What's Tomica? you ask. Tomica are the Japanese equivalent of America's Hot Wheels.
Years ago, I started collecting Tomica diecast as a direct result of my interest in Toyota. The reason I went with Tomica was because they had many Toyota models, as opposed to Hot Wheels or Matchbox, which only had a few representative Toyota.
Over the years, I collected more & more Tomica and even included some non-Toyota cars. One thing I found out, was that being a Tomica enthusiast in the USA had it's drawbacks - Tomica simply were not readily available here. Some cars were sold here in the 70's and 80's, but since then they have gone off the retail market for the most part. Fortunately, there are places like eBay, and online shops like Hobby Link Japan, Hobby World Japan, and Toy East that usually have a decent selection. Even better, is having access to Yahoo Auction Japan, or knowing someone in Japan. That's how I get my cars these days.
The point of all this is that until recently there was no English language message boards (forum) for Tomica enthusiasts. Being a Tomica fan, I like to know what's going on in the world of Tomica, and I wanted to talk to other Tomica fans. There are numerous Tomica fan sites, blogs and forums, most are Japanese, and a few are from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, but none of them were in English. Eventually I came across the Tomica Fan Club, joined, and I have been happy ever since! The Tomica Fan Club was founded in December 2008, and as of today, the club has some 130 members (and growing).
The Tomica Fan Club, or TFC, is a forum and chat board made up of Tomica fans from around the world. While the TFC's core group members are from Singapore, the common language of the site is English. Currently there are only a few members from the USA and Europe, but we hope that number will increase. If you like, collect, or just want to know more about Tomica, I encourage you to stop by & join us! The TFC's founding member goes by the user name of Starscream, and he also has a weblog called World of Tomica. World of Tomica is another great resource for any Tomica Fan.
The Tomica Fan Club = http://tomicas.freeforums.org/
World of Tomica = http://tomicas.blogspot.com/
Please take a moment to visit both of these sites, and maybe join us at the Tomica Fan Club for some interesting Tomica discussions.
So, if you like Tomica and you want to meet other people that like Tomica, then you should join the TOMICA FAN CLUB like I did! Hope to see you at TFC!
Michael - Collector of Toyotamobilia ~ www.toyotageek.com
Tomica Fan Club ~ www.tomicafanclub.com