Hello

Wellcome to my web-site !

I am Akiko H .
My nickname is <Tomika> or <tomirinn> .
I live in Japan .
I am only a woman who likes model cars very much .
( Sorry , it is secret about my age !!)
And I am only an amateur collector , never proffesional .

I have a son who is 10 years old .
His name is Yoshito .
He has liked vehicles very much from when he was a little baby .
About 8 years ago , I bought small Power Shovel Toy for him
in my town's toy shop . Its brand was 'TOMICA' .
TOMICA is very popular model car toys in Japan
(made by TOMY COMPANY) .
There are many kind of cars in TOMICA
(always about 120 kind models )
and its price is very reasonable (about 2.7USD or 2GBP each).
My son liked TOMICA very much ,
so I bought it for him again and again .
I must study about vehicles and model cars
on the book or web-site from then ,
because he asked me about these toys very hard .
And I knew TOMICA have very long history (about 30th years)
and had many more interesting models(about 4000 kinds) in it .
Unawares I was also interested in TOMICA very much
and started collecting them with my son .
I have about 1000 and my son has about 500 TOMICA , now .

There are many model cars shops in Tokyo .
(To Tokyo , it takes 2 hours from here by train .)
I visit these shops once a month with my son .
Then , we always visit traffic museum
where is my son's favorite place , too .
So , going to Tokyo is one of favorit recration
(like picnick) for us .

I also use AUCTION on web-site
likes 'e-Bay' or 'Yahoo' for getting models.
And I have a lot of e-mail friends who also like model cars
all over the world . (Thank you my friends !! )
I sometimes bought or traded some models from (with) them .

Once I bought some TOMICA from my e-mail friend .
When I opened package from him ,
there were some strange models in it with TOMICA .
Taunus 12m , Fiat , Corsair , Benz 220se , Jaguar mkx .
(Their kind were FLYERS .)
It was the first time when I met the LONE STAR models .
I didn't know anything about these models , then ,
but they catched my hart strongly .
I most like light green color Taunus .
I can not explain the reason why I like it , well ,
but I felt it looks like falling in love (with it) , then .
I was very interested in these models
and want to know about LONE STAR models very much .
On one occasion I met the book
'LONE STAR 〜THE TOY COMPANY AND ITS MODEL CARS〜 '
written by Mr. Andrew Ralston .
It became my Bible for learning and collecting LONE STAR models .
I am collecting LONE STAR MODELS
more harder than TOMICA , NOW .




I like the light green color
likes old Road-masters Thunderburd and Daimler Conquest
or Flyers Taunus , very much .
Its light green color makes our mind very sweet and refreshing .
And at the LONE STAR models ,
the color of same models offen look different subtlety .
So all of LONE STAR models look like handmade .
I think it is the reason
why I am interested in Lone Star models so much .

And I also like many IMPY & FLYERS models' forms
because they are not modern .
I always like not smart man more than really smart man ,
so I think my liking may be same with model cars !!
I feel relieved when I see LONE STAR models .
But I think the structure of models are very minute and delicate
and have really high quality .

I was very surprised when I saw old Road-masters series cars
at the first time .
Because I thought the quality of these models was really high
and never worse than DINKY or CORGIE
or another Europian old models .

And Lone star models offen saw me look like some creature .
They have expressive face , don't they ?
Some models have very funny face ,
but it looks really lovely for me .

I don't like real cars . I offen get carsick !!
And I don't know about real cars , well .
I have a driver's license but I very rarely drive the car .
I only like model cars . May be I only love these small world .

However , my son is interested in real cars very much .
My son goes to kindergarden every days .
He is very cheerful and active boy !!
He says he wants to become a policeman or fireman , somedays .
So I think he will enjoy to drive squad car or fire engine
in his future

Audery Hepburn

Ingrid Bergman (behind)