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Tomica Plarail '95~96 Catalogue

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In the mid 1990s Tomy's diecast Tomica car line was integrated heavily into Plarail with crossover sets and the new B/O (Battery Operated) Tomica series of road and accessories. The 1995-1996 catalog is "flippy" and has Tomica starting from what would normally be the front and Plarail starting from the back.

These "standard" Tomica are the size of other similar ~1:64 scale diecast cars and cost 360 yen each at the time.

I must admit that I am not an avid collector of small diecast toy cars, although I do have a handful of Tomica. #73 has a similar design of containers to those included in the Plarail Play Wagon Set, although they are not nearly the same scale.

More standard Tomicas, some gift sets, and some cars with operating lights. The fact that there were battery operated Tomica cars which did not have a motor may have contributed to Tomy changing the name of their motorized Battery Operated Tomica line to Motor Tomica.

Tomica playsets and and larger vehicles including the massive radio control car carrier.

I have some parts to that big parking tower on the left page. Some of the destinations on the right are rather nice, the curb system was used for many years after and the cardboard road system integrates in well. The 7/11 is funny.

These cars are all motorized and run on N size batteries. The tops of these cars are diecast metal and they feel rather nice in the hand. The B/O road system has some nice features and some annoying characteristics. The level crossing is nicely detailed and certainly essential when trying to integrate a new road system into a train toy.

These layout ideas are a nice idea for the new road system. I also like the Tomica McDonalds.

The middle pages of the catalog includes Super Express Hikarian toys, the then-current coloration of Big Loader and Big Big Loader, and the Metal Pocket series of diecast trains.

The Thomas series page includes the new 1995 products including the rereleased 1995 version of the Basic set. The smaller Doll Play set is still on sale as well as a remote control Nozomi set and a large ride-on train.

Many older styles of rails that would go out of print in the later 90s were still on sale at this time. The layout suggestions are nothing that interesting but the graphics have some suggestions about the way different track pieces interact.

The new drawbridge which was based on an older rail-on-rail design appears here as well as the Doll Play Ticket Play Station and one of the old Plarail airports, which are pretty much all sought after. Talking and ticket play stations are also on offer.

Plarail three car releases including old staples like the Hikari with Light, D51 with Light, and many others. New trains include the 300X and WIN350 as well as the Voice Control radio control 400 series.

The absolutely huge Big Nozomi with six tracks going through... The page numbers actually count back down in this half of the catalog, and because this is the "back" there is information about ordering spare parts and the Tomy customer service numbers.

The back cover, with a large multilayer layout with a lot of panel stations and callouts for some products. It seems like a bold choice to make the Tomica side of the manual the traditional "front." Although Japanese books and manga are typically read right to left, previous and future Plarail catalogues are formatted left to right, making the Tomica side the "front."