fall inside a hole

Adventure Asphalt Island (1999)

First written March 19, 2024

In 1999 a series of live-action animation shorts entitled 冒険アスファル島 (Adventure Asphalt Island) aired as part of のりもの王国ブーブーカンカン (Vehicle Kingdom Boo Boo Kankan). Vehicle Kingdom first aired in 1997 and was a kids show focused on vehicles with a mix of human and animated characters which would appear in short dramas. In 1999 the Adventure Asphalt Island shorts began running with Plarail and Tomica characters with some human characters composited in. A series of accompanying Plarail and Tomica packs containing vehicles related to the show as well as a small Plarail/Motor Tomica crossover set were released. Vehicle Kingdom went off the air in 2000.

Here is the Adventure Asphalt Island page in the 1999-2000 Plarail/Tomica catalogue. In addition to the steam locomotive Shuppo, an ambulance train, an ocean arrow train, a postal train, and several Tomica products were released.

Shuppo

 

Shuppo (いけいけシュッポセット, Go Go Shuppo Set) is a yellow American-style steam locomotive based on the new-power Mickey Poppo with red "Shuppo"-styled 24 series coaches. As in the Shuppo D-51, "shuppo" is Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound of a steam locomotive chugging (shu-po-shu-po-shu-po-shu-po).

Shuppo does not have the two flags inserted into the cow-catcher molding that Mickey Poppo does and uses the same 24 series coach toolings used for the Blue Train. Shuppo has several different text styles, with a serifed nameplate on the cab, a letter block-esque name on the tender and rear of the tail car, and an angled bubbly name on the side of the tail car.

I have two Shuppos, one unopened in a somewhat beat-up box and one loose in fairly nice condition. My loose Shuppo was produced in September 1999. The couplings are black like Mickey Poppo.

The coaches use the "metal pin" variant of the class 24 coaches and has a Shuppo sticker on the rear. Like the engine, the coaches have black couplings.

In 2000 Shuppo was rereleased in new packaging which can be seen in the Plarail Museum alongside some of the other vehicles in the range. This rerelease was packaged to go along with "Toy Continent," the successor to Adventure Asphalt Island. Shuppo also stars in the one actual Plarail/Tomica set to be released as an Adventure Asphalt Island tie-in, a set based on the "Circle Town" episode where Shuppo becomes trapped in a town of circular tracks and is rescued by a mysterious tanker that fills Shuppo with a fuel that turns it into a 500 Series Shinkansen which is fast enough to get out of Circle Town before the rails trap it again. The set includes the tanker and a 500 series Shinkansen in "Shuppo" styling, both on simple circles of their respective road/rail, and a papercraft cover for the 500 series that resembles the regular steam locomotive Shuppo.

I do not currently own any other Adventure Asphalt Island Plarail or Tomica pieces. Shuppo is certainly the character I am most interested in, and I would like to find a copy of the Circle Town Set with the papercraft intact (or even unused), but beyond that the only train that particularly interests me is the "mail train" EF66 recolor with matching red mail van.