fall inside a hole

Plarail Fire-Engine Flynn (2013)

First written April 6, 2025

In 2012 Tomy began selling a version of the road and rail fire engine Flynn in a Thomas Plarail set as well as a multi-pack release based on the Thomas DVD special Day of the Diesels alongside Diesel 10, with a regular Plarail three-piece release coming in 2013.

Let's Run Together! Fire-Engine Flynn and Thomas Set (April 2012)

On April 28, 2012 the Let's Run Together! Fire-Engine Flynn and Thomas Set was released featuring the first version of Plarail Flynn. This Flynn looks straight ahead and has a grey roof and ladder that lifts upwards as well as yellow painted ladders on the side. This entire set was manufactured in Vietnam, as were future Plarail Flynns.

The set is based around Flynn's ability to run on road or rail with a metal pin hanging down that interacts with a special road-rail switch that will switch Flynn off to run on the road. The road in the set is Motor Tomica/Plaroad style although it had gone out of usual production by 2012 and was not specifically sold as such, although Flynn will gladly traverse more Motor Tomica road. All other Plarail releases of Flynn still include the metal pin so they will all trigger the special switch.

Fire-Engine Flynn and Diesel 10 Set (October 2012)

In October 2012 the Fire-Engine Flynn and Diesel 10 Set was released based on the Day of the Diesels Thomas special. It included Diesel 10, a tanker, and the first release of Flynn in three-pack form with two fire-fighting trailers.

Like the set's individual Flynn power car, this Flynn looks straight ahead and has yellow ladders on his sides as well as yellow details on the sides of his trailer cars. The date code on the bottom says this Flynn was made on September 20, 2012, which is probably around when most of these Diesel 10 pack Flynns were.

TS-19 Fire-Engine Flynn (February 2013)

On February 28, 2013 Flynn was released in light blue CGI packaging as a standard three-pack release as TS-19 Plarail Fire-Engine Flynn (TS-19 プラレール消防車フリン).

This release changes Flynn's roof and ladder to a more silvery color and his yellow ladders and other details are now gold. I think this actually ended up saving a few paint colors but I think it looks a little bit nicer anyways. Flynn also looks up and to the left now in addition to having a cocked eyebrow.

Flynn's first trailer has rail wheels and buffers and is a large external water tank for use on rails and the smaller rear trailer has road tires and is an on-road water tank, so they are not really meant to be used together as the pack comes.

All of Flynn's tooling and painted details are really rather nice. In 2018 Flynn was rereleased in new dark blue CGI packaging again as TS-19. These Flynns are identical to earlier three-pack production Flynns other than the production date codes, as far as I know.