  from Tamiya

At the Tamiya booth, the actual former F1 car "Tyrell P34" is on display, 

1/20 "Tyrell P34 1976 Japan GP". We are reworking the machine that went through F1 Japan Grand Prix in 1976 - this is a re-issued kit and many will make it into an RC car we would think.

the new 1/35 New Brummbar late type(series 4) looks like a very nice  - the Zimmerit looks effective, doesn't it?

...and new german tank crew figures will be very helpful and adapt to lots of people's diorama ideas...

The Honda "Africa Twin" looks nice to us

The net step in the Tamiya F4-u family in 32nd - the F4U-1D...As does all of their other new stuff...

Bandai had heaps of Gundam and all their of the J-centric stuff - most interesting here is the Star Wars kits, with the new General Grievous and AT-AT walkers in full force

MiniArt had some great models at the show as usual - the T-60 was a big feature - along with all of their scenery, dio and Russian battle tanks that feature great detail inside and out...

Zvezda had their new Sukhoi Su-33 fighter in 48th on display

Wolfpack designs were sporting an Iranian Tomcat, probably in better condition than those currently in hangars...along with some Japanaese pilots from WWII

Asuka  had some of their excellent Sherman based tanks and prectical models there - along with some impractical designs...

Aoshima had PLENTY of cars, trucks and buses on display

Fine Molds 1/700 Close-In Weapon System for Modern Ships is sure to be a useful kit for many modern warship modellers! The close-in weapon system is used by many ships worldwide, and Fine Molds have now reproduced this distinctive point-defense weapon system in fine detail. The CIWS can also be built in one of three types for even more versatility.

Airfix had a lot on display here - especially the nice looking early war Stuka and new RN Phantoms which will sell well.

Eduard had a fair bit of metal on display - also their lovely adaptations of the Hasegawa P-47 kits.

Italeri had lots of new kits on display and some older re-editions, impressive models though.

Kinetic had a small display next to the Hobbyboss booth...

Hong Kong Models had their large scale aircraft on prime display, with the B-17, new Mosquito stage II Merlin and Do-335 kits looking impressive

The trumpeter stand was dominated by big models like the ships and 16th scale German Jagdtiger and Panther tanks along with the usual mostly Russian 34th scale stuff.

Along with all of these kits were some lego creations that - even though there are not models, they are pretty cool...

And don't forget every other weird and wonderful model that are very Japanese at the show (that we are still trying to think of a classification for)

And Lastly - if you have space - a company is making a 1/1 scale Zero model...

Well that was it from this – the industry day at the show – the weekend is set to be another jam-packed event with PLENTY of people there - breathe in!

Thanks to the lovely people at the Shizuoka Hobby Square for the access to this great show.