Plarail 7105 Yoshitsune Museum Edition Review

Hi Super,

Well that is quite a disappointing and damning review of what I for one was hoping would be a lovely engine. I agree the cow-catcher and front truck was a bit silly and as you already know I already felt the middle wheels were a bad idea and maybe better just not being there at all.

But looking at the two models I can see where they have gone a bit awry, basically they've extended the boiler length, probably to try to make it proportion-wise more realistic. Similarly they've kept the middle wheel and the front trucks for the same reason. Unfortunately though as you've already found the extra length has caused some problems on your layout. I'm sure if they'd lowered the truck to make it look more real and increased the size of the cow-catcher then you'd have even bigger problems. One thing that springs to mind is what would happen if you have inclines on a layout as with that large front overhang you're likely to lift the wheels from the track maybe.

So to a degree they have fumbled the ball by trying to appeal to the two distinct markets. On the one hand they've tried to make it dimensionally etc... more realistic for the collectors/display audience (bearing in mind its special limited edition status) and failed in this by trying to make it capable of running on the track. Similarly by trying to make it run better on the track they've compromised the dimensions and realism for the collectors. A typical 'committee' design rather than one party or the other getting what they want. I wonder how much of this was forced by input from museum staff? I'm sure Tomy wouldn't go to the effort of new tooling and compromises making such a bodge of it as normally they are so dedicated to making things run as best they can - as opposed to Fisher Price who just want to make things as cheaply as possible without any thought for the audience...

I'll still be glad to add it to my stable though