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Plaroad (プラロード) (1985-1990)
First written April 14, 2024The Plaroad (プラロード) road and vehicle standard was established in 1985 as both a standalone product and a Plarail crossover product and accessory. In 1985 a series of Plaroad branded sets, bagged accessories, and cars were released similar to the Plarail range with a railroad crossing and a number of crossover sets appearing throughout the rest of the 1980s.
Most of the Plaroad sets, vehicles, and packaging that I do not have has been included in the Plarail Museum's Plaroad Annex. Please visit it if you would like to see the components described here that I do not own, as well as see what they have to say.
Plaroad Vehicles and Accessories
Plaroad vehicles are characterized by their somewhat stubby appearance and large rear wheels, although this is also the characteristic trait of the Choro-Q range of pullback cars, and at a glance some have mistaken one for another. There are two basic types of Plaroad vehicle chassis - rechargeable and dry-cell powered. Both have a similar motor and geartrain arrangement that has a "hanging" gear poking down behind the rear wheels as well as two partially exposed gears further up the geartrain. The hanging gear interacts with racks molded into some road features to cause the vehicles to automatically slow down to properly engage with crossings or charging bases.
Because Plaroad was initially only sold as its own sets and vehicles in 1985, all vehicles initially used internal rechargeable 1/3AAA cells (apparently also used in some solar lights) and every set included one of two types of building that would take two C batteries and recharge the vehicle as it ran past.
There are two types of tooling for this chassis - a short, high-roofed Nissan Skyline that was also sold in yellow as 001 Skyline Turbo, in orange as 002 Taxi (Skyline), and as a police car as 003 Police Car (Skyline). The red version seed here is a set variant included in the small 301 and medium 302 sets. The other body shell was a larger truck that was used to make 004 Courier (Quick Delivery Van) as well as the 005 Leisure Car camper-style van that was also included in the largest set.
The charging bases were made in two type, a gas station (shown here) and a restaurant. The gas station was sold in the 301 and 302 sets and the restaurant was sold in the largest set as well as individually as 201 Restaurant (Charge Base). This recharging system was discontinued after 1986 as the Plaroad range was integrated into Plarail.
The other type of drive system, included in Plarail crossover sets beginning in 1986 and sold individually as Plarail accessories from 1987 to 1990, runs on two N size batteries wired in parallel for extra capacity and current draw for the quick little motor.
There were also two body shells for this chassis; a double decker bus, seen here in set-variant red and also sold individually in yellow and in white in a later Plarail crossover set, and a van mold used in white in a set and individually as a ファミリー便 or "family flight," seemingly some sort of bus-airport connection, as well as for a police van. Packaging for the individual releases called them "road cars" (ロードカー) with no mention of Plaroad.
Other than the individual release of the 201 Restaurant charger base, there were no specific Plaroad accessories other than the road barriers and streetlights. A Plarail-compatible Rail Road Crossing was released in 1985 as a Plarail accessory and was also included in every Plaroad-Plarail crossover set.
The crossing is very cleverly designed, as many of Tomy's electromechanical toys are, and can be operated manually by pressing a button by the side of the crossing to let the vehicle cross or it can be left running automatically wherein a waiting car is released after the next train passes. As the charge base system and road connection type already establish Plaroad as a one-way system, the crossing is also one way and only has the catch and release mechanism on one side, and vehicles will foul on it when crossing from the other direction.
Plarail accessories that are compatible with block girders like Iron Bridges appeared in Plaroad sets alongside standing trees and even a small Block Tunnel in the largest Plaroad set.
Plaroad Road
Plaroad road is a lighter blue than normal Plarail and has a similar flippable one-way connection standard like Plarail rail. The connection standard is similar to the older Plahighway standard or the Departing Now track connection type, with curved protrusions on one end of the road and two extending arched and reinforced "claws" to grab onto them. This is not a friction-fit connection and is honestly rather loose.
It can be played with on carpet if you lay it out carefully, but you can not really pick it up like you can with sections of Plarail. The road standard is cross-compatible with the Block Bridge Girder system and has been designed in such a way that playing together with Plarail is very easy, with many shared geometric relationships.
