Gallery: the weird and wonderful concepts of the Tokyo motor show

Mazda stayed loyal to rotary by unveiling the slinky RX-Vision, Nissan terrified us with the future of autonomous driving, and Toyota showed off a baby AMG GT.

But there was another side to the Tokyo motor show, one brought to you by the letters W, T and F.

The Tokyo motor show has long been famed for its weird and wacky concepts, so we spent a day trawling the show floor to see what was out there.

Our haul was impressive, and we’ve since worked our way through the muddied, hilarious and straight-up confusing Japanese press literature to fathom what’s they’re all about.

So fasten your lap belts and click through to see the weirdest stuff Japan has to offer.

Say ‘moshi moshi’ to the Toyota Alphard Hercule, a Japanese luxury MPV that’s had more than a sprinkling of Japanese tuning enthusiasm hurled at it.  

We don’t really know where to start. How about the front? With that plough-shaped muzzle for a face, it looks like the offspring of Bane and Shunt from Robot Wars. There’s also a roof-mounted spoiler… in the wrong place.

Inside, you’re greeted by a seating configuration akin to a Sunday fourth XI midfield formation, hardwood floors and a sliding soft roof perhaps inspired by the Maybach 62 Landaulet. That’s to allow backseat passengers to sip champers and take in the sun around Tokyo Bay.

The Alphard Hercule’s maker, Toyota Auto Body, has been around since 1936. It’s a company with a rich history. Most notably for ‘developing the world’s first linear motor curtain in cars’ – an accolade, according to its website, it’s extremely proud of.

But that was back in 1985. Now Tokyo Auto Body is a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation, making these remarkable slices of excellence for van enthusiasts throughout Japan.

We want one. Sort of.

This isn’t something we’d mess with in a hurry. It’s the Mitsubishi Fuso Super Great V Spider, a truck so good it seemingly needs at least two positives to convey its awesomeness.

As you can see, this 460bhp truck isn’t your normal load-lugger. Instead the chassis has been modified to incorporate four boom cranes and outriggers.

Each crane has a knuckle attachment offering various degrees of destruction/productivity, depending on your inclination.

The four spindly attachments splay out of the top of the bed and include, we’re told, an auger, JCB backhoe, a pair of death-grip logging claws, the most menacing set of grabbers we’ve seen, and a hydraulic split bucket.

Out the back is an outpost to control the various terrifying tentacles of destruction.

When the zombie hoards come, this is where we’re hiding.

Meet Flesby. Flesby is a four-wheeled beanbag that aims to make the process of knocking over a pedestrian the most pleasant accident possible for all involved.

Flesby uses an onboard computer and an array of sensors to anticipate an impending collision. If he/she/it suspects a shunt is imminent, the whole chassis inflates into a rolling airbag.

Having head-butted and given it a kick to try it out, we reckon being hit by Flesby would be the same as being run over by a six foot, four-wheeled travel pillow.

The driver operates Flesby via two joysticks, so arcade fans should be pretty handy behind the wheel.

But the futuristic interior also senses the driver’s posture and mood, and will adjust the lighting, music, and even the smell inside the cockpit to soothe the occupants. Useful if you’ve just run someone over.

This, ladies and gents, fans and haters, is Japan’s answer to the legendary BMW Isetta bubble car.

It’s called the Piana (which is the instrument played by Cockney entertainers, we think) and is the work of Style-D, a company set up by two former Toyota designers.

About the same size as a Fiat 500, it’s bigger than the traditional microcar. But it apes the Isetta’s trademark front opening door.

This, according to the press release, “gives you peace of mind to get in and out when the raining day.” Phew.

Apparently you can customise the 400kg bubble car with a squished Porsche 911 body, and even get a surfboard rack fitted to the back.

Four-wheel-drive is currently in development. Style-D claims the Piana charges in five minutes (really) and has a 75-mile range.

