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Plarail


Guest keio6000

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Yeah hs does not show any new plarail advance after 2016 and is all sold out. Not much pops up on ebay anymore either. Too bad as it looked fun and a bit more of a transition for kids to full n scale stuff. It was a great idea to utilize the regular plarail track.

 

jeff

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1 hour ago, Need for High Speed said:

I gave up my brio tracks and trains when I was 13 and  I will never part with them.I still play with my few Takara Tomy trains every now and then and I'm 17.

 

Also your lucky to get to go to japan I wish I could go. but I've been to China at least! Also I don't really have any family members who are  interested in trains like I am.

 

But Takara Tomy did sell some stuff in the US a long time ago but as Toys R us is going down the hole they stopped selling stuff in the US a while ago. But the Thomas stuff sells well although I owned vary few Thomas toys. But Geotrax was always a favorite they are not made anymore.

 

Tomy (before merger with Takara) sold Plarail in the US:  Both the Thomas stuff and US trains in Plarail format (Amtrak etc).  A specialty toy shoppe* often had some in but since they were not the Japanese engines we did not care much.   That stuff disappeared and then they just sold the Thomas stuff here and then they lost the Thomas franchise in the US so now the Thomas trains which are Plarail compatible (engines are exactly the same but made in China instead of Thailand or where ever but the track is different, though they did sell an adapter for a while -- the track is different due to Tomy owning the Plarail track and not the new maker). 

 

My son probably has 30 or 40 Plarail non-Thomas engine/Shinkansen/DMU/EMU  sets and several bins of track.  We've set up huge tracks around the house or around my parents' house.  Great fun.

 

*As the specialty type stores often spell it.

 

 

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32 minutes ago, cteno4 said:

Yeah hs does not show any new plarail advance after 2016 and is all sold out. Not much pops up on ebay anymore either. Too bad as it looked fun and a bit more of a transition for kids to full n scale stuff. It was a great idea to utilize the regular plarail track.

 

jeff

 

Too bad as my daughter liked it and it was a good bridge to N scale trains.

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Need for High Speed

Yeah the Plarail advance did make a good bridge to N scale but it didn't have very good motors if I recall hearing from people. but the regular stuff makes a good bridge to HO scale. I don't have any picture of my HO and Tomy next to each other.

 

30 or 40 sets? Wow that's a lot, well I had that much in wooden tracks. I only have like five plarail sets and only two of them had trains with them. But one is a Hayabusa I bought my self when I was in China in 2013 and the other is a CRH2c a Chinese train and both of those sets were purchased in China. But I do have a Plarail Monorail and its not a Disney one.(whew)

 

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22 hours ago, railsquid said:

 

Somehow I think I will survive without either

 

I’m with you there, Squid

 

Seen a lot running on rental layouts but I’m still not a fan of the aesthetics.

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On 1/13/2019 at 8:52 AM, Densha said:

When you have too much free time and just decide to recreate the full Tokyo metro system with Plarail:

But you would, wouldn’t you?

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Need for High Speed
On 1/14/2019 at 10:24 AM, Kamome said:

But you would, wouldn’t you?

if I had all the free time in the world I would build the Philidelphia market frankford line or the washington metro system because I have track maps of DC metro. Although my weapon of choice is brio tracks instead of Tomy plarail  because that's what I have a lot of. Now that I am thinking of it they sell huge geographically accurate track maps of the NYC subway system.

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I wonder if anyone has considered modelling a subway network in Brio or Plarail as a collaborative effort, like James May did with relaying an abandoned branch line using Hornby OO? Could be a good school holiday activity for a club with access to a large sports hall or similar.

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Need for High Speed
6 hours ago, Welshbloke said:

I wonder if anyone has considered modelling a subway network in Brio or Plarail as a collaborative effort, like James May did with relaying an abandoned branch line using Hornby OO? Could be a good school holiday activity for a club with access to a large sports hall or similar.

that would be awsome

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On 3/25/2018 at 2:00 PM, Need for High Speed said:

Yeah the Plarail advance did make a good bridge to N scale but it didn't have very good motors if I recall hearing from people. but the regular stuff makes a good bridge to HO scale. I don't have any picture of my HO and Tomy next to each other.

 

30 or 40 sets? Wow that's a lot, well I had that much in wooden tracks. I only have like five plarail sets and only two of them had trains with them. But one is a Hayabusa I bought my self when I was in China in 2013 and the other is a CRH2c a Chinese train and both of those sets were purchased in China. But I do have a Plarail Monorail and its not a Disney one.(whew)

 

 

Bringing up this older post, but I figured the title was appropriately titled to keep it going if it's ok.

