This is the new Toyota Land Cruiser FJ60 from Hot Wheels, it’s part of their “Premium Car Culture” line that has Real Riders tires and a metal body and chassis – meaning it’ll likely last a lot longer than comparable plastic models.
In some respects these are more like the Hot Wheels cars we grew up with, with their cast metal bodies and chassis giving them more weight in the hand – improving feel whether you’re a six year old playing with them in the backyard of a 46 year old collector putting them up on display.
This is the new Toyota Land Cruiser FJ60 from Hot Wheels, it’s part of their “Premium Car Culture” Terra Trek line that has Real Riders tires and a metal body and chassis – meaning it’ll likely last a lot longer than comparable plastic models.
History Speedrun: The Toyota Land Cruiser FJ60
The Toyota Land Cruiser FJ60 was introduced in 1980 as the successor to the long-running 55 Series, it represented a major step toward merging that famous Land Cruiser off-road ability with passenger car comfort.
Developed during the late 1970s under Toyota’s internal 60 Series program, it was very carefully designed to keep the Land Cruiser’s reputation for reliability in place, while catering to growing demand in North America and other export markets for 4x4s with improved refinement and daily usability as a family wagon.
The FJ60 used the same steel ladder-frame chassis construction as its predecessor but had a wider body, as well as the tried and rested solid front and rear axle set up on semi-elliptic leaf springs. It offered more interior amenities, including air conditioning and power steering – significant luxuries for an off-roader in this class at time.
Early models were powered by Toyota’s 4.2 liter 2F inline-six gasoline engine paired with a 4-speed manual transmission, offering 135 bhp and 210 lb ft of torque. Diesel variants, like the HJ60 and HJ61, used the 4.0 liter 2H and later the 4.0 liter 12H-T turbo diesel engines, offering better fuel economy and making them popular across regions like Australia and Africa.
Production began in August 1980 and continued globally through 1990, with strong sales performance in North America, where the FJ60 became a defining Japanese vehicle of the era’s SUV boom. In 1988, the facelifted FJ62 arrived with Toyota’s 3F-E fuel-injected engine, a 4-speed automatic transmission, and power windows and locks – denoting a clear shift toward the luxury SUV market that would later culminate in the 80 Series.
In the present day, the FJ60 is remembered for its balance of analog driving character, off road ability, and mechanical toughness – all combined with luxuries that make them the ideal vintage 4×4 for a continent-crossing adventure.
The Hot Wheels “Terra Trek” Toyota Land Cruiser FJ60
This is the new Hot Wheels “Terra Trek” Toyota Land Cruiser FJ60, it’s a faithful 1:64 scale recreation of the legendary off-roader with an all cast metal body and chassis, as well as realistic Real Riders tires on all four corners.
The Toyota Land Cruiser FJ60 was introduced in 1980 as the successor to the long-running 55 Series, it represented a major step toward merging that famous Land Cruiser off-road ability with passenger car comfort.
This is part of the Hot Wheels “Premium Car Culture” series of cast metal scale model cars, designed to be a significant step above the “normal” Hot Wheels cars that are made more and more of plastic – as everything else seems to be these days.
This Hot Wheels FJ60 is now available from the official Hot Wheels store here.
Images courtesy of Hot Wheels
Articles that Ben Branch has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
