fall inside a hole

Thomas Ultimate Set (2006)

First written December 28, 2024

The second Motor Road and Rail Thomas Ultimate Set, catalogue number 4877, was released in the United States exclusively at Toys "R" Us in 2006 and was also sold at Toys R Us in Japan for Christmas 2006 as a massive gift set. These Japanese releases came in the standard American box with Japanese instructions included. The set includes two motorized trains, Bulgy the bus, and a large network of road, rail, and accessories. A previous large set was also called the Thomas Ultimate Set in 2004 which had a different track and accessory selection - I've actually never owned even a partial copy of this prior set, although both are relatively common in junk-style lots, as most of it is common components I don't need more of - except for the localized version of the Talking Caroline station which I have never had and thus am lacking to properly piece together the set from my existing collection.

Set contents

Quantity	Item	Photo
1	Thomas
2 pieces	Mighty Mac
1	Green Bulgy
1	Sodor Fuel Tanker
1	"Happy" Troublesome Truck
2	Crate loads
1	Quarry tipper car
	Quarry "rock" balls
1	Caroline
1	Harold
10	Straight Rail
6	Half Straight Rail
24	Curve Rail
1	Stop Rail
2 pairs	Points Rail
1 pair	Single/Double Point Rail
2	Sloping Rail
1	Rail Drawbridge (darker color variant)
15 pieces	Suspension Bridge
2 pieces	Rail Bridge
16	Rail Bridge Supports
5 pieces	Cranky at the Docks
10 pieces	Sodor Quarry Loader
5 pieces	Elsbridge Station Crossing
3 pieces	Maithwaite Station
4 pieces	Tunnel
5	Straight Road
4	Half Straight Road
8	Curve Road
4	Sloping Road
6	Road Girder
4	Tree

This set includes two powered trains, a standard-for-the-time export Thomas as well as the only American release of Mighty Mac with his powered coach. Also included is a "happy" Troublesome Truck with two crate loads, a Sodor Fuel Tanker, and the tipping quarry loader car.

Mighty Mac can flip around to change which face is facing forward. I pieced this set together from a few different examples I have found incomplete over the years, with most of the parts coming from an August 2006 production set I found at a thrift store. Although I have had probably half a dozen powered Might Mac coaches, the only actual engine I have came from the same thrift store a few years prior to finding most of the set - minus Mighty Mac.

The powered Plaroad-style Green Bulgy navigates the road portion of the set, with unpowered Caroline and Harold accessories also included. Bulgy is also included as part of the Cranky destination.

This set includes several operating accessories including the awesome motorized catch-and-release Cranky at the Docks, the Elsbridge Station Crossing, and the Sodor Quarry Loader. This was the only release of the orange-rocked quarry loader in Japan.

The set includes a few bridges including a color variant of the Rail Drawbridge, the sides to a Rail Bridge, and the only North American release of the Suspension Bridge (as well as the only Japanese release of this color variant of the suspension bridge).

Road and rail are both standard mid 2000s issue. Although the variety is somewhat less than the original Ultimate or other large sets, the layout is still sprawling and this truly was all the road and rail you would need to play with several trains and cars.

All set up there is a nice mix of static, interactive, and automatic accessories as well as the four powered characters (including the Cranky destination, one of my favorite Plarail destinations in general). It is an absolutely room-filling set, and I'm sure many children just set it up in whatever smaller combinations they wanted to play with at the time rather than how the set is intended. It is very easy to add additional trains or road vehicles to the set.

Set name name	4877 Thomas Ultimate Set	Release period	2006, United States (Toys R Us) December 2006, Japan (Toys R Us)
Vehicle rating		Track rating
Accessory rating		Overall
Notes:

rationale page