Imai Kagaku

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I havea 1/16 scale Lotus Ford (#1-881)  Box art has Lotus Ford with offset right-side suspension, even though the box discription says Grand Prix Series.  The kits parts also have the off-set.  Body is red/chrome/gray/clear with electric motor to install. 

The other kit on the box is a 1/12 Honda F1 car.  Not knowing at the time, I picked one of these up at a swap meet in a bag under a table for $10!

My question for all is, did Tamiya absorb this company at one time?  The box-art and direction layout look very similar.

Hope this expands the list.

fitzie

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Sounds more like Bandai. They did a series of 1/16 scale Indy cars including the 1967 Lotus Ford.

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Indycals is right. What you have is an Imai reissue of a Bandai kit. Imai seems to have reissued many of the Bandai 1/16 Indy cars and 1/12 F1 cars. I have an Imai reissue of the Lotus 49.

At $10 you got a good deal. They regular sell on eBay for close to $100 or more.

Bandai and Tamiya have always been separate companies which happened to produce some of the same subjects in the same scales.

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Thanks for the history guys. Will post a picture soon.