In the 1950s, Japan made large toy cars of pressed tin (some battery-operated, with “bump-n-go” action), and they were seemingly on every shelf in every toy store worldwide. In the early 1960s, more serious model cars came to the forefront, like Yonezawa Diapet, in 1:40 scale. But later in the ’60s in Japan, miniaturization was hot — part fad, part fed by space rationalization on an island the size of California, but with 104 million residents by 1970. Unlike California, however, Japan’s space is three-quarters uninhabitable mountains. Kei-class cars, four-seaters powered by 360-cc engines, were proof of this trend toward miniaturization. So were transistor radios. As the ’60s wore on, small was in.
And so, in 1970, toy company Tomy announced its Tomica (literally, Tomy Car) line of small diecast…
