I’ve already mentioned this one, but here we go again…
I’ve never been a big fan of Shinkansen, bullet trains, and the like. Neither in terms of real trains, nor in terms of models. My choice is always smaller (and slower) trains, commuter trains, steam trains, Thomas & Friends, etc.
Although I understand their advantages, speed, and comfort, I don’t like shinkansens like Hayabusa or Komachi in terms of appearance. But it seems that many people like them, because Takara Tomy decided to make even a Donald Duck train in the style of modern high-speed trains. It should be noted that this Donald Duck Marine Shuttle is a fictional train (Disney Dream Railway), which means that the designers designed it specifically with an interested audience in mind. There is also a Mickey Shinkansen, a double-decker no less! If they weren’t convinced that there would be an audience to buy such a model, they wouldn’t have invented it. On the other hand, there is another “Donald Duck train”, namely the Western River Railroad, which in the Plarail model, as we see in the driver’s cabin, is driven by Donald Duck (and his nephews, at the other side).
What a beautiful train, what a beautiful model!
However, this train w/ 2-4-0 Porter locomotive built by Kyosan Kogyo Co in 1991 under the name Mississippi (No. 20) really exists in Tokyo Disneyland and is an attraction there. Still, believing that there must be an audience that loves both Donald and high-speed trains, Tomy invented something completely different - this new Marine Shuttle train.
Did they make an ugly train? At first, I found it unusually ugly, somehow too far removed from anything real, maybe too much even for Plarail. And then, it’s Donald Duck after all, it’s cool, the last car is even made in a wobbly style. It’s fun. And I started to like it. In the end, it somehow grew on me, so I bought it. And here it is.
So, what say you, is the Donald Duck Marine Shuttle an ugly duckling? 😆
