fall inside a hole
Merry-Go-School Bus (1977)
Originally written November 12, 2023
The Merry-Go-School Bus was released in the United States in the "Playrail" style box shown here. This set was first released in Japan as a Hirake! Ponkikki licensed set in 1977 as Hirake! Ponkikki Kindergarten on the Bus. Unlike other Plarail Land sets, the Ponkikki version of this set has a similar black with wood border. The set was later rereleased as a "normal" Plarail Land set as the Kindergarten Set and in two different Mickey Mouse themed sets and a Hello Kitty set. Boxes for those and other Japanese Plarail Land releases can be found in the Plarail Museum. Unlike other Plarail Land sets which were released by Palitoy in the U.K. and Tomy in some other European territories, it does not appear that the school bus set was released outside of Japan and America.
I have two copies of the American release Merry-Go-School Bus as well as a broken red chassis that is either from the Hello Kitty or one of the Mickey Mouse themed sets. I purchased the first set several years ago (most likely 2018) and the second in a lot with several other boxed Playrail sets in the summer of 2023. The Mickey Mouse chassis came in a junk lot some time in 2021.
Set contents
|
Quantity |
Item |
Photo |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
School
bus |
 |
| 4 | "Tight" 90 degree curve rail (two orange, two yellow) |
 |
| 2 |
Straight Rail (white) |
 |
| 2 | Half Straight Rail (white) |
 |
| 6 pieces | School and bus stop with connecting path |
 |
| 4 pieces | Swing |
 |
| 1 | Slide |
 |
| 1 | Rolling "Friend" |
 |
The bus in this set is based loosely on a typical North American school bus and features cartoons of a driver and several students. Towards the rear a cutout seat allows the gimmick with the rolling "friend" to operate properly.
This bus is a bit of an odd vehicle. Unlike regular Plarail trains at the time, it is not only direct drive instead of the rim-drive "old power" gearboxes in use in the 1970s but also front-wheel-drive. The various versions of this set and the similar Merry-Go-Zoo set are seemingly the only times this chassis design was used. As it was never intended to pull anything, there is no coupling system. The power switch hangs out the front and the rear of the bus has a sprung-loaded platform that interacts with parts of the playset. The bus is powered by one C battery. The battery compartment seems somewhat fragile, as all three of my bus chassis have some part of the battery compartment that is broken. The gearbox uses a mix of constrained and free-spinning gears to fit four reductions across two shafts in a small space. The bottom of the chassis is marked 1977 Tomy with the old boy and girl logo, but for some reason the year is blocked out of the molding on my later Mickey Mouse set chassis circa 1979.
The "Rolling Friend" is a small figure with molded body that houses a ball bearing that the figure rolls along the slopes with. The head is not articulated. The friends are superficially similar to Child Guidance "puppet" figures or early Fisher-Price Little People.
The track in this set appears to be from the standard Plarail molds of the era with roughtop treads and similar molding marks as standard track. As these sets were being sold around the same time it is likely that they were produced on similar production lines. Interestingly, the Japanese versions of this set contain four half straight rails instead of two half straight and two normal straight rails. The Ponkikki and Kindergarten versions of this set use a similar rail color scheme while the later Mickey Mouse sets use different colors. The tight 90 degree curve rail was only used in a handful of regular Plarail sets (so few that there are probably more than twice the number of Plarail Land sets that they were in versus normal Plarail sets) and is rare in normal blue but the exported colors seen here seem easier and cheaper to find than even old Plarail land sets.
The school building sits on a large green base with part of the gimmick feature molded into it. A white flag with the Tomy boy and girl logo fits into the roof. The yellow platform on the base is lifted diagonally upward by the bus and will either deposit a waiting rolling friend into the bus or push them into the schoolhouse and back out onto the platform depending on which way the flower switch is set.
The base mold is marked 1977 and made in Japan and also has the boy and girl Tomy logo of the era.
The bus stop has a raised section that tilts the bus over to release the passenger as it passes by. The sign is separately fitted. The bus stop and the rear of the school base are connected by a yellow slide pathway. A directional level allows rolling friends to be diverted down some stairs (or the white slide, when it is in position). Interestingly, even though the majority of track was roughtop in this era, the moldings for the two large bases with integrated track use a treaded rail surface, presumably for more grip on the action features.
This white slide can be inserted over the stairs on the yellow connecting path or it can be used standalone. There is also a swing set that a rolling friend can sit in.
The single-page instruction sheet shows how to assemble the main destinations of the set as well as the track layout and battery instructions.
The basic play loop involves the bus picking up a rolling friend from the school and driving it around the left part of the layout where it gets dropped off at the bus stop. The rolling friend rolls down the yellow ramp and back to the school to get picked up again. The empty bus traverses the right side of the layout and comes back around to pick it up again. The friend can be diverted down the slide from the yellow ramp or the flower switch can be set to just make the bus lift the friend up into the school building where it immediately slides back down into position on the yellow platform to repeat the next time the bus comes around.
(Click for longer video with sound)
The endless gimmick of this set is interesting and fits the theme and concept of the set well. The Plarail Land series was aimed at a younger audience than traditional Plarail and I think the two switches in the rolling track as well as the playability of the rolling friend with different elements of the set are both good play features. This is one of the smaller of the Merry-Go type sets and is not as elaborate as the larger Merry-Go-Train or Copter sets.
My second set, which is missing the schoolhouse flag and has a cracked slide support, can be seen here with an alternate layout.