When you were a kid, you probably owned (or knew someone who owned) a model train set, or Scalextric-style slot car racing track. You probably also watched Back to The Future and lusted after Marty McFly’s hoverboard. But I bet you never thought that when you grew up, you’d be able to buy your very own hovering high-speed train set! And now you can, courtesy of toy company Takara Tomy!

The mini maglev is known by the title Linear Liner (we’d prefer a punchier name for the English-speaking market, but meh). It’s due to go on sale in September this year and will retail for 35,000 yen (US$283) . Sure, it’s pricey, but just check out this video of what it looks like in action!

The whole thing runs on magnets, and thanks to some magic voodoo trickery (aka science) it floats a couple of centimetres above the tracks. How cool is that? It’s like we’re living in the future, or something!

If this little baby was a real, to-scale train, it would travel at a speed of 500 kilometres (311 miles) per hour! We could watch this thing go round and round the track all day. Of course, our eyes would probably fall out, but it would still be a crazy fun afternoon.

If you love toys like this, better start saving your yennies up for September!

Source: Net Labo
Top image: Screenshot via YouTube – Takara Tomy