fall inside a hole
Gold-Plated 700 Series 40th Anniversary Plarail Memorial Video (1999)
First written February 9, 2025Expanded June 2025
In June of 1999 as part of their celebration of the 40th anniversary of Plarail Tomy released the Gold-Plated 700 Series 40th Video Plarail Memorial (金ピカ700系 40thビデオ プラレールメモリアル). It includes an unpowered but gold-plated two-unit 700 Series Shinkansen with "PLARAIL 40th" in red on the side of the power car as well as the VHS videocassette 40th Anniversary Plarail Memorial Video.
This example is still sealed... I'm on the lookout for another example, in particular because I want to watch and digitize the VHS tape...
(July 2025)
I picked up a second example of this pack, this one with the box open but all the contents inside still sealed.
The two-car 700 Series Shinkansen in gold with PLARAIL 40th on the side in red comes in individual bags that are open on the ends but taped tighter around the car's bodies. Its a pity there is no intermediate car, but it is obvious that the train was not necessarily intended to be played with like a regular train. There was a not-for-sale powered gold 700 series given away in 1999 that had a gold intermediate car with the original style of 700 series pantograph.
This train is unpowered, but the chassis is the regular tooling without the battery contact with a blanking dummy plate screwed into the gearbox's usual position and the front battery clip glued into place. There was no production sticker inside, but there is one on one of the box flaps. This one was apparently made in October 1999 - if they did more than one production run of these, it is no wonder that some of the 40th Anniversary merchandise stayed on sale for so long...
The shiny gold body shell can be installed on a regular AA-battery Shinkansen-style chassis and pull the tail car along.
Here is the VHS videocassette 40th Anniversary Plarail Memorial Video. Even though I collect VHS tapes, this is the first one I have opened in a while (I don't usually have a reason to open sealed commercial or blank tapes, but I wanted to capture this one - and have another one sealed).
A download of this VHS tape in mp4 format is available here. Following is a series of screenshots and information about what can be seen on the tape.
The video is narrated by an old professor and a characterized 300 series Shinkansen. There is a very nice large Plarail and Tomica setup with lots of long trains, elevated rail, and plenty of scenery.
The Plarail song plays over lots of video footage of Plarail trains. Several older Plarail trains are shown in the video, the first being a nice old Electric Plastic Train. Then-current releases like new power Blue Trains and the Revival! Electric Plastic Train Trio are shown as well as an older D-51 Express, an original Chin-Chin Tram, and a C-12 Rotary Snowplow.
Lots of Hikaris. You can tell some of Tomy's own old Plarail trains have flat spots in the output of the rubber rim-drive outputs from their old-power gearbox. Several shots of real-life trains are incorporated as well as still photos from Plarail fans showing their layouts.
More contemporary Plarail trains introduced in the 1990s are also spotlighted, with lots of shots of a few different promotional layouts. A late Subway Train with lit interior... neat.
The next portion focuses on Shinkansens, with both red and white and blue and white Super Express Hikaris and a later 1970s New Hikari. Several other types of Shinkansen are focused on in turn as well as the Eurostar and TGV.
The next section focuses on old Plarail again - a Plastic Train, the Electric Plastic Train again, a Plastic Dream Super Express, and Plaroad are all shown off.
The Super Express Hikari is shown again as well as the Chin Chin Tram alongside the reissued Plarail Day Chin Chin Tram, and the rereleased Benkai. A steam locomotive is shown operating and then a D51 Express Train showing the D51 tooling before the hole for the light was added and an old power D-51 Locomotive with Light from the new power era with the later car carrier and tanker. More shots of steam locomotives are shown.
The Thomas series section of the video comes next, with a lot of footage of late prototypes like other promotional videos from the 1990s. The Cranky prototype has string holding the hook and a different type of trigger in the rail section. Other prototypes also seen in other promo videos include Duck and Toby with different faces and stickers and Douglas with black side rods and a different face and windows (and an express coach).
Next the big Nozomi, Tsubasa, and 500 series Shinkansen stations are shown, which all fold out with multiple tracks. Several real-life Shinkansen trains are shown including a wheelset changeout on an E4 train. More Plarail Shinkansens are shown as well as many more real trains.
The "First Time Plarail" series of small, cute pullbacks is shown as well as two trains based on children's drawings.
Some of the early 40th Anniversary Plarail products, the Tinplate Plarail C-53 streamlined steam locomotive and the Revival! Electric Plastic Train Trio of 103 series trains also shown earlier. The gold 700 series itself is also shown.
More shots of the promotional layouts lead to the end credits...