Hong Kong Recap - Tomica Limited

Over the next week (or two) there will be a series of blog entries regarding my finds (or lack of finds) from my recent trip to Hong Kong.

Browsing through many of the independent toy stores that play an important part of the Hong Kong collecting world, I started spotting Tomica cars I have never heard about before - Tomica Limited. Again searching online I found that these series started in 2001 and ended in 2013 after producing 156 numbered models, along with many other collector sets.

In order to keep my purchasing in check, I decided to focus on just getting a couple of example models from a sub section of the line - Japan Autobacs, featuring various race cars from the 2004. This self imposed rule was then later expanded when I saw a few more race cars from the same line, including a model I had been after for a while, but did not want to pay eBay prices for - although I think is still my most expensive die cast purchase.

Hopefully as finances allow, I can at least complete the Autobacs sub section of this limited line, eventually expanding the collecting goal to all the "race" cars in the assortment and then a complete assortment.

Hong Kong Recap - Transformers

Over the next week (or two) there will be a series of blog entries regarding my finds (or lack of finds) from my recent trip to Hong Kong.

As someone who has generally being keeping up with Japanese Transformer releases as they come out via import stores located in Japan, or keeping up with American Transformers releases either via local stores or import stores located in the USA, I expected that my Transformers purchases would be somewhat limited or non existent - I had a small wish list, but expected to not find them or not be prepared to pay the asking price.

My first trip to a Toys R Us store reinforced this decision - they had a lot of space dedicated to Transformers with very impressive display cabinets featuring customised Transformers, but the actual stock on the shelf was well picked over but still featured some items that had not been seen locally. Moving onto Toy Street and seeing what the independent toy stores had in stock - I was blown away with the assortment and variety, seeing many items for the first time and started a very large wish list - as I was moving hotels mid way through my stay, I didn't want to stock up on items only to have to carry them with me.

My first purchase came of an ex-New Zealand Transformers collector who now lives in Hong Kong - after seeing a very banged up Masterpiece Grimlock (Hasbro version) in a Toys R U store, I mentioned it to this collector who advised that she had one spare that she had kept in case her son broke the one he had. I was also able to purchase from another Toys R Us store, the Hasbro version of Masterpiece Starscream for a reasonable price compared to the Takara version. The plans for both of these Hasbro Masterpiece items is to open and add them to my Masterpiece display, however careful comparison with the Takara versions will be required.
I was also lucky enough to stumble across a pretty decently priced Masterpiece Thundercracker - an item that has shot up in price recently. However I think my chances of getting a decently priced Masterpiece Skywarp is zero ...

Another series I was after, due to being unemployed when released was Transformers Go - the Japanese version of Transformers Prime Beast Hunters. Takara Tomy released some of the Hasbro toys with much less muted paint schemes - or completely different paint schemes when it came to the beasts - but also made some drastic changes by adding in their own brand new combiner toys. In stores I was amazed to find so many of the new combiner figures, which I had zero interest in - thankfully I did find three proper Transformers Go figures including one I was expecting to pay a premium for G11 Hunter Optimus Prime. One store did have an extra large range of Transformers Go, but the display cases were basically covered up with new arrivals and I was unable to purchase any.

Q-Transformers has been a guilty side pleasure of mine ever since I needed to bulk out a Transformer order from Japan to get the order over the stores minimum threshold. To be honest, I wasn't sure if I needed any of the Q-Transformers I did purchase for the collection but the price was the best I found in Hong Kong and decided it was worth the risk if they happened to be doubles. (At home checking showed that two of the figures did turn out to be doubles (Hound and Jazz).

After Binaltech ended in 2008, a new series called Alternity took its place - however due to the massive changes between Binaltech and Alternity (starting with the different scale of car), it was never a line that I held much appreciation for. However its successor, Transformers GT did spark my interest due to the fact that the cars had racing liveries but came at a rather bad time for my collection to grow as I was unemployed and was not able to justify the rather high price for the figures.
Thankfully years of patience paid off with a very cheap Convoy figure found in a store that I stumbled across and Saber being found at the same store that had the Transformers Go figures.

Finally, I decided to pick up the exclusive Unite Warriors UW-06 Grand Galvatron pack after being able to see it in person. Online images made it look pretty nice, but as I wasn't going to be able to acquire the set via normal Japanese retail sources which meant paying a US Dollar markup, I decided to skip it. However as the opportunity to purchase in Hong Kong Dollars was available I jumped at the chance to own - the Decepticons are always outnumbered and so while the set consists of random repaints, they are very nice repaints and a valuable addition to the Combiner Wars army,

From an expected limited or non existent haul, there were certainly quite a few purchases, and due to limited luggage space (not to mention income), there were plenty more figures I could have added to the haul!

Hong Kong Recap - Tomica Premium

Over the next week (or two) there will be a series of blog entries regarding my finds (or lack of finds) from my recent trip to Hong Kong.

While looking at the range of Tomica cars in department stores, toy stores and the little cube stores all over Hong Kong, I started seeing a line called Tomica Premium that carried a price premium over the regular Tomica. An internet search revealed that this line started in late 2015 and featured a range of vehicles from the Tomica series and had a touch more detail in them than the regular Tomica cars (hence the Premium banding)

As of finding these vehicles, a total of 16 had been released though I was unable to find 01 - Nismo R34 GT-R Z-tune and 10 - Lamborghini Diablo. Some I decided not to add to the collection as they were not items I collect, but I was pretty happy with the purchases I was able to make.

Hopefully I can find the two I was unable to find without resorting to paying inflated prices on eBay, and I look forward to seeing what else Tomy release in the near future.

Along with the basic Tomica, I was also able to purchase a few cars from the Dream Tomica line, which seem to feature vehicles that are either inspired by properties like Pokemon or Marvel, or vehicles from video games or television and movies.

Also joining the basic purchases were three blind box Tomica, known as Tomica Kuji 20 and follows Japan's love of blind box items (or gashapon). The them for this set is "what if all companies or organizations used sports cars for their daily activities".

A few Toys R Us exclusives were found, though after I got home I realised that I never made it back to another TRU store in order to pick up probably the best exclusive I saw, but these things happen on holiday.

Finally I found a couple of Hong Kong exclusive Tomica, the Hong Kong Red Toyota Crown Taxi and the Macau Toyota Corolla Taxi.

Phew!!