fall inside a hole

Early Action Series Mini Mini Rail trains (1976-1977)

Bandai produced and sold the Mini Mini Rail (ミニミニレール) series of train toys in Japan from 1974 until around 1982. The trains are about the same size as N scale trains and run on rails 10.5mm apart, slightly wider than N scale's 9mm. For the first year or so all trains had a simple on-off gearbox, but starting in 1976 most of the range was updated to the reversing Action Series that also added an electrical cutoff switch.

The first reversing Action Series chassis was based on the original with the new reversing switch sticking out towards the front of the left side of the train or carriage like the power switch of the original trains. The original series, sold as the "Action Serise" (sic), appeared in sets as well as green-card-back blisters. Later, the early two-N battery chassis trains were sold on orange cards. The old non-Action-Series D-51 trains were still sold into this earlier era before the C-62 was developed.

Hikari Shinkansen (1976)

The first Action Series Hikari with the original reversing chassis had the power car located in the front like the previous single-direction train. The set and green-card release were the traditional color scheme with a silver plated shiny Hikari appearing later in the orange card era.

National Railways Train (1976)

In addition to being updated to use the new reversing chassis, the Japan National Railways 103 series also became available in a National Railways (Silver) plated version with yellow stripe.

EF-65 Freight Train (1976)

The EF-65-hauled freight train introduced towards the end of the pre-Action Series lineup was updated to use the new reversing chassis and rereleased with the same WHAM, container car, and guard's van. This train was also included in the 1976 Action Serise No 3 EF65 Electric Locomotive Set.

EF-65 Passenger Train (1976)

The original Action Series EF-65 was also sold individually with two 10 series cars.

EF-71 Freight Train (1976)

An EF-71 recolor of the EF-65 tooling was released with a different freight train consisting of a white WHAM, yellow tanker, and Takara green guard's van. This train was rereleased in a set in the later 1970s AA-powered Action Series.

EF-71 Passenger Train (1976)

The EF-71 was also sold with two of the 10 series coaches in the early Action Series era. I am not sure if this one stayed in production later on...

485 Series Limited Express Train (1976)

A new tooling for the early Action Series was the 485 series Limited Express train. The circa 1976 green card release has the power chassis in the middle car while the ~1977 orange card release of this train has the power car in the front. The limited express train I have from a 1977 copy of the Action Serise No 2 Limited Express Set still has the power car in the intermediate car like the early individual release.

I also have two orange card-style front car powered Limited Express trains.

During this era these trains and a few others began to include headmark stickers - the intermediate-car-powered train above has ひばり Hibari stickers, and these two have はつかり Hatsukari and 明星 Myojo, which I think is actually from the Sleeper Express headmark sticker sheet...

Because the middle cars are unpowered in these trains, multiple can be connected together - actually, the even better configuration is to use the unpowered front and rear cars from the earlier trains with the powered intermediate car in the middle of the two unpowered ones, and make a five-car train with motor in the middle to make the load more equal in either direction.

583 Series Sleeper Express Train (1976)

Sharing the new express train tooling with the 485 series was the Sleeper Express, a popular 1970s train that is sought after in many toy ranges.

This early Action Series train has the power chassis in the intermediate car. This one has had 彗星 or "Comet" headmark stickers applied, the name of the sleeper express service between Shin-Osaka and Miyazaki.