So I decided to try out what’s this “Plarail Real Class” is like. I got myself the “Sleeping Limited Express FUJI” set, which I was surprised to know that it has just been released just over a month ago. The official price is 7700 yen (or 1,370,000 VND), yet the shop I bought from is selling it for just 599,000 VND, and I paid half of that (due to discounts from the online marketplace). What’s the tradeoff?
The box actually looks fine, but there’s already a tear in the top left corner. Not really a problem, most of the box is still fine.
Here’s the content. As you can see most of the parts are there, the different height pantographs, the headmarks, and other inserts, as well as the essential 4 cars and 3 rails. There is no individual plastic bag for each of the cars, so let’s see what other stuff we’re missing.
As a first-time user of Plarail Real Class, I immediately noticed the difference in shell’s material. It feels like the plastic used in those Tomix 1/150 buses that I have one of, which suggests the commitment of Plarail Real Class to make a more detailed train for adults.
And here’s that catch: This train is missing an extra non-head-mark piece and an entire sticker sheet.
That’s indeed an issue, because the headmarks are incomplete, including other headmarks in other cars. Hopefully there’s enough images on the internet for me to print out my own headmark stickers.
Nevertheless, the quality of the train is not bad at all! It feels nice, no paint error, parts fit fairly alright except the headmarks which are a bit tight, and the motor runs fast.
So why is that? I’m in Vietnam, and if you do a bit research, Vietnam does have a Takara Tomy factory. In Vietnam, it’s not uncommon for some shops to sell “Auth products”, which are products “smuggled” from factories and sold cheaper than retail. These products usually has some defects, which make sense since defects are meant to be toss out and less likely to be further monitored by the managements. That probably explains why there are still many new Plarail products sold here, some with Chinese/Korean packaging, as well as Hong Kong/Taiwan trains that should have been exclusively sold in its respective market.
Is it worth it? I guess so. After all, it’s technically just the actual thing, with a risk that something might be missing, and it’s cheaper. I don’t know if I can ask Tomy to provide missing parts like Lego, and will they accept international inquiries. I can live like this for now.
