Two weeks ago saw the release of the latest Tomytec car collection - number 12.

Many of Tomytec's 'Car Collections' cover slightly older vehicles; predominantly from the 1970s; and many of these tend to be more iconic vehicles as opposed to everyday. What, I suppose, needs to be remembered is that these collections form part of a wider collectables following, as opposed to be specifically for model railways. Essentially these are for collectors, and are usually sold as sealed boxes, being a 'suprise' for the purchaser; who will subsequently swap them for models they are after in the work-place or playground....slightly more sophisticated pokemon cards if you like...

Luckily Tomytec make these to 1/150 (although there are 1/80 models out there from Tomytec), and being a cheat I get the complete set! The other good thing about these being 1/150 is that they look perfectly happy on a UK outline layout.

Collection series 12 features four types of vehicles; The Nissan Ad (Wingroad) estate; the Toyota Crown Sedan, the Nissan Paramedic and, perhaps what will make this collection particularly welcome for UK models, the Toyota Prius.

The Nissan Ad fills an interesting gap in the Tomytec modern vehicles range; the estate car. What I am also pleased to see from this model in particular is the toning down of the bright colours - the main colour for Japanese cars is white, or perhaps silver, so the six Ads included in this 24-piece set, two were white and two were silver.

As my interest is Japanese, perhaps the most exciting item in this collection is the Crown Sedan, mainly because this is the main type of vehicles used as a taxi in Japan...indeed, Toyota produce a specific range of Crowns for this very purpose.

The marking along the side of the taxi are very finely printed...the green commercial number plates are also a good touch.

The least useful for non-Japanese modellers is the Nissan Paramedic - which as its name suggests, is an ambulance. Ideal for me as this is the first modern ambulance Tomytec have produced. This one comes in three styles...

http://en.wikipedia....e:Paramedic.jpg

Finally there is the Prius. Tomytec have captured the rather odd look of this car extremely well, and again have resisted the temptation to emblazen them in bright colours, as they did with the 'super mini' collection - the Prius comes in red, white and silver. I'm sure this latter model will start appearing in UK N gauge layouts in the very near future!

It is unfortunate that these cruel photographs show one of the only drawbacks with these models. Both the Prius and the Ad have moulding lines passing through the headlight clusters. On the bolder coloured examples - mainly the red Prius - the colour does slightly show through the off-white of the lights. A slight touch-up with a paint brush should cure this minor ill.

The slight glitch above notwithstanding, this is another very impressive range of vehicles to come from Tomytec...a manufacturer who's range have improved in quality dramatically over the last couple of years. The little details, such as the markings on the taxis; the trim on the Crowns; legible badges etc., are very well done, and really the pictures I have taken do the models no justice.

I obtained this lot from a store in Japan, however for those interested in obtaining models individually, you can take a look at Japan Model Railways in Germany who split the packs (although these have not yet come into stock)...

http://shop.strato.d...gories/22/23/31