Help starting?

Hey BPT! 

So recently I've been thinking of starting over in terms of collecting.
(Almost) all of my locos are from Fisher Price trackmaster, nothing really desirable... they're also covered in sharpie paint. 
I do own some Tomy loco's and rolling stock, they're very well made! I bought them back in 2018.
I'm somewhat of a beginner in terms of collecting, so I'll specify everything:

- I'm looking to collect real life trains as well as Thomas items.
- I live in a 3rd world country thats 17,000KM away from Japan... which makes shipping prices very high.
- I don't have a specific brand to focus on, although I really like HiT Toys trackmaster.

I really don't know where to start. There's so many items.

Any recommendations would be super-duper helpful!

And yes, I'll answer any questions you guys have.

[Super]

Are the shipping prices from other Country's just as expensive as Japans? I am afraid that the Wuhan Virus has raised shipping prices everywhere and assume that they will not revert back even if the virus is eradicated.

Some countries have more expensive shipping, I think it's due to containers going from 3k to 15k (a unit).
Seriously, I saw a Take Along lot for 99 USD with it's shipping being 149 USD. 50 Dollars difference....

[Super]

I am guessing that there isn't an Ebay in Brazil...how about Amazon or maybe there are some in other South American Countries?

Nope. Nothing. I will go out of my way to import items tho, collecting takes time, patience, and money.

Do you have any good starter sets? I saw this "プラレールファーストトライセット" Plarail item, unfortunately it has been discontinued.
(picture of it below)

Anything similar to it that's still being produced or that's not hard to find?

Hello Viktor, I am wondering what sorts of retail stores there are in Brazil, and if you’ve ever run across the Portuguese or Spanish speaking Thomas and Friends talking engine?

Unfortunately I had no luck in finding these kinds of engines. I DMed you a listing of a talking engine which sold out shortly after.

Although, I'll go near Argentina in January where they sold a lot of HiT Toys merchandise. If I find anything i'll make a new thread. 

[Super]

Viktor, that is very hard to find D51-882 Exclusive in this 'First Try Series' release. Also exclusive to this set only is the grey with black roof Shed and the gray switch track. Besides the one I sold just recently, I have never seen this one available outside of Japan. Released in 2001 it may have only been available for a year but I am not positive on that.

- I live in a 3rd world country thats 17,000KM away from Japan...

I live in a country that's heading fast for 3rd world status, it's only 9,600 km from Japan, and it's difficult enough getting Plarail here, so I sympathise. (It's called the UK for short).

Wow, the UK is going downhill? That's sad, such a cool country with the steam engines 'n stuff...

Also, I found this really cool Plarail set which comes with a lot of track! (Plus, it's affordable!)

[[image below]]


Name of the set: 機関車を手放す組換えアクションDXレールセット 
Translation may not be correct.

Although... the website is AliExpress... should I trust it or not?