Cool is Cool is Cool: Tomica Limited Vintage Seibu Keisatsu Nissan Laurel & Gloria Police Cars...

We have been wanting to show these for awhile.

With all the Matchbox and other new models to show, we haven't been able to dive into another Cool is Cool post here on Lamley.  We knew we could return to the series soon, and we knew exactly what models we would show.

We have a soft spot here at Lamley for police cars, especially vintage police cars.  And since no one here has any link to law enforcement outside of the occasional traffic stop and conversations with police collectors, our main connection is through television.

And police shows on television, at least when I was a kid, like to blow shit up.

I have only seen one SWAT raid in my life (while walking home from school, I watched as they raided a mansion down the street that was ground zero for a suspected international prostitution ring. Never knew what came of it, but it was fun to watch) and that is about as exciting as it has gotten for me.  Unfortunately I have never seen a bad guy or a doomed-from-the-start faceless police car hit another parked car so perfectly that it shot in the air and twisted just enough to land on its roof.  It must happen a lot because TV is reality and it happened 5 or 6 times on every episode of the A-Team.

And since that happened a lot back in the 70's and 80's, whether on Knight Rider or Dukes of Hazzard or the aforementioned Team of A's, it was always a bland sedan from that era that met its airborne fate.

But not across the pond in Japan.  The most popular TV show of that era in Japan was Seibu Keisatsu, which loosely translates to "Western Police".  More accurately, it means "One Hour of Nissan-focused Mayhem", as it crashed and blew up a whole load of cars, and by whole load we mean Nissans.

The show was a thrill ride, with fights, guns, chases, crashes, and a ton of explosions.  Just have a gander at this DVD promo ad:



If you watched it you saw a ton of police cars crashing into all kinds of things.  Nissan was a sponsor of the show, and it provided many of those victims for the show to have their way with.  So the Laurel, Cedric, and Gloria became the Dodge Monacos of Japan.

Tomica Limited Vintage has been doing a series of models dedicated to the series, and as we get them we will keep showing them.  We love the 240Z they did, replicating the car that jumped a river, as well as the 3 RS Machines, all based on the RS 2000 Skyline.

But our favorite models in the series are the police cars.  Not only because any police car in the Japanese black-and-white livery looks good, but because TLV sported them up with killer custom wheels, just like the show.  And the results are fantastic.

These two two police cars, one a Laurel and one a Gloria, and as cool as it gets.  The photos will do the models more justice that what I write, and you won't be able to get past the detail.  And keep in mind the weight is solid, and the model has shocks.  These are amazing models, and well worth the price it takes to get one or fifty to you.

We have tried to pinpoint our favorite TLV model, and at gunpoint we would still say the Skyline Van, but these two police cars may actually be our favorite.  It does not get any cooler than these two.  We dare you to take a look at these two and NOT want them in your collection.

And good news.  We emailed Japan Booster last night and they said they would put several TLV models from the Seibu Keisatu series up for sale at their store.  And remember, free shipping on orders over $50.  Follow the link:

Tomica Limited Vintage Seibu Keisatsu at Japan Booster

Enjoy the pics:


Tomica Limited Vintage Nissan Laurel C130 & Nissan Gloria 230 (Seibu Keisatsu Series):

First Look: Tomica Limited Vintage BMW 325i 4-door in both black and white...

Alright, now that we are done with the Hot Wheels Datsun Wagon, we can put that to bed until its arrival in September.

And let's get to a new model that you can get now.  Tomica Limited Vintage has released its batch for July, and it includes Daihatsu Midget single-seater (more on that one later this week), and another BMW, the E30 325i 4-door.

A lot of you have gotten on the TLV bandwagon of late, and we hope you are enjoying what you have bought from Japan Booster or elsewhere.  We at Lamley are fully on board.  We have been loading up our TLV arsenal for future posts.  In fact, between frequent visits to the Japan Booster eBay store and spending way too much time perusing Jeff Koch's TLV stock at the Matchbox Gathering, we have expanded the TLV collection quite a bit.  Here are the latest acquisitions from the last 2-3 weeks:

We have a lot of work to do.  Those Super Silhouette Skylines and Bluebird, as well as the three Machine RS models from Seibu Keisatsu should interest quite a few of you.  But in time.

For now we have the BMW's, one in black and one in white, both 325i models, made to accompany the 318i 2-door models released earlier this summer.

The E30 BMW, as we have said before, is truly an iconic BMW, for many reasons.  But one is its familiarity.  It is what many folks will think of when BMW is mentioned.  And for me, the 4-door is even more familiar.

Of course Tomica Limited Vintage tackles is perfectly.  We were reading an article about TLV that mentioned what goes into making the highly accurate models.  The TLV team likes to find a real version of the car they are interested in doing, and instead of just getting specs, they like to find the best example of the car they can and measure precisely.  And as usual that attention to detail shows through with the BMW.  We will let the photos do the talking.

And remember, both of these are available right now at Japan Booster, and you can get them shipped for free by adding on one more model, and there are plenty to choose from.  Japan Booster are always adding more models.  You won't be disappointed.

One other thing, for you TLV fans.  Japan Booster has just created a website that serves two purposes.  One, to serve as a TLV Catalog, and two, to sell PVC protectos for TLV boxes.  As Japan Booster photographs models for their sales, they will also post the photos on the website.  Now you have chance to see what most model look like thanks to the clear photos taken by the store.  Check it out:

Japan Booster protecto sales and catalog


Tomica Limited Vintage BMW 325i 4-door:

With the 318i: