fall inside a hole
Thomas the Tank Engine (1992)
First written November 17, 2023
Thomas the Tank Engine is the titular character of the Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends T.V. show as well as a main character in the Railway Series books it is based on. Thomas is a small tank engine with six wheels that lives and works with other engines as a station pilot and later branch line engine on the fictional Island of Sodor. Initially airing throughout the fall of 1990 in Japan, the first season of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends was an immediate success and popular toy manufacturers like Bandai and Tomy both began working on Thomas toys. An obvious move for Tomy was to release licensed Thomas the Tank Engine characters for their already well-established Plarail system. Prior to this, Tomy had rarely licensed characters for Plarail, with a handful of Disney licensed products before.
Plarail Thomas development most likely began in 1991. As the Plarail Thomas 25th Anniversary Book reveals, some early Plarail Thomas prototypes had more accurate moving siderods instead of the looped-front siderods the final toy has. The blurb to the left of Thomas reads, approximately: "Development Secret Story. In order to reproduce a small Thomas, we made a new mechanical gearbox (moving parts), but the design was difficult, with the body being longer than the actual animation. Also, at the beginning of development, we tried to attach rods to the front and rear wheels. just like in the live-action version, but it turned out that the front wheels would not turn due to the dead center wheels, so we changed to the current shape where the rods stick out from the center of the front wheels only." These coupling rods were a completely new development for Tomy as previous steam locomotives like the D51 and C12 as well as the Mickey Poppo all have side rods that extend to ride in molded driving cylinders like Henry or Gordon. Early Thomases have different front axle caps to retain them. (There is a rumor that the design of the siderods was influenced by Bandai's Departing Now system, but the looped coupling rod design is not a particularly novel solution to the problem of making coupling rods for a child's toy. Bandai would have previously seen a similar system on the early Nylint toys they were importing into Japan before releasing their own Departing Now range as well.)
Early Thomas prototypes likely used a C battery. Up to this point, virtually every Plarail train had been powered by a C battery, and every accessory and track piece was molded around the idea that all the engines would have a similar distribution of similar weight. Some accessories used rim-driven mechanisms that needed the engines to have good traction with the rollers that picked up power from the wheels. The boxes of Thomas-series engines that do not use a C battery located over the driving wheels are often chock full of added weights and the boxes have lists of accessories that are incompatible listed on them. Tomy was already producing the Plarail C12 with a much larger (scale) boiler than the real locomotive in order to fit a C battery inside, and it is almost certain that they would have begun with a C battery inside Thomas as well. Most likely, the design of the C battery Thomas was not approved for production by Britt Allcroft for not being close enough to the television show design. The final AA battery Thomas had several added weights and early boxes have a section on the front saying that it uses a AA battery, something that was not present on other Plarail boxes.
Late stage prototypes circa late 1991 were similar to the final release but with a darker power switch and a slightly different face. This prototype appears on the Thomas the Tank Engine Set box, the 90s Plarail Encyclopedia, and a few other places including the rear of some later boxes. The version shown on the Thomas the Tank Engine Set box seems to have a slightly earlier axle cap design with caps that look like a white plastic instead of the final metal ones.
Thomas the Tank Engine (1992)
Thomas the Tank Engine (きかんしゃ トーマス, literally "Locomotive Thomas") was released on March 20, 1992 and was the first release in the Thomas series of Plarail sets, trains, and accessories. It features Thomas and his two coaches Annie and Clarabel who were all new moldings at the time. The box shape used for the Thomas series in the 90s is similar to the regular sixth generation Plarail boxes with the first two units of the train visible even after regular Plarail releases transitioned to the seventh generation box with all three cars visible in 1994. The front of the box has the older 1980s "Kaye & Ward" Thomas logo as well as information about the toy using a AA battery. The rear of the box has battery installation information as well as a small blurb about Thomas that says, approximately, Thomas is a popular and energetic character. Thomas's carriages are Annie and Clarabel. Annie carries the passengers, and Clarabel carries the passengers and their luggage. The three cars always run together well. One of the inner rear box flaps has a list of incompatible accessories printed on it.
The notice reads, approximately: Please note that the Plarail parts below will not work properly because it is lighter than a regular vehicle. J-30 Automatic Departure Station J-33 Big Station
There are two print runs of this style of box. One print run of boxes was done in late 1991 ahead of the 1992 release as shown above, signified by the ST-1 mark on the rear. Thomases sold in these boxes were produced throughout 1992. Of the 1992 production run Thomases I own I have four from March, the first month Thomas went on sale, three from April, one from June, two from July, and two from October 1992. This most likely does not reflect when exactly the engines were first purchased, and some Thomases produced in 1992 were not put on shelves until 1993 (it does not appear that any new Thomases were actually produced in 1993).
The month a Thomas (or just about any other Plarail train made after 1990 or so) was produced in can be figured out by opening the locomotive and looking for a sticker inside the shell with a production code on it. The letter of the code is the month the toy was produced (A=January, B=February, etc) and the number is the last digit of the year, with years after 1999 often having the last two digits. The style of production sticker is the made in Japan "stamped" type with a wider blank sticker that is stamped with an ink stamper instead of the smaller printed style of sticker used on Thailand produced trains. My 1991 print run box has, to the best of my knowledge, never been opened since leaving the factory some time in 1992, and I do not know what the manufacturing sticker on it reads.
This iteration of Thomas only has paint applied on the rims of the cab windows and to the face, which is actually molded into the same black piece of plastic that forms the smokebox and funnel. The side and rear detailing is all stickered.
