A brief history of Tomica

Tomica ltd. is one of Japan’s most successful toy makers of all time. They specialize in miniature diecast toy cars.

Tomica was first formed in the 1970s. Owned by Takara tomy, they vowed to make toy vehicles that were high quality and fun to play with. Tomica debuted in America in 1972. They where known as Pocket cars. Unfortunately, North American children did not like the unflashy paint liveries and boring city cars (I.E Suzuki Alto). Tomica with drew in 1973. It had been nearly 4 decades until Tomica returned to America and Canada.

In the 1980s, Tomica changed its packaging into what is now known as the black box. By the early 90s they had switched to red and white packaging. In America, however, they stuck with good old blister packs. These had a denim pocket on which a car would be placed on top of.

Tomica has a variety of different series. The most common being the regular series with the white and red boxes. Tomica also has the more adult based collectors line known as limited vintage. This line was introduced in 2001.

Tomica also has a few special promo cars that are mostly just regular cars with special liveries and special accessories.

Thank you for reading this article on the great toy making giant, Tomica.