The Japanese Tomy company has a terrific track record in the toy-making biz, and the Tomica HyperCity is a worthwhile addition to that heritage.
Integrated cityscape
HyperCity is an expandable road-rail-track system that can eventually build into a splendid carpet-sized megalopolis. It’s got fun features aplenty, with trains that work, vehicles that roll, and buildings that can lift, pull, shove and rotate.
The system is an unabashed ‘toy’ rather than a scale model, but even so, many of the vehicles are pretty fair representations of mostly Japanese originals - for example, a neat set of four Honda cars.
Buying a HyperCity
The only real downer is pricing - if you’re a Mum or Dad, you’ll need deep pockets to assemble a complete HyperCity in the playroom. The Pizza Pizza joint shown above is one of the cheaper items, on UK sale at £9.98 ($15.60 USD), while the MegaStation set is £68.95 ($108 USD). Still, purchased over time, Tomica’s HyperCity might not be too painful to buy, and if it leads to greater things in encouraging Junior’s modelling skills, it’ll make a fine investment.
The pictures show, top to bottom:
1 The units of the HyperCity system assemble into a splendid playroom townscape.
2 The MegaStation includes moving parts to hoist vehicles above ground level, for a rapid descent down a ramp.
3 Pizza Pizza is a handsome Japanese take on retro-Americana commercial architecture.
Visit the Tomica website here.
Inspect the range presently available here.