Tomika, the die-cast toy vehicles from Takara Tomy has been produced since 1970. While prior to the companies merger in March 2006, Takara was known for its Licca-chan dolls and Beyblade and for vehicles, it would become poular with their Choro-Q electric cards. Tomy on the other hand (named after founder Tomiyama Eiichiro), was known for Tomica, Plarail and Zoids and more popular overseas and actually went by the name of Sanyo Kogyo until 1963 when they decided to go with the name Tomy.
Tomica was first released by Tomy back in 1970 and were domestic minicars made in Japan known as Diapet and were priced at Y180. And were slightly larger scaled cars.
The minicars were inspired by Matchbox, with the chrome-plated wheels/hubcaps, thin tires, suspension function with leaf springs and the opening and closing of the doors and trunk.
In North America, these minicars would be called “Pocket Cars” and in 1976 would start producing non-Japanese models.
One would think with inflation would affect Tomica which went up to Y320 back in 1981 but to this very day, people can purchase Tomica for Y380 (retail price is Y500 yen for the regular release which was made in 2022).
By 2006, production was moved to Vietnam and in 2010, they started to incorporate long-type vehicles. Fastforward to 2020, the 50th anniversary of the birth of Tomica and utilize a no. 150 system for their regular releases with a red-white box.
From 2001 to 2013, there were Tomica Limited Series which were higher detail, much more expensive and had rubberized plastic tires.
In 2015, Tomica began offering their Tomica Premium Series in April 2015 and were not limited but in regular production with newer molds. Much more detail and finish than the regular line.
While Tomica retains the same quality as they did back in the ’70s, some later produced vehicles may have different redesigned wheel designs.
Going back to Tomica’s numbering system, at this current time, the company sticks to 150 models (but the company has released over 900 different models of cars). You may come across a car that was no. 50 one year but now another vehicle has assumed the no. 50 spot, and the previous version was phased out. And if you owned one vehicle at one time, the renewal vehicle may be different.
They are highly collectible and thanks to global access, thanks to Amazon Japan and other companies shipping out worldwide, to even big box department stores outside of the Japan now carrying Tomica.
Now, Takara Tomy is a big company. So, just remember…Tomica is for the die-cast metal vehicles targeted towards people of all ages, while TomyTec is featuring other vehicles often targeted towards collectors. So, you would find “Choro-Q” or even Tomica Limited Vintage, Tomica Limited Vintage Neo, Modelers Spirit Series, Ignition Model x TomyTec releases under TomyTec.
In fact, many in my collection are TomyTec releases, may it be bus or truck collection from the Diorama Collection which are vehicles in 1/150 scale. But the differences are pricing as a single bus or truck from the TomyTec Diorama Collection can cost almost 10 times the price of a Tomica die-cast vehicle. They are also made of plastic and are scaled for those who have N Gauge or HO Gauge trains to fit in their diorama.
When it comes to Tomica, personally for me, I’m more interested in the Japanese vehicles released by Tomica. So, I try to go for vehicles that are inherently Japanese in nature. May they be kei cars (those small vehicles driven in Japan) to those that have Japanese writing on the sides and so forth.
And being a train fan and a tomica fan, Tomica 122 was like the best of both worlds.
The vehicle is made of Zinc Alloy, ABS, PS and PP. The shinkansen is made of Zinc Alloy, ABS and PS.
The back text says “The Factory to the Railway, due to the width and different body size, the Hayabusa was placed on carts with rubber tiers and towed late at night or early in the morning because the impact on traffic is quite large. Since there are various transportation routes, it is necessary to get a pass from the government agency”.
I love the combination of the orange and black of the Mitsubishi Fuso. I did find it interesting as the front portion doesn’t show “FUSO” but shows “NITTSU”. I did fin an image online with the “NITTSU” and “FUSO” together.
I liked the detail on the top portion of the vehicle and capturing the two side sections.
三菱ふそう・スーパーグレート
芳賀通運（八千代事業所）2代目スパグレFP-R フルキャブ・ハイルーフ＋20ft 2軸海コントレーラ（日通商事）。香港のリース会社 弘集（香港）集装箱発展（HONGJI (HK) CONTAINER DEVELOPMENT）が所有する22G1型コンテナを運んでいる。
2019.4.19
@ 大井埠頭 pic.twitter.com/LKsiELwmNl— Hokutosei @ 日・欧コイン (@kncl_0915) May 3, 2020
日本通運 三菱ふそうスーパーグレート 鉄道輸送コンテナトラック。
速度表示灯付き、一体何台残っているんだろう。 pic.twitter.com/Gia5UH3Qxv
— しばとら＠なんでも屋 (@shibatorakotsu) August 19, 2021
The image shows a difference of scale between N Scale 1/150 TomyTec truck vs. the Tomica Mitsubishi Fuso. I personally don’t like mixing and matching non 1/150 scale vehicles in my diorama because of the size difference but I just wanted to show the size difference of the vehicles.
But I can understand why some people would use Tomica on their 1/150 dioramas, because the TomyTec 1/150 vehicles can be quite expensive.
As for the Hayabusa, here is a comparison between the Tomica and a KATO E5 Hayabusa N Scale as a size comparison:
It’s interesting to see the differences between the two. Even for the Tomica, you get to see the detail on sides and at the bottom and also the Hokkaido logo for the H5 was cool to see.
Both use the Tokiwa green metallic paint (NOTE: Mr. Hobby calls it “Joban Green”), the H5 Hayabusa has the Saika (lavender stripe), the E5 Hayabusa has a “Hayate” pink stripe. The H5 features the Hokkaido Rail logo, while the E5 has the JR East logo. While the main train has six windows for the front car, I understand why Tomica could only fit 5, which would have made the shinkansen a little longer.
But I was pleasantly surprised by the overall look of the shinkansen.
If I do have to add a word of caution, it’s important to make sure you are putting the connector/coupler in the correct side, otherwise you can end up bending the orange coupler.
But overall, this is a fantastic Tomica release. You have the new H5 shinkansen which made its debut in 2016 and also presented in die-cast metal, along with a Mitsubishi Fuso. For the price you can purchase it for on Amazon JP and the overall cool factor of having a truck and a shinkansen for a low price is recommended.