Walking is so passé. Urban mobility solutions, that’s where it’s at.

Honda’s got in on the fashionable walk-free thing, using the Tokyo motor show to show off a new line of personal mobility concepts.

This, the Wander Stand, was our favourite.

It’s a two-man pod, allowing very close friends to ride side-by-side in a 72.8-inch tall, 49.2-inch wide, and 78.4-inch long box.

It’s fitted with Honda’s ‘Omni Traction’ Drive System, which allows for conventional movement forwards and back, but also gives you the ability to drive laterally or even diagonally.

Basically, it’s the most powerful and techy chess piece in history.

Daihatsu flooded the Tokyo show with a veritable gaggle of daft cars. The first was this, the Noriori.

It’s slammed to the ground, with caster-like wheels to ease accessibility. Deployable ramps allow for the loading of a wheelchair through either the side-hinged rear door or the dual sliding side doors.

Given its size, you could mistake the Noriori for some sort of public transport. But if you’re an NBA player with a particularly lofty afro, this may be your only hope this side of a cabriolet.

Kei car regulations dictate that a car must be no more than 3.4 metres long, 1.48 metres wide and 1.49 metres high and powered by nothing larger a 660cc three-cylinder engine.

Being so small and light, these kei cars can extract amazing fuel economy.

Take for example the Daihatsu D-Base. Thanks to that diddy engine and regenerative braking, it's said to garner 94.1mpg on the Japanese test cycle.

With its simple interior and contrasting two-tone blues, the D-Base looks improbably cool, and is so titchy you just want to wrap your arms around those smooth bumpers and hug it.

The final car of the Daihatsu hat trick is the Hinata. It’s exactly the same length and width as the D-Base, but with a height of 1.67 meters. 

It’s the most realistic-looking of the three, and said to preview a new generation mini-MPV from the Japanese firm.

With a lovely light green exterior contrasted against a soft ivory and wood paneled interior, the Hinata’s simple cockpit and clean displays see the tiny car defy its size.

Under the hood there’s the same three-cylinder petrol engine as the other cars, mated to a CVT.

Oh, and the doors swing open like kitchen cabinets, while the seats swivel round to ease access. Bring it to Europe, Daihatsu.

This offering from Style-D – the makers of that modern-day Isetta – somehow manages to harmonise the two normally mutually exclusive worlds of rugged utilitarianism and, um, wheelchairs.

Limited to just four mph, the chair can be fully remote-controlled up to a distance of three miles.

Style-D claim the chair could enter ‘disaster’ areas unmanned. It can be fitted with hydraulic shovel, and they’re even working on a forklift-style arm…

Fans of Transformers, you’ll love this. Primarily because the Coms Connect is AN ACTUAL TRANSFORMER.

Built by Toyota Auto Body, it’s a personal mobility pod that can morph into three shapes.

Coms Connect owners hop on board to be greeted by an IMAX style heads-up display of info.

Power is sourced from a lithium-ion battery driving four in-wheel motors directed by a fly-by-wire joystick. It also features airless tyre technology, because the future doesn’t have time for punctures.

Allow us to introduce you to the Mighty Deck, a teeny-weeny pick-up truck from Suzuki.

There’s wood lining everywhere, from the interior to the bumpers and all the way back to its sweet little pick-up bed.

Being a Kei car, it’s got a dinky 658cc engine with some hybrid enhancement, all powering the front wheels.

Performance won’t be its forte, but personality surely is.

This doe-eyed, pimped-up minivan is Tokyo’s answer to the uber-lux modified Mercedes Vitos we’re accustomed to at European motor shows.

The interior has been completely stripped out and replaced by four face-to-face private jet-style seats.

Heavily tinted windows stop prying eyes from witnessing the luxury as you’re chilling with a stonking widescreen TV, massive hi-fi, wine cabinet, and onboard Nespresso machine.

