Bandai B Train Shorty's

[Super]

Thanks Nigels
Well if the printed graphics are as you say then I wonder why they didn't do this on the larger train.

One word - profit

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It is a bit of a shame though after all they managed printing for the PlaRail EVA 500...

Ok, well they arrived!!! My Bandai Train B Shorty - Star Wars Nankai Rapi:t (bet I got that slightly wrong, what a mouthful )

Anyway they finally made it through the Imperial Customs Department and arrived on my doorstep this afternoon.

The package is shown below as are some pictures of the train itself as well as the carriage sides before assembly - as can be seen these came pre-printed.

Overall I am over the moon with the quality of these, if I do have a complaint it is that there are only the two cars - I did buy 2 sets so I could make a 4 car train, they even give you an alternative roof without the pantographs for the middle car so you can do this.

But and this is the but, as they are pre-painted sides you end up with two cars marked '1' (leading/trailing) and '2' (centres), which is a bit of a bummer.

Normally in such circumstances Bandai make a 'set A' and 'set B' if they don't produce a 4 car set to avoid this. But unless they have the 'set B' in the works it doesn't look like we're going to get this. So the search for a perfect model of this lovely train will have to continue

still a way ahead of the plarail, being printed and having functional windows. looks pretty nice.

still a way ahead of the plarail, being printed and having functional windows. looks pretty nice.

My thoughts too, the printing even extends to the outline of the words 'Star Wars' across the windows in yellow, pretty darn cool.

I wonder if we'll get another train for the new movie "rogue one" due out in December?

[Super]

Very nice. I didn't even notice numbers on our Plarail version until you mentioned them. I would imagine nobody would notice duplicates on these tiny trains although the font is large. The graphics are exactly the same so I am wondering if the real coaches are identical except for the numbers or have different characters for different coaches. The graphics that go over the window glazing, is it painted on the "glass" or are the windows contoured to the graphic?

Hi Super, I've not yet found a full length side on shot of the real train to know if there are different graphics on the various coaches, I'll have to have another dig around to find out.

To answer your question its not a sticker, the design is printed/painted directly onto the plastic shell/windows so as such is crisp and clear with little signs of pixelation or anything like that - basically an incredible job considering the minute size of them.

Now if only that was duplicated/scaled up to the PlaRail versions they would be awesome. I wonder if we will get an advance version like we did with the EVA 500? If so I would be interested to see if they print or sticker those, to date I've only ever seen printed PlaRail Advance models.

[Super]

Nice one Super, it really galls me everytime I see these little trains that are so superb that Tomy did such a botch job on the PlaRail version There's really no excuse for it as they proved they can produce good quality printing with the EVA 500, so why did they go so cheap on the Rapi:t? If they had done it right they would have had a true collectors item on their hands...