Wow! You have quite the collection of Tomica models. They have many nice models with only a small group of them that were sold in the US in Wal Mart stores. Like other brands at Wal Mart, the distribution was hit and miss in terms of which ones showed up. In my area the Suzuki was a peg warmer. I never did see the Subaru Forester in stores in my area. The ones you were able to get at the specialty store in Hawaii are awesome. I know of another collector who spoke of a store in southern California that would get models from Japan for resale.
Not sure if you know the history of Tomica in the US. In the late 1970's and early '80's they sold a number of their cars in a series called Pocket Cars. They were regular models sold on a blister card that looked like a blue jeans pocket. Not sure of the reasons but they disappeared from the US marketplace until a few years ago when they briefly sold some of their models at Toys R Us stores. That, too, did not seem to last long. l know they do longer have an exclusive agreement with Wal Mart and the models are supposed to available in other stores that wish to carry the line. I was not aware that Target was one of those stores but again Target stores seem to vary on what lines they carry from area to area.
So welcome to Hobby Talk - looking forward to hearing more about the Tomica models you have or add in the future to your collection.
