fall inside a hole
Thomas the Tank Engine First Plarail Set (2002)
First written January 27, 2025
The Thomas the Tank Engine First Plarail Set (きかんしゃトーマス はじめてのプラレールセット) is a small Thomas-series Plarail set that came in a bucket with Thomas' face on top. In released in Japan on May 30, 2002 and was actually later released in 2007 as part of the Motor Road & Rail range in Australia and, I suspect, other Asian markets as the last iteration of the Bucket Set.
Thomas' buffers and windows form pegs that support the feet on the bottom of other Thomas buckets as well as other similar Plarail and export "bucket sets". My bucket is quite sun-affected, with the front sticker missing a lot of color and Thomas' face and other unpainted white plastic components having turned yellow, and Thomas' blue a bit green.
Set contents| Quantity |
Item |
Photo |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thomas (plastic face, red running board) | |
| 1 | R-01 Straight Rail |
 |
| 8 | R-03 Curve Rail |
 |
| 1 | R-08 Stop Rail |
 |
| 2 pieces | Tidmouth Station (Ffarquhar Station set color variant) |
 |
| 1 | Signal |
 |
| 2 pieces | Thomas Bucket |
|
The Thomas in this set is the red running board "export" type - actually, at the time of this set's initial release this was the "regular" Thomas in production, with the 2001 Thomas and Busy Freight Cars Set changing the Thomas tooling to use a separate face but the white running board detail not yet being replicated on other releases. This set, the late 2001 Thomas the Tank Engine Go Out 3D Bag Complete Edition, and the 2004 rerelease of the 1999 Thomas the Tank Engine and Freight Cars Set were the only Japanese releases to include the plastic face "export" style Thomas that was used in the European and American Thomas Motor Road & Rail ranges.
The station in this set is a recolor of Ffarquhar Station marked as Tidmouth Station. This variant was produced before the tooling changed to have separate windows and doors and thus properly fits down into the base. The signal in this set is actually borrowed from Super Rail (literally; in this case, as I don't have a later Plarail production example but do have a few from Super Rail including the one pictured), and appears a few times in regular Plarail and export Thomas sets.
The station variant is neat, and I like the Super Rail signal, but its clearly a First Set...
| Set name | Thomas the Tank Engine First Plarail
Set きかんしゃトーマス はじめてのプラレールセット |
Release period | 2002, Japan 2007, Asia and Australia |
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| Notes: | How much of an "accessory" does the bucket count for? | Price |