I was walking through Toys R Us looking for tub toys for my daughter (
...only to find a slim, sad little collection of lame offerings) when I stumbled onto these gems. The
TOMY TOMICA trains and cars. Evidently, they are
huge in Japan and are just coming out here in the States. And what an offering!
The battery powered trains come in a wide variety in Japan and have a somewhat impressive showing here. I saw a bullet train style along with several other "
real world" and "
play world" offerings - like a yellow and black drill train. :)
These have a fun look to them. Very much toy trains, but with a style and design that's cool and interesting. Switches, bridges and various other train track gadgets make it easy to add some interest to play. A wide selection of cars seems to be available in Japan, but Toys R Us just had a few offered on the shelves. It looks like the
cars are bigger than the trains, which makes me think they were first and the trains came out as an additional item for them, not vice versa.
They have a HUGE selection of cars in Japan. It's really amazing.
With the right amount of cash, you could have a rather large city built up for sure. The cost seemed reasonable as far as toys go. $50 will get you a "mega set" with tracks, roads and buildings. Smaller sets can be had for around $30. Trains run somewhere around $15. Cars around $7. So, $200 will get that someone special a rather nice Christmas showing for sure.
My daughter is only a year old, but I thought about starting to get some of these packs and storing them away for her for later...just in case I can con her into the train scene along with dolls and things. No reason girls can't play with trains! :)
20 Trains running at one time
