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Plarail Fun Action Freight Car Set

First written November 24, 2024

In March 1998 three freight cars with action elements were released in seventh generation packaging as the Fun Action Freight Car Set. The pack includes a cement mixer and aquarium fish tank that move while rolling along and a flatbed car with two themed cargo loads.

The cement mixer has a bright yellow drum with stripes that spins around as the car rolls.

A small geartrain includes a spring-loaded clutch that easily slips to prevent the drum from pulling a child's hands into the chassis.

The aquarium car has a spinning inner graphic that twirls around as the car runs.

The car has two drums that support the little banner. The unpowered one is spring-loaded and the rear powered one picks up power from the rear wheels.

In the early 2000s the aquarium car chassis was marked with a production period sticker.

The orange flatbed truck can hold two of the standard container loads and comes with an ice cream crate version of the standard tooling and a unique "bread" bakery kind. The bread load cannot be stacked on top of, although it fits over other containers.

The flatbed is the later made in Thailand-marked old logo tooling. The ice cream container still has the ring from the magnet in the initial release of the container car, although the new bread tooling doesn't.

The Fun Freight Car Set stayed on sale into 2002. The mechanisms for the cement mixer and aquarium car were reused years later in some themed Thomas the Tank Engine train packs.