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Tomica World Vehicles

First written May 2024
Expanded September 2026
Reformatted September 2026

Tomy's export series of Tomica World sets often included both road and rail elements and many included motorized diecast cars based on the Japanese B/O Tomica and Motor Tomica vehicles. Most exported Tomica World vehicles are color or decoration variations of the original Japanese releases. A series of plastic Thomas-series vehicles were also released.

TW-03 Zoo Bus (1998)

A zoo animal-themed bus appeared as TW-03 in the Tomica World 7421 Large Set, with different graphics.

TW-04 Toyota TownAce (1998)

This blue Toyota TownAce passenger van appears to be identical to the Japanese A-01 Subaru Legacy.

The Toyota TownAce was included in the Tomica World 1998 Mega Set and the 1999 Super Mega Set version. This one is stamped as being produced in July 1999.

TW-08 7470 Taxi (1998)

One of the initial Tomica World vehicles was a taxi based on the Japanese B-06 Toyota Crown Majesta Taxi. This is the original 1998 card design, which was updated later as more vehicles were added to the range. Actually, this taxi is a factory error - it was packaged on the card for the 7472 Fire Engine.

The bottom of the car is marked TW-08 Taxi and has a battery cutoff tab still in place, as these cars all came with one of the somewhat obscure N size batteries required to run them. The vehicle battery instructions can also see tucked behind the car.

TW-06 7475 Sports Car (1998)

In 1998 a red Nissan Fairlady Z that with 300ZX text similar to the mid 1990s Japanese Fairlady Z was sold in a few sets as well as individually as 7475 Sports Car in the export Tomica World range.

Compared to the B/O Tomica version, the 300ZX decoration on the side is thicker and darker, making it much more noticeable. The chassis is the later, smoother Motor Tomica type with the mark TW-06 NISSAN.

TW-05 7479 Crane Truck (1998/1999)

This crane truck appeared in the 1998 7427 Super Mega Set and was released individually in 1999 as the 7479 Crane Truck.

TW-14 7572 Dustcart (2000)

A silver garbage truck with yellow cab based on the Japanese release B-12 Cleaning Truck from the mid 1990s was released individually for Tomica World in 2000. The symbols on the rear of the truck are glyphs that Tomy was putting on some boxes, particularly export European ones, at the time, so they probably already had these graphics on hand.

This example was manufactured in March 2002.