Tomy was founded as the Tomiyama Toy Manufacturing Company in February 1924 by Eiichiro Tomiyama. The company produced many friction-drive and tin toys throughout their first 30 or so years until the rise in the use of plastic in toys throughout the 1950s. In the late 1950s Tomy began producing plastic toys.
Tomy's Plarail system started with a 1958 highway vehicles set that did not bear the "plastic rail" or Plarail names. This set used rails representing road based on Playskool's version of the Tot Railroad track system, in particular seemingly a French set sold with light blue rails around 1958. The wooden road vehicles were produced for B.Oreal's Jack Built Toys range of wooden vehicle play sets. Rails were slightly different dimensions and entirely smooth, slope rails were much steeper, and "yoke"-style turnout rails from Tot Railroad. There seems to be some question as to if this set came out in 1958 before the first Plarail train set or after it in 1959. One example of the set I have seen online has vehicles introduced into Jack Built Toys later and stamped 1961, implying it was produced for several years.
The "generations" noted here follow the periods recognized by the Plarail Museum. This is both because I find its standard to work well and because I do not see any reason to split a relatively easy to agree upon standard like that between regions of study. Some more detailed information about dating specific Plarail pieces can be seen here.
The first train sets were 1959's Plastic Train Set which featured a black and red push train and a set of freight cars with metal couplings. These were later changed to a plastic straight-through version that was similar to an existing train system's couplings with rolling stock produced in a few different colors.
Early trains came in lift-off cardboard boxes. The first generation boxes from this era range from early Tomiyama marked Plastic Trains to late 60s battery trains like the Electric Trains. Earlier sets from the late 1950s to mid 1960s came in cardboard boxes that were often red or orange with an illustrated or black and white photo of the set contained within.
1961 saw the introduction of the first battery-powered train, the "plastic train that runs on batteries," based on a German clockwork locomotive. Sets around this time used now hard to find accessories like telegraph poles and static signals that were originally Tot Railroad accessories.
In 1964 alongside the opening of the new Shinkansen high speed train the hand-powered Plastic Dream Super Express and the battery powered Electric Super Express Hikari were introduced. These were the first toys based on specific real-life trains and with the Shinkansen being brand new they would certainly be topical toys, although the odd choice of color - white with red skirting and nose, unlike the real Shinkansen's white with blue skirting - has been noted many times by other collectors. New "second generation" set boxes included color photographs of the contents as well as usually a larger promotional layout showing more accessories. Early push Plastic and battery powered Electric Plastic train sets are from the Plastic Train era, with the second and third generation gearboxes powering the early old power era.
Throughout the later 60s the range expanded with more accessories and rail types under the Plastic Rail name. Beginning around 1967 the Plastic Rail name was shortened into the Plarail we know today and the "merry-go-round" logo was introduced on new sets and accessories for 1968 and the hand-rolling trains where phased out in favor of new Electric Trains based on Japanese subway trains. The Shinkansen was a huge cultural icon and was heavily used in sets in the late 1960s and in some ways carried the range until the introduction of new real-life models in 1970. Also around 1968 the "double track" (then ふくせんプラレール Fukusen Plarail) standard was established and a range of new sets and accessories all using the new Plarail name were released to support it.
The late 60s also saw the refinement of the Plarail coupling system, with the earliest versions of the modern coupling system having thin, flexible sections on the hook side and wide bars molded into the loop side. Second generation gearboxes moved the power switch to the top of the engine and friction-drove the drive wheels with plastic gears.
Part of the late 1960s range included a series of collaborations with Child Guidance Toys. Child Guidance Toys had developed their own toy train system that had also split off from the earlier Tot Railroad. The tracks had circular connectors but were otherwise the same gauge, and it was used widely around the world (including in Japan, seemingly at the hands of Tomy themselves at least once) in basic train sets throughout the 1970s. Child Guidance Railroad and Plarail were the same gauge and a series of amusement park sets that shared major accessories and train components.
After establishing many of the hallmarks of Plarail in the 1960s, the 1970s was a huge period of refinement and growth with the third generation rim-drive gearboxes with front power switches powering the first D51s, Limited Expresses, local and rapid trains, DD51s and the redesigned Super Express Hikari.
The second generation of individual release boxes used different variants of the Merry-Go-Round tent mark beginning in 1970 along with more colorful set boxes with large images of the set within and, also starting in 1970s, showing the sets incorporated into larger layouts.
Accessories were released in updated Plarail packaging. Accessory selection also expanded dramatically in the 1970s, with first of many operating railroad crossings appearing in 1970. More elaborate, classic, and rare accessories and set pieces were produced throughout the decade.
In the early 1970s some sets appeared with pictures of children playing with the contents bearing the new "Hikari-Go" mark. Individual release boxes were still lift-off type boxes up through 1976. These Hikari-Go marked boxes re considered the third generation of boxes.
Completely smooth rails were fully phased out around 1974 with "roughtop" rails surviving up through the introduction of new power gearboxes in the later 1980s.
Tomy made their first direct attempts to sell Plarail overseas during the 1970s. Deals were worked out and sets were exported to the United States, the U.K., Germany, and other countries. The American Playrail sets were mostly based on the "Plarail Land" sets and were not like traditional Plarail, while the U.K. got both the Plarail Land and traditional sets while Germany got traditional sets with many original moldings.
The 70s also saw the introduction of Plahighway, Plarail's first associated road system since the original wooden vehicle set. Standalone sets as well as crossover sets that typically featured a railway crossing were released, with a police chase set being exported to the U.S. and Canada.
From 1976 to 1978 a series of fourth generation "train" boxes were released with the outline of period Plarail trains covering the box. Although short-lived, they did establish the more common window-style slide-out box style used for most Plarail individual releases since.
1977 saw the introduction of the yellow "middle" old power era set boxes which had windows to see the included trains. Many classic and new trains continued to be produced in the "chibi" style of the time. For some reason, a handful of later 1980s sets revisit this box design.
From 1978 to 1987 the 5th generation "EC" box with cartoon steam engine was used.
From 1981 to the introduction of new-power trains in 1987 boxes went back to featuring elaborate layout setups using pieces of the set within, with a callout box containing the actual set.
The
Radio
Control Tohoko Joetsu Shinkansen Set, the most expensive set of 1984
The period around 1983 is considered the "Winter Era," where Tomy had relatively few new regular releases, instead developing more expensive Melody music-playing trains and the first generation of radio control trains. These were fairly simple trains with only an on and off control that used many of the moldings of their non-remote control equivalencies, but were more expensive than regular trains. Production of many items around this time was limited.
In 1987 the "new power" gearbox was introduced. This was the first direct-drive gearbox since the early days of Plarail and came in single and two-speed variants. This paved the way for more powerful and advanced trains and other new gearbox types. A large portion of the range was immediately updated for 1987 and remaining older models were converted over to using the new power system throughout the late 80s and early 90s. New 6th generation train boxes were also introduced and used into the mid 90s. The first version of the "yellow stripe" box layout packaging also began use in 1987.
New rounds of sets were exported in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the Tomy Train and Tomy Express ranges. Like the 70s Plarail Land sets, Tomy Train was not traditional Plarail but somewhat of an offshoot of the Round-Trip Plarail concept with magnetic couplings and other specialized accessories. German Tomy Express sets were direct localizations of Plarail sets with dark blue rails like Tomy Train.
In the early 90s after the success of the television show in Japan Tomy acquired the license to make Thomas the Tank Engine series trains for Plarail as well as for Tomy Trains outside of Japan. The Plarail series was a big seller and the range expanded throughout the 90s and early 2000s, also being exported to Europe and the Americas as well as parts of Asia.
In 1994 the 7th generation train box with three window compartments was introduced. During this generation the range of vehicles expanded dramatically, with new Shinkansens following the expansion of Japan's high speed rail in the 90s and new and expanded commuter train options with several classes of locomotives available in different liveries.
New "Voice Command" remote control engines were also introduced in the mid 1990s.
Beginning around 1995 box layouts changed slightly to include a red line between the yellow portion of the box on the left and the product photo on the right. More trains included in sets represented specific regional or service liveries.
In the later 1990s Tomy began to acknowledge and celebrate the fan and collector communities, establishing the Plarail Fan Club and Plarail Day in 1997, reissuing well-liked older trains that had been out of print for decades as limited edition items, and surveying customers about why they purchased different sets and what they are looking for from Plarail.
The later 90s also saw Plarail being directly exported into the U.S. and western European markets as Tomica World after the discontinuation of Tomy Train. Although early U.S. sales were slow, Tomica World became Tomy's biggest international Plarail attempt to date when the Thomas the Tank Engine Plarail series sets and engines were exported to the degree that eventually Tomy dropped the Tomica World name and phased out all non-Thomas products.
1999 saw the 40th anniversary of the franchise and a wide range of commemorative products. Here is a timeline included with the 40th Anniversary Plarail Limited Edition pack and the events Tomy felt were noteworthy at the time.
In the early 2000s Plarail began to shift towards much more realistic vehicle designs and moldings. Descendants of longstanding moldings like the old D51, EF66, and DD51 were updated with new graphics and partially or completely remolded to be more accurate, sometimes with real running numbers and real liveries. The short-lived 8th generation of boxes introduced in 2001 were themed after the trains contained within while the new set boxes had a diagonal fade away between product photos and real life trains.
While seventh generation releases continued to stay on sale, some new released with updated detailing were instead released in a new box style. Some of these releases carried over to the ninth generation of boxes introduced with the 2003 brand refresh. Sets around this time with new and detailed trains also used a different style of box.
Starting in 2002 pretty much the entire Plarail range was refreshed with many, many older new power trains getting updated or more accurate details and many older toolings being replaced or redone. In the summer of 2002 the Shinkansen offerings in the range were refreshed with updated details in the early S series of boxes and many other trains began to have their toolings updated with the squared-off Tomy logo. In 2003 the rest of the range was updated with more detailing under the 9th generation S series boxes.
Boxes from 2002 to 2007 have just the squared-off Tomy logo, while sets from 2007 to 2014 have the Takara Tomy mark.
Some trains remain on sale in ninth generation-style boxes.
Around 2014 a new chassis and gearbox commonly referred to as the "new mechanism" began to be used in many new trains, with existing releases converted over to also use it. In the years since, additional types of gearbox in the same chassis footprint were released that allowed for multi-speed, remote-control, and reversing trains which can have their chassis swapped around to many other trains in the range.
Sets in this era have additional callouts showing features of the set on the box.
Throughout this era more Plarail production was moved to Vietnam.
In 2024 Plarail celebrated its 65th anniversary.