Please don't post in all bold.. it's obnoxious and harder to read for most people.
Shims are easy enough to replace. I do not recommend trying to replace them with any tool other than one made specifically for the job; It's not worth the risk of scoring the cam lobe to save a little time to avoid just pulling the cam out (especially if you'll already have the timing belt off).
There is a company who makes aftermarket shims and there's a Yamaha motorcycle engine which uses shims in the same size that USED to be cheaper; I say USED to be as I've read some people have in a the past couple years found them to be more expensive than Toyota's. The aftermarket manufacturer really was targeting people in need of over-sized shims. I would just go with Toyota unless you need to replace a lot of them.
It's "spec", BTW; "Speck" is dirt.
