What Are These Stickers....

Super

What are the stickers representing on this 1988 train? Big Sneaker ANA? Isn't ANA an airline?

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j80mT-n5Gak[/video]

chrisjo

Super wrote
What are the stickers representing on this 1988 train? Big Sneaker ANA? Isn't ANA an airline?

ANA = All Nippon Airlines. The train is the KiHa 84/83 Furano Express. In 1987 JNR and ANA operated the Furano Express as the "Big Sneaker Train" for ANA tour passengers, presumably due to a supposed resemblance between the front / rear cars and a sneaker, which is understandable; the livery was changed to one resembling the ANA colours, the stripes in the two shades of blue.

violater

3 things I must let you know:

TOMY introduced 3 versions of Furano Express.
1 is the Furano Express with Furano Express headmark. (Most common Furano Express)
2 is the Furano Express with ANA headmark (believed to be error product, based on our group research)
3 is the Big Sneaker Train which has only blue stripes and the ANA headmark. (Not error product) (Same in video)
All 3 versions are still known as Furano Express today.
Any set with Furano Express are extremely rare, these Furano Express are still in research. One yellow box set is a phantom gem, Tomica World big box is currently found on
eBay.
Sticker in video is positioned incorrectly. Supposed to be higher than the blue stripe and should be horizontally aligned.

Super

Thanks Chrisjo and Vio for the info. I am always curious as to why some words used in Japan are in English and not Japanese. Could it be because they don't have a character for 'sneaker'? Wounder if, when designing this train, the creators where actually drawing it up to look like a sneaker or was it discovered to look like one after it was put into service?

violater

Sneaker in Japanese has no direct kanji but is always in hiragana and katakana. It was discovered to look like it, not really sure how the story went.

Super

Thanks Vio.

chrisjo

On page 37 of your 2019 book, with stickers correctly applied.

Super

🙂