'Made in Japan' Thomas Question

Thomas was produced in Japan from 1992 to 1994. There were two print runs of boxes, one in late 1991 and a second in 1994, and Thomas was produced in 1992 and 1994 only (At least, I have never seen one actually produced in 1993). If you open it up, assuming it still has it, the sticker inside will tell you the month and year.





Production of almost all Thomas Plarail engines (at the time only Thomas, Henry, and James) moved from Japan to Thailand around the beginning of 1995 after all three characters got a new print run of boxes and production run of trains in 1994 (this was the first and only Japanese run of James and the second box printing for the other two) to tide them over until toolings were updated and Thailand production began. The latest Japanese production Thomas-series engine I have is a Thomas from December 1994, with all three engines reappearing in Thailand production by at latest July (probably June) 1995. Brass battery contacts were the norm on all Japanese-produced trains, and similar brass-to-silver changes occurred on other Tomy toys that changed production from Tomy's Japanese factories to their expanding Thailand complex. Plarail began being produced there in 1989, two years after it initially opened, and most Plarail production had moved there by 1994 or so. The last Thomas-series products made in Japan were early B/O Tomica Berties (B/O Tomica was all handled in Japan until 1996 or so) and the panorama bag released in 1995. Tomy began moving B/O Tomica production out of Japan in 1996 (and renamed it Motor Tomica at the same time) when they closed three of their Japanese factories.
 
Some more information, particularly about box revisions, is available on my site here