fall inside a hole

Plarail Gordon (1995)

First written November 22, 2023

Gordon the Big Engine is one of the main characters of the Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends T.V. show as well as the Railway Series books it is based on. Gordon pulls the mainline express train that connects Sodor with Britain.

Similar to other 90s Plarail Thomas trains, a late stage prototype with a slightly different face sculpt appears on some boxes and other material.

Plarail Gordon (1995)

 

Plarail Gordon (プラレールゴードン) was released on October 26, 1995 and was the fifth engine in the Thomas series of Plarail sets, trains, and accessories. The three-pack release includes Gordon and a green express coach, the first new rolling stock molding for the Thomas series since Annie and Clarabel in 1992. 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. The rear of the box has battery installation information and new safety warning added to boxes beginning in 1995 as well as a promo shot of the late prototype and a list of incompatible accessories. Original ST-5 1995 print run boxes were used up into early 1997. This box contains an original 1995 production run Gordon and also has a white UPC sticker over where the original barcode is on the box - even though the original and correct printed barcode appears to be intact underneath.

Originally, Gordons were packaged with styrofoam blocks between the engine and tender, tender and coach, and coach and the back of box, as well as a longer strip at the top of the box by Gordon's face. Without the blocks inside the box, the engine and coach rolling back and forth can cause the coach to be hit by the front coupling and crack, as this one has.

Gordon's chassis has 1995 licensing information and a 1995 made in Thailand mark. Like other 90s engines, Gordon's face is molded into the smokebox and painted over in grey. The wires connecting the battery compartment to the motor are green and blue, an uncommon color combination. Gordons were seemingly produced with the modern strain-reliefed coupling from their introduction. The Gordon in this box dates to November 1995, and I have a second older Gordon with green and blue wires but without the original coal battery cover.

The green express coach is the first Thomas-specific car molding since Annie and Clarabel in 1992. The chassis is marked Thailand as is the wheel insert. The coach is a nice molding that fits both the Plarail and Thomas aesthetics.

 

I also have two 1996 Gordons in 1995 print run boxes. 1996 production run Gordons are the only individual release Thomas-series engine I have ever seen that included a pamphlet catalogue, in this case the 1996 Catalogue. The 1996 boxes do not have the UPC barcode sticker on the rear.

1996 Gordons are nearly identical to 1995 ones other than the wire color changing to the regular red and blue. Both the 1996 Gordons I own date from September. I used to have a third Gordon of this type in the box, complete with catalogue, but I sold it as I did not particularly need three 1996 production run Gordons.

The worse condition 1996 Gordon has some of the common cosmetic damage you see on Plarail Gordons, namely a cracked (and reglued) cab roof and biffed driving cylinders. Cracked buffers are also pretty common damage, and poor sticker condition is not that uncommon on any Plarail with stickers.

Early 1997 production run Gordons were also sold in 1995 print run boxes. On the back of these boxes, a small translucent sticker is applied with text amending the incompatible products list. Towards the end of 1996 all the existing Thomas characters had these incompatibility lists updated for 1997 print run boxes, but there were seemingly so many 1995 print run Gordon boxes that it was decided to add a sticker to existing stock than have to throw the rest of them out and print all-new ones (presumably  for other characters they had finished using the previous print run's boxes and just printed the new corrections with fresh boxes). Even more interestingly, later in 1997 there were new Gordon boxes printed with ST-7 safety codes, but the amended incompatibility list was not included and the back of those boxes contained only the original 1995 printed list and not the contents from the updated sticker nor the note about the list being accurate as of late 1996 like other character's 1997 boxes had.

The Gordon in my stickered box dates to March of 1997 and is suffering from a failed power switch.  Similar to Henry and James, the power switches used in these gearboxes are contracting around the attached contact and splitting apart.

Interestingly, circa 1998 there was an odd production run of Gordons with black and white wires as well as the old single-split couplings. I have seen at least three examples of this Gordon in auctions, but only own this one dating to September 1998. This Gordon would have come in an ST-7 1997 print box. There was an odd trend around the time Tomica World production began to pick up where some characters seemingly randomly were fitted with older single-split couplings, presumably to use up leftover stock.

7443 Gordon (Tomica World) (1998)

In 1998 as part of the Tomica World range Gordon and the green express coach were released first in the yellow style packaging shown here.

This example is one of my nicer condition old yellow box Tomica World releases, with the original foam inserts and battery pamphlet intact.

Early Tomica World Gordons have hammered axles, but this April 2001 example is the later capped type. This is a fairly late example of a yellow-style box - a new blue and red design was used for new characters in 2000 and then for older characters when the existing print runs of yellow boxes were exhausted.

Plarail Gordon (Capped axles) (1999)

The last new print run of boxes before the 2003 brand refresh was in 1999. This printing is almost identical to the 1997 print box and indeed the original 1995 print box but with larger Tomy phone number text. Gordons in these boxes use the then-new style of capped axles instead of the earlier hammered end.

