Well, I guess there's good and bad here.
Good - So the Yamanote train is all-stickers. Guess my modding plan for making UK DMUs and taking advantage of the boxy shaped EMU design (and the fact the pantographs are on the rubbish middle car that I'd leave out) is definitely possible. Will probably score myself a couple for just that reason ^_^
Bad - I 100% don't get it. None of it. Why do these exist. If this is meant as some kind of introduction to Plarail for little kids, then let me tell you something; I have a 2 year old relative (cousin's son) who adores trains, especially Thomas (specifically the older pre AEG series) - He's been over to my place a couple times, and I have a small box of well worn Plarail parts that I've accumulated while assembling my collection that he plays with when he comes over.
Now, the first time he came over, he had never seen Plarail/Tomica World in his life, only Duplo trains. Yet, in less than 5 minutes, he'd worked out how to build and operate a layout (with a little help from me) - He now does it all by himself.
Point is, while I see Tomy's logic, it's unnecessary. Regular Plarail is no more or less complicated than ES, and frankly if a 2 year old doesn't struggle with the regular stuff, then what advantages are gained with ES?
Incidentally, since I'm likely to order some ES Yamanotes for customs, plus the Jurassic World train and possibly the car carrier set, I'm going to order him a Thomas starter track set as well as Thomas, Hiro and Kenji as a Christmas gift, so he gets the best of both British & Japanese locos that way, while also being Thomas themed, which will obviously win his approval
.
My cousin has literally been raving about how much fun his son's been having, and asking me where he can get it (he used to have Tomica World back in the 90's so he was surprised that it was still being made) so yeah, think that'll be a nice surprise for a new young Plarail convert 😅
Good - So the Yamanote train is all-stickers. Guess my modding plan for making UK DMUs and taking advantage of the boxy shaped EMU design (and the fact the pantographs are on the rubbish middle car that I'd leave out) is definitely possible. Will probably score myself a couple for just that reason ^_^
Bad - I 100% don't get it. None of it. Why do these exist. If this is meant as some kind of introduction to Plarail for little kids, then let me tell you something; I have a 2 year old relative (cousin's son) who adores trains, especially Thomas (specifically the older pre AEG series) - He's been over to my place a couple times, and I have a small box of well worn Plarail parts that I've accumulated while assembling my collection that he plays with when he comes over.
Now, the first time he came over, he had never seen Plarail/Tomica World in his life, only Duplo trains. Yet, in less than 5 minutes, he'd worked out how to build and operate a layout (with a little help from me) - He now does it all by himself.
Point is, while I see Tomy's logic, it's unnecessary. Regular Plarail is no more or less complicated than ES, and frankly if a 2 year old doesn't struggle with the regular stuff, then what advantages are gained with ES?
Incidentally, since I'm likely to order some ES Yamanotes for customs, plus the Jurassic World train and possibly the car carrier set, I'm going to order him a Thomas starter track set as well as Thomas, Hiro and Kenji as a Christmas gift, so he gets the best of both British & Japanese locos that way, while also being Thomas themed, which will obviously win his approval
. My cousin has literally been raving about how much fun his son's been having, and asking me where he can get it (he used to have Tomica World back in the 90's so he was surprised that it was still being made) so yeah, think that'll be a nice surprise for a new young Plarail convert 😅
Been building Plarail worlds since 2001; Building when I can in 2023 
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