Tomica Shop Singapore

Good news to all Tomica collectors in Singapore. My friend has just started his own business recently operating a toy shop selling Tomica and collectible toys. Official opening is set on 2nd November but he has done a "soft opening" this week. As the shop is still in progress of setting up, I will reveal the shop name and address after 2nd November as you can see the store signage is not ready. Although the name of the store is not "Tomica Shop" but I can assure you that it is good enough if you only buy current items available in Tomica Shop in Japan. Membership of his shop is also in the plans at the moment.

This should be the largest Tomica display in Singapore. I have yet to see one of this size locally. Tomica video is played in the shop continuously creating Tomica Shop atmosphere. Some regular Tomica which are not available in Singapore are parallel imported such as Eneos Truck, JSDF vehicle etc.

There are also some special edition Tomica available in this display case. You might find some of my Tomica displaying and on sale in this shelf within the next 2 weeks. 

Tomica shop models and Tomica lottery set available at the counter as well.

Not forgetting the Tomica Town set and there is demonstration sets for children to play with.

Tomica Limited Vintage series, Tokyo Motor Show series plus some other special edition which are totally not available in Singapore. The TLV is now available in this shop although not full range. It all depends on the local response if it is worthwhile to continue the TLV in his shop due to high cost of the product.

Tomica factory cars available although there is no factory in the store like the original shop in Japan.

Special edition Skytree Tomica

If you are collecting Apital series constantly, you need not travel to Japan or Hong Kong. The price is reasonable as it is similarly priced to the pricing in Hong Kong.

Besides Apita series, there is Toy Dream Project series too. Toy Dream Project has 6 cars in a set and only available in Tomica Shop in Japan. Reasonable price like Apita too.

 

These are the cars I bought in my friend's shop. I wanted a Nissan Factory Juke badly but the Note is fine too since it is rather impossible to find a special edition Tomica in Singapore. We would hope to see more locals supporting Tomica and welcome any collectors to the shop if you come by Singapore for vacation.

 

 

 

Last Day Sale of September Flea Market

Venue: China Square Central
Date: Every Sunday of September 2013, last will be on 29th September 
Time: 1100hrs~1700hrs

What we sell: Tomica, Hot Wheels, Matchbox, loose cars and many more

I hope to clear as many cars as possible so that I can bring more cars back when I go for my next toy car hunting trip. Price negotiable as long as I am able to recover my cost. See you this Sunday.

Diapet Europe - Mercedes Benz 250SE

Diapet is one of the toy car brands I collect. It is a line of toy car made by Yonezawa company. I bet not many people know that there is another series known as Diapet Europe.

When is a Diapet not made in Japan and made in Spain instead?

This Spanish made Mercedes looked very Diapet.

If you do collect quite a number of stuff, you will know that this Diapet is actually a Nacoral. Nacroal S.A. toy cars happened to share the same casting as Sablon (Made in Belgium) which is very rare these days. Why is a Nacoral repackaged as a Diapet? Most toy cars which are import into Japan are either repackaged into Japanese card or box or they are rebadging like this Nacoral.

If you do not know Nacoral, you will be forgiven for mistaking this Mercedes as a Diapet. The build quality is almost Japanese, the bonnet and boot opens and the doors open with the window frame just like most Diapet.

I had a gold (or is it green?) one before I own the blue one. The main difference of the 2 cars is the wheels. The Diapet has a set of smaller wheels allowing the car to roll freely while the gold Mercedes has bigger wheels which deter free roll.

The base of the gold Mercedes says that it is a 250SE.

 

The blue Mercedes was upgraded to 280S on its base and it retain the base of its original maker. To be more precise, the car is still a Nacoral but packaged as a Diapet in Japan. Wonders of product rebadging.

 

 

 

Revolving Tomica Display Stand

A surprise find last weekend. A small toy shop in a neighbourhood selling Tomica and some other toys. The shop looked under utilize because there is little number of toys on the shelves making the shop looked very empty. I am just curious how this shop can make enough for the high rental in Singapore.

What actually caught my eye is the Tomica display that sits on a blue revolving stand. This Tomica display stand reminded me of the one in Sogo I used to patronise as a student. To my best knowledge, the stand is fabricated by the Tomica distributor in Singapore and only a few are made in either blue or white. You don't see this kind of display stand in departmental stores anymore and I am glad to have found this one still soldiering on in a shop. I hope I can get my hands on this unit if the shop decides to let it go one day.