Plarail TOMY Thomas NEW RELEASES

The lights are LED, still it seems very expensive

...and a rather bizarre, if there is no rest of the train. 

Regardless of the price (which is too much, I agree), the question is: why would anyone buy just the motor unit? I'm still a bit puzzled here...

It looks like it's being pitched more as a Romancecar Museum Opening souvenir than as an actual model train, and maybe the museum only has the front car preserved. This sort of thing has happened before, for example in these museum opening commemorative sets, from 2007, 2011, and 2016:

[Super]

Could be....Makes sense but I hope not.

Yes, that could be it! Now I noticed the following sentence in the description (machine translation) on Platetsu web:

"Odakyu Romancecar 7000 LSE with Light (1-car train specification)" will be on sale as a limited edition Plarail at the Romancecar Museum. It is a commemorative product and is limited in quantity.

So that's it. No train, just the front car with LED lights that you can buy for 2750 JPY and then keep it in the box on the shelf forever because you don't have the whole train to play with. What a great idea... 

[Super]

Well that sure is a bummer

"Odakyu Romancecar 7000 LSE with Light (1-car train specification)" will be on sale as a limited edition Plarail at the Romancecar Museum. It is a commemorative product and is limited in quantity.

So that's it. No train, just the front car with LED lights that you can buy for 2750 JPY and then keep it in the box on the shelf forever because you don't have the whole train to play with. What a great idea... 

And, as always, "Tracks not included". 

[Super]

I am really concerned surprised we didn't see any pre-announcements at the end of March for any end of May releases. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come and hope that we will see some new things announced at the end of this month.

Well, I looked at the line-up for the Thomas products so far for this year, and seeing that it's mostly just the same so far, but without Gina, Lorenzo and Beppe, and a few sets, I feel this really will be the last year of Pla-Rail Thomas.

As for who I think will be released for probably the fall, All I can see happening is a special release of duchess, and nothing else.

I don't think there will be much left. Mattel will probably just as kill off the whole Thomas range and replace it with Motorized. Plarail Thomas may be popular but sadly Mattel will probably pull the plug on the whole Plarail THomas range by the end of the year.

Now it's clear: Odakyu Railway is opening the Odakyu TRAINS Romancecar Museum Store, and Plarail product - Odakyu Romance Car 7000 with Light - is just one of the new products (souvenirs) that will be sold there: 







The souvenirs are really nice. I like the little four seasons dioramas:



As for the Plarail model, my question still stands: what are you going to do with the front car only? Keep it as a souvenir, and that's it? They should have made the 2nd & 3rd car...