These Thomases are made in Japan and have a few differences from later Thailand-made Thomases. The chassis of Thomas and the shared chassis of the coaches are all marked Japan, as well as the carriage wheel holder inserts. Inside, Thomas has brass battery contacts and the larger stamped production sticker used on early 90s Plarail releases. Gears in the gearboxes are molded in the same grey as the power switch. Thomas's front axle is different from later designs in that it is "capped" on both sides instead of having a flat head on one side and a cap on the other. The cap is slightly larger than the later design and has a smaller visible pin in the heads of the caps, although the axle itself is the same diameter as usual Plarail axles.
Annie and Clarabel share the same molding and chassis, and there is no attempt to reproduce Clarabel's guard's compartment. I do like that the bodies are hollow with open windows instead of solid like the Tomy Train versions from around the same time, even though there are no interior details. I do think the moldings are very nice and otherwise reproduce the characters pretty well, and I think the stickered faces are pretty good depictions.
In 1994 before production of Thomas and the other early Thomas-series characters that were released before 1995 shifted to Thailand an additional print run of boxes was done with the ST-4 mark. New Thomases were produced from mid 1994 through to the end of the year. I have seven 1994 production Thomases, two from June, three from September, one from October, and one from December.
Thomas the Tank Engine (Thailand rerelease) (1995)
In 1995 new Thomases began being made in Tomy's Thailand factory, which began producing Plarail in 1989. The first print run of boxes for Thailand-produced Thomases was printed in late 1994 and had minor changes like some additional battery information. This style of box also added the pull-out hang tag flap and is slightly shorter than the older designs. The hang tag was introduced on the redesigned three-window seventh generation Plarail boxes, but the slanted sixth generation designed continued to be used for the Thomas series as it allowed for a large character portrait on the front of the box. This box shape was also used for the Tomica World range.
A new updated box that used the new "Britt Allcroft" logo box design first used on James's original box was printed in 1995. This updated box moved the incompatibility list to the rear of the box and added an additional safety warning box on the left side. The Thomas pictured on the back is actually the late stage prototype. Funnily enough, some of the changes to battery installation information seem to have been reverted back to the older Japan-made boxes.
90s box Thomases I have found with original internal packaging imply they were packaged with three medium foam blocks between the cars and the back of Clarabel and the rear box flap, with a thinner, longer piece at the top of the box in front of Thomas's face.
Thailand-produced Thomases have silver battery contacts and the updated front axle design also first used on James. Being made in Thailand, these engines have the smaller printed production stickers inside. Thomas, Annie, and Clarabel were all updated to say made in Thailand. The single split rear couplings were also changed to the modern strain-relief style. In the mid 90s the spacing of slits in the traction tires was also slightly wider than earlier or later tires for whatever reason. I have found mid 90s Thomases dating from July, August, November, and December of 1995 as well as June and September 1996. Later four-wheel Thomases I own date from July and October of 1998
Similar Thomases were produced from 1995 through 1998, and first appeared in exported Battery Operated Rail System sets in 1997 and in Tomica World in 1998. There is most likely another updated box from 1997, as some other older characters received new box printings with updated compatibility lists around that time. The grey color used on faces (and the coach's roofs) varied somewhat throughout this era, starting out rather light in 1995 and seemingly getting progressively darker until a period in the early 2000s before the line was revamped when grays across the range were noticeably darker.
Thomas the Tank Engine (Six-wheel version) (1998/1999)
In 1998 a new six-wheeled Thomas was developed and included in new sets for that year.
Throughout 1998 both four and six wheel Thomases were produced. Early examples of the six wheel Thomas I own date to October and December of 1998.
In 1999 the new six wheel Thomas replaced the older four-wheel Thomas in individual releases with a new box with a different still from the television show on the box. The picture on the back of the box was updated to show the new six-wheeled Thomas.
Six-wheel Thomases have a spring-loaded fake middle wheelset that makes it harder to remove the upper body shell from the chassis. Other than the changes necessary to implement the middle wheels, not much has changed from this and the previous releases.
Circa 1999 (or late 1998) a paper insert began being added over where the gearbox is inserted into the negative contact strip. In 2000 this was replaced by a glued-in strip of plastic. Later, the molding was changed to accommodate a screw to hold the cover in place instead.
Gearboxes remained the larger type used until the early 2000s. This version of Thomas also began being exported for Tomica World in 1999.
As this version of Thomas remained on sale and the exported Tomica World sets began to gain traction, the screw holding Annie and Clarabel together was replaced by a screw with a more standard head and a small plastic retaining ring that acts like a washer similar to the older, larger screwhead.
Transitional Thomases (Set exclusives) (early 2000s)
In 2001 the 1998 six wheel chassis was painted white on top and a new smokebox molding with separately fitted face was used for the annoyed Thomas in early copies of the Thomas and Busy Freight Cars Set like this October 2001 production example. Later copies used the 2002+ chassis.
In 2002 the six-wheel chassis was updated with the new Tomy logo and new licensing information. This chassis was used in the Thomas the Tank Engine First Plarail Set and was painted up nicely for the Thomas and Terence Loading and Unloading Set. This version stayed in production alongside the later painted side version and was exported in the international versions of the set as well.
Thomas the Tank Engine (Updated rerelease) (2003)
In 2003 the Thomas Plarail range was revamped and the main cast of characters received updated detailing. Running boards were painted in white like in the few early 2000s sets mentioned above and the sticker side details were replaced with printed graphics. The whistle and front cab window sticker remained in use. At this point the Plarail range and the export Tomica World/Motor Road and Rail releases diverged, with international Thomases using the 2002 updated chassis and separately fitted face but none of the other added details.