 

I'm going to start checking these out....possibly for outdoor train use or major modding.   The price point is so wickedly cheap and the features some of these have, wow.... And the amount of testing I can put on these and not worry about breaking the bank, makes me enjoy it more.  I plan to do some modifications, but considering a train is only $8-$15 US (especially with the dollar doing so much better than the yen) for basic/standard.  And then for the higher price sets being like $30 US.  Geez... that's still nothing compared to what I spend on an N Gauge KATO or TOMIX train or Modemo tram.

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Plarail is fun, it’s a quite a bit more of a toy than n scale trains are. But it is very robust. You could probably do an outdoor setup if you could come up with some sort of a heavier sub bed to attach it to to keep it in place. Maybe blocks of synthetic decking and fill around with stone. Then when dirty just blow off or hose off. It does take up some space. Years ago one of our club member’s sons had a pile of plarail and we toyed with the idea of setting up a few tables full at one of the larger train shows, especially for kids to run. But it just ended up too much to do with the club’s regular stuff. I believe the Thomas plarail is interchangeable and I’ve seen it on sale in the us many times. Would save a bunch on shipping from japan. Use to also be a lot of the train sets with very inexpensive shipping on ebay from Hong Kong, but that was pre covid.

 

keep us posted on your playing with this.

 

jeff

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The Tamiya Mini 4WD motors fit the pura-rail chassis if you want to speed your trains up. They will eat through the single AA batteries but you’ll feel like you have some shinkansen speed trains as long as you keep your track incline free. I always thought the grey elevated track and catenary pieces they made look awesome but my kids are too old to be bothered with it these days. 

 

My wife wants to get shot of it all now but it’s just too fun for me to agree. 

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Here are my thoughts in 2023.....

 

I have noticed that certain train special sets really get jacked up in price by resellers.  Amazon Japan knows that people are buying plarail overseas for rail sets that they made the crazy decision to make shipping 6500 yen to 9000 yen for Plarail rail sets (not for train sets), my gosh, even if I order a bulky TOMIX or KATO set, shipping is never that high.

 

I also noticed that there are some gimmicks released over the years that they really did well years ago but stop doing it (do the cost of materials, they really cut down on expenses).   It's one of the things I notice with comparison videos from Japanese YouTubers of newer re-releases since 2021 of how things released recently no longer are using two speed like releases pre-covid and were disappointed that people will not get improved versions of re-releases for the standard version of trains.

 

I think we are starting to see almost similar to what we see in the US when it comes to toys, you either jack up the price due to the cost of materials or you cut down costs to make it affordable for parents to get these items for their children.

 

I really see the ES line to be a stronger focus for Takara Tomy because a) They are cheaper b) they are smaller c) they are single speed  d) it's literally a plastic block with stickers

https://www.takaratomy.co.jp/products/plarail/lineup/sharyou/index.htm

 

 

Y1300 yen or less for a train is a major plus for families and it's been attractive to buyers.

 

I think we are going to see certain past releases to go up in price because we'll probably not see Takara Tomy not going to experiment as much as they did in the past.  So, if you see a sound-based train (definitely get it now while they are cheap), the app-based plarail, may it be to show animated characters boarding a train to remote control by phone app, to be the past.  Those services ended and they are no longer supported.

 

Even special sets released such as the sayonara E3/E2 set, no gimmick.  No lights, really hardly anything.  At least the Komachi set had magnetic connectors.  Fortunately, the majority of the luxury liner sets are where they didn't scrimp on.  But for those who wanted the JR Kyushu Sweet Train, were in for a surprise when Takara Tomy removed the double speed for the re-release (even George Ishihara - long time Plarail Youtuber was upset and he is usually happy for all Plarail releases).

 

They did try out their non-battery see through trains which people didn't enjoy so much because having to roll your train and only get so much distance proved to be disappointing (heart was in a good place of designing it and for the gimmick, but it's not going to replace batteries).

 

But times have changed and right now their biggest train selling toys for the kids are the Shinkarion Z transforming train/mecha robots that have become very appealing and it helps a lot that there is an anime series that coincides with that.

 

---

 

With that being said, I think now is great time to get into Plarail because the trains are cheap and Amazon has sales on them.  But if I were to recommend anything right now, it's to go for the specialized luxury liner sets that we have seen KATO or TOMIX sets getting jacked up in price....get it now while it's cheap on Amazon Japan.  These specialized sets are under Y3500, so if your currency is better than yen, take advantage of it.

 

For example, the Twilight Express Mizukaze, the Saphir, Shikishima, JR Kyushu 787 Series 36 Plus 3, Galaxy Dreamline C58, Alfa-X and special edition sets.  

