Tomix - 98700 - Passenger Train, Electric, Series 205 - Japan Railways East - 5 Car Add-On Set

Specific Item Information: Series 205 is a commuter train that appeared in 1985. It appeared as a replacement for the 103 series, which was widely used in the metropolitan area, and was introduced to the Yamanote Line as the first series. Unlike the conventional 103 series and 201 series, the car body is a stainless car body, and the line color of the introduced line is pasted. The 205 series introduced on the Yamanote line was a type with a small door window, but the vehicles introduced on the Yokohama line etc. were changed to a type with a large door window. After privatization, the Saha 204 type, which had six side doors, was introduced and became a prominent figure in the formation.

Road Name History: JR East was incorporated on 1 April 1987 after being spun off from the government-run Japanese National Railways (JNR). The spin-off was nominally "privatization", as the company was actually a wholly owned subsidiary of the government-owned JNR Settlement Corporation for several years, and was not completely sold to the public until 2002.

Following the breakup, JR East ran the operations on former JNR lines in the Greater Tokyo Area, the Tohoku region, and surrounding areas. Its railway lines primarily serve Kanto and Tohoku regions, along with adjacent areas in Koshin'etsu region (Niigata, Nagano, Yamanashi) and Shizuoka prefectures.

Brand/Importer Information: Tomix is a brand of Takara Tomy, a large Japanese conglomerate of companies that makes toys and games for the international marketplace. The Tomix brand (along with the Tomytec brand) are both managed by the Tomytec subsidiary/division of Takara Tomy. Prior to 1976 Tomy produced model trains using the "Tomy" brand name of the products. In 1976, they launched the new brand "Tomix" to segregate their model trains from their childrens toy lines.

Generally it can be difficult to understand why Tomytec releases some items using the Tomix brand and others using the Tomytec brand. There are some generalizations we have observed. Thomas the Tank Engine falls under Tomix, as do the JNR steam engines as well as bullet trains (Shinkansen) and track cleaning cars. Maybe another curator can step in and elaborate on this section.

Manufacturer Information: Largely a Japanese manufacturer of children's toys and baby products, Takara Tomy has established a number of different subsidiary companies, with sales offices and factories located in various locations around the world. The firm is the product of a 2006 merger-of-equals between Tomy and Takara.

Takara Tomy produces N Scale model trains under their Tomytec division (we use the term loosely because it is actually a more complex relationship) using two different brand names "Tomytec" and "Tomix". Technically speaking these are not brands in the Western sense but rather they more closely resemble subsidiaries -of-subsidiaries, and where they fit in the corporate org chart may be the matter for a Master's thesis, but for our purposes we can think of them as simply two different brands with one manufacturer. In the past (prior to 1976) some model train products were branded simply "Tomy". To further confuse things, since 2000, outside of Japan, the company goes by the simple name, "Tomy" for their international subsidiaries.

If you consider both brand names as a single company, then the Tomytec/Tomix product line is the largest of its kind in Japan; with Kato following in second place (as of 2017). While Takara Tomy products are popular around the world, the firm's focus on children's toys has limited the international acceptance and distribution of its Tomytec model railroad products. Furthermore, unlike Kato, their focus tends to be heavily skewed towards Japanes prototypes.