So the rest of the new “Premiums” have arrived - and the news is all good there. Let’s start off with the one that most will probably like: The NISMO R34 GT-R Z-tune:
As you can see, it looks like a classic Tomica casting - proper diecast metal, opening doors, decent details and tampos. It’s about what you’d expect for the money (even if the door fit could be a bit better), though not on par with the Tamiya Nissan Skyline R34 V-spec which I reviewed earlier here. But that was also a lot more expensive.
It does look the part for a Premium offering and pretty much continues down the same path as the old “Limited” offerings did. And like the “Limited” versions, it is not a strict 1/64 offering, but comes in at 1/62, like the regular Skylines. I presume it is based on the regular casting, but with significant changes and upgrades.
The paint does not look quite as grainy as it does in these shots - I needed the flash unfortunately, but once again, it is not quite up to the standards of, say, the TLV models. The savings in price has to come from somewhere.
Godzilla is pretty happy to get his hands on this one!
Next up, a car with a really lengthy name: Mazda RX-7 FD3S RE Amemiya Specification
Of course, all of this means only one thing: A real Japanese tuner. The question is of course if you like that sort of thing. For me, yes, it’s a model of real car and as such, I like it. Would I buy the real thing? Naahh.
No opening features on this one, but it is also a solid enough casting and looks very much like the real car. (The real ones have way more stickers, and I’m not that disappointed that they didn’t reproduce all of them).
And that brings us to the last Premium model, and the most obscure of the three: The Morita Wildfire Truck.
This is a concept truck rather than a production vehicle. It looks like something we could really do with right here in Australia! The scale is 1/100 - in real life, this is a massive machine.
The details are nicely captured, but I wouldn’t have minded a few working features to justify the Premium price. The front cabin is made of metal, but the back section is plastic and the difference is quite visible on the model.
Once again, that could - should have been handled a bit better on a Premium model. But it is still a nice looking machine.
I really do hope our local fire fighters will have something like this at their disposal soon. Last time I drove past a rural bushfire, there was a lonely FJ40 Land Cruiser battling a huge fire,. Not good.
And that’s all for today. I’m still a bit puzzled by what the general direction of the new Premium line is. What we have here is a bit of nostalgia, and some heavy duty new technology - and a space craft. But “What the...?” has always an FAQ with Tomica. That’s part of the fun, I guess.
