Takara Tomy will introduce several neat new models in their spectacularly popular Tomica toy car line later this month, each based on Feudal-Era warriors and generals.
When I was a kid, every boy on the playground had a couple of toy cars, but they were always taking a backseat to Ninja Turtles figures, Voltron, Ghostbusters and figures from all the other cool pop culture franchises that made the 80s so great that people now in their late 30s still bust those toys out and play with them unashamedly to this day.
In Japan, though, toy cars are second only to little robot toys that connect together to make one giant robot (sometimes with unfortunate, ill-planned dong-like appendages) in terms of cool factor, and toy maker Takara Tomy has just made these playthings even cooler for kids and adults alike with this new series of Sengoku Era samurai/warlord-inspired Tomica toys.
The series pretty much nails all the cool Feudal-Era warrior highlights, with Sanada Yukimura, Oda Nobunaga, Uesugi Kenshin, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Takeda Shingen, and Tokugawa Ieyasu all represented. Each car in the series rocks a cool aesthetic inspired by each warrior’s family seal, flags and/or signature armor.
For some reason, the Sanada Yukimura car will arrive first and will be significantly larger and double the price of the rest of the series at 1,200 yen (approx. US$9), while the rest will roll out over time at 600 yen apiece in the pretty small standard Tomica size.
Given the insane popularity of both Tomica and cool samurai generals with kids and adults, expect to see grown men fist-fighting crowds of preteen boys for these cool cars starting in late January.
Source: Japaaan Magazine
Images: Takara Tomy