Can someone here produce a short and concise essay on the history of the "Manufactuers Only" of the Thomas plastic toy lines, i.e. Tomy, Hit Toys, Trackmaster, Mattel, Plarail, Tomica World and the ones I don't know about enough to name.
Spelling out and with a sharp focus on the who sold what, the when and the where. Keeping in mind, I'm not speaking about the individual named locos, just who made them.
And to keep it of a short nature, I'm really only interested in the battery operated plastic lines and not the electric or medal ones. Thank you for filling in the blanks of my knowleadge in this hobby.
Mike Arnett Customthomas
Here's a rough timeline based on my knowledge:
TOMY: 1992-2006
*Note that TOMY is still producing for Thomas on Japan only.
HiT Toy Company: 2006-2009
Fisher-Price: 2010-2014
MATTEL: 2014-Present
Hope it helps. If I'm wrong let me know!
Fisher-Price is Mattel, so it would actually be (Late) 2009-present.
Thanks guys.... but what about Plarail and Tomica and what countries were these all these different loco maunfactuers sold in?
Mike Arnett Customthomas
Plarail is the name of TOMY's (main) toy train system as a whole, not a manufacturer. Oddly, it seems TOMY never actually used it outside East Asia; not even on non-Thomas releases. Both Tomica World (late '90s-early 2000s) and Tomica Hypercity (early 2010s) were European-American-Australian releases of Plarail. Tomica is also a brand of plastic/die-cast vehicles with their own road parts and accessories, which were also included with Plarail trains in Tomica Hypercity playsets.
(This post was last modified: 02-26-2025, 07:14 PM by DalaGStanator.)
For the 1st half of the Second question, Wooden Railway, ERTL, Tomy Train, Plarail Tomy, Hornby, and Lionel (I think)
Hi! you can call me D-Real, I’ve Been A collector since 2011, and Remember: Anything’s Possible when you have Dedication!!
Ok... for me, this is getting twisted. So let me simplify my question:
In 1992, who was the manufacturer of the plastic battery Thomas line in:
UK - ?
US - ?
Japan - ?
Mike Arnett Customthomas