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Thomas the Tank Engine and Bulgy Set (1997)

First written April 23, 2024

The Thomas the Tank Engine and Bulgy Set (きかんしゃトーマス&バルジーセット, literally "Locomotive Thomas and Bulgy Set") was released on July 17, 1997 and was the first Thomas-series Plarail set to feature the renamed Motor Tomica. This set is somewhat similar in concept to the Thomas and Bertie set from a few years prior but has, in my opinion, both a more interesting road and rail layout, with both sections being elevated with bridges.

This set was later exported under the Tomica World and Motor Road & Rail ranges.

Set contents
Quantity
Item
Photo
3 pieces
Thomas, Annie, and Clarabel (four wheel made in Thailand variant)
Bulgy
R-01 Straight Rail

R-03 Curve Rail

R-06 Slope Rail 
1
R-08 Stop Rail
Slope Curve Rail (A type)
2 pieces  J-03 Iron Bridge (sides)
J-14 "New" Block Bridge Girder
J-15 Mini Bridge Pier 
D-01 Straight Road
D-02 1/2 Straight Road 
4 D-03 Curve Road

2 D-06 Incline Slope
D-07 Bridge Pier
DR-04 Overpass Tunnel (brown set variant)
2 pieces
Ffarquhar Station

This set includes a standard Thailand-production later four-wheel Thomas with Annie and Clarabel and a Motor Tomica Bulgy.

This was the first release of Bulgy for the recently renamed Motor Tomica system. It uses the Thailand-made chassis with the internal screwed battery compartment chassis and old grey power switch.

Ffarquhar station was a new tooling for the Thomas series for 1996 and appeared in many, many sets. The overpass tunnel usually comes in grey - this and some other sets come with a brown variant, which I think is both a neat variety and cool for imagining a dirt-packed road or brown brick bridge.

Rails in my copy of the set come out of the Thailand-updated 1992 molds originally produced for Japanese production. Road is later 1990s Thailand-made road with marked-out Japan text. Both of these sets of toolings would have been in use in Japan until Tomy closed two of their factories there in 1995 and fully moved Plarail and Tomica production to Thailand.

The mix of elevated rail and road and the two bridges are cool and there are a decent number of straight rails but because of the slope rails and provided road there are not really many ways you can rebuild them differently... The road and rail loops can actually be de-intertwined and played with separately, which lets you adjust the rail layout easier.

Like many other 1990s Thomas-series sets there are no "smaller" Plarail accessory like standing trees or signals. The lack of point rails and the use of Thomas once again makes the set a little less interesting - it is fairly similar to the Thomas the Tank Engine and Bertie Set, and while I get that Tomy wanted to replace that set with a new renamed Motor Tomica crossover set and I generally like the layout of this set more (although the crossing drawbridge in the Bertie set is rather neat) I do think it would have been better if a different character had been included... A lot of Thomas train sets run into this problem where they come with Thomas, which most children will have as soon as they buy one set, therefore disincentivizing them from buying any other set with the same basic Thomas as it does not present as much added play value as a new, different character. Duck, for example, was new for 1997 and features heavily in one of the episodes with Bulgy - it would have been cool to see a set like the Henry Train Set that came with Duck and Bulgy, two new characters for 1997.

Thomas Big Set (Tomica World) (1998)

This set was exported to Europe and America as the Thomas Big Set as part of the Tomica World range in 1998. The original European box featured a multilingual description on the rear and was imported with safety stickers added to the boxes and manuals as the first North American release as well.




Later, this English-only American box was produced with the added information printed on. A comparison of an early and later American instruction manual can be seen below. The contents of these sets is essentially the same as the Japanese release except for, it seems, the inclusion of the sign with the overpass tunnel. It is partially obscured by tape and torn, but the right box flap has the address for the American Tomy Corporation on it.

Set contents
Quantity
Item
Photo
3 pieces
Thomas, Annie, and Clarabel (four wheel made in Thailand variant)
Bulgy
Straight Rail
Curve Rail
Sloping Rail
1
Stop Rail
Sloping Curve Rail (A type)
2 pieces  Rail Bridge (sides)
Girder
Mini Girder
Straight Road
Half Straight Road 
4 Curve Road

2 Sloping Road
Road Girder
Overpass Tunnel (brown set variant)
2 pieces
Ffarquhar Station

This seems to have been a fairly popular Tomica World set, being more interesting than some of the smaller Tomica World sets and including both road and rail and two powered characters, and getting its own U.S. box, something few of the other yellow-box Tomica World sets got.

As with other Tomica World sets, boxes and instructions were printed primarily for the European market at first. The earlier American copy imported by International Playthings on the left is an original European manual with added safety and International Playthings stickers, while the later copy is a specific American printing with some of the Europe-specific information like phone help lines removed.

Thomas Big Set (Second European Tomica World box) (2001)

In 2001 the European release of the Big Set was rereleased in red and blue Tomica World packaging.

Thomas Big Set (American Motorized Road & Rail box) (2001)

America got a new red and blue Thomas Motorized Road & Rail Thomas Big Set box in 2001.

Thomas Big Set (European Motor Road & Rail box) (2003)

In 2003 the Thomas Big Set was rereleased in Europe in all-blue Motor Road & Rail packaging. These styles of boxes can all be seen on the Thomas Motorized Wiki.

In the U.K. a version of the Big Set was sold with the Cranky at the Docks pack as the Thomas and Cranky Deluxe Action Set with Bertie instead of Bulgy, sometimes with additional trains.

Set name Thomas the Tank Engine & Bulgy Set
きかんしゃトーマス&バルジーセット
7402 Thomas Big Set
Release period 1997, Japan
1998-2006, United States
1998-2007, Europe
Vehicle rating Track rating
Accessory rating Overall
Notes:   Price 6800 yen (1997)
rationale page