Tomica Carrier Runner

Josh’s Tomica Hyper City Storm Runner review in 2012 got me really interested in the US Hyper City Rescue releases and while I was able to track down a few sets, the coolest Tomica Hyper Rescue sets never came to the US. While looking for Tomica on craigslist, I found a nice lady who was selling a Hyper Blue Police Carrier Runner for her son and was trusting enough to accept paypal and mail it to me. While the Carrier Runner had many missing and uneven stickers, I was happy to finally grab one at a great price.

Like the Storm Runner, the Carrier Runner is actually part of the “Runner” line of Hyper Blue Police vehicles, with the Super Sonic Runner as number 1, Carrier Runner 2, and Storm Runner 3. As the name suggest, the Carrier Runner is a large transport truck capable of carrying eight Tomica scaled vehicles. Four vehicles are stored on top while another four are stored inside and can be launched using the Carrier Runner’s firing gimmick.

The roof of the trailer holds four cars and simply slides out to become a ramp for deployment. To launch the other four cars inside the trailer feature, the internal tray must rotate and slide to the right. The gate is then lifted and turning the handle on the left of the trailer will kick in a gear that automatically slides the platform towards to the left. A spring firing mechanism inside then launches each car out of the trailer as it passes the internal trailer ramp. Two smaller ramps, one that pulls out the rear of the trailer and another that flips out inside the trailer allow the cars to launch smoothly.

The two cannons on top of the trailer can be removed and rearranged in various ways using the clip system by the Hyper Rescue toys. The platform that the cannons rest on can also slide back and is necessary when combining with other Hyper Rescue vehicles.

The cab of the Carrier Runner actually features a detachable vehicle called the Carrier Sky. The cockpit of the cab can hold up to two Tomikids and can rotate around the base of the cab. When detached, the Carrier Sky can attach the cannons from the Carrier Runner while the base of the cab becomes a small vehicle that fits a single Tomikid.

The base cab vehicle can still pull the Carrier Runner trailer, but also rotates underneath to connect to the Super Sonic Runner or other Hyper Rescue vehicles.

The connection tabs that the Tomica Hyper Rescue toys use also allow for lots creativity, allow you to connect all sorts of things together. While the Carrier Runner and Storm Runner were both designed to combine with the Super Sonic Runner, they have no official combinations with each other. The Cannons from the Storm Runner can attach to the Carrier Runner and the Storm Runner’s large wing containers also fit on the Carrier Sky. One interesting thing to note is that while the US Storm Runner actually has identical stickers the Japanese version, they did change the Hyper Blue Police Tomikid to a Hyper City Rescue police officer. The only difference seems to be the lettering on the helmet.

The Carrier Runner is a really awesome toy and it’s a shame that Tomy handled the US release of Tomica so poorly that everything ended up on clearance in discount stores. I never even knew that Tomica were released in the US or saw any in a Toys R Us until the line was completely dead. The Carrier Runner probably isn’t for everyone, but I love the Hyper Rescue designs and was really glad to get one of the releases unavailable in the US. While my Tomica collection is still rather small, I’ve found that the Carrier Runner acts as a pretty handy transporter for my Cyber Formula Collection vehicles.