Plaroad was only produced in Japan between 1985 and 1990 and seemingly only ever had one set of toolings. Road is marked Japan with a molding slot number near one of the connectors on the "bottom" of the road. Road sections could be bought individually in hanging bags like Plarail rail and accessories.
101 Straight Road (101ストレートロード) (1985)
Standard Plarail straight roads were sold in a pack of four. Plaroad straight road pieces measure ()mm and have two supports for inserting a Plaroad style sign or light into them. These roads were renamed to 直線ロード when Plaroad was integrated into Plarail in 1987. The road surface is mostly smooth, which I find somewhat interesting considering Tomy saw the need to update rails to roughtop and later treaded surfaces.
102 Small Curve Road (102 小カーブロード) (1985)
The de facto "small" Plaroad curve measures ()mm in radius to match with the Plaroad straight standard. The four curves included in the individual release can therefore make up a complete circle on their own. The curve rails have round accessory holders for side barriers and streetlights. These curve were renamed to 曲線ロード in 1987 and rereleased in Plarail accessory packaging.
103 Large Curve Road (103 大カーブロード) (1985)
In addition to the 90 degree four-to-a-circle roads which were used in all Plaroad sets and Plarail crossover sets, a series of 45 degree wider curves was also sold. These seem to be hard to find, having never been used in any sets, and they went out of print in 1986 and were not brought back as Plarail accessories for 1987.
104 Slope Road (104 スロープロード) (1985)
Plarail slope road, sold individually in pairs, is the same length as regular straight Plaroad but brings the height of the road up ()mm to reach a standard Block Bridge Girder. Ridges are used for added grip. In 1987 these roads were renamed さかロード. Third most common type of Plaroad after straight road (#2) and curve road (#1), with at least two appearing in every Plaroad set and crossover set as well as individually in the 1987-1990 reduced range.
105 1/2 Straight Road (105 1/2ストレートロード) (1985)
Half-length (mm) Plarail straight roads were sold in packs of six. Never included in any sets, Plaroad or Plarail. Packaging for Plaroad is a little odd, with the tag having text about gardens and cars and some stuff about how the road can be laid down. Like Plarail, the rear backing cardboard shows how to use the road included with a note about how to assemble the road and a section down at the bottom that shows a different road sign and tells a little about it, seemingly as a way to help educate children about road signs and road safety, which is neat.
106 Turnout Road (106 ターンアウトロード) (1985)
Somewhat seldom seen is the Plaroad road switch, which has the footprint of a standard straight and small curve road. Because Plaroad is technically a one-way system, care must be taken with how the switches are used, as there were never any "joint roads" produced. Sold in a pair individually or in the largest standalone Plaroad set. It is a pity these (and, frankly, the entire Plaroad range) are not a little more common because I think with a lot of Plaroad you could actually do quite a bit with the system, especially in conjunction with Plarail.
Plaroad Sets
In 1985 three individual Plaroad sets were released. The smaller two sets, 301 and 302, include a red Nissan Skyline and a gas station charging base with different amounts of road, with the third larger 303 set includes a blue camper and restaurant charge base with even more road including a pair of switches and a third level of elevation.
After 1985 no new individual Plaroad sets were released, and the 1985 sets went out of print after 1986 as the Plaroad name was phased out with the move to new power in 1987. Starting with the Rail Road Level Crossing Set in 1986 and its new power update in 1987 Plaroad would see a few Plarail crossover sets throughout the later 1980s before being discontinued around 1990.
Plaroad products last appear as Plarail accessories in the 1990 Catalogue, after which point the range went out of production. Tomy's next attempt at a car crossover with Plarail came when they began to produce motorized diecast toy cars in conjunction with their Tomica range and designed the plastic road system to coexist with Plarail as B/O Tomica and later Motor Tomica. This range lasted from the mid 1990s to the mid 2000s and was actually renamed Plaroad around 2004. Motor Tomica built on the Plaroad concept with a unidirectional system with intersection turnouts and, alongside a thriving Tomica and Plarail range, established many individual and crossover products.