Early Thomas Customs + other Japanese things

Got in a Jauce shipment a week or so ago and am just getting around to posting about it. Posted some pictures of an old C12 in another thread that you could see some of the stuff in the background but here's the stuff from the shipment I thought was most interesting. I also got a smattering of track, risers, some newer random rolling stock and some other newer Thomas stuff.

Before we get to the (in my eyes at least) coolest stuff, here's the other interesting stuff I picked up.


Some yellow and red wheel era rolling stock. Not sure if that car carrier had more than two cars but that's how many it had when I got it. This stuff all has the old back couplings. I've only ever had the mail and cattle vans in their later Thomas variations.


Older three car trains. The white one has a high-low-off gearbox but not the light blue switch I'm used to (as seen on the gold train) so not sure if it's older or what. Also not sure what the gold train is about, I assume to commemorate something?


Some older destinations and stations and things, including a dogbone. There were also some of the standard crossing gates but I figured you didn't need to see them, the only complete and unbroken one will show up later in the post. I think that's the station which would have had the mail hook, unfortunately, it's missing here along with the tree and fence. The Thomas version will come along later. The engine wash is from the round-trip Plarail period and still has the reversing section intact, there's a newer version I see without it come up in auctions fairly often. Never picked up the TOMYTrains version either.


One last destination I forgot to include, missing the railroad crossing sign of course. A two speed Monster's Inc themed train and part of the Chuggington line. The train in front I didn't think was Plarail related in the auction but it is made by Tomy and has an... interesting action feature. Anybody know what this is about?



Lifting the fin on top does... this.


The old metal motor rim drive C12 with front coupling and some old rough surface tread 1/6 gender changers

Getting into the Thomas stuff, here's an early boxed but in bad shape Thomas set which has a Japan made Thomas with the markings of an original '92... white rim, grey gears, different front axle, old coupling, and Japan markings. Most of the set is in good condition, but it is missing several sections of straight track. It's a style I haven't seen before, its close to the modern traction slits but also has some roughening to it like the style before. The crossover track only has the rough surface.


Other than the straights the set is complete including the signs for the crossing. The signal has been pushed in and I don't have an appropriate vintage one to replace it. The Wellsworth station is nice and I LOVE the Wellsworth footbridge. I also got the non-Thomas version of this in the shipment but it was upstairs when I took these photos.

Here's a track comparison, newer track on the left.

Two of the much nicer things that were the reason I spent more than I would have for the custom part of the lot alone... Boxed, and as far as I can tell unopened, Thomas and Henry. I'm not sure if they are the original box designs or not, if anyone has a timeline on the revisions I would love to know, not sure if I have seen the Thomas with battery information on the front like that. It's the older front axle design in addition to the obvious missing middle wheels, and as far as I could tell the old couplings.

(Guest starring my thumb)


Here is the custom stuff, which is the big reason I bought one of the lots I did and ended up with another Jauce shipment.
Starting out simple, here are early examples of Thomas, Henry, and James. All have had front couplings added and Henry and James have had the middle coupling replaced by two back couplings (of the older style) bolted together. I had to fix the connections between all of the tender engines and give the tank engine's motor's a spin to get them running.

On to the heavily customized stuff, here is an Edward made from a James. This is the only tender engine to retain the original middle coupling. The wheels are actually from a Thomas, hence the different front axle, we'll see the James wheels later.

The custom engines have their running plates painted, while the original ones do not, which I thought was interesting.

The custom against its original look and an early Edward

Here's Gordon from Henry. Green wheels are partially painted blue. No change to shape of boiler or tender.

Again with comparisons. No similar vintage Gordon, so here's the recently restored Powerfull Gordon


Here's the probably most impressive ones, the Thomas based Percy and Bill/Ben. These have had extensive body work done to them in addition to painting.


Bill/Ben is where the James wheels from Edward ended up and where the Thomas wheels went. I figured the Percy was done earlier along with the Gordon in ~93 before Percy was available in '94 when James was available and Edward and Bill/Ben were made. I would have liked to have an early boxed James, as it is I have only the front and no tender of an unmodified Japan made James.

There were also some nonpowerd customs, a Toby from one of James' brakevans and a Henrietta from Annie/Clarabel, along with express coaches. Oliver and Duck were also made from a Annie/Clarabel chassis/cattle van chassis and Bandai TECs tops screwed together. No comparison versus Plarail as I don't have an Oliver, but I checked the magnet height and it no longer matches.

Toby is done up backwards because of the face clearing the coupler I assume. Not sure where the face was sourced, maybe Bandai again.

The express coaches are also well done. Kind of tempting to do up some of my own bad condition Annie and Clarabels as other coaches.


The customs are super interesting to me because as far as I can tell they were being done very early on in the Thomas line, probably from 92 to 94 with an original batch and then the new batch when James became available. At this point I'm still looking for a few more Plarail Thomas items but honestly I'm actually pretty close to the point where more stuff would be just to own it instead of actually wanting it.

I have more pictures but I've hit the photo limit. Let me know if there's anything you want to see in more detail.

The robot train is a Hikarian! Was an anime series and toyline in the 90's. Was fairly popular back then but I don't believe Takara Tomy has done anything with it the franchise in years. There was a whole load of them.

The back end of it should contain a little weapon for him provided it's not missing.

Hrmm... not sure about a weapon, but the back comes off and splits apart... not sure what to do at this point lol

Yeah, that's where you'd store the weapons he came with when he's a train. The fin on the robot should be all the way upward and he should have little feet on the bottom that pop out.

[Super]

Nice haul Duck. Thats the first time I have seen a front hook made from a coffee cup hook easily found in any hardware or home center, very imaginative.