fall inside a hole
Plarail Duck (1997)
First written June 2, 2024
Duck is one of the "eight famous engines" from the Thomas the Tank Engine television series and the Railway Series books they are based on. His real name is Montague, but he got the nickname "Duck" due to a "waddle" when he runs due to off-center wheels. Duck has worked in the yard, on branch and main lines, and at the harbor. Included in the Plarail release is Toad, a Great Western brake van, and S.C.Ruffy (pronounced "Scruffy"), a privately-owned truck that is rotting away in the yard before being broken by Oliver and subsequently repaired.
Still from the 1998 Let's play together with Tomica and Plarail! VHS
A prototype of Duck shown in some promotional material has a different earlier face and a different design of GWR letting and 8 sticker that are placed further forward. This further-forward sticker placement was used on earlier Ducks with the final sticker design. There is also a sticker representing Duck's front right cab window which was not included on the final toy, although his whistle and other front window were.
Plarail Duck (1997)
Plarail Duck (プラレールダック) was released on May 22, 1997 and was the seventh engine in the Thomas series of Plarail sets, trains, and accessories. The three-pack release includes Duck with S.C.Ruffy the troublesome truck and Toad the brake van. S.C.Ruffy was a new paint application of the standard Thomas-series truck produced in 1996 and Toad was an entirely new tooling. The Thomas series engines continued to use the sixth generation style Plarail boxes even after regular releases transitioned to three-windows seventh generation packaging in 1994. As Duck uses a C battery and is similar in weight distribution to regular Plarail trains, he is largely compatible with the Plarail system and no notes on the back of the box are made about any accessories he does not work with.
This early Duck has the GWR and 8 stickers positioned closer to the front of the locomotive than later production examples. The inner wall on the right side of these 1997 production locomotives is flat but by 1998 the tooling had been updated with a slot to help the body shell be removed around the gearbox.
Duck uses a new C battery gearbox that uses a worm gear. This gearbox tends to be fairly slow and also somewhat easy to stop, especially some of the later production ones.
S.C.Ruffy has nice side printing matching the look in the television series. A rusty orange color is used for the chassis and side bracings to show how he is rusting away. Later, some sets and packs included a darker post-restoration version of S.C.Ruffy. Toad has nice molded details including planks and bracing as well as a representation of the brake handle in the open rear portion of the van.
Both trucks originally used the original 1996 troublesome truck chassis and were updated around 1999 to use the chassis insert with plastic ring around the screw.
As has been noted many times in the years since, S.C.Ruffy and Toad are generally associated closer with another Great Western Engine, Oliver. The Plarail Oliver release includes two red branch-line passenger cars, which Duck is seen pulling at times. It seems likely that Tomy wanted to produce Duck, Oliver, the branch line coaches, and S.C.Ruffy and Toad at some point, and Toad's tooling ended up being ready alongside Duck's while Oliver's odd wheel arrangement and cramped size meant he was not yet ready and, perhaps because it brought more variety to the range, Tomy decided to introduce Duck with S.C.Ruffy and Toad instead of waiting to use Toad's tooling until Oliver's release or putting red passenger cars into the range before other rolling stock. The passenger cars are also a fresh tool, although they are obviously similar to Annie and Clarabel, so it is possible they were not ready in 1997 as well.
7446 Duck (Tomica World) (1998)
In 1998 as part of the Tomica World range Duck was released with S.C.Ruffy and Toad.
These Ducks are the same as Plarail production examples of the era. This 1998 example has some of S.C.Ruffy's bracing oversprayed on the inside of the truck - I do not immediately see how this would easily happen on a production line, it seems like a paint applicator would have to get into a an odd position in order to get relatively nice lines midway down the inside walls of the truck tooling...
Like the Plarail version, the Tomica World S.C.Ruffy and Toad chassis (really, their shared troublesome truck chassis) were updated in 1999. When the truck tooling was updated in 2002, the new version was used on Motor Road & Rail releases.
Duck (New number/URL box) (2000)
New print runs of boxes from 1999 onwards included the new Tomy website URL and slightly different phone number information on the back. Starting in 2000, Ducks began being sold in ST-9 print run boxes with the updated Tomy URL.
7446 Duck (Tomica World (U.K.)/Motorized Road & Rail (U.S.)) (2001)
Duck was released in new blue and red Tomica World packaging for Europe in later 2000 or 2001, with a blue Motorized Road & Rail three-pack releasing in the United States in 2001.
Like other American releases, these Ducks had hair entanglement stickers added inside.
T-8 Plarail Duck (Updated rerelease) (2003)
In 2003 the Thomas Plarail range was revamped and the main cast of characters received updated detailing. Duck, however, went largely unchanged, already having a plastic face and mostly-covered running board. These releases came in new T series boxes and had new logo chassis S.C.Ruffy and Toads.
7446 Duck (Motor Road & Rail (U.K.)/Motorized Road & Rail (U.S.)) (2003/2005)
In 2003 new licensing info Ducks began being sold in Europe in blue Thomas Motor Road & Rail packaging. In 2005 the Duck, S.C.Ruffy and Toad three-packs were sold in the United States at Toys R Us. The European release got a new box in 2005 used until the Tomy TrackMaster box in 2008.
4837 Duck (Motorized Road & Rail) (2004)
In 2004 Duck was exported to the United States in individual plastic-box hangtag packaging.
4879 Duck with Track (Motorized Road & Rail) (2005)
In 2005 in the United States Duck was sold with S.C.Ruffy and four curve rails.