Tomica Time, Land of the Rising Sunday, is here again. Today we take a look at Tomica 8-2, the Nissan Sunny Excellent 1400GX. This casting entered the range in April 1975, remaining until November 1979, and is nice model of a fun car:
Tomica started to blossom in the mid 70s, making models with detail not seen in most other makers, and making models of cars not made by other makers. This era is between the first generation of Tomica models which were a little softer in terms of detail, and later 70s/80s material which were crisply detailed. This model fits in that middle era, containing fine line casting detail, but maybe not as sharp as a casting from 5 years later. This particular real world car was sold as the Datsun B210 in the USDM, and was a car I liked the look of when I was a kid, with its fastback styling and interesting honeycomb design wheelcovers. However, this was an economy car made to look fun rather than a sports car, as I later learned when given a ride in one. This model features accurate proportion and pleasing detail, with the cast-in model name badges being a nice touch. This model wears the "old" wheels of Tomica from before around 1977, these do a nice job of simulating wheelcovers. This model features the springy suspension, crisp glazing, and accurate door action we enjoy in vintage Tomica, but the doors are not as snappy as on later models. Scale is claimed to be 1:59, likely accurate, and close to the standard of small scale. From all angles, one can imagine this quirky little car cruising along a 55 mph disco era highway:
Doors open to reveal a detailed interior and accurate steering wheel:
Front and rear have ample detail, with the model name script on license plates and the round rear lights of ROW models catching the eye:
The base is metal, which adds heft and contains technical detail and identifying data:
This model is lucky enough to live in its original box:
I'm thankful to have this casting in my collection, as it is a quality casting of a car I find interesting:
Image of a similar 1:1 from global.nissannews.com:
Nice example. An ex from decades past had the Datsun B210, I loved that car.