[REVIEW] Tomica Lotus Elite

Tomica time, land of the Rising Sun-day is here again, and today’s model fits via the origin of the maker. Today we examine Tomica F47-1, the Lotus Elite. This casting entered the range in January 1978, and is very much a period piece:

OK, before you say anything, the contrast between car and background in these pics isn’t the best, but at least the model is off-white. Seemed OK at the time, but when I got the pics on the computer, it wasn’t perfect. Oh well, you can deal with it :)

And another thing: looks like this is a good time to move over to Drivetribe. It appears posting here has dried up and there’s little traffic - sometimes my posts at DT receive 40K+ hits, weird. I was thinking of continuing here til the end of the year, but with the lack of traffic, I don’tthink there’s a point. I think this might be it for me at kinja LaLD, but I will be at DT.

On to the car. From the late 60s through the 70s, Lotus had a few odd cars, caught up in the modernist design trend of this time. This and the Eclat have always been a little off-putting to me (while I still find the Esprit to be amazing, perfect angularity, and Tomica made a lovely example), but I can accept them for representing their era. Tomica captures the car in fine style, with excellent detail and proportion, and a tampo which has remained crisp and vibrant over the years. Scale is claimed to be 1:63, likely accurate. Like most Tomica of this era, this casting features the crisp glazing, springy suspension, and snappy door action we all enjoy from the brand. From all angles, it represents the era of wedge:

Doors open to reveal a detailed interior and accurate steering wheel:

Front and rear contain similar quality, with cast-in nameplates being a nice touch:

The base is plastic, a trend of the time, and contains ample identifying and technical detail:

This example is lucky enough to live in a nice original F-series box. The model was also issued in blue as seen in the box, which I think I’d prefer as I like blue:

This is a fun piece of history I am happy to have in my collection. The 70s British wedge cars are amusing, and I doubt any other small scale castings were of this quality:

A 1:1 from weetstraw.com