Blue Plastic Tracks

I was looking through my old stuff and found this Tomy branded trainset, does anyone know of its make and year?                                 

That looks very much to me of the Chinese Market releases but I am sure our experts have a better idea especially of the years.

Same, I wasnt even sure if it is genuine, but the motor unit looks similar to other trains of the same period. However, I couldn't find a real-life train that it was based on, but I am suspecting it to ke a KiHa 181 of sorts. (https://www.google.com/search?q=kiha+181...e&ie=UTF-8)

Yes it is the Kiha 181 and plarail released 3 different versions of it in Japan in real colors. The coloring on the ones you pictured makes me think of other China only releases as others had these type colors. You do see these pop up from time to time on the Japan auctions but I would think that they are in the hard to get a hold of type but I would like to hear from some of our experts on how collectable this really is.

Well lookie here...a video from Corolla. In the description he says if was released in the 90's in China.

Chinese Plarail, the phantom gems of Plarail manufactured in 1990s. It is distributed in Guangdong, and few units were brought into Japan by a specific collector. Very rare in today’s eyes.
Real name is "力獅２號"



Complete collection of single item Chinese Plarail are as follows. Image is taken in a collector's house.

Thank you Vio. There you have it Wonge...is that not a lot of info for ya?

Kiha 181 is a nice train, but these Chinese versions are so cute! 

Thank you for the great information everyone!