Long time no see, I spent some time engrossed in some of my other hobbies but I moved recently and have some more space so I decided to pick up a few things.
A little while ago I picked up a few of the 1970s "Playrail" sets exported to the US in box, including the rather hard to find Chug A Log Choo Choo, which is more like a traditional Plarail set. The engine in the box was cracked but I have another example I found loose on eBay a few years ago (its back a few pages in the thread somewhere). I ended up practicing working on the metal-tab gearbox since I wasn't worried about cracking the chassis further and am now less hesitant to disassemble the old metal gearboxes.
I will probably set these up and take a closer look at them a little later (perhaps in a video), I have another copy of the Merry Go School set already but I would like to pick up the Zoo set as well as potentially some of the Japanese Plarail Land sets or the European export versions.
Another export set, the mid 70s Straco version of theĀ Panorama Tokkyu set from 1974. I have three of these sets sealed now, and will probably end up opening the one in worst condition (the one I have in storage has a more faded box, but these two have arguably more caved-in bottom boxes) to see what the punch-out scenery set looks like.
From ShopGoodwill I found this Special Marfield Chugging Choo Choo from theĀ ćå±±ć®ć·ć„ććć¼ "Oyama Shuppo" or roughly Mountain Railway or Train on the Mountain series from Tomy. A Japanese fansite with more information can be found here, although the set I have doesn't seem to appear there. The engine needs some serious mechanical work, none of the wheels are currently attached.
Some of the accessories were also used in Plarail sets, like the funky tree and the older style of signal with translucent lenses.
I picked up a few older Plarail sets and accessories like this late 80s two-speed Shinkansen set in the box
This DD51 starter set from 2000 with a very nicely detailed DD51, probably my second favourite DD51 after the very old original rim-drive release with grey cab and chassis before they switched toĀ black. Was this version of the DD51 released anywhere else? I know the modern one is a more realistic red instead of the orangey color of this one and there are a few newer blue variants as well. The bag holding the buffers and signals is still sealed.
I also picked up a used Snow Country Rail Set. Apparently you can still buy this new, I thought it had been long discontinued. I'm sure this has been discussed somewhere else on the forums, but was this shade of rail used in quantity in any other sets? I think it may be the same color as that weirdly expensive Thomas set where he has a snowplow and brakekvan, although I haven't checked to confirm. I quite like the look of it, and although the two loops of track and elevated section are nice, I wouldn't mind some more straight rails.
From the late 90s comes this complete but boxless Hello Kitty set. The set includes a train with Hello Kitty's face on the front and two carriages with figures of Sanrio characters. The figures can also be put inside the seats of the little merry-go-round type thing, which the engine will power when stopped. The train and main accessory are both fairly yellowed, the orangy-pinks you see are supposed to be the same color as the track and the roof of the engine. When I have the time I want to work out a method for restoring the color of these pieces as well as the blue plastic mix from the early 2000s that likes to go green, although I am not sure how much success I will have.
You can see on the bottom of the merry-go-round where some of the plastic has remained closer to its original color.
I also picked up a nice amount of those older parallel road and rail pieces. I previously had some of the green version of these pieces and I quite like them, they look nicer with some of the little accessories in the holes on top of the medians and also give you a half curve of road, which lets you build road at a 45 degree angle instead of always right angles.
There were a few other miscellaneous things, some tunnel and crossings, an intact bridge (and a broken one), and a mix of track and road. Some of this I actually found in a local thrift store.
A few newer Thomas things, I grabbed both sealed and used examples of the 30th anniversary pack from last year.
I picked up this starter set from a few years ago because it has two sections of curved viaduct that are also half curves of rail. I haven't tried using these or the half curves of road in a bigger layout but I suspect you can easily end up very far off the normal Plarail rail standard with them. These pieces also came in an all brown variant in a Thomas track pack. The listing also included a boxed new style Edward.
I also grabbed a used copy of the Merlin coal hopper set so that I could have a second Merlin to motorize using a spare Hurricane I bought a few years ago. I also quite like the Thomas in this set.
I set a few of these sets up the other night.
If you want to watch me unbox some of the stuff from Japan and talk about it a bit more, I filmed myself opening the box it all came in and edited it down earlier. I'm also working on writing up some more in-depth info about some parts of my collection for my personal website, but none of the pages are live yet.
[video=youtube]https://youtu.be/OI-WE4vrXBc[/video]