 

Get any S Series Freight Trains while they are on sale for under Y1800 as they come with freight....there are only three right now aside from the Kintaro box set (Which is very good for the amount of containers, but shipping is also insane for it) that are really cheap! S-26 EF10 Momotaro, S38 and the S34.

 

But I think we are seeing a new strategy by Takara Tomy when it comes to plarail and that is cutting costs and focus on the most basic, cheap releases for children (the ES and KF line) (and great for families on a budget).

 

Especially now with Japan being hit with increased prices for everything... People don't have as much disposable income.

 

 

 

Edited by kndy
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@kndy

 

I´m now in the discussion with me for buying Plarail for my son. The informations are a big help for searching special trainsets. Thank you!

 

Best regards,

Ulli

 

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Need for High Speed
On 4/7/2023 at 10:08 PM, cteno4 said:

Plarail is fun, it’s a quite a bit more of a toy than n scale trains are. But it is very robust. You could probably do an outdoor setup if you could come up with some sort of a heavier sub bed to attach it to to keep it in place. Maybe blocks of synthetic decking and fill around with stone. Then when dirty just blow off or hose off. It does take up some space. Years ago one of our club member’s sons had a pile of plarail and we toyed with the idea of setting up a few tables full at one of the larger train shows, especially for kids to run. But it just ended up too much to do with the club’s regular stuff. I believe the Thomas plarail is interchangeable and I’ve seen it on sale in the us many times. Would save a bunch on shipping from japan. Use to also be a lot of the train sets with very inexpensive shipping on ebay from Hong Kong, but that was pre covid.

 

keep us posted on your playing with this.

 

jeff

 

I think that's an excellent idea for you should have several table for people to mess around with the Pla-rail are shows it would make your exhibit more interactive.

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Yes it’s fun idea, and having interactive bits are great. But when we thought it through there were some hurdles to make the idea work.
 

it’s another set of stuff to buy, boxes to schlep and store and tables to set up and watch carefully. Our active membership has decreases some from precovid, so it’s a stretch to cover the regular shows with current setups. We do unitram loops at some shows for the kids to run, but even that is a bit of stuff to haul and setup and it takes more attention being interactive.

 

biggest issue is folks at events usually don’t want to spend a long time at any single group at a show or event, so I’m not sure how many would take the required 5-10 minutes plus to play with some plarail. For total newbies there will also be learning time. I think kids would jump right in, but adults are very shy to “play”. It’s funny to watch when an adult is standing there watching the you-drive-it unitram and you try to encourage them to run it. I think 1 in 10 maybe say ok and just do it. About half the rest it takes a lot of coaxing and they are very guarded as I think “adults don’t play with toys” is running in the back of their heads. The other half skitter away fast at the idea! Even with kids that get glued to he layout parents usually want to move on after 5 minutes or so (and some kids loose it when torn away and that shriek of Nooooo! by a kid to us is a yes we did a good job!)

 

We would also need some short tables for kids to play as all the event tables are way to high for kids. I have come 2’x4’ folding Thales with legs that can adjust low, but then that’s a whole nother stack of stuff to schlep to/from shows.

 

One last challenge is running plarail on a table is any jumping the track may mean a trip to the floor which is usually cement. Plarail is tough, but not meant to smash repeatedly on cement, think they were designed for floor use…

 

jeff

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Found some sets cheap. I'm thinking of picking them up so I have something to do that my cat won't destroy. I've already given up going a legit N scale set-up until I move into a larger house [move date TBD] but I also could take this with me when I visit my nephews.

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Got a small display up and running at my office desk for the office decorating contest. Two people in the office have already asked me to help them get a set for their kids.

 

train.jpg.1604ad154d3583cf914694c7c2f2369e.jpg

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Ha ha! When I was at Rikkyo University attending school in Tokyo, at the dormitory around Christmas I had obtained the Plarail C12 Arched Bridge set in the mail and I decided to set it up around the dormitory's common room Christmas tree. Fortunately, it was indeed a popular addition...

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One of our club members does mainly computer work and realized this big L shaped desk was mostly empty space once he got rid of old paperwork just sitting on it. So he set up a little Unitrak layout on the desk. Became quite the thing with folks stopping by to run the train. Supervisor finally got wind of it many months later and demolition was demanded! 
 

I use to keep a pile of toys in my tiny office when I worked in a traditional office for a couple of years. Mainly for me to play with while on the phone but folks started to just stop by now and then to play with a toy, usually when frustrated, so I could talk them down in 5 minutes and let them walk off with the toy to finish mellowing out. Turned out to the best management tool I had wrangling about 50 people in a creative process (like herding cats). Caught on in the company and the conference room ended up with a dozen toys and you could tell if your meeting was going south if everyone was playing with a toy and time to end it!

 

jeff

 

 

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