[REVIEW] Tomica Mercedes-Benz C-Class (W202)

Tomica time is upon us once again, and this installment is the last in the 90s era cars that I bought when they were current issues. Today we have Tomica 92, the Mercedes-Benz “C-Class Type”, a W202 of unknown designation. This casting entered the range in 1995, and was in production until 2001. Scale is a believable 1:60 - like the real car, this is chunky but not huge.

I remember buying this as a new release. This car is something of an abandoned project, or mildly hot mess. I was customizing it with black paint, going for some kind of tuned/AMG look, maybe wanting to mimic the then-new C36 which I admired. But I got sloppy and gave up. A little paint on the glass irritated me, and I was getting out of diecast at the time anyway, so it just got packed away until recently.

Detail is decent - proportion is good and rear lights are nice. I always thought the grille could be better. This is the beginning of the Made in China era, and definitely moving on from crisp old school castings to the softer kind of today:

Unpainted base hearkens back to the old days:

It’s good enough if you want a stock W202, not a ton of choices out there:

It has a box, of course:

And here’s the real thing:

Not just a silver W202, but this is my old C43 AMG, coincidence had me owning a real world example of this car several years after I had the diecast. Maybe it was meant to be. Neat little car.