I Didn't Know - Thanks WoodWheel92!

Super

Member WoodWheel92 brought to my attention something I never knew or was made aware of...

The Tomy/Plarail Tankers have no buffers whereas the HiT/Mattel do. The chassis look the same and for the most part our collection consists of the Tomy/Plarail ones. I think I am going to have to try some swaps to see if they fit as the Hit/Mattel buffered chassis look so much better. What do you all think? Did you know this difference?

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Miksolo

Never noticed this. Now really upset about it. Any ideas so that I don't need to buy a bunch of Mattel/HiT tankers?

WoodWheel92

You could always make your own buffers with filed down LEGO round studs or just pieces of round plastic, glue them onto the old tanker frames. 🙂

Super, I've been and tried- the frames and tankers don't swap between old and new. The tabs that fit the tanker on are much too far apart on the newer variant. Shame, considering the buffers really lift the look.

Off The Rails

That's an interesting bit of information! I just recently bought a small lot of tank cars and I don't recall if they have buffers or not.

Ucwepn

they sell hornby buffers in bulk packs, just need a 2mm drill bit and a bit of glue.

Super

I wish they sold the Hornby Buffers here in the States. Do you know if there are Online sites that sell them in bulk packs other than Ebay?

Ucwepn

I would try an online hobby store, search for OO guage or 4mm scale I did have a quick search but couldn't find a match, the ebay ones are not genuine hornby but they are a match in looks and quality.

Just a reminder of how they look

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Miksolo

I don't like the look of those realistic metal buffers on the TOMY trains, so I think the LEGO studs idea may be worth a shot.

Super

I do have some similar to those Ucwepn that I got from the UK quite a while ago. Mine are different in the fact that they are black plastic and I quite like the look and like how easy they are to install. The scale size is pretty close. In fact I just placed 4 on a wagon thats for my upcoming, long, modified, custom train that I have been working on and plan on using another set for a baggage car for that same train. But thats my last set and I need to find me some more.

Looking at your fantastic custom Steamers above sure does bring back memories of watching your videos for the first time. Ever thought about a nostalgic video with the running of all your different Custom's and set it to music? Maybe with a title of "Ucwepn: The Wonder Years" 😉. You wouldn't have to have any commentary if you used captions under each train with its name. Or maybe you could sing the names to go along with the music! 🙂

Off The Rails

Finally had a chance to check my tank cars and they were indeed buffer-less. I had suspected they were Tomy but I appreciate the useful trick to confirm that.