Suzuki Kei Car

I don't know why, but I really love those old Japanese kei cars. I love how quaint they look. Kei cars are small Japanese automobiles which usually exploit tax laws and insurance policies and regulations because of their size. I think the market for these kei cars are slowly shrinking. It was not as popular as it was during the sixties till the early seventies.





The Suzuki Fronte 360 was launched in 1962. It had a transversely mounted two cylinder, two-stroke engine driving the front wheels. The engine maintains peak performance even when running continuously at high speed because of a highly efficient cooling fan, superior mechanism and the Suzuki Posi-force lubrication. This car has independent suspensions on it's four wheels, which results in excellent road handling. Tomica Limited Vintage released their version of the Suzuki Fronte a few years back, which was the 360 two door sedan (LC10).

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.

Isuzu Sports Family Sedan

Isuzu started in 1916 when the Tokyo Ishikawajiama Ship Building and Engineering company merged with Tokyo Gas and Electrical Industrial Company. The company built automobiles under the Sumida and Chiyoda badge but were later dropped in favor of Isuzu, which is a name of a local river. The Isuzu Bellett 1500 was launched in 1963 and was designed to be a replacement for the Hillman Minx (which was previously assembled by Isuzu under a license agreement). The Isuzu Bellett 1300 was released in 1964 as a two door subcompact sedan. It gained popularity as a sports family sedan. Besides being popular in Japan, the Bellett has a following in Australia and Canada too.





Tomica did an excellent representation of the Bellett. The details like the wheels, the lights and the grills, are faithfully reproduced in spite of the small scale. The red car, which is the 1500 DX Sport, is part of the Toys Club collection which was released during the 12th Tokyo Toy Festival in February 2005.