fall inside a hole

Production for the American, European, and Australian Tomica World range began in late 1997 with sets and trains reaching stores in 1998. The range was in many ways released similar to how Plarail has always been sold, with a series of sets that include trains, track, and, usually, road and a road vehicle as well and companion accessories like train packs and a la carte accessories and track. As the series waned in popularity in the early 2000s, the range was converted over to focus on the Thomas the Tank Engine series of Plarail exports. Before introducing Tomica World, Tomy marketed the Tomy Train range of magnetic, reversing trains that ran on Plarail-style track in Europe and America.

Sets

Tomica World sets often included both Plarail and Motor Tomica elements, in keeping with the whole "road and rail" idea.

Trains

Individual Tomica World trains were sold in three packs like their Plarail equivalents in red sixth generation-style packaging in Europe.

Cars

Individual battery-powered cars and other vehicles were also sold.

Accessories

Tomica World accessories were mostly localized Plarail accessories, often with changed stickers where applicable.

Rail

Similar to how Tomy sold Plarail, Tomy Train, and other export series, Tomy also sold Tomica World packaged rail. Instead of plastic bags with hanging tags, Tomica World track and accessories come in cardboard boxes.

Road

As the Motor Tomica range was heavily integrated into the Tomica World system, many Motor Tomica accessories released in Japan were also released in the Tomica World range.

Thomas the Tank Engine series

Tomica City/Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends Battery Operated Rail System (1997)

In the United States in 1997 Tomy released three sets and three accessory packs in an initial wave of "Battery Operated Rail System" sets. These sets used the yellow packaging with blue border used on other 1997 American Thomas toys from Tomy like the original Thomas Big Loader. This range was referred to as Tomica City in the 1997 Tomy Dealer's Catalogue and includes some seemingly holdover Tomy Train accessories like orange square-based fir trees and stoplights. Other regions, in particular Europe, continued to get the 1996 Tomy Trains range into 1997 and the Tomy Train Thomas range was still sold into 1997 in both the U.S. and Europe.

Sets

Accessory sets

There were no Plarail-style train, accessory, or track packs for this short-lived system, just three accessory sets with trains and track included.

Tomica World (1998-2003)/Thomas Motor Road & Rail (2004-2008)

Thomas products were incorporated into Tomica World from its introduction in 1998, with Thomas-licensed sets, accessories, and trains. After the discontinuation of the regular Tomica World sets and trains around 2004, the Thomas the Tank Engine series continued to be sold alongside some carryover Tomica World accessories until 2008 in some regions.

Sets

Trains

Thomas-series trains were generally sold in their Plarail configurations in hanging three-piece sets. Originally these trains came in yellow Tomica World packaging with a red style briefly appearing before changing to the blue style of packaging used in a few varieties for most of the rest of the 2000s.

Around 2000 the European/ U.K. and American releases began to split. Europe received additional releases and characters that America would not get until years later exclusive to sets or in different packs.

Other vehicles 

Tomy sold all of the Thomas-series vehicles produced for Motor Tomica under the Tomica World or Thomas Motor Road & Rail ranges either individually, with road, or in sets.

Accessories

Originally, a handful of the Thomas-specific accessories from the Plarail range were brought over and adapted for Tomica World/ Motor Road & Rail. In Europe, where the range always sold better, more of the existing Tomica World accessories were carried over into new Thomas-styled packaging around 2004.

In 2006 HiT Entertainment's new toy subsidiary Hit Toy Company began to produce the new TrackMaster range for most markets outside of Japan. In America almost all sets and trains immediately transitioned over to their HiT Toy Company-made equivalents, with HiT expanding the range with their own new products as well. In Europe, however, HiT Toys had a deal with Tomy wherein Tomy would continue to produce engines for three-pack style releases which would have new TrackMaster packaging but still have the Tomy brand attached. Similarly, new sets with the TrackMaster brown track, which typically had HiT Toys produced engines in them, would bear the Tomy name on the box and Tomy would market the range and, presumably, receive some of the revenue from sales. New engines that Tomy did not produce would be manufactured by HiT Toys, and HiT got to leverage Tomy's brand presence in Europe and particularly the U.K. where the Motor Road and Rail range had been the most successful to transition to TrackMaster. HiT Toys more or less immediately had their own toolings of the Plarail Thomas system that allowed the TrackMaster system to launch quickly and with a fairly complete range (although early distribution was somewhat eclectic and limited in many cases), and it seems that some design and tooling sharing occurred the other way around. When Mattel bought out the rights to Thomas toys outside of Japan (and some other parts of Asia) they acquired all of HiT's toolings and knowledge and also had a readily-formed system still fairly closely based off the Plarail originals. As a side effect of their appearances in early Thomas Plarail Mattel and HiT Toys both ended up producing many pieces of 1970s Plarail rolling stock like the box van and JNR brake van in many alternate colors. More about the TrackMaster range will be compiled when I have the time to go through my TrackMaster collection.