i vaguely recall seeing stuff like this in my childhood, long before I had any jingling money of my own to spend. I recall once or twice my folks (or grandparents, more likely) bought a small assortment of these kind of models...which in play were pretty much toast after a day or two.

This appears to me a very rough copy of the old Moko era Matchbox Bedford wrecker, and among the few models I've picked up over time several appear to be Mbx copies. This was from a period of time when "made in Japan" translated as "cheap." I don't think that is an unreasonable translation in this instance.

TM is probably one of the more often seen makers of inexpensive diecast from the late 1950s into the late 1960s, but there are others and they can all be difficult to identify. It took me some hours to pin down the maker of the models I have, so many are unmarked or have simplistic symbol logos hidden somewhere on the model. Many Japanese makers of the time produced pressed tin with litho print, some very simple and like this model here sold for a few cents, while others produced dramatically well detailed tin models that are highly sought and fetch into the thousands of dollars today. Until Tomy / Tomica and Yonezawa Cherica, the only Japanese small scale diecast I am aware of is comparable to this little Matchbox copy.