Venus train?

[Anonymous]

Hi

I just came across an old toy train and I can't seem to find any information about it. I'll try to describe it the best way I can and see if there is someone out there who might have an idea.

It's approximately 14 inches long, made of tin ... appears to be hollow. It has wheels on each end. It says VENUS twice on each side of the train. The only other markings are on the front of the train where it also says VENUS and has the numbers 2354, although the number is probably meaningless. It also says SAN (within a circle) Japan.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? I would really appreciate any help.

TIA

[Anonymous]

I'm not familiar with your train specifically, but I can tell you some general information about it. It was made by a company called Marusan in Japan. In Japanese, Maru means circle, so that's why the logo is San in a circle. Also, San means three, which refers to the company's three founders, which formed Marusan in 1947. Marusan is still around today. I would guess that your train dates from the 1960's, because that is when Japanese toys and other products really began to flood the North American market. Your train is definetly a floor toy (it doesn't run on track) and is probably friction powered. I haven't seen a Venus train before, but there were many different names they came up with for simmilar trains such as Tiger, Angel, Giant, Hawk, Olympia, Comet and many others. The majority of these had a design that was based on Japanese steam locomotives. I would bet that your train has "elephant ears" (large plates attatched to the sides of the train at the front) on it. I'm really clueless about value, though. I collect Japanese toy trains myself, but I prefer the ones that run on track as opposed to the floor toys.