This very steampunk beast is the Toyota Kikai. According to its makers, it “takes the machinery normally hidden beneath the vehicle body and makes an open display of its beauty”. Think Ariel Atom-esque views of suspension and wheels working away as you drive, but wrapped up in a retro body.

It’s glorious, though we’d wager the Kikai’s mechanical bits are a little bit more artful than those beneath an Avensis. A McLaren F1-inspired three-seat layout and some truly wonderful analogue dials complete a car we really, really want.

Honda’s MBEV – Mobile Battery EV ­ –may look like it’s just fallen off the set of WALL-E, but it takes the concept of EVs to a new level.

Instead of having one battery that constantly lives within the car, you can choose between a selection of briefcase-shaped lithium batteries, each with varying capacities depending on how far you’re going.

If you’re popping to the shops, you take a smaller, quicker-to-charge battery. Want to go further? Take a whopper that’ll get you there without the need to recharge.

The MBEV can be easily modified using different OEM parts, to swap from a city spec to something more adventurous and off-roady. Bottom line, it’s awesome.

Details were incredibly thin on this concept. Probably for good reason.

The ones that were available came in the form of confusing Japanese symbols. What we can deduce from the car, having had a snoop around, is that the ExMachina proves that not all wacky concepts are good concepts.

It looks like something a 1- year-old cooked up for an episode of Bamzooki… but then quickly lost interest in. Fit and finish are woeful.

Say cheese! This is Nissan’s selfie-friendly concept, the Teatro for Dayz. Yep, that’s its real name.

Apart from being useful in a game of car Tetris, the concept’s purpose is to motivate Japanese yoofs to get behind the wheel.

Young ’uns in Japan, like other countries, aren’t that bothered with driving anymore. Double taps on Instagram are way more important, apparently, than access to four-wheeled freedom. 

Enter the Teatro for Dayz (Teatro means theatre, and Dayz is the name of Nissan’s existing Kei car), which aims to restore order by appealing to the social media addicts of this world.

There’s an on-board camera for those vital selfies, while much of the interior, and strips of the exterior, features heavily customisable screens, showing either colourful virtual wallpaper or online displays. #connected #reem

Rick Ross, if you’re reading this – and we know you are – we’ve found your perfect car.

Since you’ve told the world you spend every day hustlin’, surely this aptly named Suzuki Hustler proves just how much of a big-time player you are?

The Impreza wasn’t the only concept Subaru showed off on home soil. The Japanese firm also whipped the covers off an updated version of its Viziv concept.

At the rear lurks a set of sliding doors that recess like two wings behind the car. Surely the kids will never get out of the back seats if you park with your boot against the wall? Maybe that was the plan.

The Scooby concept also has radar sensors and GPS mapping to enable its camera-based Eyesight system to give a 360-degree view around the car to prevent crashes. This also makes it capable of autonomous driving and parking.

Meet Kirobo, a little Pringle tube-sized robot that’s gone and done what we all said we’d do when we were younger: become an astronaut.

The Toyota-backed robot is destined for space as part of a project that sees Kirobo packing his bags and heading to the International Space station.

Good luck, space cadet.

Just to give you a sense of scale, this Japanese VW microbus-of-sorts isn’t a kei car.

Standing at 4.2-metres, by Japanese city standards it’s a biggie. But it’s still shorter than a Ford Focus, and that’s despite it housing three rows of seats.

The boxy proportions allow for a cavernous interior. The Air Triser’s seats can slide and flip to create all manner of seating and bedding arrangements, while the steering wheel folds out of the way should it become a hindrance.

A 1.4-litre hybrid powers all four wheels – but in truth driving this comes secondary to gawping at its laminated wood flooring and ‘which way is it pointing?’ looks.

This perplexing Honda Fit – complete with animatronic rear-mounted swiveling eyes and plump lips ­– is being used as a promotional tool for a local radio station in Tokyo.

We have no idea what message they were preaching, and frankly we don’t want to find out.