Knockoffs NEW RELEASES!

Oh, I had an impression you know of some new Plarail knockoffs on the market.

The problem is that these sets are not stricto sensu "counterfeit goods". You see, the counterfeit is something that is "made in exact imitation of something valuable with the intention to deceive or defraud" (Oxford Languages). 

Therefore, a Plarail counterfeit would be, for example, an exact imitation (copy) of a Plarail set, that looks as a certain Takara Tomy Plarail set, is marked as Takara Tomy Plarail set, etc. It would be something that would deceive customers that they are buying a Takara Tomy product when, in fact, they are buying an imitation.

[Super]

I see what you mean now Mr No about what is available at AliExpress. Its been a while since I browsed the Listings there. You are right...where once there was many knockoff sets available there are very few now. Now they are selling the rolling stock individually where as before you could only get them in the whole train sets. I even noticed some of those knockoff engines available individually.

I know I have seen that Green with yellow details Coach before, may have had a 1 or 2 pass through my hands here but I can't recall what set. There are the double green Clarabels in the green Thomas knockoff set though.

The problem is also that we use the term “counterfeit” very extensively. A real counterfeit is only if someone makes exact imitations of another product. This is done, for example, by those who make copies of TrackMaster engines, making both products and packaging in a way that suggests they were produced by Fisher Price, when in fact it was not.

These Plarail “counterfeits” would not mislead anyone that they really think they are buying Takara Tomy products, there is not even an arbitrary use of the brand on the packaging. Nowhere (fraudulently) does it say that it is a Tomy product, as in the case of the TrackMaster we have the misuse of the corporate trademark and name. The packaging itself (and the product in general) of these Plarail “counterfeits” doesn’t look like any particular Takara Tomy Plarail set at all. In fact, there is no Plarail set looking like that at all. 

Therefore, these manufacturers (if such a process could be initiated) could possibly be sued for infringing the trademark "Thomas & Friends" (which they probably point out without authorization) and not for counterfeiting Takara Tomy's products, as this is not even claimed on the product.  From the above, as well as from the definition of the term "counterfeit", it follows that this stricto sensu is not a counterfeit of Plarail products.

However, if the above-mentioned Tomy T-11 Diesel and Tomy T-12 Boco products turned out to be counterfeit, then we could talk about counterfeiting in the full sense of the word, because they really look very much like existing Tomy products, use brand, corporate logo, design etc.

I really haven't seen many such real counterfeits of Plarail on the market, and for the above ones, as I mentioned, I'm not, and I can't be completely sure that they are counterfeit.

The Trackmaster knock-offs are honestly much better than anything Mattel made since 2014.

Here is my "knockoff" tomy diesel.


He came out of the box with already heavily rusted wheels





The clips for his gearbox snapped off super easily and the motor is a dreadful runner.



I don't know if Muddy got lucky or I got unlucky but this diesel is horrendus.

For me that's clearly not new. The paint is worn off the end of his nose, the gearbox has been broken open (or are you saying you did that?), plus there's the corroded axles.

It came in a sealed package?

Muddy's Diesel is a great runner, according to his new video... I have the original 1996/7 Tomy Motor Road & Rail Diesel, and he was not a great runner then when I bought it, nor is he now. But he runs.

For me that's clearly not new. The paint is worn off the end of his nose, the gearbox has been broken open (or are you saying you did that?), plus there's the corroded axles.

It came in a sealed package?

I ordered the diesel "new" from ebay in 2017. I'm pretty sure when it arrived, it was sealed .

The worn nose was my doing.
Even though I accidentally broke the clips off, I don't know how one of the other ones (circled in red) managed to snap.

It may be my fault they broke, but the clips in fact seemed really flimsy and I don't think they should break off so easily when i try to open the gearbox. When Leokimvideo was opening a real motor like this, the clips seemed a lot stronger.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TnE1tAn5s8&t=518s

One of the motor screws was heavily corroded and so was the milk tanker screw (oddly the fuel tanker screw was in perfect condition)
The motor itself was pretty bad.

Wait, if Plarail counterfeits do exist, how do they copy the boxes so well? It’s nearly indistinguishable from the real product. (Talking about Diesel)

I wish I could buy a replica box for my Tomy locos, they’re all 2nd hand.

Wait, if Plarail counterfeits do exist, how do they copy the boxes so well? It’s nearly indistinguishable from the real product. (Talking about Diesel)

I don't know... All part of the mystery .