The First Generation Cedric

The first Cedric was introduced by Nissan in March 1960. It was Nissan's first big car since the Nissan 70.  The Cedric replaced the Austin A50, which Nissan was building under license from the Austin Motor Company. The styling of the Cedric's windscreen and vertical headlights were inspired by the Tobu JNR 151 commuter train. When it first came out, only the sedan was available from the dealerships. The station wagon and van became available at a latter time.

The Cedric was developed to compete with the Prince Skyline and Gloria. According to Nissan, the name "Cedric" was inspired from the main character in Burnett's novel Little Lord Fauntleroy, who was known as a model of beauty, strength and justice.

Tomica Limited Vintage released this model car in 2004. They made six versions of this car. The first four models were numbered LV01 with no alphabetic designations. The brown with white roof and ivory versions were released in January 30, 2004. The black with white roof and the Tokyo taxi were released in February 2004. There are two variants of the Cedric which were released in May 2004 and are numbered LV01e and LV01f, both had different interiors from the others. The Nippon Kotsu Cedric taxi was released in March 2007 as part of their taxi boxed set.

Vintage Shell Gas Station

Tomica first released their Tomicarama Vintage line in 2010. They started with the police station diorama set, then released the Shell gas station a year after. The details are just amazing. Pictured with the set is a Mazda Familia van, a Shell Subaru Sambar service truck, a Honda S600 sports car and a Honda T360.

Japanese Lemon

The Honda 1300 77s is a small compact car which was designed in the mid sixties. Soichiro Honda was so obsessed with air-cooling, that he wanted to incorporate this on the cars that he built. The engineering team of Mr. Honda did not approve of what his vision was. They were worried that once the cars were exported to the United States, they might not meet their emissions standards.

Mr. Honda still had it his way. The 1300 arrived in April 1969. It was the most powerful 1300 car during that time, reaching 110 mph in a straight line but had horrible handling. If Ford Motors have the "Edsel", Honda in turn have the 1300 77s. Delays from production and it's high price against the competition made Honda Motors lose a lot of money.

There is another Tomica Limited Vintage version of this car, the Honda 1300 99s that comes with round headlights and different grills.

The Dynawedge Car

The Colt Galant was made by Mitsubishi to compete with the Ford Pinto, Chevrolet Vega and the AMC Gremlin. Mitsubishi merged with the Chrysler Corporation to import the Mitsubishi Colt Galant to the United States in 1971. The car was rebadged and sold as the Dodge Colt.

It was released in 1969 in Japan as a cutting-edge car with an outstanding capability. The car became a huge success during the 70's. The Colt Galant was powered by a 1300cc or a 1500cc Saturn series SOHC engine. It had an aerodynamically designed shape (dynawedge), which was revolutionary during that time.

A lot of collectors, including me, were excited when Tomica decided to release this in their Limited Vintage line. I get nostalgic whenever I see this car on the road. It brings back a lot of memories from the seventies.

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.