The Brickyard, a Paradise for Tamiya Enthusiasts, Now Open at the Ayala Malls Manila Bay

In 2017, Ferdie Kahn opened the first ‘The Brickyard’ branch in Glorietta, Makati which became the haven for Tamiya enthusiasts. In 2023, the Mini 4WD paradise got a new
branch at the Ayala Malls Manila Bay. Recently, they opened the ‘RC Yard’ at the 5th floor of the same mall, which is the biggest indoor RC track in the Philippines.

Last October 27, we were lucky to have an intimate media event with Kahn at ‘The Brickyard’ store located at the 4th floor of the Ayala Malls Manila Bay. He was very happy
to answer our biggest questions.

Q: When did Tamiya gaming start in the country?

Ferdie Kahn: Well, Tamiya gaming started essentially in the early 1990s. It kinda died down and in early 2000s again it had a resurgence. When we introduced ‘The Brickyard’,
we essentially just brought it out from “mga bahay-bahay”…so we brought it out to the malls and all that. I just basically gave it another resurgence.

Q: Why Tamiya?

Ferdie Kahn: It was my hobby since I was a kid. My dad used to buy it for me. Not necessarily the Tamiya you are talking about, which is the small car. I used to be in the RC,
’cause the small cars came and I was already in college. But, when I started business again, I noticed that it had so much following so yan na lang ang inisip namin…we’ll
bring it back frist and then the RC came.

Q: Have you watched an F1 race live?

Ferdie Kahn: Yeah. I watched an F1 race in the US…in Indianapolis.

Q: For beginners who want to get into the hobby, what would you advise them?

Ferdie Kahn: Come to the store. Marami yung sa starting eh. You just get a kit. The kits are a less than a thousand pesos. You just build it, you play, and you essentially
upgrade it. Now, of course the upgrading has a little more money involved. Pero, yung maganda kasi sa store, there are other racers, and community is very good. They like
sharing and there’s no charge. You can just stay here the entire day. The requirement we really have is that it has to be “all Tamiya”. Pero, you can stay here the entire
day and just hang out. That’s what we’re really all about. It’s a tambayan, a community.

Q: Let’s talk about the trends…what’s in, what’s out?

Ferdie Kahn: When you talk about the car itself, there’s the basic, and there’s the very very top grade. There’s something in the middle now which is partially upgraded, and
that’s what’s all the rage right now. It’s not the “open”…we call it “x stock”, which basically means that you can just upgrade the car but you cannot customize. For the
beginners, we have what we call “box stock”. That’s something you just build out of the box and use in a race.

Q: Can you tell us about your experience in Tamiya in local and international competitions?

Ferdie Kahn: Locally, the passion is incredible. You can see when we have races, we have about 500 to 700 racers. If you come to one of our big races, you can see them very
focused on the car. We compete very well in the international circuit. We won actually when we hosted it in 2019. 2022 and 2023, we were in the semis. Hopefully 2025 next
year in Taiwan we’ll ace it. 2026, we’ll host it here.

Q: Tell us about the most prestigious RC competitions in the world.

Ferdie Kahn: Well, there are several. One of the biggest Tamiya RC competitions essentially happens every November in Shizuoka, Japan…at the Tamiya headquarters
essentially, and it’s called the ‘World Challenge’. We’re actually going there on November 14 with two racers from the Philippines to compete there. Those two racers kasi
had to have won in the regionals, which we hosted just about a month ago in Circuit Makati. We had about a hundred racers…50 from the Philippines and 50 from overseas.

There are other ones in the United States, even Thailand, during the year, where some of our Filipino racers go to as well. They’re not sapecific to Tamiya, There’re other
brands.

Q: Any plans in expanding your business like having more stores in other cities and provinces?

Ferdie Kahn: For now, this is it. We’ve thought about having more stores in the provinces. Unfortunately, I think, from my perspective, if we don’t open a store with a race
track, then, it really doesn’t make sense anymore, if it’s just a regular retail store. So, it’s not easy to get big spaces in the regional malls, in the provincial malls,
but, we’re looking. There’re cities like Cebu, Bacolod…even Davao.

Q: How difficult is it to get a licensing deal with Tamiya?

Ferdie Kahn: We work together with them anyway. We are the official distributor in the Philippines. We have a very good relationship. We give them ideas and then they help us design.

Q: So, it’s a Philippine exclusive?

Ferdie Kahn: Yes, especially the ‘Jeepney’. There are two versions. The red one was exclusive for about one year, and it became one of the best-selling Tamiyas ever. And, we came up
with a chrome one, that was essentially just for the Philippines.

Q: Do women collect Tamiya?

Ferdie Kahn: Yeah. Sometimes, we have “date nights” where a couple comes…they buy a kit. They build it. They film themselves on their phone.

Q: Do you have something like ‘The Brickyard Academy’ where you train the young ones to be professional Mini 4WD or RC racers?

Ferdie Kahn: When it comes to mini…you just come to my store. We have a bunch of technicians willing to help you. Reagarding the ‘RC Academy’, RCs are a little harder to build, but
that one is something that we’ve looked at.

Q: To be a qualified RC technician, do you need some kind of special license?

Ferdie Kahn: Just passion. When you look at this stuff, you think it’s very hard to build…but once you build it once, twice, then it’s kinda automatic.

Q: Aside from ‘The Brickyard’, do you have other businesses?

Ferdie Kahn: No, this is it. I am an IT professional but I don’t do it anymore.

Q: How many Tamiya cars do you have?

Ferdie Kahn: Actually, very little. I used to have so many as a kid. But you know, I grew up. I moved away actually. Now, I just have 4 or 5 Tamiya kits.

Some of the toy cars spotted on display are the Brocken Gigant, Cross Spear 02, Festa Jaune, Geo Glider, Tamiya Jr., Mach Frame, Neo-Vqs, and Manta Ray Mk II.

Right now, ‘The Bricckyard’ has a total of three branches: Ayala Malls Manila Bay, Glorietta, and Vertis North. You just need to pay an annual membership fee of PhP1000 and
you get all the perks.