My first real exposure to Tomica came at Toys 'R Us when the series was brought Stateside. Growing up with tons of Hot Wheels I was intrigued. I ended up picking up a few train sets (that currently reside in my 5 year old daughter's room) to test out. It wouldn't be long after that it seems most of the Tomica stuff started to hit clearance and disappear from my local TRU's shelves.
Then about a month ago in a Google search for something else, the Hyper Series of toys from Tomica showed up on my radar. It appears these toys merge the traditional die-cast Tomica cars with new, larger transforming vehicles. Some of the vehicles act as transports, some transform into playsets while others combine with other vehicles to form larger vehicles and such. I'm guessing this portion of the series is thanks in part to Takara.
Well two particular sets really caught my attention, Sonic Arrow and Sonic Breaker; part of the Hyper Police sub-theme. I found a good discounted pre-order for both over at AmiAmi.com and I just happened to have a little extra sitting in the PayPal account. I dropped the pre-order and proceeded to wait until mid-March 2015 when they were scheduled to be released in Japan. A few days after their release a large box showed up on my doorstep.
For this post I'll focus on each toy as a stand alone piece, then we'll look at how the two toys interact with each other and the various play features.
Starting with Sonic Arrow, this sleek police car comes packaged a very colorful, yet busy box. From my previous experience with Takara products, the packaging has always been of high quality and top notch. The cardboard used is nice a thick and the images feature high gloss and are very colorful.
As you can see from the back of the box (above), you can see the play features of the toy along with how it interacts with Sonic Breaker and other Tomica Hyper Series vehicles. The sides of the box (below) again show how Sonic Arrow and Sonic Breaker can combine...both as a larger armored police vehicle and as a large robot! The other side of the box showcases some of the small die-cast Tomica cars and vehicles in the same Hyper series,
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Sonic Arrow is housed in a cardboard frame if you will inside the box. There is no real assembly required, it's ready to play with right out of the box. A few AAA batteries are required however to power the electronic lights and sound.
Also included inside the box is a brief instruction page and a sticker sheet. Below you can see how Sonic Arrow looks straight out of the box along with a comparison with all the stickers applied. The stickers were easy to apply and seem of good
While I didn't think of taking a measurement of the vehicle, it's quite bigger than what I originally imagined it would be. I did think however to grab another toy off my shelves for a comparison picture. Most of you reading this blog should be familiar with the voyager figure of Classics Optimus Prime...
Underneath the gray panel at the rear of the vehicle is a compartment for a small die-cast vehicle. One of the play features of this toy (in addition to the lights & sounds) is launching a car. The whole center of the vehicle lifts when the car is launched.
I should mention that these two vehicles are also sold in a larger two pack. This larger set contained an exclusive die-cast vehicle. I don't have any of the Tomica Hyper Series die-cast vehicles, so I had to use my Back to the Future Hotwheels Delorean instead. When the small yellow button on the right side of the vehicle is pressed, the center of the vehicle pops up and launches a vehicle if placed inside. The play feature works fairly well in the confined space of my light box. On the bottom of the vehicle compartment is what appears to be some sort of connection. I imagine this is for some sort of connection to a Tomica branded vehicle.
When the other yellow button is pressed (left side) it triggers the lights and sirens. There is some sort of voice mixed in with the sirens as well, but it's in Japanese so I have no idea what it's saying.
The "second" vehicle in this set is Sonic Breaker. Where Sonic Arrow is more of a sleek police car, Sonic Breaker is a police hot rod of sorts. The layout of the packaging is just about identical to Sonic Arrow's, however it seems as if there is more of a emphasis on the combined aspects of the toys.
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Unlike Sonic Arrow, Sonic Breaker does require a bit of assembly once removed from the box. This toy is more like a parts former than a big Hot Wheel vehicle.
At first look of this toy I thought it was modeled after a modern American muscle car, such as a Dodge Charger. The picture above has all of the extra parts attached - the gray pieces behind the cockpit, wings on the rear and guns attached to the sides.
Just like the other vehicle, this one too comes with a sticker sheet full of stickers just waiting to be applied.
Just like the other vehicle, this one too comes with a sticker sheet full of stickers just waiting to be applied.
Ah, now this is much better! These stickers give the vehicle some much needed detail. Sonic Breaker is a beefier vehicle, but feels hollow due to how the vehicle is constructed and it's role in the combining of the two vehicles.
Together the two vehicles are a lot of fun, however the fun is just beginning. The big sale of these two toys seems to be the combined robot...which is pretty darn cool, but the other combining feature takes both of these road vehicles and merges them together to form an even larger police vehicle.
Sonic Breaker simply splits in half and attaches to the sides of Sonic Arrow. Sonic Breaker's removable parts are reassigned to new positions.
Now I gotta say this thing is huge and very cool. However I can't imagine something this large barreling down the highway in a high speed pursuit. I'd feel sorry for anyone else on the road, especially of this thing has to take corner as there is no way this beefy vehicle could turn on a dime!
Now I gotta say this thing is huge and very cool. However I can't imagine something this large barreling down the highway in a high speed pursuit. I'd feel sorry for anyone else on the road, especially of this thing has to take corner as there is no way this beefy vehicle could turn on a dime!
Again using Classics Optimus Prime for scale comparison, you can see what a monster this combined vehicle form is. As cool as this is, it's time to get to the big guy...
First of all I don't know if this robot has a name or not. I'll also go out on a limb and say it's more like a large mech suit over a sentient robot like a Transformer.
To combine Sonic Arrow and Sonic Breaker into this large robot, you start off by separating Sonic Breaker into two halves as these form the robot's legs. Sonic Arrow then becomes the top half of the robot, with the hood become the arms. The silver wing section from Sonic Breaker basically becomes the shoulders along with containing the robot's head.
To finish off the look, many of those removable parts from Sonic Breaker attach on the tops of the arms and onto the waist. The two gun halves combine to form a larger rifle.
The robot's head features a blue helmet with a small police badge sticker on the front. The gray wings on the sides are movable, but the instructions and pictures on the box show these in the upright position. The eyes are made with a translucent green visor with the lower half of the face being covered with a white plate.
This robot is tall, about twice the half of most Generation One Transformers combiners. Here I've pictured him with G1 Bruticus...only because he was the easiest combiner I could grab from my collection.
The robot is surprisingly stable given that he is pretty light in the weight department. Just like a G1 combiner, this guy is pretty much a brick. You can move his arms in a full 360 degrees, but that is just about it. For me that isn't an issue, especially when it comes to photographing the toy since I can't pull off those dynamic poses.
The electronic features still work in combined robot mode, in fact when you plug in the robot's shoulder/head piece to the body, the electronics give off a slightly different sound bit as shown above.
Overall I had a blast discovering what I'm sure many Japanese parents and children already know about these Tomic Hyper Series toys. I decided not to keep these toys in my personal collection for many reasons, but it wasn't because they aren't fun. In fact I'd love to get more of a hands on experience with other toys in this series, but due to the import nature of them they can get somewhat expensive. If you are a fan of transforming toys, 1:64 die-cast vehicles or just want to experience something a little different, you may want to check out either these toys or something else in the Hyper Series family.
As of this post you can find both of these toys listed in my eBay store as one set. My asking price is actually a few dollars less than what I paid and much cheaper than what most sellers are asking for these toys.
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