Tomica Time, Land of the Rising Sun-day, is here again. Today we examine Tomica 21-4, the Subaru 360. This casting entered the range in June 1983, remaining in a long run until November 1997, and is a little charmer:
The 360 is something of a cult car in Japan - an early Kei car, these were a big part of putting Japan behind the wheel during the postwar boom time, and the car was nicknamed "ladybug". The cult status can be seen in the production run of this model - in the range for a long time, and not even offered until after the real world vehicle ceased production. In some way, this is the VW Beetle of Japan in looks and original intent, and a handful of these were even imported into the USDM. Tomica captures this cheerful little car in fine style, there is ample fine line casting detail and proportion appears accurate. This model contains the crisp glazing, springy suspension, we enjoy in vintage Tomica, but instead of snappy door action, we get an opening frunk. Scale is claimed to be 1:50, likely accurate, a bit larger than the standard of small scale, but this a somewhat chunky casting, and the real world vehicle is small. From all angles, one can imagine this little go-getter out and about in town or on the road:
Front and rear have plentiful detail:
The base is metal, which adds heft and contains ample technical and identifying detail:
The opening frunk:
This model is lucky enough to live in its clean original box:
I'm more than pleased to have this model in my collection, it is a neat piece, and as it was made in many variants for a long period, is not too hard to find:
Image of a similar 1:1 from Bring a Trailer:
I love it that they decided on moving parts on a car so tiny, kudos to Tomica Thanks for sharing and be well