The Tomographic Gamma-ray Scanner (TGS) for large volume drummed waste has been successfully commercialized by Canberra over the last several years. Several key components and algorithms of the TGS are in continuous improvement such as minimal detectable activity (MDA), total measurement uncertainty (TMU), multi-basis set (MBS) template, bulk, layered and pseudo-SGS results. Such improvements require vast research and development (R&D) efforts which are quite expensive when considering the cost of constructing and mobilizing the large volume mock drummed waste containers. To counteract such difficulties we have shrunk the R&D problem by creating a scaled (mini-TGS) version of the standard TGS which can accommodate cans and pails of various sizes. The volume displacement of the cans that the mini-TGS can support ranges from sub-liter to approximately 20 liters with densities up to 4 g/cc. The mini-TGS has several diamond-shaped collimators to facilitate the range of container volumes and heights. As with the standard TGS, the mini-TGS has a transmission subsystem where the transmission source can be easily substituted for differing transmission source strengths and/or transmission source types. The acquisition portion of the mini-TGS is powered by the Canberra Lynx ® MCA which accommodates both multi-spectral scaling (MSS) and list acquisition modes. In this paper we present the basic design of the Canberra Tomographic Gamma-ray Can Scanner (mini-TGS) and the planned R&D efforts where preliminary results will be discussed.