Is This Set Rare?

what Plarnold said it was a very short lived idea from Tomy That was gone as fast as it came. Here is a link to show the set Plarnold was talking about it also shows the expansion set in question. although short lived Tomy released Alpha system stuff for at least three of their lines that I know of, Plarail, Thomas Tomica and the precursor to To the Tomica Hyper Rescue Series, Which was called Tomica Magnum Rescue (or similar to that).

http://www.takaratomy.co.jp/products/fan...03_10_pte/

To answer the question to why the steep price it has to be the rarity of the expansion set exclusive Plakids included, Plakids are a big deal in Japan and collecting them all is nearly impossible.

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there were 5 Tomica Magnum Rescue vehicles with Plakids released and one playset that I know of. here are pics of the playset and a few of the vehicles. also Chrisjo posted most of what was released for the Tomica Thomas line I have seen Percy for Alpha System and am not sure about what other Thomas engines got the Alpha treatment for sure as when I found out about this strange system I did not collect Thomas and never thought I would!