Model No. 1 Telephone Booth (COMMERCIAL)

[Sakuragi Miniatures]

This is the Japanese Model No. 1 telephone booth which was introduced in Meiji 33 (1900).



The unpainted orange prototype will be sent off for casting; the painted example is from a different printer and isn't printed as finely but it work as a rough example.
I chose to recreate this model phone booth because it?s distinctive and you can recreate streets from the Meiji, Taisho and early Showa eras. Initially painted white, red booths began appearing in Meiji 44 (1911). A newer style of slim, light grey booth began supplanting the older ones in Showa 2 (1927).

According to the NTT Museum in Mojiko, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, local calls were an expensive 15 sen for five minutes in Meiji 33 (1900). A yen was like a dollar and not a penny back then, so a yen was made of 100 sen. The new ?jido-denwa? or ?automatic telephone? was so popular that by Meiji 35 (1902) the price dropped to five sen. Even if not being used for calls, they were great places for getting out of the rain!

(I?m using the Japanese Imperial calendar dates to give a feel for the era.)







A replica or rebuilt phone booth at Meiji-mura beside the preserved Shichijo koban police box.

[tom q vaxy]

unique & interesting.

the door must certainly be self-closing.

[Storm Wolf]

Cool, it would also make for a very alternative TARDIS 

[fred]

A very interesting little model - have to say the orange resin photographs horribly!

Cool, it would also make for a very alternative TARDIS 

True!

[Sakuragi Miniatures]

A very interesting little model - have to say the orange resin photographs horribly!

True!

Agreed on how it photographs, but its the highest quality I could get. It'll be used for mold making so it needs to be as perfect as possible!

[Sakuragi Miniatures]

unique & interesting.

the door must certainly be self-closing.

That's a good point, since the walls cant inward.

[fred]

Agreed on how it photographs, but its the highest quality I could get. It'll be used for mold making so it needs to be as perfect as possible!

Makes sense - photographs of any raw material models are notoriously hard to do. I was mentioning it in case you were going to use these for promo photos. But if it is just to show us the steps, then that's cool.

[Sakuragi Miniatures]

Makes sense - photographs of any raw material models are notoriously hard to do. I was mentioning it in case you were going to use these for promo photos. But if it is just to show us the steps, then that's cool.

I just wanted to show that the actual product will look cleaner than the painted example. When I get the production models in I'll use those for promos.

[marianas_gamer]

Are you aware if the were used in Manchukuo? Also, I would love to have the officer in winter gear to lead my Mentetsu anti-bandit patrols.

[Sakuragi Miniatures]

Are you aware if the were used in Manchukuo? Also, I would love to have the officer in winter gear to lead my Mentetsu anti-bandit patrols.

I'm not sure if they did have them, but given the Japanese possessed Port Arthur/Dalian, and the southern Manchurian railway and the land around it, I think it wouldn't be out of place. Manchuria would be interesting to game because of it's mixed heritage of native Manchurian, Russian and Japanese architecture.

Thanks for your thoughts on the officer. I can't promise a range, but I think a solo Taisho-era officer would be practical alongside a rambunctious haikara fiancee, if you know what I mean.