#994 MICRO MACHINES – TRAINS SERIES (1989)

MM’s enthusiast mostly collect cars and trucks. Other kind of vehicles are not so popular, including the trains made between 1989 and 1990, but they are very nice collectables, so colourful and beautifully detailed.

I have five complete sets plus a couple of pieces that make incomplete sets. Today I am presenting there:

• Continental Bullet

• High Speed Bullet

• American Passenger

• Iron Man No.1

• Transcontinental Freight

 

All of them from 1989, when the Trains series was started. Each of the sets included 5 pieces, that is one locomotive and four wagons, or two locomotives and three wagons. The first series consisted of 8 collections, exactly the five above plus the same last three in repainted versions (and with different names:

• Lightning Express (sames as American Passenger, but in grey/yellow/white)
• Cannonball No.9 (Same as Iron Man No.1, but in different colours)
• Western Freight (same as Transcontinental Freight, but in different colours)

Each blister came with 10/12 tracks, which were exactly 8 curves and 2/4 straight tracks, that could be attached to each other forming long rail loops around or through you Micro Machines cities.

In 1990, all train sets were re-released in alternate colours, but without changing the names. Unfortunately, these are very rare to see, as they were only available in some countries and also in low numbers. That same year there were three additional sets with sounds called Power Sound Trains: Steam Train, Passenger Locomotive and Great Plains Diesel. These three are more common than the standard 1990 releases, but still rare. The casts used for these are the same, the paintwork is different, and they produced two sounds when pressing a button located on top of one of the wagons (generally, the biggest one, that also hold a cell battery.

Several playsets were released to be combined with this series, such as 2 different Train Stations, an Engine House, a Trestle (kind of bridge), or the bigger Train Central City (with a big colour playcard, several buildings with Super Micro Light feature and more rails to extend your lines). Some of these included a complete Power Sounds Trains set, others didn’t include any trains.

Noteworthy is the Power Train City, a playset in which the trains could be dragged automatically along the rails with a system that was probably the same used in the different slot tracks released over the years.

There is still a train station, released in 1996 in the “highways and Byways” style with one train set, two cars, tracks and onel building, but the vehicles were previously released (the train is the Transcontinental Freight from 1989).

FACTS AND FIGURES

• Name: Micromachines Trains Collections: American Passenger, Continental Bullet, High Speed Bullet, Iron Man No.1, Transcontinental Freight
• Scale: unknown.
• Year: 1989
• Company: Galoob (U.S.A.)
• Size: approx. 2 cm

#993 STAR TOYS - DAVID EL GNOMO SEVERAL PLASTIC FIGURES (Around 1986)

 
Following the great success of the TV series, Star Toys released a wide variety of characters in PVC, from which I only own 7 of them. I think there are over thirty figures of David, Lisa and other secondary characters, as well as bigger toys, such as the fox Swift, the four trolls and the three Yetis, the swan, the artic fox, an igloo, the gnome house and several sets of furniture for that home.

 

I do not know exactly how many figures are there, as I could not find any collector claiming the ownership of a complete collection. What I can say, is that these few figures shown here are among the most common ones, while several species or families of gnomes, such as Africans, Arabs, Inuits, musicians… are much rarer to spot. Also some specific versions of David and Lisa are very rare to find. Especially nice is a couple of naked figures that came in the bathroom accessory set box. Or one in which Lisa is feeding two baby-gnomes.

The figures were sold in bags with several figures in them, or probably also as single pieces in certain toy shops and bakeries during 1986 (the series started in October 1985), but it was aired several times more in the following years, so it remained popular during a long number of years. And not only in Spain, the series was sold to other countries where it was equally successful, and the PVC figures can also be found in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy… so I guess Star Toys made good business with this license.

I got mine in a flea market in Austria, they did not cost much, so I decided to get them, even though I had none and I was not very interested in them. But now I love them, and I would like to get more if possible. I am checking the internet to see if some more are available at low prices, and I keep discovering nice figures that I would like to have.

For the time being, I am happy with these 7 figures, all of them representing (I think) David or Lisa in different activities. They are all marked BRB at the back. In my case, the figures are all in a great condition, other used toys present paint loss, especially at the tip of the hut, where their small owners used to chew on them.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: DAVID EL GNOMO (Several figures and characters)
  
• Year: Around 1986
• Company: Star Toys (Spain)
• Size of the figures: Around 7 cm