Until last year I wasn't into any Tomy/Plarail trains. I'm mostly into LEGO and wargaming but had been slowly collecting all the Duplo Thomas trains for my then-2-year-old son. Still looking for Duplo Stanley....
Last summer I came across a box at my favorite Salvation Army store. It was a Big Plastic tub with a fish market stamp, but it was in the toy section where I go to look for LEGO and the cheap and broken toys that I can convert into wargames terrain. I opened it up and it was a big box of blue track and a bunch of Thomas engines and track.
I thought it would be the perfect way for my son to have a Thomas Train at my Dad's house so I bought it and was quickly impressed by the balance the system had between toy and model railroad. It reminded me alot of LEGO in it's design and I began to acquire lots from craigslist and before I knew it I had a large amount at my home and my Dad's place, and in the process I'd acquired enough other product to have take-n-play at both of his grandma's home and Trackmaster at his other grandfather's place. Still, it's the Tomy/Plarail stuff that I am most charmed by and I continue to acquire it whenever I can. What started as some trains for my son has developed into a good size layout in and attic bedroom.
I'm not so much a collector as a hobbyist, and this is very much a side hobby for me, so in answer to the original quesiton, I collect the trains I do for the purposes of the layout. Except for the occasional online buy, I've been building my collection via resale bargains, at a local train store that occasionally has used Tomy and mostly improvise the rest. I've been looking for a new LEGO project and I think my next project will be LEGO buildings in Plarail scale, which will likely result in acquiring a few shinkansen and commuter trains. I've also acquired a fair number of duplicates, so a few Thomas engines will definitely get defaced and repainted.
(This post was last modified: 05-27-2014, 02:30 PM by eilif.)
Last summer I came across a box at my favorite Salvation Army store. It was a Big Plastic tub with a fish market stamp, but it was in the toy section where I go to look for LEGO and the cheap and broken toys that I can convert into wargames terrain. I opened it up and it was a big box of blue track and a bunch of Thomas engines and track.
I thought it would be the perfect way for my son to have a Thomas Train at my Dad's house so I bought it and was quickly impressed by the balance the system had between toy and model railroad. It reminded me alot of LEGO in it's design and I began to acquire lots from craigslist and before I knew it I had a large amount at my home and my Dad's place, and in the process I'd acquired enough other product to have take-n-play at both of his grandma's home and Trackmaster at his other grandfather's place. Still, it's the Tomy/Plarail stuff that I am most charmed by and I continue to acquire it whenever I can. What started as some trains for my son has developed into a good size layout in and attic bedroom.
I'm not so much a collector as a hobbyist, and this is very much a side hobby for me, so in answer to the original quesiton, I collect the trains I do for the purposes of the layout. Except for the occasional online buy, I've been building my collection via resale bargains, at a local train store that occasionally has used Tomy and mostly improvise the rest. I've been looking for a new LEGO project and I think my next project will be LEGO buildings in Plarail scale, which will likely result in acquiring a few shinkansen and commuter trains. I've also acquired a fair number of duplicates, so a few Thomas engines will definitely get defaced and repainted.
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