“Tomica. Little vehicles carrying big dreams.”
Welcome to another new entry at The Vintage Toy Advertiser as we present scans for a 1982 Tomica & Dandy catalogue from Japan, and a Tomica British language Japanese flyer.
Tomica is a line of die cast toy vehicles produced by the Japanese company Tomy since 1970. In 1972 the Tomica & Dandy line was launched. 1976 saw the 100 millionth Tomica product release. Less than a decade later in 1984 Tomica celebrated its 300 millionth product release. The 90s saw the introduction of a battery-operated line (B/O Tomica) and a radio controlled line (R/C Tomica). In 2005 Tomica celebrated its 35th anniversary with the opening of the ‘Tomica Shop’, the first direct retail outlet which opened in the Tokyo Station Complex. In 2010 the line recorded its 40th anniversary. Tomica is still sold to date. Info taken from the Takara Tomy website
Click pics to go bigger.
Tomy Tomica die cast Japanese English language flyer. Front.
Tomy Tomica die cast Japanese English language flyer. Reverse.
Tomica & Dandy product catalogue 1982. Japan.
Tomy & Dandy product catalogue 1982. Japan. Front and reverse covers.
Thanks for looking 🙂
The Vintage Toy Advertiser 
Also, I saw them recently at the Pacific Mall in Toronto….for a decently marked up price.
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I purchased several Tomica when I was in Japan. (You can sometimes see them on the banner of my hobby blog. The last time I was fortunate enough to find them in Don Quixote at a very reasonable price.
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Great you had some, and purchased at the country of origin too. Did you get chance to visit any of the Tomica shops while in Japan, or any other interesting toy shops?
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I don’t recall any Tomica shops being around when I was there. I did manage to go to Tamiya HQ, and there big flagship store in Tokyo.
I really wanted to go to …..I forget the name of the shop but they had lots of vintage model kits (I wanted to buy a model kit of a stereo system) but they closed a few months before I got there.
I visited few good model shops and RC car stores in Osaka. They had a Pocher kit for sale.
I also visited some local small shops and enjoyed those too. They had a limited supply, but the people were friendly.
I went to a fantastic Train store in Chiba. They guy only opened after 4 o’clock.
I have also done the rounds of the model/train/hobby stores in Akihabara. I even visited the loft and saw some really interesting hobby kits–build a phonograph etc.
Now that I think about it…I have been to a lot of cool shops.
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Fantastic. You visited some interesting stores there. One of the reasons I’d like to visit Japan is to see its toy and gaming history, the shops, chirashi and magazines, plus many other attractions.
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Hello TVTA, Tomica made some really nice looking models and I may add some models which are rare/difficult to produce. Even on page one there is a Mercedes Benz SL with gullwing doors – I’ve never seen another company make one of those. And I didn’t realise until seeing this post but I owned the one berth garage model on page 19! Thanks again for the memories.
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Hi FT, you welcome friend. That’s cool you had that garage. I had one similar but I think it was Matchbox. After finding these catalogues I’m really impressed with the Tomica line.
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Hello again, the models do appear very detailed and Tomica must be doing something right to have survived as long in business as they have. I wish I had a few of their motor racing models.
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Really pretty nifty cars, huh? Although I don’t have one in front of me, it looks to me that the detail is quite impressive.
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Yeh they look top quality and I was reading they’re highly rated among die cast collectors. I didn’t know much about the Tomica line until I nabbed these catalogues.
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I used to collect die cast cars when I was younger. Mostly Matchbox, but I don’t recall ever reading of or seeing a Tomica car.
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I loved Matchbox when I was younger. Corgi too. My next post will feature a few die cast cars that I’ve collected over the years.
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Excellent! I don’t have any of mine left (parental unit chucked them when I was younger and not touching the car box any more). My son has picked up that interest, though.
But yeah, I had a few Corgi cars too, but most were Matchbox… they had a great range and the stall at the Barrowlands I visited used to sell them real cheap.
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