Titipo Trains (I kid you not) from Korea?!?

[Nigels]

Have any of you guys ever seen these before?  I'm not sure of scale, but they look probably to be PlaRail compatible and indeed many of the sets appear to be 'cloned' parts at a glance;

TITIPO Trains

[Off The Rails]

It certainly LOOKS Plarail compatible! I like the fact that they’ve produced the track in gray, which is a major attraction for me.

And yeah, because my sense of humor stopped maturing when I was about 10, I had to snicker at the name! I need to get some sets and run my Plarail “Richard Densha” on the layout because yeah, I’m immature!

[Finno]

Never seen them either Nigels. I didn't notice them in Toys R Us when I was in Seoul but more likely to see them in the markets I guess.

[Muddy Poppins]

I messaged one of the sellers and asked if they were Tomy/Plarail/ blue track compatible, and was told “No, that their not.” :/

[Nigels]

Shame, they look compatible, they are definitely ripoffs design wise though ?

[minchimurakami]

Check this video out. I'm sure Thomas here is Plarail. Perhaps, the sellers are not aware about the compatibility, or they mean the tracks are not compatible. Connectors are clearly different from Plarail's. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3OE8dPnQz0

[Super]

Thats very interesting Minch, that sure shows a Plarail Thomas running the same track. So are these character trains based from a South Korean childrens show?

[minchimurakami]

Yes. Titipo Titipo is a Korean CGI cartoon about little train named Titipo and his train friends.  (It's my 2.5 year old son's favorite show.) It's a spin off of Tayo the Little Bus.  The show is available on Amazon Prime and Youtube.  It's a pretty good children's show.

My guess is they copied Plarail for their toy line, with the same gauge for tracks, but changed the track connection from trapezoid Plarail connector to roundish (?) connector to avoid patent infringement.

I'm going to ask our relatives to give my son these trains for Christmas, so I'll probably find out more about them.  In the meantime, I left the youtuber a question about the compatibility.

[Super]

Thanks Minch

I had to look up a YouTube video of the series...I was really surprised the show is in English

[minchimurakami]

Yup. Originally in Korean and dubbed in several languages I think.

[Nigels]

Sounds like a conversion connector is in order

[minchimurakami]

It just arrived.  And the train is compatible with Plarail tracks, and it runs great!!  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnaW5kgo5AE

The only drawback is that the connectors are in reverse order (vertical - horizontal/vertical - horizontal).  And the hooks are not compatible at all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxsFEcrkMhg

All in all, if you like the cartoon, this would be a great set.  My son will be quite happy with his Christmas gift.

[Super]

Thanks Minch

It does run very well on Tomy track. Does he also navigate a Tomy switch point or the auto switch point? Wouldn't a regular Tomy hooked rolling stock hook up to that coupler?.

Thanks for the video and sharing.

[Nigels]

Nice looking train and it does appear to run really well. I like the push button on/off switch as well, this is something i think far more convenient than the normal PlaRail switch and in fact is the same mechanism used by the old Takara train system

[Finno]

Interesting. I wonder if you could take it apart and change the connector to a Plarail one.