Plarail TOMY Thomas NEW RELEASES

Another picture of Lorenzo & Beppe and Gina finally showed up. When will be see them with full colors?

top comes off.....

Obviously I'm dreaming, but why is it that the more I look at that picture, the more it looks like painted die-cast metal rather than red plastic?

On Amazon Japan the shipping weight is given as 599 gm. A random selection of three other S-xx series trains have shipping weights of 286 gm (S-32), 268 gm (S-07), 290 gm (S-58).

[Super]

the more it looks like painted die-cast metal rather than red plastic?

That was exactly my first thought too Dr Chris but my mind quickly slapped me as it sounds impractical. You would think that it would be a heavy load to pull being so long let alone loading it up with Diecast cars as we have seen pictured before. My mind can't come to terms with that. Imagine if it is metal and someone wanted to have a rake of a few back to back how hard that would be to pull.

From that photo it looks like it was taken at a show like maybe the Plarail Expo or Tokyo Toy Show and the lighting sure makes things shine. Could this be the metal prototype that they use to make the molds for production? It may be such an early sneak peak that production hadn't started yet.

From that photo it looks like it was taken at a show like maybe the Plarail Expo or Tokyo Toy Show.

Christmas Toys Fair, Tokyo, 4th & 5th September 2019. Posted on Twitter by @kinokostar_suzu, better known to us here as Suzukawa, who also made this video which shows the same thing (after the Potato Station!). At 3.22 you can see bare metal under the paint on the lugs that locate the top deck onto the bottom one.

Any chance it could be a printed prototype that was painted? I’m curious about the construction but diecast metal seems unusual for a toy that would usually be produced from injection molded plastic. The advantage would be better track adherence, especially with such an usually long car with articulated trucks. The disadvantage is the weight, unless the locomotive is also weighted and has a strong enough motor to compensate.

I’m also curious to see if I can fit my small collection of 1/87 scale diecast vehicles on the auto rack.

Just watching the video and too me it also looks like the train is die cast too.
If you look at the paint job compared to Shinkansen below, it is not as polished a finished.
This would of course the add the extra weight needed, but as OTR suggested it would need a stronger motor, maybe it has a high speed motor in it.
Just a thought

plastic can deform over time. Metal makes the rolling stock more durable.

[Super]

I agree that the carrier displayed at the Toy Show in Suzukawas video looks to be painted Diecast just by looking at the texture. Because of that I am more convinced that it is the prototype for the production model in plastic. Looking at the pegs that either show metal under the paint or primer, I would have to say that any rough handling of this toy especially tossing it into a toy box or storage container the paint will easily chip off.

Has Plarail made any other item for trains in metal? Looking at Suzukawa move the carrier it looks like it doesn't roll very good. I would also think that due to its size it would be to heavy and very much top-heavy. My mind is telling me that if made in plastic and with weights inside the articulating trucks would put the weight down over the wheels and make it roll much better. The Plarail Schnabel cars use this method and I don't have any Cargo Liner Carriers to be for sure but they may have weights in the articulated trucks too. My mind just keeps saying to me that these won't release as Diecast...its hard for me grasp the reasons why. I am anxious for the release of further photos of what the real release will show us. Neat discussion though.


@OffTheRails

Are you talking about using 1/87th scale HO vehicles? If so, they are smaller than the Tomica/Hotwheel/Matchbox scale I would imagine they would fit. Looking at this picture, depending on the size of Tomica Diecast Cars, the Carrier should hold Matchbox/Hotwheel cars...at least the compact cars.

Really hoping it's plastic. Not crazy about the idea of metal rolling stock.

too bad I missed the preorder by just a day, I can't conducts experiments to support my theories:

1) will the regular tunnel too low to clear the vehicles on the top deck?
2) how well the rolling stock maneuver on the double curve track with a ridiculous amount of overhang