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Plarail 40th Anniversary Edition EF60 Electric Locomotive (2000)

First written November 13, 2025

Tomy released the EF60 Electric Locomotive Plarail 40th Anniversary Edition (EF60電気機関車プラレール40周年号), the first of only two "garage kits," trains that have to be assembled and painted by the end user, at the 2000 Tokyo Character Show on July 22nd and 23rd, 2000. The EF-60 depicted is number 19 in the Yasuragi livery and includes the headmark from when it pulled the real-life Plarail 40th Anniversary Train that ran on September 25th and 26th, 1999. First sold onboard the train and later as a 1999 Plarail Day release was the Plarail 40th Anniversary Edition, which had observation cars like the real train (as shown on the garage kit box) but was hauled by an EF58 - combining the two offers the most accurate representation of the real train.

The garage kit comes in a thick white cardboard box and has color printouts on the front and back. Apparently, these were produced in a batch of 300, but it seems that not all of them were sold at the event... There are also apparently painted and unpainted versions of the body shells, suggesting they were not all manufactured at the same time. The kit is aimed at ages 15 and up, although to be honest it is not a very highly involved model kit, especially the painted-shell version - really, the more fragile nature of the resin body shell is the only thing that separates it from regular Plarail once assembled. The box also features the train's headmark, a round version of the Nozomi-style Plarail 40th Anniversary logo.

The kit includes a resin body shell, a regular-production-style EF-65 chassis and gearbox, two standard pantograph inserts, two sticker sheets, and an instruction sheet.

The chassis and body shell comes wrapped up. The pantographs were loose inside the box.

The body shell is cast out of resin - I believe this is the painted type, as the inside is a more yellowy color that the grey outside.

The body shell is based on the EF-65 body shell with the same roof (including the cutout for the top of the new power gearbox under the rear pantograph) and similar ends.

The chassis is the same as the one used for the EF-65, particularly the early 2000s version with the additional "axlebox" in the tooling hanging down in front of the front axle and the taller rims around the gearbox screws. With age, the resin has shrunk, and the shells no longer really fit onto the chassis. Apparently the pantographs do not really fit into the body shell anymore either, at least not without being cut...

Here are the instructions - the front is mostly safety information, although the parts list does specify a painted body shell, and the rear depicts the relatively simple assembly process.

Two identical sticker sheets that each have a sticker for one side and one end as well as a headmark sticker are included. The headmark being separate means you can leave it off of either or both ends.

To properly assemble these kits nowadays some components need to be cut down a little... The Plarail Museum has a special exhibit showing the process of assembling one of these kits.