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Thomas 65th Anniversary Birthday Parade Wagon Set (2010)

First written November 29, 2024

On April 9th, 2010 the Thomas-series Plarail train pack Thomas 65th Anniversary Birthday Parade Wagon Set (トーマス 65th アニバーバースデーパレード貨車セット) was released to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Railway Series books that the Thomas show and media franchise was originally based on.

Thomas, like the rolling stock, is covered in banners and bunting, with stickers added pretty much all around including his running board, the front of his splashers and water tanks, the rear of his bunker, and his roof. Although they are just stickers they do elevate the look of Thomas quite a bit. The rear coupling on Thomas is the elongated type I think because of the inclusion of Old Slow Coach who is fairly large.

The pack includes a version of the rocking shaky freight car introduced in the Percy and Pounding Wagons Set with added banner stickers.

The brakevan is similar to the standard grey brake van but again with added stickers as well as a white roof.

The pack also includes a Mr. Jolly's Chocolate Factory tanker.

Perhaps the coolest (and most sought-after item in the set in general) is the Old Slow Coach, the only time she was produced for the plastic battery-operated Thomas toy ranges. She is based on the tooling for Emily's brake coach in the PlaKids Town Emily Set and thus can open up to hold PlaKids.

Included to take advantage of this, of course, is a Sir Topham Hatt PlaKid in a special exclusive white suit, perhaps the second most sought-after part of the set alongside Thomas.

This is one of the cooler and more sought-after Plarail Thomas train packs, having neatly-themed cars that were based directly on those seen in the series rather than the somewhat random amusement park cars included in other Thomas train packs around this time.