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Tomica Plarail '96~97 Catalogue

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Like the 1995-1996 catalog, the "front" starts with Tomica and Plarail starting from the back.

Several fire and rescue themed vehicles and playsets, including some with functioning emergency lights.

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

More standard Tomicas, some gift sets, and some character cars.

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

Tomica Town buildings and accessories as well as the B/O Tomica range, including the expensive trailer-hauling trucks with vehicle cargo. The range was reworked into Motor Tomica in 1997.

The B/O road system was nicely filled out by this point, with several accessories also on sale.

The nice B/O Tomica New Town Station Set and expansion suggestions as well as the period Big Loaders and Metal Pocket trains. This is the middle of the catalogue, and both pages are numbered 14, with the numbers counting down towards the Plarail back cover of the catalogue.

The middle spread of Super Express Hikarian toys, with a decent-sized range of trains and playsets.

The Thomas range was starting to fill out, with road vehicles, accessories, and most of the early main cast available. Most of the sets are basic sets, and the cut-down I'm Driving the R/C Plarail Nozomi Set is the largest and most expensive set... other than the large ride-on train!

A few older rail toolings were still in production alongside the still-standing staple pieces. I quite like the suggested layouts, there are some nice diagonal straight sections, good accessory usage, a Motor Tomica crossover layout... I think I could build most of these layouts, some day I ought to.

Bridges, stations, and other accessories, with the new electronic talking station and Thomas Railroad Crossing Station.

The new Yufuin no Mori is shown as well as the fairly hearty range of Shinkansen and express trains.

The Big Tsubasa joins the Big Nozomi introduced in 1995. The other page outlines one of the typical prize giveaways awarded for mailing in UPC codes and advertises the 1996 Plarail World CD ROM and replacement parts.

A similar stacked layout to the 1994 and 1995 catalogues is on the rear cover, showing it is the Plarail side of the catalogue. A Thomas illustration is again featured as in 1995 as is the large Tsubasa and Doraemon.