| Snoopy and the Peanuts gang are an iconic group of characters appearing in the American Comic Strip “Peanuts,” which was published from October 2, 1950, to February 3, 2000, as a daily strip, excluding the Sunday releases. Charles M. Schulz, who was known as “Sparky,” created the world of Snoopy and the gang.
There was countless merchandise that was made by various companies over the years, and it was solely focused mostly on Snoopy, a white beagle based on Charles M. Schulz original dog. Over the years, this merchandise continued to be made, and there were die-cast cars, too. Tomica produced several beginning in 2013. |
Tomica launched the subline Dream Tomica, which focused on pop culture-related vehicles based on animation, comic books, and video games. Dream Tomica expanded with variations and reuse of the casting from the initial run of its first wave of vehicles, which included the Snoopy School Bus.
The Snoopy School Bus features notable Peanuts characters that can be seen in the windows of the bus, and it still has interior seats inside the casting. Like all Tomica releases, it comes in this white box featuring the vehicle. But most traditional Tomica mainline releases are in their painted artwork. But for the initial Dream Tomica release, the image of the product can be seen in the box.
Dream Tomica Box Art
The regularly released models usually have box art present in the product, but with the Dream Tomica, they indicate the name of the casting with a photo of the casting that is packaged in a white box in Japan.
They usually come in a dust-free bag like the standard mainline release. There is little description in English regarding the content of the box. In the Philippines, the Tomica Event Models that are sold in their in-store events have a printout of the vehicle’s name on a sticker that covers the Japanese-language description of the model.
This vehicle is based on the Snoopy School Bus by Tomica.
Key Features of the School Bus below:
- Year Release: 2013 | Dream Tomica
- Base Color: Yellow | Metal
- Window: Smoke with Character Art
- Moving Parts: Working Suspension
- Tampo: School Bus| Detailed Painted Rear Windows and Doors
- Interior: Black
Inside, the bus is wrapped in a dust-free plastic bag, and like all the Tomica products, you can really get to feel the product. Its die-cast metal body has a weight to it despite having a plastic base. The quality alone is admirable for the price to pay for such a well-crafted casting that features licensed characters like Peanuts, Woodstock, and most of the Peanuts characters.
There have been several notable variations after the 2013 release, including Snoopy Store Exclusive-only releases in Japan that rarely make it to availability in the Asian region. The Snoopy Town Shop TEAM PEANUTS Bus in Blue and Red features characters wearing their Baseball team hats. There’s even a version of “Woodstock & Friends,” where most you can see in the bus’s windows are Woodstock’s family. Then, there’s the all-blue bus featuring the Peanuts Gang on their Baseball team.
Snoopy is a popular character on his own, and he has his own die-cast car produced by Tomica. But, solely focused on celebrating the Peanuts Comic Strip’s 76th anniversary, you may be able to compare it to other die-cast vehicles that are produced by other companies aside from Tomica.
Mattel produced its own Snoopy car featuring Snoopy in its most radical trademarked idea, featuring the beagle on top of his red house with that grin as the car moves like a dragster, and that’s the car they produced in 2014 under their Hot Wheels mainline basic cars with a blown-out engine with open-wheel design that also includes a parachute in the rear of his red house.
It’s far from the way Tomica designed the Snoopy School Bus to be grounded, and less fanciful than the way Hot Wheels interpreted Snoopy. But the School Bus included the Peanuts characters in their most cheerful moment while heading to their day in school. Two different design interpretations make it fun for any Snoopy or Peanuts fan out there.
The Snoopy School Bus is now uncommon nowadays since its release in 2013, and has never been re-released by Tomica recently, but if you’re lucky to find one despite the price bump over the years, it is a must-have for those who read the comic strips and appreciate the stories that made this School Bus part of someone’s collection.
Snoopy School Bus is a Dream Tomica Model designated No.154 that was originally sold in 2013, and was acquired at Toytown in Ayala Malls Glorietta for ₱ 299.00 Pesos ($ 6.87 AUD | $ 4.78 USD**) in 2013. Tomica is distributed in the Philippines by Ban Kee.
For more of their Tomica brand and other products, you can follow them through Tomica Philippines on social media via Facebook and Instagram.
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