Other than the capped axles, these Gordons are pretty much unchanged from the previous iterations, and were produced into the early 2000s. Circa 2001 or so the screw holding the coach together was replaced with one with a standard screw head and plastic ring.

7443 Gordon (Tomica World (U.K.)/Motorized Road & Rail (U.S.)) (2001)

In 2001 Gordon was released in red and blue Tomica World packaging in Europe and in blue Motorized Road & Rail packaging in the United States. These releases still use the old painted-face version of Gordon.

Powerful Gordon (2002)

In 2002 a new version of Gordon with additional details, an angry face, and a high power motor was released as Powerful Gordon (ちからもちゴードン). This was the second character after Thomas to be released in a more detailed form.

T-4 Plarail Gordon (2003)

On January 30th, 2003 the Thomas Plarail range was relaunched with new packaging and updated detailing. The box shown here is a 2002 print run example which was printed ahead of its early 2003 introduction.

Unlike most of the rest of the Thomas range which received new detailing in 2003, Gordon had previously been released in a more-detailed form with a separately-fitted face as Powerful Gordon in 2002. Like the Powerful Gordon, these earlier 2000s Gordons have wheel arch lining that is inside the molded rim along the arch - this was changed back to a painted-rim style in the later 2000s. These regular Gordons have a smiling separately-fitted face - early examples often yellow with age. The blue mix of plastic used in the early 2000s also yellows and turns green with age. Earlier 2000s boxes were stamped on one of the inner box flaps with a production code similar to the battery compartment marks. Later boxes have similar marks impressioned into the rear of the box.

The chassis is an updated version of the 2001 licensing info Powerful Gordon chassis with the new squared-off Tomy logo. This example was produced in January 2004.

At this point, the Plarail and international releases split ways, with international releases gaining only the separately molded face. Gordon's car remained the green express coach, which also got an updated chassis.

7443 Gordon (Motor Road & Rail (U.K.)/Motorized Road & Rail (U.S.)) (2003/2005)

In 2003 new updated plastic faces Gordons began being sold with green coaches in Europe in blue Thomas Motor Road & Rail packaging. Other than the new plastic face and updated chassis, these Gordons are more similar to the 1990s Plarail release with fewer details. The blue plastic mix used by Tomy for a period of time in the early-mid 2000s yellows with age and becomes brittle and green like pictured. In 2005 these 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.

The example shown here is a circa 2005 American Toys R Us three-pack which has yellowed and experienced battery leakage.

4832 Gordon (Motorized Road & Rail) (2004)

In 2004 updated-logo Gordons were exported to the United States in individual plastic-box hangtag packaging.

4897 Gordon with Track (Motorized Road & Rail) (2005)

In 2005 in the United States export Gordons were released with four curve rails.

T-4 Plarail Gordon (pressed axles) (2010)

This 2010 print box began being used around the time that the Thomas-series tender engines began using wheels that were pressed onto their middle axles. This saved a few components and assembly steps but also made the axles stick out less (virtually not at all) and therefore the coupling rods could no longer catch on the bulky axle caps. This box also has some updates to the phone numbers on the rear, updated first in the mid 2000s, and the Tomy logo was also removed from above the ST mark. The URL now points to the Takara Tomy website. The date that the box was filled and sealed at the factory is indented to the right of the Plarail logo on the rear top right of the box.

These Gordons have the paint-rimmed wheel arches instead of the older "inner" style. This example has some cracked buffers.

By this point, the coach chassis had been updated slightly with a taller ring around the screw and additional production marks.

TS-04 Plarail Gordon (2012)

In 2012 the C battery Gordon was rereleased in new TS-04 packaging to match the revamped CGI Thomas range. These Gordons are similar to the 2010 Gordon with black tender drawbars and middle wheels pressed onto their axles.

These 2010s production stickers sometimes have remnants of black boxes from where the stickers were seemingly cut from sheets. This example dates to October 2012.

TS-04 Plarail Gordon (redesigned) (2015)

In 2015 Gordon was redesigned to use a AA battery inside the boiler with a separate tender instead of the C battery inside the tender. This version was released on April 23, 2015 as TS-04 Plarail Gordon.

The new Gordon uses a variation of the "new mechanism" Plarail drive system that was introduced in the early 2010s and has a new CGI face. These new Gordons have a new design of piston rods and the body shell has small front wheels and pistons molded in and hanging down. To be honest, I don't really like how these look...

The tender is now a separate car, and the pack still includes a green express coach. After the redesigned James this is perhaps the second best of the redesigned tender engines, although the later Henrys and Edwards are both pretty bad...

TS-04 Plarail Gordon (2018)

In 2018 the redesigned Gordon was rereleased in darker blue CGI packaging.