Good things come to those who wait. That is surprisingly not me, as I’m not patient at all, but in this case, I had to activate my network and use diplomacy to calm down.
As far as Japan Booster is the best way to get your Tomica Limited Vintage – those damn little hype cars – I totally fucked up in June to make my order. I was in holidays, and arrived too late on eBay in the evening. My fault ! I should have pre-ordered ! And I advise you to do the same when you don’t want to miss a model. But how the hell could I know that those Altezza Z Edition would be so popular ? Because they are. They are WIDELY popular, in such a way that poor Akiyo didn’t manage to have for me.
Back to research, some of them where already $200 the pair on eBay (…), and the same results here and there : it’s sold out. Those damn Z edition are very very very popular.
Finally I contacted a German seller from eBay I had already bought from, and guess what ? He had them in his next shipment ! It took half a minute to deal, and when the models were ready, they shipped and arrived some days ago. What a battle. What a win. And what a car !
The German seller is a nice guy, and totally reliable, named bigblock-65. He holds a nice eBay shop with many TLV, for our European readers.
Are all those efforts worth it ? I think so yes, the way TLV tooled the car is very good. I have already said that the Altezza (Lexus IS) is not an easy car to catch, and they did well. The Z edition gets an optional spoiler to glue yourself (I’m still hesitating), and what I love the most are the wheels that are so good looking.
That is the 4th Altezza model is the mainline, and 2 special Hong Kong edition exist in Lexus variant. I own one, the white one with the sporty wheels, and I guess the other one will be needed soon.
Finally, a quick word on the very sought after Toyota Land Cruiser FJ56V, that many collectors love. This is my first one, and I totally understand the craze. This 4×4 is definitely worth it, the color schemes are amazing (in this case, the light red and cream is perfect). I did not buy the riot control light grey one, that I might regret, but I prefer very street / stock vehicles in my TLV collection.
TLV really has this unique style and touch for making minicars. They are super neat, very well assembled, painting are exceptional, but in the end the amount of details is not as high as other Asian brands. It’s curious but damn charming.
See you soon for more reviews !
@Willdiecast
I don;t even hesitate to preorder from Japan Booster if there is a TLV model I am remotely interested in. I realize if I change my mind, getting rid of it is never a problem. Although I have only ever sold 2 after getting them.
The Alteza is a great looking model. I would hold off on the spoiler. It looks so good without it. I would hope they eventually do a yellow Lexus version as that was the one I considered getting when it came out here in the US. I never noticed that the rear decklids were different. What I find interesting is the Toyota versions have plate style we use in the US/North America while the Lexus has a European style plate. But we only got the Lexus here.