Our first auctions for the Tomica Limited!

We finally imported a few Tomica Limited cars, and put them on the eBay auction today!

It is rare to be able to buy the Tomica limited-edition cars in the U.S.  Most have to be imported from overseas with the potential for lost items or long delays.  We are eliminating these problems by making these limited models available with shipping within the U.S.

The packaging for the limited series cars is geared more towards the collector and has the car positioned on an angle for easy display.  The front of the packaging is clear for viewing. 

The limited series vehicles that we have available are the 0084 Toyota Corona 2000GT, the #85 Toyota Corolla Levin and the #82 Honda Civic GL.

Don’t miss this chance to own a full-featured Tomica limited series vehicle today. With working shocks and doors that open, not to mention the fine detailing, these limited edition beauties won’t last long. 

Find Tomica cars of yesteryear on the Tomica website

Did you know that the Tomica website features pictures of all of the Tomica cars produced going back to when they started producing in 1970?

 Let’s take a look together. Go to the page called ‘Tomica history museum’.  Most of the page is written in Japanese, but they have added English for the car series, which helps us a lot.

The top grouping is the ’Tomica car series’.  You can click the year that you would like to browse to see all the cars that were produced that year.

Our eBay auctions Collect Tomica sells only the current models, but we could find old models in the Japanese market upon your request.  Please feel free to contact us.

Tomica Trivia part 3

After it’s long history, dating back to 1970, the Tomica series now contains 120 car models.

They update the series with 2 new cars every month. The third Saturday of every month is called ‘Tomica day’, when they release the new models.

Regarding the Tomica Limited series, the company adds one new model on the forth Saturday of every month. They call this ‘Tomica Limited’s day’.

Tomica Trivia part 2

Have you ever paid attention to the wheels on tomica cars?

 Not every model, but most of them have wheels like this:

This is one of the designs that Tomica brands use for their products, even for clothings. As a matter of fact, most Japanese boys (and maybe girls) can recognize this as Tomica right away.

Tomica Trivia part 1

The Tomica official website offers a lot of trivia about the Tomica series. Let’s talk about that. 

The manufacturer produces Tomica cars with one (or more) moving parts to add detail to many vehicles. Working shocks, moving arms, opening doors, you name it… 

By the way, do you know how you can tell if your car has a moving part? Look at the box that comes with the car.

Many boxes have symbols listed along the bottom right on the front of the box (red circle in the above picture), which lists what kind of moving parts are included (in this case-working shocks).  Some boxes have no symbols, which means that there are no moving parts.

Don’t be upset by the Japanese symbols.  Collect Tomica offers an English translation of the Japanese on the box when you purchase from us.  Please take advantage of this service at our Collect Tomica eBay auctions!

Types of Tomica miniature cars – part 3 – Tomica Limited Vintage

The ‘Tomica Limited Vintage’, is also known as ’Tomica Vintage’.  The theme of this series is ‘If Tomica had already exsisted in the 50’s, it would have produced these kinds of cars.’  Most products are classic cars that you would have seen in Japan in 50’s and 60’s.  They produce limted numbers.

By the way, did you know that Tomy, the manufacturer of the Tomica series merged with Takara in March, 2006 and now is called Takara Tomy?  Tomica series and Tomica Limited series were taken over by Takara Tomy.  In turn, this Tomica Limited Vintage series was taken over by the newly created company called ‘Tomytec’.  Let’s go to the Tomytec website to see this series.  You won’t find much help on this website for those who don’t read Japanese, but at least you can see what the ‘Tomica Vintage’ line looks like here.

You will see the picture of the newest model of the Tomica Limited Vintage.  They use  product numbers, starting with ’LV-’.  To see other products, you can click the numbers on the lower part of the page. 

If you find a car that you are interested in purchasing, but cannot locate it anywhere on an English language site, please let us know. We will search for it in the Japanese market  and bring to you!

Types of Tomica miniature cars – part 2 – Tomica Limited

Let’s talk about the ‘Tomica Limited’ line today.

They are slightly bigger and more detailed than the regular Tomica series.  Tomica sells them for a limited time, and they are targeted at collectors.

Let’s take a look at the Tomica official site to see the current models of the ‘Tomica Limited’ line that Tomica currently sells here.   Collect Tomica doesn’t offer the ’Tomica Limited’ line currently, however we will carry them eventually. If you don’t see a car that you like on eBay, please let us know. We will order it from Japan and place the listing on eBay right away.

Types of Tomica miniature cars – part 1

If you search on eBay using the key word “Tomica”, you would find loads of listings.  But what is Tomica limited? What’s Tomica series?  It’s not easy to determine which cars are currently sold by Tomica, or which cars are collector’s items???

Take a look at the Tomica official website.  It’s scary because it’s all written in Japanese. But no problem we will guide you.

Currently, Tomica sells ‘Tomica series’, ‘Tomica limited’,  and ‘Tomica vintage’ for car collectors. (There are more products, but most are more like kids toys.)  

‘Tomica series’ is also called ’Tomica standard’, and consists of 120 cars. The size is similar to matchbox cars’.  Let’s take a look at the standard models on the Tomica website here.  You will see the first 40 cars on the page.  If you want to see the next 40, look here and the last 40 are here.

Those are the 120 cars of the Tomica standard series.  If you find a car not on these pages, it must be an older model. Please note Tomica replaces two new cars out of the 120 every month.  Our Collect Tomica  eBay store only sells the cars that Tomica currently produces.

We will talk about the ‘Tomica Limited’ line next time.

About Tomy Tomica

Tomica is a division of the Tomy toy company of Japan that makes diecast cars.  Tomica diecast cars first appeared in the United States in 1974.  They were called ‘pocket cars’ and during the first two years, only included Japanese models.  The company introduced American car models in 1976.  Seventy different models were available.  

In 1993, production of Tomica miniature cars began shifting from Japan to China.  By 1997, that shift was complete.  Today, there are 120 models in the Tomica line.  There is also a limited collector series.  There have not been regular sales of Tomica diecast cars in U.S. toy stores since the mid-eighties.  You can only obtain them through specialty retailers.

The new source of Tomica diecast cars!

You have just discovered the newest way to buy Tomica diecast cars!  Welcome and happy shopping.  Visit our Ebay auctions today.