October 99 Tokyo Hobby Fair

10/99 Tokyo Hobby Fair

The Tokyo Hobby Fair is one of the two bi-annual hobby trade fair in Japan, and its the biggest of the two. This fair previews the latest products that will be released in the coming year. This particular fair spanned four whole days from 7th to 10th October, 1999. Maybe due to the economy of Japan, this show is felt by most as the smallest in size for the history of this show.

Click on the image for a larger image.

Futaba

Futaba joined force with OS engines to share a booth for this show. There is no new servo and radio showed in the booth. The limelight of the Futaba booth is their new GY240 gyro and the GH-1 onboard glow driver. The GY240 gyro is an entry level piezo gyro that featured single gain setting, heading lock control. It is very compact in size (27X27X20mm, 23g), and is designed for electric and 30 size helicopters. Price for it is not set but is said to be around under US$100- The GH-1 onboard glow driver is a set of electronics components that draws current from the receiver pack to power the glow plug for starting. Price is set to be under US$40-.


*GH-1 Onboard glow driver*

*GY-240 economy head lock gyro*

Hirobo

Hirobo has several new items to show.

On the limelight is the Hirobo Eagle II WC 99 limited edition version that helped Hirobo and Hashimoto won the Poland F3C World Championship. Hirobo planned to release this version for only 500 pieces worldwide, and each of them include a Futaba 64K CAMPAC that has Hashimoto's setting, a limited version main blade carrying bag, and an instruction booklet that detailed the design of the helicopter. The list price of this version is set at around US$2,800-. The market version of this helicopter did not include the Blackshark II fuselage with retracts that is used by Hashimoto in the 99 World Championship. The particular items that differentiate the 99 WC with the Eagle II EX 98 Spec are as follows:

Painted canopy that include a graphite windscreen molded onto the FRP canopy (Available unpainted for Eagle and Shuttle);
Carbon main blades (680mm);
SSR-V rotorhead that featured shorter hub, redesigned flybar control mechanism, longer blade grips, and stronger trust bearing assembly to increase control response;
Longer flybar (555mm);
New longer main mast to increase the pitch window; and
Other minor updates like soft mount vertical tail fin and new type landing gear brackets.


*Eagle 99WC Limited Edition*	*New FRP canopies with graphite inserts*

*Painted canopy with carbon insert windscreen*	*New SSR-V rotor head*

*Soft mount tail vertical fin*	*Updated landing gear bracket*

*SSR-V Rotor head*	*Rotor blade caddy*

Hirobo once again showed the three scale helicopters that raised lots of interest in the May show, the Tiger, the Dolphin and the Panther. These helicopters shown are near to production version as stated by Hirobo officials. The price for the Tiger is listed at around US$1,800- available December 1999, and for the Dolphin and Panther around US$2,200-, available in February 2000. These helicopters used a newly designed mechanics that is 60 size and uses 120 degree three servo ECCPM for controls. All of these helicopters could have options like on-board starting sysem and 4 blades rotor head. The Dolphin and Panther both had very high quality 7 bladed fenestron fan unit and retract systems that has shock absorbers.


*AS365 Dolphin*	*Fenestron of Dolphin*

*AS565 Panther*	*Eat your heart out Vario!*

*Eurocopter Tiger*	*Mechanic for new Hirobo scale machines*

*3 Servo 120 degree ECCPM control*	*Note optional on-board starter installed*

*Closeup on drive train*	*Note fuel tank on the side*

*Retractable gear with shock absorber*	*Retractable front gear with shock absorber*

*7 blade fenestron*	*Another side of the fenestron*

Hirobo also showed their CCPM version of Shuttle and their "IMAC" look shuttle canopies.

JR Propo Helicopter Division

In the middle of JR booth is a netted area that JR used to display the flying of their new EP Voyager. The EP Voyager has a Scorpion and Ecureil fuselage available as option. Also, JR showed a new Agusta 109 fuselage and a Sikorsky S76C with their MC430 four bladed head. There is also a new helicopter called Voyager 30. Although it shared the smae name as the EP Voyager, but the Voyager 30 featured a completely new design from all JR helicopters. The special design of the Voyager 30 featured a very neat and simple main frame design that is similar to the Robbe Futura SE, and uses 3 servo 120 degree ECCPM control. The Voyager 30 also featured a special cooling system jointly developed with K&S that does not need a fan shroud. On the JR booth is also the IMZ engines in 60 and 50 size. There is no release date for these engines.


