Putting together a Tomica Limited Vintage Tomicarama, and a First Look at the TLV-Neo 1984 Toyota Mark II HT Grande...

You may have noticed a new photo style has crept into Lamley.  If you haven't, just go to the Lamley Awards Super TH Poll post just below this one, or have a gander at this pic:

That is the all-too-common scene of all 15 2014 Hot Wheels Super Treasure Hunts sitting on a Japanese Used Car lot.  I mean, who HASN'T seen a Twin Mill being worked on in a garage next to a flamed Nova Wagon?  We might as well be showing a minivan in the Disneyland parking lot.

Lamley has a signature photo style when we showcase cars, and we won't give that up.  But every once in awhile you want to mix things up.  So when we saw Japan Booster had a couple of Tomicaramas, we pounced.

Tomicaramas are exactly what they appear to be - auto-themed dioramas made by Tomica Limited Vintage.  The set we have is a used car lot, and there are several others, including a police station and gas station.  We wanted something that could showcase several models in the same place, so we went with the car lot.

Our set arrived a couple of weeks ago, and when I had a spare minute, I employed the help of my youngest daughter and we put it together:

That of course is just the basic set, but if you look at what came in the box, you will see there is a lot more to add, including more signs and flags that we have kept sealed up for now.

Once the set was done, it was time to see if it could be a good backdrop for photos.  So we decided to kill two birds with one stone, and shoot the newest release from TLV-Neo, the 1984 Toyota Mark II HT Grande, which is a close relative of the Cressida here in the US.

While we were focused on how the set would look in photos, we kept getting distracted with how cool the two Mark II's were, especially the two-tone version.

Tomica Limited Vintage Neo Toyota Mark II HT Grande:

First off, how cool is the Mark II?  If you agree with us that is fantastic, you can get both versions at Japan Booster.  Next, while the setup needs a little tweaking, we love how the photos turned out.

So now, we have two Lamley studios.  One, the standard, will continue to be the primary way that we showcase new and old models.  But we do want to play a bit too, so look for the Tomicarama to rear its pretty head quite a bit.  We may add more Tomicaramas in the future.

We already spent too much time last weekend playing with the set:

We aren't going to get anything done, are we?  This is too much fun.  Let us know if there is any model you would like us to shoot here...

Japan Booster has told us they will list a couple of Tomicaramas, and if they prove good sellers, they will add more.  Hopefully if these interest you, you will let Japan Booster know...