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Tomy Magic Skyrail/Grippidee Gravidee

First written June 20, 2024First written June 20, 2024

In 1968 Tomy developed a toy track system and vehicle chassis that allowed powered spaceships and other vehicles to traverse up and around and upside down, around turntables and through switches. It was first released in Japan in 1968 as Magic Skyrail (マジックスカイレール). It was exported to the United States and some other countries as Grippidee Gravidee, as Spacenik with Rovex Tri-ang in the U.K., and other names.

Vehicles

The Grippidee Gravidee and Magic Skyrail sets use a variety of different mostly space-related vehicles on similar chassis. The chassis have four toothed wheels, two on a driven axle and two on a free-spinning one. Inside is a gearbox reminiscent of many other older Tomy toys, and with age the small 8-tooth gears are often split. A metal pin sticking out of the side of the chassis can be pushed in to disengage part of the geartrain and let the vehicle free-wheel.

The front gear wheels are driven while the rear are free-wheeling. The gear wheels on the 1968 chassis I have were split and interfering with the rocket's ability to run - I 3D printed some replacements, the file for which is available here. The white caps around the axles fit into a slot on the tracks, allowing it to stay engaged with the racks in the track and climb up, down, and upside-down.

The initial Japanese sets and individual releases used Space Car (スペースカー) No. 2, a classic rocket-style vehicle with blue windscreen with two Space Express 2 stickers with windows.

An individual Space Car No. 3 with blue bubble windows and a red antennae of some sort on top. Space Car No. 4 was a round pod-like vehicle with a blue bubble top and blue bottom.

Slightly later, an Apollo 2001 spacecraft was released in Japanese sets as well as in Spacenik 2 with a fighter jet-style vehicle.

Track system

The Magic Skyrail track system has toothed racks in the troughs of the track which the vehicles fit into. The white protrusions doming the gear wheels fit into slots along the side of the rails, keeping it in place and allowing it to climb sideways and upside down. Track sections slide together in one direction only and white clips rotate into place to hold the track together.

At first there were not traditional curved rail, just "in" and "out" rails and a four-way intersection that could turn the vehicles, but later sets included traditional curves.

The turntable sections have a catch which only releases the vehicle when it has driven the turntable all the way around. The turntables do not have the catches to hold the vehicles in place so they can not be used upside down or sideways. This also allows the vehicles to be lifted out.

In addition to being sold in sets, in Japan packs of track were also available individually. This 1968 leaflet also shows how to put the track together, how to install the batteries, and how the four-way turntable and geartrain release works.

The other side shows some layouts that can be made from some different track selections. Track can become unstable and falls over easily if it does not have sufficient planer support - you can see layouts often use the four-way intersection to add stabilizing legs with turntables at the end.

Sets

Magic Skyrail, Grippidee Gravidee, and, and Spacenik sets include at least one powered vehicle and a selection of track that let it travel around in the constructed loop.

Year Set name Description Photo
1968 Magic Skyrail NO.1 Smaller initial Japanese set with motorized shuttle, turnarounds, and track
1968 Magic Skyrail NO.2 Larger Japanese set with motorized shuttle, turntables, and turning crossover track  

Mini Gravideee

A related range of toys that used a somewhat similar track system.