50 Years of PLARAIL!

In 2009, Tomy Plarail celebrates its 50th birthday. Coincidentally, Namikaze Toys is located in Hawaii which is celebrating its 50th anniversary of Statehood! In honor of both, we've created the Hawaii Five-O Loop and share the details of the evolution of PLARAIL!

1959 - Tomy creates Plarail, its first trains were hand powered rolling plastic trains1961 - Tomy releases the first battery powered plastic train sets1970 - The first Plarail logo is released, followed by some redesigns until they reach the modern day version below

It was interesting to read that the signature blue rail has not changed much in 50 years. The first "tsuru tsuru" is literally smooth, "zara zara" is rough, and "giza giza" is jagged.The rail's turning radius was determined by the ちゃぶ台 ("chabudai" - once a popular low tea table). It was 470 mm across and completely contains one circle of Plarail track.

So, to celebrate, Tomy has released the 50th Anniversary Commemorative C-12 Steam Train and Arched Bridge Rail Set. That's a mouth full, but onto the pictures!!!
* all information and pictures gathered from Tomy's website

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New Designs: "Hawaii Five-O Loop"

The Namikaze Design Team is finally back after a fairly long hiatus. This layout features the rare hanging monorail extension set presented back in January. We're calling this track the "Hawaii Five-O Loop" for the 5 separate tracks created right here in Hawaii!
The trains running are Kintaro freight and cargo train (red), Rail Star with lights Shinkansen (grey), N700 with lights Shinkansen (white with blue), Odakyu 8000 Series commuter train (off white with blue stripe), and the EF66 direct current freight train (blue with beige). The lone monorail is the blue Resort Express which includes a picture of the Big Island (Hawaii) and dolphins :D!



Then we decided to add another recently acquired piece, the red U-turn Rail (R-10). This meant altering the top loop, but allowing 1 train to double back around the same way it came.

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Tomy PLARAIL - New Releases, January - March 2009

Our blog has started the year as quietly as Tomy's new product list. There was nothing to report being released in January and February.... but this month is HYPER GUARDIAN MARCH! Here we gooo....

Hyper Guardian Series - Transport Liner
The Trans-Liner is the newest addition to the Hyper Guardian Series - Disaster and rescue vehicles. This is a MONSTER size train set that comes with 5-car trains, 2 PLA-kid Trans-Liner operators, 1 Purple Chaser (motorcycle looking vehicle), 1 Purple Search (search car). This liner train's engine requires 1-C battery. The 2 smaller vehicles are not battery powered, but can fit into the train's cargo cars. Tomy has yet to announce the last Hyper Guardian Series train.
Hyper Guardian Accessories
Since Tomy released a Transport-Liner, we consider these next few vehicles accessories to the Trans-Liner above. These small vehicles are hand operated, much like Lego or Hotwheels.

HGV-01 Blue Chaser
This little 2-wheeled vehicle looks like the blue version of the Purple Chaser above. It also comes with one PLA-kid but no track. As a single vehicle it takes up only one groove in a PLA-Rail track however, it can be connected to another one groove vehicle to create a 4-wheeled vehicle.

HGV-02 Yellow Mover
Yellow mover is another 2-wheeled vehicle that comes from the construction Drill Liner Hyper Guardian Series. It also comes with one PLA-kid but no track. Yellow mover can be connected to another Yellow Mover, or other single groove riding Hyper Guardian accessory, like Blue Chaser.


HGV-03 Red Search
Red Search is a 4-wheeled vehicle that comes from the Fire Liner Hyper Guardian Series. This little car comes with one PLA-kid and no track. Red Search has a train connector ring, meaning it can be in tow or appear to be towing the Fire Liner at the front.


HGV-04 White Saver
This 4-wheeled ambulance is not officially affiliated to a Hyper Guardian series, but is in line with the Search and Rescue theme. It too comes with one PLA-kid and no track. The back of the ambulance can be opened to hold an injured PLA-kid or more emergency personnel.


S-11 N700 Shinkansen Sound Series
The popular N700 Shinkansen now has a sound! It makes announcements and train moving sounds, but requires 1 AA and 2 AAA batteries.
Thomas Colorful Magareru Set (Bending Rail Set)
This vibrant transporter Thomas rail set debuts in March. The set includes 1 Thomas Engine, 1 brown passenger car, 1 Sir Topham Hatt (PlaKid), 2 inner curve rails (R-03), 1 stop rail (R-08), 3 rainbow bending rails (R-23), 1 colorful drawbridge (J-05), 1 green block tunnel, and 1 small train station with 2 trees.

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Your Creations - Now Open!

A few of you may have seen our store homepage and wondered what the 'Your Creations' section (Orange Tab) at the bottom was. Until how it has been simply listed as Under Construction but it was always intended to be a gallery of user-submitted PLARAIL layouts and designs. I am pleased to announce that the section is now tentatively open for any submissions from our readers, customers and anyone else who wants to showcase their PLARAIL layout online. It still needs more tweaking, but once we get more pictures up, we hope that it will grow into a nice display of what PLARAIL is capable of.

We'll take submissions of all your designs no matter how intricate or simple they may be. We just request that the design be 100% yours, and not random pictures that you find on the web. If you are interested in submitting an image for the gallery, please contact us at namikazetoys@gmail.com.

For now, enjoy the first few gallery entries from a friend of ours. You can see more of his layouts on his own blog at http://thomastrainworld.blogspot.com

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We're Back with some RARE finds....

Hope everyone had a merry holiday season! We've just returned from our own vacation and found a few new items to feature in our store: http://namikazetoys.com

We'd like to thank a PLARAIL fan for sending in some photos on Christmas to share on our website :), check them out when you get a chance: http://namikazetoys.com/creations.html

onto our new featured items....

Hanging Monorail Extension Set

• 6 R-01 (straight rails used in vertical positioning)
• 8 MR-01 (inner curved rail for hanging monorail)
• 14 MJ-01 (can be stacked with J-14 Yellow Bridge Legs)

Hanging Monorails (Construction Yellow and Emergency Red)

Japan does have hanging monorails, however, these are not based on any real life yellow or red monorails. The monorails debuted in 2002 and were originally manufactured in yellow, red, blue, silver, and black.

Each train is a 1 speed engine, with forward or reverse direction control switch. The on/off switch is in a difficult to access space on top the monorail, so a convenient gray 'pause' button is placed underneath for easier access when the monorail is in motion.



Hanging Monorail Support Legs

includes: 4 MJ-01 legs that can stack on J-14 yellow bridge legs

These support legs can use R-01 Straight Rails to create straight paths, but require special MR-01 Curved Rails to create a turning track. These items all debuted in 2002 and are no longer manufactured.



Pokemon Rayquaza Battle Coaster Set

The next two Pokemon sets are based off real amusement park rides. PokéPark was a Pokemon theme park in 2005 - 2006.

includes: 8 R-03, 2 R-06, 5 J-14, 2 PlaKids, 1 Rayquaza Pokemon Train, 1 Pokemon map




Pokemon Pichu Bros. Mischievous Train Set

includes: 4 R-01, 8 R-03, 2 PlaKids, 1 Pichu Bros Pokemon Train, 1 Pokemon map

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