fall inside a hole
Merry-Go-Copter (1978)
Originally written December 7, 2023
The Merry-Go-Copter was released in the United States in the "Playrail" style box shown here. This set was first released in Japan as the "Heliport Set" (ヘリポートセット) in 1977. Boxes for this and other Japanese Plarail Land releases can be found in the Plarail Museum. In Britain Palitoy released the Merry-Go-Copter with the same color and layout variations as the American set but with some alternate stickers and in other parts of Europe Tomy sold the set as Tivoli Copter also in the same colors as the other export sets.
The side of the box is dated 1978. It seems that production of export Plarail Land sets shifted to Taiwan in later 1977 or 1978, with seemingly all export versions of this set being produced there. It seems that the Palitoy and Tivoli versions of this set may have come out slightly later, and the Palitoy version seems harder to find than their version of Merry-Go-Train.
The Japanese patent for the concept of this set's operation was filed for in 1976 with international versions applied for in 1977.
Set contents
|
Quantity |
Item |
Photo |
|---|---|---|
| 2 pieces | "Take-A-Trip Train" with passenger car
(rim-drive American-style steam locomotive with gimmick car for
rolling friends) |
 |
| 4 | Half Straight Rail (white, Taiwan-made) |
 |
| 4 | 90 Degree Curve Rail (two each orange and yellow) |
 |
| 4 pieces | "Big City Copter" tower with helicopter, drop-off, and ramp |
 |
| 4 pieces | "Country Lane" station with connecting slide |
 |
| 2 | Rolling "Friends" |
 |
The train in this set is a cartoonish version of an American steam locomotive with a large smoke stack and cowcatcher. The locomotive has a round opening for a rolling friend to sit in. The "passenger car" is built to interact properly with the set gimmick and is thus somewhat odd, with trigger features sticking out from both sides. I do not particularly like the look of the car. The same style of engine and car was used in the Merry-Go-Train.
The train in the export versions of this set were seemingly all made in Taiwan. The slightly earlier Japanese release of this set presumably used a Japanese-made engine like early export Merry-Go-Trains. This early American example has rubber drive tires, while later American releases use the plastic drive spools shown below.
In addition to my complete American set, I also have the engine from a European Tivoli Copter set. This engine has plastic drums that seem to be the same component as the rollers inside the helicopter base to transmit power from the wheels to the copter, which is handy because they do not degrade in the same way as the rubber drive tires (the original tires on my American locomotive were wrapped in a layer of heat-shrink tubing as described here). Interestingly, the Tivoli Copter power switch is bent down while the Playrail one is flat. More details about the Merry-Go set gearboxes can be found here.
The passenger "carriage" is fairly simple and somewhat odd-looking. The main purpose of the car is to accomplish the gimmick of picking up and dropping off the rolling figures and it has a molded catch on the spring-loaded platform that engage with the molding of the station platform. The hanging peg is bumped upwards by the dropoff station and tilts the rolling friend out of the car.
Two "Rolling Friends," also somewhat oddly called "Rolly little dolly" on the box, are included. These small dolls have ball bearings in the base that allows them to roll down the ramps and onto the train and Ferris wheel.
The small radius 90 degree curve rails are roughtop and marked Taiwan with a molding number followed by an A. This appears to be a fresh copy of the 90 degree tooling as it does not match the markings used on Japan-made 90 degree curves from around the same time like those used in the Merry-Go-School Bus set. Also interesting is that the Taiwan-made half straight rails in this set have a treaded surface about a decade before most standard Plarail track was given tread in the late 1980s. It does appear that the rails are treaded over roughtop like later early treaded rails.
The "Big City Copter" is the main destination of the set and is made up of four components. An orange tower contains a screw-drive elevator and slide as well as the helicopter and fits into the base against the power transmission from the train's wheels. A yellow ramp triggers the helicopter to release the rolling friend and slides them down to the waiting train. An orange flag fits into the side of the slide. The blue base has two round molded areas that fit the two rolling friends.
The elevator is weighted in such a way that it usually slips against the screw being driven by the train unless it has the weight of the ball bearing in the rolling friend to hold it against the screw. The helicopter has the Tomy logo on a sticker on the side and the propeller is free-spinning. The base of the heliport is marked with a U.K. patent number. This is seemingly one of the later six-digit patent numbers and was seemingly granted in later 1977 before the seven-digit series of patent numbers went into effect at the beginning in 1978. I could not seem to find a good source for searching six-digit UK patents online but I would be interested in seeing the patent filing and what part of the toy it covers.
The train drives the elevator up the tower and drops the rolling friend off where it slides around the tower to wait for the helicopter. The elevator falls down the helicopter rotates around to pick up the rolling friend. When the copter comes around again the yellow slide back to the train car drops the bottom out of the helicopter and delivers the figure to the train.
The passenger carriage engages with the base of the heliport the same way that the Merry-Go-Train does to position the train's drive wheels over the friction-drive mechanism. A catch on the spring-loaded portion of the car engages with the molding and the weight of the ball bearing in the figures pushes the catch down, releasing the train. The bottom of part of the helicopter tower is marked with 檢 or "check" in Chinese, presumably the quality assurance check sticker from the factory.
The "Country Lane" station is the same drop-off piece as used in the Merry Go Train and Bus with a brown sign. A lime green ramp with slide connects the "station" to the helipad.
The switch on the ramp can be set to let the rolling figure roll down and out, but this will leave the train powering the helicopter around and around.
Click for video with sound
The rolling friend rolls into the back of the elevator and when the train runs around to drive the screw up it lifts the figure up to the top of the tower. After rolling around the tower, the helicopter takes the figure around the tower and then drops it down into the landing area of the slide that deposits it back into the train car. This releases the train and lets it travel around the loop to drop the rolling friend back off at the station to slide down to the elevator again.
Like the other Merry-Go sets, this is aimed at a younger audience and is one of those sets that you basically set up and just watch once together. The actions the set goes through are interesting enough, I like the elevator and the helicopter is also cool, but after a few rounds I think you get the idea.