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Plarail Spencer (2004)

First written August 9, 2024

Spencer is the private locomotive of a duke and duchess from the mainland in the Thomas and Friends TV show. Spencer was introduced in Plarail form in later 2004, not long after his television series introduction.

T-21 Plarail Spencer (2004)




In August 2004 Spencer was released as T-21プラレールスペンサー T-21 Plarail Spencer in T series packaging with the duke and duchesses' private rail car. The box shown here is from the original 2004 print run.

Spencer is a streamlined grey locomotive with a separately attached tender. The coach is a neat tooling that also nicely replicates Spencer's appearance in the television series.

Spencer has nice shiny nameplate stickers and darker grey coupling rods than other Thomas trains. He uses the flat-type AA battery gearbox. This particular example was produced in July 2004 ahead of his August release.

The coach is a nicely-detailed tooling. The couplings are recessed inside the coach body (it uses the same chassis as the standard express coaches), with the rounded ends giving a train of multiple coaches a nice closely-coupled look.

4813 Spencer (Motor Road & Rail (U.K.)/Motorized Road & Rail (U.S.)) (2005)

In earlier 2005 Spencer began being exported to Europe in blue Thomas Motor Road & Rail packaging and to the United States in Toys R Us three-pack packaging. The European release got a new box in later 2005 used until the Tomy TrackMaster box in 2008.

4891 Spencer with Track (Motorized Road & Rail) (2005)

In 2005 Spencers were sold in the United States with four curve rails.

TS-10 Plarail Spencer (2012)




In 2012 when the Plarail Thomas range was refreshed Spencer was rereleased in new CGI packaging. The example shown here is a 2015 print run box.

Other than some changes in plastic and paint coloration over the years, noticeable particularly in the different color of his dummy middle wheel, there is nothing really different between these Spencers and the mid 2000s ones. The gearbox is marked with the day of production - September 17, 2015.