Toyota FJ56V Land Cruiser

The Land Cruiser is Toyota's flagship four-wheel drive vehicle. In 1941, the Imperial Japanese Army occupied the Philippines where they found an old Willy's Jeep (Bantam Mark II). They quickly brought the jeep to Japan and commissioned Toyota to build a vehicle similar to it. The prototype was called Model AK, which was a compact cargo truck.

During the 1950's, the first Land Cruiser was developed. It was still based on the design of the Willy's Jeep. The Land Cruiser was first tested in August 1951. To test the vehicles off road abilities, they drove it until the sixth station of Mount Fuji, in fact, it was the first vehicle to ever perform this feat. The first orders for the Land Cruiser came from the police and forestry departments because of its off-road abilities.





In the mid 60's, Toyota launched the FJ55, which was four door station wagon based on the FJ40's drive train. It replaced the FJ45V. The FJ55 has a longer wheelbase than the FJ40. It was a vehicle that can handle off-road terrains, yet comfortable and powerful enough to drive on the street.

In my opinion, this model has long been overdue. Tomica had been making other Land Cruiser versions over the past decade and it's really good to see this model on the Tomica Limited Vintage line. The detail is good. It is quite hefty and is packed in a bigger Tomica Limited Vintage box. They also made a police version of this, which was only available thru Tomica shops around Japan.