The National Engines - Hashamoto/Nintendo, The Japanese Bullet Train

Hashamoto/Nintendo, The Japanese Bullet Train

Hashamoto is the Shinkansen Bullet train From Japan. His character is that of a ninja, martial arts warrior. He is polite, focussed, and usually portrayed by one of the best skaters in the cast, allowing the character to perform impressive stunts. He races well, and is winning when he loses control and crashes in a spectacular fashion. In the original London production his crash was caused by CB, later it was caused by Krupp. In the German production, although he starts racing with Volta, Caboose's interference causes her to drop out, Hashamoto continuing with Caboose. However Caboose then causes him to crash just before the final bend of the race course. On the US and UK tours, he raced with Buffy.

Hashamoto was renamed in the London revamp to Nintendo. In the Japan/Australia tour, his twin was named Nakamura, and in the later Japan tour he was renamed Hashimoto with his twin being Yamamoto.

Costume Hashamoto was originally golden yellow, with the Japanese rising sun on his chest. He remained yellow for Broadway, US tour and Las Vegas, however he became blue with white accents for the Japan/Australia tours and German production. The US costume finally became blue for the second US tour.

Nintendo was notably played by Tim Driesen (of Never Forget fame) in the UK tour.