In the mid-1950s, foreign-made plastic models were beginning to be imported and wooden model sales were decreasing, so in 1959 they decided to manufacture plastic models. Their first model was the "Yamato". However, Tamiya's competitors had already sold Yamato models at 350 yen. Tamiya was at risk of getting into the red by setting the same price as the competitors. This cheap price led Tamiya unable to recover the cost of producing metal molds, so once again, they changed their products to wooden models, but at that time the model trade's tide was turning toward plastic models.