Tomica returns to the U.S. - via Racing Champions

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For many years, American collectors have had to find their Tomica models through the secondary market. Without the option of buying Tomica toy cars from retail stores, collectors bought from individuals like Bob Blum, well known Tomica specialist or through orders with overseas companies. The Internet allowed for even greater availability with many websites dedicated to Tomica and plenty of Tomica models available from online auctions. Still, Tomica chose to stay away from the American retail markets. Racing Champions/Ertl (RCE) has now announced that they will bring Tomica models to the American market. They have selected the 30 models shown here as the initial Tomica offerings. August is projected as when the RCE - Tomica models will be available. The first Tomica model, a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IV has in fact appeared as part of RCE's 'Fast and Furious' series. It is offered in an RCE blister but promoted as 'direct from Japan' and without any changes or additions to the standard Tomica baseplate. The colors appear to be unique to the RCE 'Fast and Furious' series. In fact, this version of the Evo IV is not the same as the model pictured in the selection of 30 models shown here. The new Evo VII GT-A is slated to be the Tomica model of choice so perhaps RCE will be bringing additional vehicles to the market in some of their existing programs. It certainly makes sense for RCE to contract out for models like the Evo IV rather than produce new castings. With the current furor over tuner models, Tomica has many castings to offer.

The price for the RCE/Tomica Evo IV model was just $2.49, quite a bit less than the cost of the same model on the secondary market. For Tomica collectors, this is great news.

RCE 'Fast and Furious' series Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IV by Tomica

Regular Issue Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IV by Tomica