*Agusta A109 fuselage*	*Sikorsky S76C with MC430 head*

*JR IMZ Engines, 50 and 60 size*	*Robinson 50*

*Voyager E with Ecureil fuselage*	*Voyager E with Scorpion VE fuselage*

*Sensui hovering Voyager E Ecureil*	*Sensui hovering Voyager Scorpion VE*

*Voyager 30 CCPM*	*Note, no fan shroud*

*Head design similar to X-Cell*	*Very clean and simple mainframe design*

*IMZ 50*	*Note: carb on the side*

*IMZ 60*	*Note: slide carb on the side*

JR Propo Radio Division

Once again the G5000T and G550T gyros are featured. Difference between the two gyros are mainly on their refresh rate. The G5000T has three times the refresh rate than the G550T, and its got travel limit adjust. The G5000T requires super servos, but the G550T could be used with any servos. Price for the G5000T is listed at around US$360- and the G550T at US$210-. Still these gyros are not available in the Japanese market at the moment of writing this page, and I still have backorders for these goodies. Except for the gyros, JR also released a new, economy digital servo called the DS811.


*G5000T*	*G550T*



*Control amplifier of G5000T*	*Control amplifier of G550T*

*DS811 Digital servo*	*X-3810 with 4XDS811*

Kalt

Nothing new caught my attention, except the girl...

There is no new items featured for Kalt.

Kyosho

Kyosho has by far the biggest booth amongst other manufacturers, and they make very good use of their rented space. On display is the Caliber 50M, which is based on their Caliber 60. The Caliber 50M is a miniature version of the Caliber 60, with most of the fabulous design of the Caliber 60 got shrink into a 50 size machine, and is targeted at the Japanese Mini F3C rules. According to Kyosho officials they do not plan to release it to the foreign market, and price would be a bit higher than regular 50 class machines due to the high quality of materials used. I told Kyosho officials that the Caliber 50M will be a very popular helicopter due to its design and look and begged him to make it available out of Japan. So if you guys like the Caliber 50M please e-mail me and I would relate them to Kyosho official just to see if we could change their minds. Also shown is a full fuselage called Swift 60 for the Caliber 60.


*Mr. Makato Kunii, designer of Kyosho Caliber*	*Some new parts shown to me by Mr. Kunii*

*Caliber 50M (Prototype)*	*Full view of the Caliber 50M*

*Closeup of the tail*	*Control mechanics same as Caliber 60*

*Nicely constructed rotorhead*	*Looks like the Caliber 60 ha?*

*Drive train*	*Full push-pull control*

*Canopy of the Caliber 50M*	*Make the Caliber 50M available, please?*

*Swift fuselage for Caliber 60*	*Swift fuselage for Caliber 60*

K&S

K&S released just a few new items. On site is a new cooling fan that is used by JR in their Voyager 30. This fan does not need to use a fan shroud, and could be used for Hirobo shuttle and JR Ergo. Also displayed is a new muffler that looked similar to the Hatori 666.


*Display rack of K&S booth*	*New parts display*

*Light weight engine mount for Ergo*	*New cooling fan that eliminate fan duct*

TSK

TSK had nothing new in display except for a new rotor head for their Blackstar DL.

New head for Blackstar DL

OS

OS displayed nothing new for helicopters. On the side, hidding in a corner is the prototype engine that Hashimoto used for his 99 world Champ. However, I could tell you that this is NOT the same engine as installed in Hashimoto's machine. I don't think OS would produce this engine in the near future, cause FAI just released the engine displacement limit for F3C and engine manufacturers are very busy designing new engines with larger displacements. Also shown is their OS140 FI that featured electronic mixture management system, and I guess it will not be long to see a similar design to be used in helicopter engines.


*New OS61SXWC (Prototype)*	*OS 140 F1 (Note mixture management system)*

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