[REVIEW] Tomica Lotus Europa Special

Tomica time is here again. This is a mostly a Land of the Rising Sun-day - not a Japanese car, but it is a Japanese casting. Today we examine something not seen here for awhile. a Tomica model of a British car. This is Tomica F25-1, the Lotus Europa Special. This casting entered the range in July 1977, and remained until December 1981. It’s a model of an oddball car, the kind of thing that probably had a cult following in Japan:

This casting has typical Tomica quality - ample fine casting detail, and is a nice shade of metallic blue. One will soon notice that this is another Tomica in JPS livery - either this was a trend at the time, or the Japanese had some special love of this livery, as several Tomy products wear it. Scale is a claimed 1:59, likely accurate. The doors on this casting do not open, rather, the engine cover, cast in plastic, opens. The gold button wheels nicely complement the JPS tampos, and the yellow-gold glazing is very 70s. This model features the crisp glazing and springy suspension we all know and love about old Tomica. From all angles, there is no mistaking what this is:

Front and rear have similar detail. The engine cover has “Lotus” nicely cast-in at rear, but is a little hard to see as I turned up the brightness for these pics:

The base is metal, which adds heft and gives a quality feel, while supplying ample detail:

This example is lucky enough to live in a nice original box:

Some illustrations of the opening engine cover - this is a plastic hinge and quite stiff, so I had to open it all the way and quickly snap a pic before it closed. There’s an engine cast in shiny silver plastic under the cover:

This is another one I am glad to have in my collection - it is a unique mid-engined car, and the kind of thing I’d expect some Japanese enthusiasts to embrace. Funny thing, my reference book does not show it in blue, but I have seen numerous examples of it in blue, and I even sold a duplicate some time ago. This casting also seems to be relatively common, sold as a Pocket Cars, and it exists in a few colors, I often see it in white. It should be affordable, should one really want one:

And a very similar 1:1 from chris-chrisgray.blogspot.com, spotted in Japan of course: