$18 for a full train and tracks! That's very attractive even if (like me) you’re not all that keen on the design. Trains here retail for about $33 each. I think of the 8 curved rails (R-03) as a bonus. It’s nice that they form a circle, but the real reason for these is so that you get bored quickly just seeing the train go round and round, then go out to buy more plastic crack track.
I first saw the Odakyu set on Plarail Uncle. If I'd looked harder I'd have also known that there’re 2 other Basic Sets: one with a Keisei AE Skyliner (S-54), and another with a D51 200 (S-28). I like steam trains, so I ended up getting the D51 200 set secondhand.
These Basic Sets look like they're meant for sale outside Japan. They come from Takara Tomy's HK operations, with instructions and descriptions in English and Chinese. They don't appear in the 2013-2014 Asia catalogue, so they're likely no longer in production. But the Odakyu set (as of this writing) can still be found in stores here. (There seem to be lots of these. A blogger reported seeing stacks of them at the Sheng Tai Warehouse Sale in 2014)
I wonder how TakaraTomy decided which trains to use? Steam trains are cool but the Romance Car and the Skyliner aren’t as well-known as, say, the Shinkansen.
(btw there was a Skyliner Airport Access Set featuring the Keisei Skyliner. To see the set, go to this page and scroll down.)
