[REVIEW] Tomica BMW 320i

Land of the Rising Sun-day, Tomica Time, has returned. For those who are unfamiliar with my material or do not recall, I generally produce a review of a Tomica or Lesney product each week, alternating brands by week, and going in some order that made sense at the time. Today we examine Tomica F43-2, the BMW 320i This casting entered the range in December 1980, remaining until February 1986, and represents the progress this brand experience during the era:

This car, the E21 3er, bridges the gap between the 60s style 02 series cars, and the modern E30 we all know and love as now being impossible to find in clean stock form due to vaping sideways cap types who aren't known to treat their vehicles well. As the 70s wore on, BMW moved up from being a niche manufacturer to a legitimate luxury brand, and this car was a part of it, being a more substantial offering for the most mainstream model. This model contains the fine line casting detail and accurate proportion we expect from the brand, with maybe the only quirk being the greenhouse might be just a little short. This casting has the crisp glazing, springy suspension, and snappy door action we admire in vintage Tomica. A special feature of this model is the period correct Alpina livery - this model is usually found in either a green or kind of a dark red, but there are other variants, and this one is less common. Scale is claimed to be 1:62, roughly the standard of small scale. From all angles, one can imagine this machine flying down an Autobahn at 200 kmh with Kraftwerk in the tape deck:

Doors open to reveal a detailed interior and accurate steering wheel:

Front and rear have detail commensurate with the rest of the car:

The base is metal, which adds heft and contains technical and identifying detail:

This model is fortunate enough to live its nice original box:

I'm more than happy to have this model in my collection, as the Alpina livery is an extra dose of cool:

Image of a similar 1:1 from bmwe21.net: