Tuesday, June 10, 2014

#423 TOMICA - ROLLS ROYCE PHANTOM VI, MERCEDES-BENZ 300 SL, MORGAN PLUS 8, PACKARD COUPE ROADSTER and OLDSMOBILE TORONADO XSR (1976, 1977 and 1978)

TOMICA FOREIGN SERIES


All Tomica models I keep from the early 80s belong to the foreign series. I think I have already told this before, but most of them were bought by my father in Portugal, I think it was in Faro (Southern Portugal).

I cannot remember the boxes in which they were sold, because these were probably thrown away right after I got the car out of them, but they should actually be a white and blue one with a flag on it.

Picture taken from the great blog: http://toyingwithtomicas.files.wordpress.com
The flag of course indicates the land in which the real car was manufactured, for example, in the Mercedes above, it was Germany, for the Rolls Royce it was the United Kingdom, and so on. Other flags present on Tomica boxes were: USA, Italy and France.

The production of these models started in 1974 and ended in 1988, and there were 70 models made, all numbered with an "F" (Foreign) plus a number between 1 and 70, that's F1 to F70. After 1988, the foreign series was merged into the standard series. The new reference was the old number plus 80, for example, Rolls Royce Phantom VI was number F6, passed to 086. Those standard references (from 81 on) seem to be rare, since they were discontinued very quickly, and therefore only available for a short period of time.

(Information obtained from: http://toyingwithtomicas.files.wordpress.com)

The cars shown in this entry are:

ROLLS ROYCE PHANTOM VI (No. F6) in 1:78 scale from 1976
Colour: dark red
Practicable doors

MERCEDES-BENZ 300 SL (No. F19) in 1:63 scale
Colour: silver metallic
Practicable doors

OLDSMOBILE TORONADO XSR (No. F54) in 1:78 scale from 1978
Colour: white
Practicable doors




MORGAN PLUS 8 (No. F26) in 1:57 scale from 1977
Colour: red
No practicable parts
PACKARD COUPE ROADSTER (No. F52) in 1:72 scale from 1978
Colour: red
Practicable trunk (or is it an extra seat?)




You can see more Tomica from the foreign series in the following entries:


#259 TOMICA – VOLKS WAGEN, BLMC MINI COOPER S (MK-III) and VOLKS WAGEN PUTICA DISNEY (Nrs. F20, F8 and PD6) (1977, 1979 and ~1990) 

#282 TOMICA – MASERATI MERAK SS, LAMBORGHINI COUNTACH LP500S, DETOMASO PANTERA GTS and FERRARI BB 512 (1976, 1978, 1979 and 1993)

FACTS AND FIGURES:

  • Name: ROLLS ROYCE PHANTOM VI, MERCEDES-BENZ 300 SL, MORGAN PLUS 8, PACKARD COUPE ROADSTER and OLDSMOBILE TORONADO XSR (Nrs. F6, F19, F26, F52, F54)
  • Scale: 1:78, 1:63, 1:78, 1:57 and 1:72 (respectively)
  • Year: 1976, -, 1978, 1977 and 1978 (respectively)
  • Company: Tomica (Japan)
  • Size: approx. 6 cm

2 comments:

  1. Hi Gog,

    Just a brief note to confirm the mentioned models were indeed available in the blue boxes. I can confirm this because mine, most bought in the late 1970s and early 1980s in Lisboa, are still in their original boxes. The F series comprised a selection of well detailed European and American models, most with opening features. These models were – in my opinion – much more appealing than contemporary offers from Matchbox or Corgi. They depicted the prototypes so well that a few of us could not resist to further detail them – that’s why your Gullwing has painted indicators…

    All the best,

    PAULO SANTOS

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    Replies
    1. Hi Paulo,
      Many thanks for your comment. and for clearing that issue. Cool that you had Tomica in Portugal. I guess that in Spain the local brands were stronger and didn't leave much space for new brands. My father bought them regularly in Faro o somewhere in Algarve, and occasionally decorated them using paint he had for plastic model kits (Tamiya, Matchbox and others). That was around 1984-86, then we moved to another city, so I never saw any more Tomicas until 1993, when I spotted a few at a toy-shop in Santiago (de Compostela). But these were already "different", made in China, and often with plastic bases o not-so-nice tampographies. I showed these later Tomicas in entry #211

      http://toysfromthepast.blogspot.com/2012/11/211-tomica-austin-taxi-cab-mercedes.html

      See you!
      Juan

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