Product Numbering & Bar Code Verification of Phantom Plarail Sets

Mystery that some sets like the Keihanshin Commuter Express Set has both the old and new TOMY logos. We will try to figure out why in the meantime.

Yuuenchi Set (3 car set), TP 18045

[Super]

I love the characterization of the engineer. He reminds me of a cartoon character but I can't place him.

Yesterday I saw a bar code with a price tag on an early Hikari-Go mark era (blue header) packaging. This is ふくせんてっきょうレール. Upon contacting the owner of the item, it is G-22 (printed in 1973). I was worried that it's my first time seeing one, so the analysis begins.



This bar code is also called a JAN code. Because the first 2 digits of the bar code is 49, and Japan joined EAN to release JAN bar codes initiated in 1978, and the 300 yen was the retail price in a shopping mall (which is higher than the catalogue price of 250 yen), we can identify legitimately that this rail was out of print between 1978 and 1980. These bar codes are extremely rare on early Hikari-Go mark era (blue header), so we are looking out for bar codes like these. According to members, we know that stuff like these could be unsold for 10 years or more in obscure/bankrupt toy shops (due to the fact 400 yen was discounted to 300 yen after the release of JAN codes). We will embark on a research journey once again to the obscure toy shops around Japan to look for similar packaging and bar codes.

We have a big problem. Looks like part of our research needs to be reassessed again.

November 21, 2020: N-22 number was discovered on the ハイウェイぜんじどうふみきりセット（1974）. Owner of this set is Mr. Fujiyama. This is a mystery and it is under investigation.



As the current sequence of numbers are:
Ｇ－１９…Ｇ－２７➞ＭＳ－２８…ＭＳ－３２➞Ｎ－３２…Ｎ－３５➞ＴＴ－３６
１９７０…１９７８➞１９７９　…１９８３　➞１９８３…１９８６➞１９８７
The Highway Fully Automatic Railroad Crossing Set has N-22, which does not fit in the sequence of numbers.

Full article of reference:
https://vio-plarail.hatenablog.com/entry.../25/103301

I guess your group must have contacted TakaraTomy to see if they have any archive records that you could study to try and get answers to this and other questions. I imagine there must be some people in the company with an interest in the history of their products. How did they respond?

We did send those people a direct message, they never responded. Probably TOMY don't have their patents or product archives from the 1970s anymore, or rather kept confidential. Our only source of information are from different boxes of the same name from different collectors, that way we can find and regroup all information that is scattered as one box might have a G-22 and the other box might have a G-23. This box however was the definitive odd one out.

I'm reading your posts about rumours, investigations, findings... and I am truly amazed. You and your group even contacted Takara Tomy and asked them - and they said nothing? 

First of all, I wonder why they don't have published lists (and pictures) of everything they ever made. In my opinion it could only benefit them. But no, they keep everything "confidential" and if someone wants to know something about some product of that firm he has to form the circle of investigators and be prepared for years of roving for the truth by investigating secrets and mysteries, following the clues, endless research... Why on earth is that so??

Does anyone else thinks that's very strange behavior considering we are talking about a toy company, not a manufacturer of nuclear plants? As I see it, it would be easier to get the informations on the cold war eavesdropping devices than on Tomy trains! This is so strange, isn't it?

If it is a company policy to keep their past material and archives confidential from the people outside their organisation, totally understood.

True that some material has not been excavated until now. These material aren’t even on the catalogues and it took many people to dig it out. Some rumours are confirmed, and some of them still unconfirmed. Though most of their content are mentioned in official prints, the remaining content is never mentioned but are still sold anyway (like the Tenjin Subway, the Keihanshin Set, yellow Highway Bus, yellow and black plastic SL (hand rolled), green tank car (hand rolled), and many more).

We have to keep in mind that information before the 90s are stored by paperwork as World Wide Web didn’t exist yet. This means that information is never widespread, especially those sets that were manufactured for only 1 year. The only time those sets are mentioned are by collectors/old timers who have fond memories of the item in question. For example, the rumour of Keihanshin Set was never confirmed until in 2012 where it appeared in auctions, however the front box is missing. Then in 2020, the set appeared again and the box was revealed for the first time ever.

If it is a company policy to keep their past material and archives confidential from the people outside their organisation, totally understood.

What would be the point of a company policy to keep their past material and archives confidential from the people outside their organisation? It's a toy company, not the Ministry of Defence. Would there be any damages for a company like this if the information of their past products is widely known? If somebody wants to know something about the past products he has to follow the rumours and investigate or wait for years for some product to appear on an auction to verify its mere existence? Even before the computer era, there were ways to keep the information on the products. If they somehow lost the information on some product, they could say so.

Sorry, to me this is not at all understandable, this level of "secrecy" has not much sense, and if they don't respond on an inquiry about their own products addressed to them, that would be very strange company policy, if not also rude.