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Tomica World Large Set (1998)

First written May 28, 2024

The 7421 Large Set is one of the initial 1998 Tomica World sets which seems to primarily have been sold in Europe. Despite the name, the set was the second smallest set in the initial range, with a relatively small loop of rail with a road network with junctions. Interestingly, the back of the box calls the bus a school bus, which the chassis calls it a "zoo bus," which fits the cartoon animal stickers affixed.

Set contents

Quantity	Item	Photo
3 pieces	Hi-Speed Express (Kintetsu Urban Liner)
1	Zoo Bus
1	Straight Rail
3	Half Straight Rail
20 pieces	Sloping Curve Rail Accessory Kit (four each A and B slope curves, 12 mini piers)
2	Straight Road
4	Curve Road
2	T-Junction
11 pieces	Tunnel Intersection
1	N Battery

The Hi-Speed Express in this set is a period Plarail Kintetsu Urban Liner. The Urban Liner has a cool curved nose shape and does look sleek but it relies a lot on the printed detailing with relatively little molded detailing.

The "zoo bus" is based on an animal-stickered bus first released as B-14 Amusement Park Bus for B/O Tomica in 1994, with the tooling shared with the B-09 One Man Bus and later released as A-06 under the Motor Tomica range. The Japanese bus has stickers mostly depicting koalas, while the export TW-03 Zoo Bus has lions, elephants, monkeys, and bears. The top bus body is metal with plastic window surround and roof and has seats and other interior details sitting above the motor and battery compartment. The chassis is marked as being produced in September 1998.

Being an earlier Tomica World set from the later 1990s, track is standard later 1990s Thailand-made and road has China-made switches as well as the road tunnel and Thailand straights and curves.

This set is similar to the 1997 Japanese Tomica Plarail World Viaduct Set as well as other Tomica World sets like the Percy and Bulgy Set and U.S. Patrol Set.

Although it is not a very large set all things considered, and there are only a few ways to make a complete circuit with the included pieces, there are some good starter pieces to expand from or combine with another set - there are no regular curves in the set, only the curved slopes, so another set with regular curves will offer variety instead of just more regular circular track, and having two road switches opens up plenty of options when combined with other Tomica World accessories.

This set remained in the range through 2000 and appears in the 2000 U.K. Tomica World Catalogue and 2000 Tomica World Show video. It does seem that there was a limited American release of this set with warning stickers on some places of the European box.

Set name	7421 Large Set	Release period	1998-2000, Europe 1998, United States
Vehicle rating		Track rating
Accessory rating		Overall
Notes:

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