Hello there,
I’ve been a follower of LALD for a number of years now - though many have come and gone, this has stubbornly remained an amazing community. LALD has been a big influence on how I indulge myself in 1/64 diecasts since I jumped into the hobby some 3+ years ago. For that, I am very thankful.
I am not the creative type; so probably won’t be much of a content generator. I don’t really have any photography skills which I think is a big part of the process there. But I do have (and have always had) a great fondness for miniature vehicles!
Early in 2016, I had the opportunity to travel to Japan - a longtime dream of mine. It was a very short (but amazing) trip. Diecast was not part of my life... sometimes I miss the old blissfully ‘ignorant’ days! Anyways, wife and I decided to go see the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building and its observatory and, taking a little break from walking, we started browsing the souvenir toy store they had up there.
I was hypnotically drawn to this awesome red and white minicar display. “TOMICA”, it read. I stared at it for a while, pondering how young me would have been absolutely in love with the thing. I told my wife: “...I am going to get myself one or two of these”. She stared at me for a second and when she realized I was dead serious, she walked away to browse the rest of the store thinking it might take me a while to pick. I walked out with the two little packages below:
I really liked how heavy and compact the little boxes felt. However, it would be another couple of months until I actually took the plastic shrink off of them and admired the castings... and, boy, I was hooked. These things were heavy and really well-made, with opening doors and suspension. They felt like very high quality toys. Too cool.
Next thing I knew I was searching around Google for more information on this “TOMICA” brand. Where could I buy more of these? I was living in China at the time which, turns out, actually made getting a few more of these surprisingly easy... but that’s a story for another day!
Thanks for reading!