VooV: FT06 Hokutosei / D51 498

Several years ago I purchased my first VooV toy (Guardian Robo) from HLJ.com on a whim. Before I checked out I wanted to see what else was offered in the VooV line and I saw a series of trains. I've always been a fan of trains for as long as I could remember so I grabbed the cheapest one I could find out of sheer curiosity.

I ended up picking up FT06 Hokutosei. From what I could tell it transformed from an modern style Japanese train to an old steam engine. I've since long sold this train and these photos have been sitting on my external hard drive for years. I should've included something for scale purposes as this train is rather small.

The train came packaged in a very slender cardboard box with a hang tab. On the front you can see the transformation from one style of train to the other. The back of the box doesn't offer much unless you speak Japanese. The side of the box does offer a better image of the transformation process.

When it comes to scale I'm going to say these trains are close to a N scale used in the model railroad community. I could be wrong, but that seems pretty spot on in my opinion. The train does have a connector hook on the front and back so it is possible to link up multiple VooV trains. There isn't a lot of design, sculpt wise, going on in this mode, however the front of the train does have windows and the aforementioned connection hook. The other side of the train does have small painted windows to complete the look. There are several small free rolling wheels on the underside that allow the toy to roll freely on a hard, smooth surface.

The train sides simply unsnap and flip up and over to reveal the coal powered engine inside. You  then take the engine and swing it out and close up the blue train portion to form the final train.

The black engine is very detailed, from the pipes on the side of the engine to the molded wheels themselves. This has the look of an old fashion train and brought out the little kid in me. There is also a little coal tender cart molded into the back of the engine.

I found this toy to be a fun to fiddle around with. I believe it cost me around $4 or $5 US dollars so it was worth what I paid. There were several different versions of these VooV trains available, some featuring more current shinkansen styles. 

I checked HLJ this evening before I started this post and they still had a few, but not many VooV toys left. If you area train lover and want to try something different then you may want to seek out one of these toys. Otherwise, I hope this little review helps satisfies your curiosity.