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Plarail Yujin Pullback Thomas and Percy (1998)

First written October 4, 2024

 

In 1998 Yujin, a gachapon toy and candy company associated and later fully owned by Tomy, released a few Thomas the Tank Engine candy dispenser toys that worked with Plarail. The packaging for these toys included the Plarail logo, the trains could be run on and coupled to traditional Plarail, and some of the releases included Plarail rails. These toys were sold under the Funny GO or おかしでGO range and included pullback motors.

Funny GO Thomas the Tank Engine

Seemingly the first Yujin "Funny GO" release was an individual candy dispenser Thomas with some white candy. These Thomas' are similar in size and proportion to the standard Plarail Thomas, but have many differences in construction and are entirely new toolings. The side graphics were printed directly on instead of being stickers, the first time this was done on a Plarail Thomas, and the dummy middle wheels were also added here and might actually predate the regular Plarail six-wheel Thomas. The front axle have plastic caps and the drive system is a pullback motor. The individual release of Thomas has the "slice of pie" eyes, while the Rail Set trains shown below have completely filled-in eyes.

The cab is removable, with the original intention being to hold candy. The floor of Thomas' cab covers the pullback motor, and a second screw holds the old-style single-split rear coupling in place, sticking down into the raised bump seen at the base of the chassis. The chassis has Thomas licensing information and a made in China mark.

Funny GO Rail Set Thomas (1998)

Releasing sometime after the individual Thomas candy dispenser in 1998 alongside the Percy version shown below, the Funny GO Rail Set (おかしでGOレールセット) includes the candy dispenser pullback Thomas, an oval of yellow Plarail-style track, and a sheet of punch-out cardboard scenery pieces. Other than Thomas' pupils now being complete circles, the production of these Thomases is largely unchanged from the individual release.

The rails in these sets seems to have been produced by Tomy, and comes from existing Plarail toolings. The shade of yellow is a little more orangy than some of the other yellow Plarail rails that Tomy has produced since.

Funny GO Rail Set Percy (1998)

Alongside the Thomas version of this set, a pullback Percy was also released in the similar Funny GO Rail Set Percy, which featured identical contents to the Thomas set other than including the Percy candy dispenser (but still, as far as I can tell, no candy). In fact, I have not seen an individual release Percy candy dispenser with its packaging, so it is possible it was only sold in this set and never with candy.

Like the set variant Thomas, Percy has completely round pupils. It seems that Percy was probably designed after the individual Thomas dispenser was released, and his rear coupling area is redesigned to be held in by the plastic molding on the cab floor insert, likely saving a few cents in production cost over Thomas' additional screw.