Land of the Rising Sun-day, Tomica Time, has returned. Today we take a look at Tomica 62-3, the Isuzu Journey Q Bookmobile. This casting entered the range in February 1980, remaining until October 1987, and is something pretty unique:
A bookmobile - how many small scale castings exist of this vehicle type? I can't think of any. These small mobile libraries were a thing at least in some areas in the 70s-90s, but I am not sure if they exist in any number today. This model contains ample fine line casting detail, accurate proportion, and fun decals. Scale is claimed to be 1:98, likely accurate, this is a large vehicle and the model is not especially large. From all angles, one can imagine this wheeled library out distributing knowledge in the analog age:
Front and rear have more than sufficient detail, with "TOMY" in the destination sign area being a nice touch:
The side window/covering is hinged and opens (further than shown):
The base is plastic, a trend of the time, and contains much identifying and technical detail:
This model is lucky enough to live in a nice original box - lucky indeed as I found the model itself loose mint with some other cars and then happened upon a box with some searching - I still have a host of loose mint Tomica needing boxes:
I'm pleased to have this model in my collection, it's definitely different:
Similar 1:1s from picryl.com - the Journey Q is a bus platform, and no images exist of a 1:1 bookmobile, these are bus versions of the same era:
Wow, so cool! I've never heard of these before. Do you have any more of these looking for a box? I'm on the board of trustees at my library and would love to hand one of these to my director.