The Search For The Best Tomica of 2012

Another year passed so quickly and it's time to pick the best Tomica of 2012. I would say that It's a bad year for Tomica. I would agree to the direction of down sizing the scale but it seems that it has been done overboard. Most of the Older Tomica of the 70s till early 80s did not cross the 1/67 mark for a 4 door luxurious sedan (for example) unless it's a Rolls or American.

Take Crown or Cedric, they are approximate scaled around 1/65 range. In the late 80s, most cars of this range grew to around 1/63 which make Tomica of the late 80s looked larger. As most car makers grow their cars when a new generation is introduced, Tomica should scale the cars of these era to the same scale or maybe kept to a maximum of 1/66 depending on model but they are sized up instead. So from late 80s, most Tomica are larger than the earlier ones. It went on with this strategy until 2011 December with the introduction of the Nissan Juke.

The scale of the Juke isn't too bad but somehow the down sizing strategy is much more of a cost cutting movement rather. 99% of Tomica before the Juke does have a minimum of one movable part but the Juke does not have any doors or hatch that opens. If the rear hatch doesn't open, there should be a rear plastic window but there isn't any. The rear window is painted on the Juke rather than installing a piece of plastic to signify as a rear window. This has somehow change the traditions of Tomica.  

Then the new Impreza WRX came along and it has an astonishing small scale of 1/67. The current day WRX should be similar to the size of a Bluebird of the late 80s. The difference in the size department is just too big. Most current collectors who started collecting recently and do not know much of Tomica history are upset by this change as they are so used to big size Tomica. 1/67 is just too small for a car this size.

Sometimes I wonder why Siku is able to maintain their quality and retain its roots but why not Tomica? Both Tomica and Siku cost almost the same. Both cars are design in Germany and Japan respectively but production is either done in China or Vietnam.

It's a really tough decision to pick the best so I have asked my friends, Pooh and Keong to choose their top 5 vehicles in random order. I will take their choice into account which will take 20% of the total score since this is my blog. I do welcome your views and I will take your choice into account as well. Just send your top 5 choices to my email address in random order, 1 being the best and so on till 5. Let's do this together, results will be posted here by end of January 2013.

My email : bonu@starhub.net.sg