fall inside a hole

Plarail Expo

Plarail Expos are events where Tomy showcases new Plarail products with activities and games for children and event-exclusive Plarail available to purchase.

Expo-exclusive Plarail

Since 2001 new Plarail releases specifically for sale at Plarail Expos have been produced, with a new train or two available every year and for a few years following. Many of these trains are reissues of trains no longer in the regular range or are decoration or other variants of current releases. Sometimes, event-limited products that are left over are also later sold at Plarail expos.

Year	Name	Description
April 29 2001	EF65 General Type	JNR-color EF65 sold at the 2001 Tokyo Plarail Expo
April 28 2005	200 Series Shinkansen	Later shark-nosed 200 series Shinkansen
April 28 2006	Nankai Rapit Clear Color	Translucent and silver variation of the Rapi:t Nankai 50000 series train
April 28 2009	0 Series Shinkansen	Detailed 0 series Shinkansen
April 28 2010	Twilight Express	Rereleased EF81 with green passenger cars
2012-2013	Silver Plated 200 Series Shinkansen	Silver-plated 200 series Shinkansen with translucent green skirting given away in pieces

Other Expo trains

In 2001 a few individual cars were for sale (apparently, they continued to be available at Expos for several years), but most of the later individual cars were souvenirs handed out upon entry to the event or as prizes for activities for children like "Plarail Fishing" where children use toy fishing rods to fish Plarail out of an assortment in a large container of some kind, getting to keep the car they fish out.

Year	Name	Description
2001	Plarail Event Commemorative Edition	Souvenir giveaway for the first Plarail Expo in 2001 with Plarail Event Commemorative Edition on the side
July 2001	Box Car (Blue)	Blue van first released at the Plarail Expo in Nagoya 2001
July 2001	Tank Car (Grey)	Classic tanker in grey sold at Expo events
July 2001	Tomica Freight Car (Blue)	Blue flatbed for carrying Tomica diecast cars
2005	Mail car	Yellow mail car with cute birds

Here is the scan of the card backing for the original 2001 freight cars, which is a cute design. There is also the rear card for the Tomica flatbed, which was apparently the longest-lasting of the freight cars. Like other Plarail and Expo products, I think these freight cars were probably made in a large batch before the 2001 Nagoya Expo and then sold until they ran out... Color variations of these three trucks were also apparently sold at Tomica Expos starting in 2003, which are harder to find because they were mostly bought by Plarail maniacs who attended Tomica events to buy Plarail and probably don't want to sell them. There were actually some neat color variations of some small accessories like signals with grey bases and bodies, catenaries in grey, brown buffers, and several colors of standing tree as well as larger accessories like a teal variation of the iron bridge with brown rails and brick supports and a grey pedestrian crossing (These expo accessories can be seen in the Plarail Museum) which seem to have been produced with a nod towards realism and the adult Plarail market, which had developed throughout the 1990s as children who played with Plarail in the 1970s had children reaching the target age of Plarail and train enthusiasts rediscovered the ease of playing with Plarail and the childhood dream of huge layouts. Real maniacs spent the 1990s hunting out 1970s and 80s Plarail hanging around on the shelves and back rooms of small and local toy stores... The Plarail fan club and Plarail Day special releases also began in the later 1990s.

Tomica Freight Car (Blue) (2001)

Actually, I don't have another page covering this Tomica flatbed which was included in some Tomica crossover products... Here it is. This is the only one these initial three that the original tape has come unstuck on, which is why I opened it.

Inside, the car is wrapped up again. Maybe in another 25 years this tape will come undone and I'll take it out to photograph it again...