Whats this Set Called?

I've been tuning into a 20-minute Plarail commercial every week for about a year now. :p

That’s true! 

You know, I was really shocked that my son didn’t get into Shinkalion. He got one of the first generation Plarail toys a couple Christmases ago and he started watching the series when it became available on one of the streaming services. However, for whatever reason, it never really clicked with him.

[Super]

I thought we had talked about when this set was released but I can't find it here or stumbling around the Internet. Anyone have this info, its not anywhere on the box and under the chassis it has 1996 but that doesn't always indicate the actual release year but it may be close.

EDIT:
I find this odd...in searching for the release date for this set I thought I would check under the chassis of the, exclusive to this set, Power Charger Pumper Tanker Motorized Vehicle and the date there is 1993 which I find strange. I would assume that because this vehicle was only made for this set that its date would be the best representative of the actual release date but how could that be if the trains engine date states 1996?

Can anyone translate the Japanese says under the Tanker? I also find this strange as usually the text is always embossed in English so painted text is odd to me.

The Plarail Museum shows this set as releasing in October 1999 https://parlorfleur-pm.com/setshindoryoku1_2.html

The truck chassis is likely dated 1993 as that was the first year of Motor Tomica production. Presumably the truck uses a chassis developed in 1993, but I do not know Tomica nearly as well as I do Plarail. I do know all the early Japan-made B/O Tomica road is dated 1993 as well, I don't remember if the later stuff has different dates.


The text on the bottom reads, approximately, "Adventure Asphalt Island Circle Town Set Tank Truck." I am not sure why exactly they decided to print this on for this specific set.

[Super]

Fantastic...thank you so much Duckster as this information helps me out a lot. This old man often find it hard to navigate around the Plarail Museum and didn't see it. 😃

Back up near the beginning of this thread, Super expressed surprise that a Shinkansen should be called 'Shuppo', which is a name normally used for steam engines................

It seems that the Circle Town Set represents Asphalt Island Adventure episode 32, "Escape To Glory", in which Shuppo the steam engine gets lost in Circle Town and can't escape because he has lost his energy.  He uses the mysterious fuel possessed by the strange tank truck (Tankrow-san) to transform into a bullet train. The transformation to Shinkansen only lasts for 3 minutes, but during that time he achieves an escape velocity of 200km/hr and manages to escape.

Remake using Plarail:

[Super]

Oh wow Dr Chris...thanks for that video as I didn't know the full story. I don't know why I assumed that it was a Water Tanker with a Water Cannon on top. The video also explained why a Bullet Train has 'Shuppo' on it.

... I didn't know the full story....

I didn't know any of the story at all until your old thread popped back up to the surface a few days ago and I thought I might investigate.  I think the only Asphalt Island Adventure item I have is a boxed Shuppo and his two coaches.

Do we want to see a post showing the full inventory of Asphalt Island items?

[Super]

Do we want to see a post showing the full inventory of Asphalt Island items?

Oh my...if this is you offering Dr Chris then....YES, YES, YES!!!