Help starting?

Viktor

Hey BPT! 😃

So recently I've been thinking of starting over in terms of collecting.
(Almost) all of my locos are from Fisher Price trackmaster, nothing really desirable... they're also covered in sharpie paint. :@
I do own some Tomy loco's and rolling stock, they're very well made! I bought them back in 2018.
I'm somewhat of a beginner in terms of collecting, so I'll specify everything:

I'm looking to collect real life trains as well as Thomas items.
I live in a 3rd world country thats 17,000KM away from Japan... which makes shipping prices very high.
I don't have a specific brand to focus on, although I really like HiT Toys trackmaster.

I really don't know where to start. There's so many items.

Any recommendations would be super-duper helpful!

And yes, I'll answer any questions you guys have.

Super

Are the shipping prices from other Country's just as expensive as Japans? I am afraid that the Wuhan Virus has raised shipping prices everywhere and assume that they will not revert back even if the virus is eradicated.

Viktor

Some countries have more expensive shipping, I think it's due to containers going from 3k to 15k (a unit).
Seriously, I saw a Take Along lot for 99 USD with it's shipping being 149 USD. 50 Dollars difference....

Super

I am guessing that there isn't an Ebay in Brazil...how about Amazon or maybe there are some in other South American Countries?

Viktor

Nope. Nothing. I will go out of my way to import items tho, collecting takes time, patience, and money.

Do you have any good starter sets? I saw this "プラレールファーストトライセット" Plarail item, unfortunately it has been discontinued.
(picture of it below)

Anything similar to it that's still being produced or that's not hard to find?

MuddyPoppins

Hello Viktor, I am wondering what sorts of retail stores there are in Brazil, and if you’ve ever run across the Portuguese or Spanish speaking Thomas and Friends talking engine?

Viktor

Unfortunately I had no luck in finding these kinds of engines. I DMed you a listing of a talking engine which sold out shortly after.

Although, I'll go near Argentina in January where they sold a lot of HiT Toys merchandise. If I find anything i'll make a new thread. 🙂

Super

Viktor, that is very hard to find D51-882 Exclusive in this 'First Try Series' release. Also exclusive to this set only is the grey with black roof Shed and the gray switch track. Besides the one I sold just recently, I have never seen this one available outside of Japan. Released in 2001 it may have only been available for a year but I am not positive on that.

chrisjo

Viktor wrote
I live in a 3rd world country thats 17,000KM away from Japan...

I live in a country that's heading fast for 3rd world status, it's only 9,600 km from Japan, and it's difficult enough getting Plarail here, so I sympathise. (It's called the UK for short).

Viktor

Wow, the UK is going downhill? That's sad, such a cool country with the steam engines 'n stuff...

Also, I found this really cool Plarail set which comes with a lot of track! (Plus, it's affordable!)

[[image below]]

Name of the set: 機関車を手放す組換えアクションDXレールセット
Translation may not be correct.

Although... the website is AliExpress... should I trust it or not?

chrisjo

Viktor wrote
Although... the website is AliExpress... should I trust it or not?

AliExpress is a sort of Amazon-style marketplace for sellers in China. A number of us here have used it from time to time, and I'm not aware of any bad experiences. You should be aware that some items on there are somewhere on the unlicensed - pirated - fake spectrum, but the none the worse for all that. There are buyer protections should anything go wrong.

GreatGordonFan

Be extremely cautious of aliexpress! Knockoffs often hide there

I'll let samstrains show you

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjLkru4r9Ug[/video]

Super

GG-Fan is correct but its pretty easy to tell what are knockoffs and not. I also assume that any Tomy/Plarails that look exactly like the real thing are also in the counterfeit category. I have used them and have had no problem in fact they have good customer service for the 2 times I had to contact them. They are like a Amazon in the fact that even though the sellers are individual entity's it the people at AlliExpress that you contact. Its been a while since I have browsed the Plarail/Tomy like compatible stuff so I need to browse around again because sometimes you can find neat things that are not Plarail/Tomy but are made to fit with them.

Viktor

Super, could you give me the name of a good Plarail set? Small, medium, big, etc.. Any size

Super

Not sure how to answer that. :-/

Viktor

OH! It's alright! 🙂

GreatGordonFan

Muddy Poppins wrote
Hello Viktor, I am wondering what sorts of retail stores there are in Brazil, and if you’ve ever run across the Portuguese or Spanish speaking Thomas and Friends talking engine?

This guy on youtube has found the spanish talking motorized engines. How about consulting him?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0pt7tBYzqM