The Japan-based Tomy was founded on February 2, 1924 as Tomiyama Toy Seisakusho by Eiichiro Tomiyama. It was best known for its toy airplanes for a few decades before the company changed its name to Tomy during the '60s, at which time it also opened offices in the United States and Europe. Tomy published video games from the '80s through 2010 as well; the last game it released is Naruto Shippuden: Clash of Ninja Revolution III for the Wii. In 2006 Tomy merged with another big toy maker (and former video game publisher) in Japan, Takara. I mentioned Takara previously when I made a Transformers video as Takara is responsible for creating the toy robots that Hasbro brought to the U.S. and re-branded as the Transformers. Being the more recognizable name world wide, the post-merger company kept Tomy as its name in all locations except Japan, where it is called Takara Tomy.
All of the toys I'm sharing in the post/video are from the mid to late '70s and early '80s. My favorite Tomy toys are the wind-up characters that you simply wind up and place on a hard surface (or in water) to see them move. A few items are games of skill; some require winding and some are small pocket games. One toy is an amusing sentence maker where you shake the item a bit to mix up plastic squares with words on them and then jiggle the item to get five squares to drop into a window and form a silly sentence. I've also got a few Pocket Cars and accessories from Tomy's die-cast brand that is named Tomica, itself a spin-off of the company's Tomica World trains. Many of the toys with internal mechanisms no longer work but I still find them a pleasure to view. Electronic toys like the ferry can probably be repaired with a new motor though I don't think it is possible to repair the wind-up toys as they are not meant to be disassembled.
Individual Wind-Up Toys
Robots (1977)
Mickey Mouses and Plutos (1977)
Dolphin, Penguin, & Turtle (None have a copyright on them;
the penguin is marked No. 4)
Ski Streak Racing Team 351 (1978)
Bumbling Boxing
Hop-A-Long Hoopster (1981)
Skill Squares
Rescue Copter and Shootin' Gallery
Rescue Copter and Shootin' Gallery
Tomy Pocket Games
Feed the Frogs (1977)
Bi-Plane Battle (1978)
Don't see a name on this one; I'll call it Race Track (1975)
Sentence Nonsense (1975)
Pocket Cars & Accessories (Tomica Die-cast)
American Truck (1978), Toyota Type HQ15V (1978),
Alpine Renault A310 (1978), Pontiac Firebird Trans Am (1978),
and Ferrari 308 GTB (1977)
Conveyer
Crane
Paint 'Em Perfect Paint Shop
Road Mates Auto Ferry
The ferry is battery operated and is not actually meant to be placed in the water. The wheel on the top is used to rotate the wheels on the bottom that are powered by two "C" batteries.
Tomy Pop Cycle
The racer is missing his legs!
Thanks for visiting the blog and I hope you enjoyed this look at some Tomy toys.
-Jonathan
Takara's Penny Racers which also appear in the video.
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