Unknown Plarail Release

Does anyone know what this is. I saw it on a video on youtube that was showing some thomas stuff that was releasing or being released, and this popped up in the video, and I have seen nothing like it.

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The video you saw this in showed it as a New Release? It is odd indeed but upon my first guess it seems like it could be 3D printed. I thought that maybe with those headlights maybe being eyes it would be from the Chuggington or Underground Ernie Brands but I couldn't find a character to match the look. It also looks like the engines middle wheel may be printed with the shell itself which I don't think I have seen anything like that before. Looking closely at the chassis wheel base the nose of the shell extends quite a lot from the front wheels, even more-so than any other including possibly longer than the re-release of the Plarail Yoshitsune in 2016. I would like to know more about this as that Tender does look cool.

I don't believe its Underground Ernie because only Halsall made the models and I doubt its Chuggington but I found this https://www.j-platpat.inpit.go.jp/c1801/...2964/30/en its a patent site from JP

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Oh wow...not a Tender at all...its a fold out crane. I wonder if that rear car is going to hold cargo that the crane can lift. It is a Steamer right? Looks strange without a Tender. I see from your Link that this was designed way back in 2000. I also see this in 2000 "Register1090505 Cancellation due to non-payment of annual fee". Thanks for the detective work T-Real 👍

The image and the link to the Japanese patent site come from a Twitter thread by DuckGWR started April 22nd.  IGotYeeted It would be helpful if you could please give the link to the Youtube video in which you saw it.

Here is a link to the patent where I found the picture(s). https://www.j-platpat.inpit.go.jp/c1801/...2964/30/en

Some people on Twitter suggested it was a prototype or patent sample for one of the Chuggington trains, but it appears to have been filed for in February 2000. What weird Plarail was coming out around that time - is that the right era for any of that time-travel D51 station stuff or that funny pyramid train set, or was that a few years later?

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Thanks Duck for checking in 👍

...is that the right era for any of that time-travel D51 station stuff or that funny pyramid train set, or was that a few years later?

The Time Station D51 Monorail set and the Ancient Egypt Adventure set were mid-2001, so not a million light year away from 2000. 

Did you find a way to search for other Tomy patents on that site?  I wasted a few hours on that without much success, for some reason it seemed to think I was looking for patents involving diagrams of organic molecules, which didn't seem quite right!

If you search specifically for "designs" and then search for トミー and then hit "other" and set it to ascending you can find some stuff starting in the late 1990s like the raising platform destination from the first Pokemon set or those little pullback guys.





https://www.j-platpat.inpit.go.jp/c1801/...4357/30/en









I really tried finding some specific patents that I even had the number for, but the patent search was returning wood-strengthening processes and textile patterns - the system overall seems hard to use and search, with limited options for refining your search, and even when I do think I have the information necessary to find something I never seem to be able to.

I do not know when exactly it happened (their website says they started in the 50s), but seemingly independently a medial and lab equipment company has/does operate under the Tomy, Tomy Kogyo, and Tomy Seiko names, all names our Tomy has also used. Their current logo is even similar to our Tomy's.

Excellent, really helpful. Rating added for that.