fall inside a hole

Battery Operated Tomcia (1993-1996)/Motor Tomica (1997-2003)/Plaroad (2004-2008) road

First written May 2024

In the mid 1990s Tomy developed battery-powered die-cast and plastic Tomica-style motorized cars that ran on a plastic road system. This series was first called B/O Tomica () from its introduction around 1993 until the end of 1996 when the name was changed to Motor Tomica (), perhaps because Tomy introduced other battery-powered Tomica cars that did not have motors but rather lights, sounds, or similar features and the naming may have been confusing. Production also shifted from Japan to China. When the Plarail range was refreshed in the early 2000s the Motor Tomica range was sold as Plaroad primarily as a companion to Plarail (Tomy had previously used the Plarail name for their later 1980s Plarail-companion road system).

Motor Tomica road uses a rotationally symmetric clip connection style. Pieces are single-sided with the connection occurring below the road's surface. The underside of road has round rims that fit around the road pier supports.

D-01 Straight Road (D-01 ) (1993)

Standard Motor Tomica road was sold in packs of four for 500 yen. Straight roads are approximately ()mm, coinciding with Plarail straight rail so that the two systems can be used together. The normal flat road pieces are primarily smooth with no intentional tread to the surface, relying on the perfectly fine traction of the little rubber drive tires to propel the cars properly.

Early examples from B/O Tomica's introduction to around 1996 were made in Japan. Slot letter marks are present near the connectors.

D-02 1/2 Straight Road (D-02 ) (1993)

Half length Motor Tomica road was sold in packs of six for 500 yen.

D-03 Curve Road (D-03 ) (1993)

Normal Motor Tomica curves were only produced in 90 degree four-to-a-curve. The four curves included in the individual release can therefore make up a complete circle on their own. The radius is ~()mm, which allows a circle of road to easily fit inside a circle of rail or road straights to be used to make a square of road larger than the circle, as well as any number of variety of other combinations.

Like other road pieces, initial production took place in Japan.

D-04 Intersection (D-04 ) (1993)

 

A neat four-way intersection with moveable white "gates" to direct traffic flow. You can make the two roads cross over one another or make two adjacent pairs of roads connect. The relationship between the radius of the curves and the length of the straight means this system works perfectly for creating city blocks and other road networks.

D-05 T Road (D-05 T) (1993)

Similar to the four-way intersection are these three-way intersections which were sold individually with a single road ramp, allowing it to immediately be added to an existing road network even without a second switch. Of course, it is much more fun in a larger setup.

These Ts made it into several sets because they are much easier to incorporate into a relatively small but still interesting road layout than the four-way junction and with three added road curves two Ts can be used as reversers at either end of a stretch of road.

D-06 Slope Road (D-06 ) (1993)

Motor Tomica slope road measures two straights long, the same as Plarail slope rail, and has treads to help the wheels grip and make it up the incline.

The underside of early examples is marked made in Japan with a slot number afterwards.

D-07 Pier (D-07 ) (1993)

White stacking pier with round protrusions to fit into the underside of road sections. Some Motor Tomica accessories have similar stacking features to allow the piers to be further stacked on top of them.

This system is not directly compatible with the Plarail Block Bridge Girder system although there was a series of piers developed for the large early 2000s suspension bridge that worked with the block girder system but could support road or rail.