fall inside a hole

Bandai Thomas Exciting World

First written November 8, 2024

The Thomas Exciting World (トーマスのわくわくワールド) was a series of small hard vinyl Thomas the Tank Engine toys released by Bandai in capsule vending machines starting in the mid 1990s, with later versions appearing as late as the 2010s. The series featured small, unarticulated vinyl figures that were first sold with unpainted tan rolling stock and later on keychains also containing whistles, track sections, or other small accessories. I only have a few of these little characters, but in a continued effort to provide a little more information about small, random Japanese Thomas the Tank Engine toys on the English-speaking Internet I will show them here.

The approximate timeline of releases seems to have been Thomas no Wakuwaku World (Thomas Exciting World) 1 in 1996 and Thomas Exciting World 2 (focused on the narrow-gauge engines) in 1998 which were then reworked into small keychains for Thomas Swing (トーマススイング) 1 in 1999, with small accessories like driver's figures and station buildings added to the keychain for Thomas Swing 2 in 2001. Thomas Whistle Swing in 2005 paired the engine keychains up with whistles and again with plastic railroad track puzzle pieces in 2010 as the Double Swing with Rail Plate (レールプレート付きダブルスイング ) series.

Thomas Exciting World 1 (1996)

The Thomas Exciting World 1 collection was released in 1996 with each capsule including an engine and an unpainted piece of rolling stock and an accessory. The first series included Thomas with Annie and a Sir Topham Hatt figure, Edward with a van and coal hopper, Henry with coach and signal, Gordon with coach and engine driver, James with truck and water tower, and Percy with Clarabel and a railroad crossing sign.

Here is the Gordon sans accessories from this series - later releases would have all had a metal loop for attaching to the keychain they included. The coupling system is basic. Inside Gordon is marked BATL (Britt Allcroft (Thomas) Limited) and B. (Bandi) (made in) China.

Thomas Exciting World 2 (1998)

In 1998 a second series of Thomas Exciting World was released, focusing on the narrow-gauge engines. Similar to the later Bandai Thomas Mini Diecast Collection series, the smaller engines all have permanently attached coaches molded in. Produced in this series was Thomas with the breakdown crane and a baggage load, Sir Handle with blue coach, van, trees and telegraph poles, Skarloey with red coach, slate truck, and girl (Nancy) figure, Peter Sam with green coach, plank truck, and water tower, Rheneas with red coach, slate truck, and sheep, and Duke with a slate truck and watermill. The narrow gauge characters were not rereleased in any of the future offshoot ranges.

Rheneas with attached red coach.

Thomas Whistle Swing (2005)

In 2005 the "Swing" series was released with whistles instead of the small "Thomasy" accessories.

Here's the Edward from this series, based on the dates that are on the back of these later ones. Like the other engines I have, it came without any of the original accessories.