The company has gained a reputation among hobbyists of producing models of outstanding quality and accurate scale detail.

Tamiya's metal molds are produced from plans with the concept of being "easy to understand and build, even for beginners".

Tamiya's competitors already sold similar models for 350 yen, forcing the company to match the price.

However, at this cheap price, Tamiya was unable to recover the cost of producing metal molds, so once again, they refocused on wooden models.

They decided that their second plastic model would be the Panther tank—it had a linear form, which would make the molds simple to produce.

Initially, Tamiya ordered metal molds from outside contractors, but often had delays and unclear pricing, which led to business problems.

Tamiya's models became renowned for the extremely high accuracy of their molds, which reflected in the final product after assembly.

This level of detail and thoroughness with which they produced their models earned them a high reputation, including overseas.

These box arts, which expanded the product image and had a feeling of "compositions of achievement" or "a story contained in a picture", further enhanced Tamiya's brand.

However, in an attempt to make the box art more accurate and visually precise, the 1968 racing car model appeared on a white background without scenery.

This experiment turned out to be popular, and after that, Tamiya completely switched to white background art on their packaging (except for some aircraft and ship models).

This became a problem when Tamiya began exporting these models internationally, due to false advertising laws.

Drawn by manga artist Fujita Yukihisa, they usually appeared in various Japanese language pamphlets and in comics with Japan-released Tamiya models.

Noticing other companies were imitating their ease of assembly and accuracy of parts, Tamiya went a step further and added deformities in order to make the finished models look more realistic.

They also produce very high end mini four-wheel drive models in the EVO chassis.

However, recently this sort of arrangement has lessened, models are based on alternative references (like news photographs), and royalties demanded by F1 teams have risen.

In order to accommodate that, Tamiya employs about 1,200 workers to make finished die cast models which are then shipped to hobby markets around the world.

In September 2000, policemen in Cebu City, Philippines began operations to arrest people betting on Tamiya toy car races, which they consider a form of illegal gambling.

On February 1, 2006, Tamiya and CAVE established Mini 4WD Networks Co., Ltd., a spin-off business dealing with miniature vehicles.

In July of the same year, the company began the "MINIon Club" service, a social networking site which also gave special deals on miniature vehicles.

Tamiya America also established a world-class racing facility in Aliso Viejo, California—which was the site of several world championship events—as well as an annual scale model contest called Tamiya/Con, the last of which was held in 2006.

Tamiya radio-controlled models previously held two Guinness World Records, both for distances travelled: