The Doll Play First Set (人形あそび はじめてのセット) is a small oval set with station and Doll Play Nozomi 300-series Shinkansen with driver and passenger figures and was the first of two Doll Play series sets.
Quantity |
Item |
Photo |
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2 pieces |
Doll Play Nozomi (300 series Shinkansen
with lead car attached to intermediate battery car with
seats for figures in the lead and tail cars) |
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3 |
Doll Play dolls |
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1 | R-01 Straight Rail |
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8 |
R-03 Curve Rail |
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1 | R-08 Stop Rail |
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1 | J-22 Elevated Station |
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2 |
Standing Tree |
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1 |
Signal |
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The 300 series Shinkansen were introduced to run the new fast Nozomi service in 1992. Unlike the regular release 2-Speed Nozomi, the Doll Play Nozomi has a single-speed gearbox. The C battery is stored inside the intermediate car. This Doll Play Nozomi dates to June 1993, which seems to be when the series was first produced.
The Doll Play Nozomi is covered in more detail on the Doll Play series page.
This set includes the full range of Doll Play figures. The figures have rotating heads and articulated arms and feet. Magnets in the feet allow the dolls to interact with special accessories, of which only one seems to have been made for the Plarail range. The Doll Play figures are somewhat similar to (and likely based on) the Tomy Train figures, which had similar articulation and magnetic feet.
Although it is a small set, there are still paper instructions included... it was still a little early for Thailand set production, and soon sets would transition to using fully-surrounding boxes with a back surface where set layouts and instructions were shown instead of lift-off-top boxes.
A lot of the 1990s Plarail trains and accessories fit together nicely with a somewhat cartoonish style, and the large-headed figures and colorful station and accessories look nice with the 300 series train.
The track and accessories in this set are all common Thailand-production examples from the era. None of the pieces are exclusive to this set, and other than the female passenger most are not too hard to find. As the name suggests, it is positioned as a potential starter set, particularly for a child interested in playing with the dolls in the train, although it also just serves to add some common pieces to a larger collection alongside the then-brand-new Doll Play series. To the above left is a copy of the set that I pieced together last year to demonstrate what it looked like for the Doll Play page, but in late 2024 I bought a boxed copy of the set - it has a mix of eras of rail production, so some other pieces may also not be exactly original. One day I will make sure some of these sets have the appropriate track tooling stored in their boxes...
Set name | Doll Play First Set 人形あそび はじめてのセット |
Release period | 1993-1994 |
Train rating |
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