japanese characters ponkikki and gachapin?

whilst browsing everyones favourite proxy site, i was hunting out vintage tomy toys. i noticed two characters appearing on a number of boxes, and actually found a set of 3 figures akin to the people from the "merry go" sets. the characters were named on the auction as ponkikki and gachapin.

can anyone shed some light on who these guys are and what their purpose is? it seems tomy had quite a lengthy association with them. google was not much help at all.

thanks in advance!!

   

   

Gachapin is the green one (who's meant to be a dinosaur), and the red one is a yeti named Mukku. I have no idea who the boy is. They come from a Fuji TV show called ひらけ!ポンキッキ (Hirake! Ponkikki), and I only know them because Thomas & Friends made its Japanese debut on said show. They even made three crossover specials that feature the characters meeting Sir Topham Hatt and the engines, none of which were ever released anywhere else. Gachapin and Mukku visit Sodor in Thomas and the UK Trip.

thanks, dalag. i thought i got the red ones name wrong. i did find the wiki with the link to thomas, but nothing else other than links to recent toys featuring them, such as the ones from kubrick.