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▼ Tomica Miniature Cars The Stars of New Anime
- Category:Event
Tomica, the long-selling miniature toy cars produced by Tomy Co., have made their TV anime debut in a story about vehicles that transform into humanoid robots to rescue people from serious accidents and disasters.
Since its 1970 release, the Tomica series has included elaborate miniature-car versions of real vehicles of various types. Worldwide sales of the toy cars surpassed ¥538 million in 2010.
Debuting in April, the anime “Tomica Hyper Rescue Drive Head — Kido Kyukyu Keisatsu” (TOMICA Hyper Rescue Police DRIVE HEAD) is currently airing at 7 a.m. Saturdays on the TBS network.
The plan to produce the anime took shape after Tomica’s Hyper Series — a lineup of fanciful police cars, fire engines and other emergency vehicles — released a new range of humanoid robot toys called Walker Vehicles last year.
“An anime with emergency vehicles in the spotlight is very unusual,” said Yuya Yoshihara of Tomy’s planning division. “I thought we could produce a spectacular work if we could incorporate dynamic scenes of cars transforming into robots.”
Set in the near future, the story follows the activities of Drive Heads — Walker Vehicles that specialize in policing, fire-fighting or rescue operations. When a major disaster or serious crime occurs, Go Kurumada, a fifth-grader in elementary school, and his friends board the Tomica machines and set out to rescue people, working together with grown-ups in the emergency mobile police force.
One of the anime’s highlights is its voice actors. They include popular comic duo Trendy Angel and TBS announcer Yuri Sasagawa, who plays a
TV news reporter in each episode.
Since its 1970 release, the Tomica series has included elaborate miniature-car versions of real vehicles of various types. Worldwide sales of the toy cars surpassed ¥538 million in 2010.
Debuting in April, the anime “Tomica Hyper Rescue Drive Head — Kido Kyukyu Keisatsu” (TOMICA Hyper Rescue Police DRIVE HEAD) is currently airing at 7 a.m. Saturdays on the TBS network.
The plan to produce the anime took shape after Tomica’s Hyper Series — a lineup of fanciful police cars, fire engines and other emergency vehicles — released a new range of humanoid robot toys called Walker Vehicles last year.
“An anime with emergency vehicles in the spotlight is very unusual,” said Yuya Yoshihara of Tomy’s planning division. “I thought we could produce a spectacular work if we could incorporate dynamic scenes of cars transforming into robots.”
Set in the near future, the story follows the activities of Drive Heads — Walker Vehicles that specialize in policing, fire-fighting or rescue operations. When a major disaster or serious crime occurs, Go Kurumada, a fifth-grader in elementary school, and his friends board the Tomica machines and set out to rescue people, working together with grown-ups in the emergency mobile police force.
One of the anime’s highlights is its voice actors. They include popular comic duo Trendy Angel and TBS announcer Yuri Sasagawa, who plays a
TV news reporter in each episode.
Shinya Watanabe, who produced the anime for the broadcaster, said the creative team focused on how to make the Drive Heads look cool when adapting Tomica toys to visual media.
“While the anime’s human characters are drawn in the regular 2-D format,” he said, “the machines are created by a 3-D image production team to capture their flexible movements down to every detail.”
The creative team has also carefully chosen the setting of the anime in the hopes that young viewers will relate to its world.
“We decided to make the lead character a fifth-grader in elementary school, the age of an older brother of someone in the target age group,” Watanabe said. “To make the work look realistic, our storylines are based on incidents and accidents that could occur in the towns where we go about our daily lives.”
The broadcaster and the toy company have already received substantial feedback from viewers.
“Many of our viewers’ parents grew up playing with Tomica toys, so they’ve also taken an interest in the anime,” Yoshihara said.
Watanabe said he often comes across internet posts about the anime by enthusiastic fans. “I’m really impressed with the power of the Tomica brand,” he said.
“While the anime’s human characters are drawn in the regular 2-D format,” he said, “the machines are created by a 3-D image production team to capture their flexible movements down to every detail.”
The creative team has also carefully chosen the setting of the anime in the hopes that young viewers will relate to its world.
“We decided to make the lead character a fifth-grader in elementary school, the age of an older brother of someone in the target age group,” Watanabe said. “To make the work look realistic, our storylines are based on incidents and accidents that could occur in the towns where we go about our daily lives.”
The broadcaster and the toy company have already received substantial feedback from viewers.
“Many of our viewers’ parents grew up playing with Tomica toys, so they’ve also taken an interest in the anime,” Yoshihara said.
Watanabe said he often comes across internet posts about the anime by enthusiastic fans. “I’m really impressed with the power of the Tomica brand,” he said.
- May 27, 2017
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