Lamley Daily: Tomica Toyota Mega Cruiser Patrol Car

Model: Tomica Toyota Mega Cruiser Patrol Car

Line: Tomica mainline (no.3)

(Find the Tomica Mega Cruiser on Ebay)

Ebay trawling is just something that goes hand in hand with diecast collecting, especially like me if you’re prone to collect the older, more weird and wonderful diecast. And on a recent visit, my net managed to snag this Tomica Toyota Mega Cruiser.

It’s been an item that most of the time has been way outside of my price range, but this lightly used example was a real steal. The scratches and paint chips won’t turn the head of the “mint in box” collectors, but I’m not averse to a bit of wear and tear.

The Toyota Mega Cruiser bears more than a passing resemblance to the Hummer H1. And like its American counterpart, it was designed with military use in mind, as a vehicle for the Japan Self Defense Forces. A prototype was shown at the 30th Tokyo Motor Show in 1993 and the production version went on sale in 1996. The vast majority went to the military, in fact the BXD10 variant was exclusively for JSDF use. The BXD20 version is the one modelled here by Tomica, and was the only model available to the public, built to order through Toyota Store locations. High prices and tax figures kept private sales low however. Out of 3000+ units sold, only 133 went to the public. The primary customer remained the military, however they were also used by the Prefectural Police, Fire Rescue and the Japan Auto Federation.

Power came from a 4.1 litre inline-4 turbodiesel with 153bhp and 382Nm of torque, routed to all 4 wheels via a 4 speed auto transmission with 2 speed transfer case. The vehicle was graced with exceptional off road ability and is known to be incredibly robust. And it is truly mega, measuring up at 40cm longer and 18cm taller than the Hummer H1! Examples are still in service with the JGSDF and some civilian cars have been sold as grey imports.

Tomica’s Mega Cruiser sports Japanese Police livery and it looks awesome.

The proportions are brilliant and the wheel choice is perfect. The heavy duty steel wheels and chunky tyres glide on sprung suspension, and like the real thing it’s heavy and solid. It’s no surprise this is one of the more sought after Tomicas.