Yes, you heard that right. As reported by our friends at 829 Japan, Tomica Limited Vintage threw us all a curve ball at the Japanese Model & Hobby Show, and announced that the Nissan GT-R Nismo and Nismo N-Attack will join the Neo line in February 2015.
Obviously, a very current supercar is not what comes to mind when one thinks of Tomica Limited Vintage, but it appears TLV is ready to expand its horizons a bit.
TLV deciding to do the GT-R is most likely a result of the massive success that has been the Nissan IDx Freeflow and Nismo. The IDx castings introduced many worldwide collectors to TLV, showing them the crazy quality of the models. We know many of you are among those collectors, and you are buying more by way of Japanese sellers like Japan Booster
. TLV has to figure that collectors who snatched up the IDx are more likely to want a GT-R than say, a 1970’s Cedric. To us, that is too bad, but logical.
This opens up a brand new bag of possibilities with TLV. We cannot wait to see the finished product, and have no doubt it will be the best GT-R in 1:64 so far. That is most welcome. If we are honest though, we hope this doesn’t mean current cars will take the place of some of the true vintage models that have been TLV’s bread and butter for so long.
Thankfully, that does not appear to be the case, as more TLV news came from the All Japan Model and Hobby Show. TLV announced the 2nd Generation Toyota Century, as well as another model from the Snake Motors line, a Toyota Crown.
But what interested us the most was this bit of news, as reported by 829 Japan:
Tomytec is ready to introduce two new sub-collections called Nihonsha no Jidai (that can loosely be translated as ‘Japanese Cars Generation’) and Nihon no Motorsport Shi wo Furikaette (‘Remembering Japanese Motorsport’).
The Motorsport series could be a truly fantastic line. Considering the racing legacy of so many Japanese cars, there are some exciting possibilities. They could continue from where the Super 6 series and Super Silhouette lines left off:
Some other models previewed at the show, also from 829 Japan:
Isuzu 117
Mitsubishi Galant Sigma
Nissan Cedric Taxi
Toyopet Crown
Toyota Town Ace
Daihatsu Delta
Toyota Mark II Grande
Toyota Town Ace
Seibu Keisatsy Lady Bird
Left : ‘Tokusô Saizensen’ Nissan Cedric Deluxe and Nissan Gloria 2000 SGL
Right : ‘Taiyô ni Horeo’ Toyota Celica 1800GT-TR and Toyota Mark II GT Twin Turbo
Nissan Cedric
Nissan Gloria
Toyota Mark II Grande
Have I ever mentioned how fun it is to collect Tomica Limited Vintage?
To be honest, I'd love to see TLV expand their range across more eras and nations. My automotive interests are too varied for me to collect only Japanese cars, interesting as they might be, and I just appreciate the variety so, if I could afford, I'd end up picking up just one fine example of each of their most iconic models, and then move on to another brand for a couple of American or German or Italian, or French or Brazilian cars. Of course I'd love to own at least a couple of those more obscure models we never even heard of here in Brazil, but, on my limited budget, I have to plan ahead so I don't restrict my collection's variety too much, so these models would keep getting bumped back on my list.
I know collectors would probably go apeshit over this, but I'd love to see TLV taking on a Muscle Car one of these days, specially if it was a Nova. Imagine a 1970 Nova SS done in their distinctive style, painted bright red with a black vinyl top, with the slotted mags from the Seibu Keisatsu series, and you have a pretty good picture of my dream toy car and my eventual financial downfall.
I'd prefer if TLV did American cars too.
A few notable American cars did appear in the show Seibu Keisatsu, one noteworthy example is a white 1969 Plymouth Belvedere.
That 280E sedan is a 1979 Nissan Gloria [430], which shares the same body as the Nissan Cedric for the 1979 model.