fall inside a hole

Pretend Play Plarail (1987)

First written November 5, 2025

The Pretend Plarail (プラレールごっこ) or Play Plarail series of sets were two-car unpowered trains with accessories released for younger children who would be hand-rolling trains in blister packs first in 1987 by Tomy directly using old-power toolings and later by subsidiary Tomymate using new-power toolings. The Tomymate Shinkansen sets can be seen in the Plarail Museum - were the D-51 and L Limited trains also rereleased?

The rear of the box has a cartoon train as well as a depiction of Plaroad, a sign of the times. Each set includes a two-car train, a whistle, a signal and a standing tree, four sheets of cardboard tickets, and, in the original 1987 series, a 1987 catalogue. The ST mark and TT-36 mark both lend themselves to 1987 releases, and it is likely these were some of the later products made from the old-power toolings before the adaptation for new power in later 1987.

Play Hikari-Go (1987)

The initial Tomy release of a two-car Hikari train as the Play Hikari-Go (ひかり号ごっこ). Like the other Tomy-released packs, the train is based on the old power tooling. The set comes with the train, a whistle, a tree and signal, and cardboard tickets and a 1987 catalogue, the same as the other original release trains.

It is an odd variation, but the train in one of my packs is inserted the opposite way around to the others (and others I have seen online). There is a specific bubble in the plastic cover that fits the chassis connection clips in the lower chamber, but the upper section sticks out a little further - indeed, the L Limited train seems to have been packed with the would-be power car in the upper chamber, as its clips are located closer to the front of the train. The price of 750 yen is also shown on one of these packs.

It is based on the late old-power Hikari with Light tooling, of course.

Play Shinkansen (1987)

The other Shinkansen in the range, an unpowered version of the regular old-power Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen, was sold as the Play Shinkansen (新幹線ごっこ).

Having two of these that were identical (even positioned in the packaging the same way), and quite liking the 200 series Shinkansen, I decided to open one of them. I also wanted to scan the 1987 catalogue contained within. Actually, you may note that the top corners are damaged - they seem to have partially adhered down with the front bubble, at least on this example. If you come across a folded copy of the 1987 catalogue with damage to the front top corners, it may have come from one of these packs...

The 200 series uses the old-power tooling but there is no power switch or other contacts, no light, a black blanking plate screwed in where the gearbox would be... the rear wheels are even a standard set of wheels with no traction tires. The power car top shell is glued in in some way... I couldn't remove it to look inside.

Interesting trains... aimed to be pushed around by younger children. The tail car of this train uses the chassis tooling of the Radio Control Tohoku Joetsu Shinkansen with antenna clips.

The whistles in these older Tomy releases are blue - the later Tomymate ones are apparently two-tone.

Perforated cardboard tickets are included - play tickets like these were also included in a few Tomy accessories later on. Each train has specific tickets that depict different services on the lines - the ones for the 200 series mention the Yamabiko service and there are unreserved seat and green car tickets as well. Two of each blue and red sheet are included.

Play D-51 (1987)

The only steam locomotive - and locomotive in general - in the series was the classic D-51 with a grey tanker car released as the D-51ごっこ Pretend or Play D-51.

Actually, the D-51 seems to actually be a modified tooling, with a screw going up through the bottom chassis to attach the blanking plate - the old-power D-51 gearbox was still the original 1970 type as it was thinner, and it attached to the chassis with bent metal tabs as opposed to screws like the plastic old-power gearboxes the other trains used at the time. The rear wheels even get traction tires because they were the only type that had the hole for the coupling rods and the tires are used to piston them back and forth.

Play L Limited Express (1987)

The fourth Play Plarail train was an unpowered L Limited Express front and rear car released as the Play L Limited Express (L特急ごっこ).

What would be the power car is packed in the top section - the body clips are further forward than the Shinkansens.