First Look: Tomica Limited Vintage Daihatsu Midget (along with some much larger Hino Buses)…

We haven’t done a model like this before.

With our obvious obsession with Tomica Limited Vintage, we were bound to go deep at some point. We could continue to try and show TLV’s that contain the number 510, or the letter Z, or the word Skyline. That would keep it familiar to all of the JDM-loving collectors all over the world.

But that is not what Tomica Limited Vintage is about. The TLV line was essentially created as a “what if” line, basically asking what if, using the technology Tomica has today, exact replicas of the cars on the road could have been created back in the 60’s and 70’s?

That is why TLV and TLV-Neo are so dedicated to stock vehicles. The roads weren’t filled with Toyota 2000GT’s or Nissan Skyline GT-R’s, but instead Toyota Crown Sedans and Wagons, as well as Skyline Vans. And among those cars were kei cars, and utility trucks, and emergency vehicles. TLV is essentially miniature versions of what the roads looked like in Japan back in the day.

Of course they have expanded from that a bit of late. We have seen several German cars (although pure stock versions), the Super Silhouettes are definitely not street cars, the Seibu Keisatsu models are not always stock, and the recently released Nissan IDx’s are not vintage at all. Thankfully the quality is manifest in all those models as well.

But will all those deviations, TLV will not move too far away from its roots. Case in point? The just-released Diahatsu Midget. There is absolutely no reference point for American collectors on a model like this. There is no way to slam it, or give it a GT-R trim. It can only be what it was intended to be: a single-seat, 3-wheel mini car that gets one from Point A to Point B, and maybe with a bit of stuff in the bed.

And not only in Japan, but many parts of South Asia as well, affectionately known as a ‘tuk tuk”. And in many areas they are still quite common.

And this is one of the things we love about Tomica Limited Vintage. We, like most of our fellow US-based collectors, have no connection to the Daihatsu Midget, but now that we have the TLV in our collection, we have at least an appreciation. As you collect TLV, you are slowly putting together an entire mini-town of car replicas, and it is very easy to gain a strong appreciation for Japanese auto history. And yes, the cars are damn cool.

And on the opposite end, we have the Hino RB10 Type Bus. They are as big as the Daihatsu is small. Again, no connection here, but damned if we don’t collect every single one of these. The detail is amazing, and once again TLV shows its dedication to scale. If a real Daihatsu Midget parked next to a Hino Bus, it would look an awful lot like the photos below.

So while we don’t expect each of you to rush to Japan Booster to grab one of these, do give it some thought. It is the obvious progression from a limited 510/Skyline collection. Those cars came from somewhere, and TLV is best way for we collectors to learn where…

(Find the Daihatsu Midget and Hino RB10 Type Bus at Japan Booster.)