OFFICIAL 2016 THOMAS & FRIENDS ANNOUNCEMENT

[Jacob Wilson]

^ Above 1 Reply - @Reply #14 By DucktheGWREngine08: Nice to have you back on the Forum, DucktheGWREngine08.

I agree with you! I am hoping and guessing that Sir Handel will be released next year, and we need Coaches and Brake Van's next year.

[railtwister]

I suspect the lobster refrigerator wagon will likely look like the ice cream wagon with different graphics denoting lobsters. It could also be a repainted salt wagon, too. I would prefer it to be a newly tooled body with vertical planks and no visible external bracing, since a true refrigerator car would likely have insulation around the wall framing which would be covered by an additional layer of sheathing on the outside. In the USA, reefer doors are hinged rather than sliding, and are recessed flush into the sides. Also, both the doors and sides are quite thick due to their double sheathing and insulation. It should be interesting to see.

This brings to mind another question, if the current ice cream wagon isn't a refrigerator car, what keeps the ice cream from melting? Or, is it just used for shipping the empty ice cream cones to the ice cream factory?

Here in the USA, lobsters are frequently shipped live to better preserve freshness.

Bill in FtL

[ClrwtrMK2]

So Bachmann has finally decided to make an HO Rosie? Thank you Bachmann for answering my prayers!

[Metal]

Another chapter for the NG range.

As for HO/OO, while my views on Rosie are......"average." It's quite the surprise , but slightly disappointed, I don't hate her, but when you compare her to some particular ones outside the classic era like Paxton, or even Hiro, they would of been a better choice than Rosie.
At least few of the classic characters are left anyway.

[Griffin (TheBlueSnowplow)]

Rosie is..random but I'm sure with her pink paint she will sell quite well and it is a new tooling which is nice. I am so excited to see new rolling stock- finally! Not really chuffed by Rheneas (I mean, who else were you guys expecting?) or the slate wagons, as I am still trying to establish my HO/OO engines so not really interested in narrow gauge at all, especially since Bachmann hasn't given us folks who can't blow hundreds establishing a layout to run their trains on. I'm more excited for Rosie and the rolling stock, very honestly. Sorry if you don't agree, but it's not what we were expecting and I really like that. Narrow Gauge is much too predictable, for the time being, in my opinion. Ooh, and what the heck, Bachmann? You've had a year for Oliver and still nothing on when he is going to ship?  I can keep waiting, I guess.

[TTTE1945]

Seriously?! Rosie?! Stepney was obviously the better choice!

[mully]

Well i am going to guess Oliver maybe released between march-June time we might get some of the new rolling stock August time, probably ng rolling stock around November, rhenaes Christmas time, Rosie beginning of next year. Be nice if it is all out before the 2017 announcements. Always getting stuff from the previous year carried over. Wondering also which new items of rolling stock will be green 

[Jacob Wilson]

What is wrong with Rosie? I like Rosie. She is a fun and energetic engine. She has been on my wanted list since she first arrived on Sodor in the TV Series.

All I hope is, that Bachmann get her pink livery correct and do fit her rosey cheeks and freckles onto her face in the right places!

^ Above 1 Reply - @#21 By mully: I hope none of the Wagon's in the HO range are green! We have had too many Green Wagon's over the year's. Troublesome Truck #3 and Troublesome Truck #4 are both green. I don't want another green Troublesome Truck! I am hoping that Troublesome Truck #5 will be a tanker, or one of James' New Trucks (A Blue Open Wagon with black edges with a face on one end).

I hope we don't have to wait to get Rosie until 2017, like we are having to wait for Oliver. I want Rosie now as soon as possible and I can't until the middle of 2017 to get her. That is just wrong and too long to wait! I hope she gets released before Christmas this year.

Now it is my turn to talk about the new release in the Large Scale range:

I think the release of a DCC Sound Thomas and Percy is a bit pointless with the expense of the Large Scale range, and the face that this is the third version of a Large Scale Thomas and the second version of a Large Scale Percy. I think Edward have been released, instead of Bachmann adding a DCC Sound system to the range, which as we know is at astronomical prices in the OO/HO range, so I dread to think what the prices will be of a Large Scale Thomas and Percy.

The Box Van's are nice idea, but sadly I do not buy Large Scale products due to space I do not have, so I cannot get the Sodor Fruit & Vegetable Co., Explosives and Great Western Box Van's. These would have been great additions to the HO range, and I am sad they are not being released in it. I would rather have these than the Refrigerator Car. I don't even know what a Refrigerator Car is! It sounds a like foreign vegetable to me (A link-in joke to Bachmann's new announcement of the the Large Scale Sodor Fruit & Vegetable Co. Box Van)! Besides, Live Lobsters is not even a prototypical Thomas & Friends load. I cannot remembers we seeing a Refrigerator Car the carries lobsters! A Live Lobsters load sounds like so,me thing Chuggington to me, not Thomas & Friends. Bachmann must have made it up, which is a shame, because I would love to have the three new Large Scale Box Van's to be in the HO/OO Gauge range.

Anyway, rant over!

[JLK2707]

Do you think that they will ever make henrietta being made in large scale?

[JLK2707]

Also, I cannot wait to get Rosie and rheneas!

[Jacob Wilson]

^^ Above 2 Replies - @Reply #23 By JLK2707: Bachmann should release a Large Scale Henrietta, but with how long ago now since they released the Large Scale Toby, they probably will not release Henrietta, which is odd. Maybe Bachmann cannot get the license to produce a Large Scale Henrietta or creating a new tooling for Henrietta might be too expensive in Large Scale. Who know's the reason? It could as basic as Bachmann could be thinking as selling point of view, that a Large Scale Henrietta might not be a good seller!

^ Above 1 Reply - @Reply #24 By JK2707: I cannot wait to get Rosie and Rheneas either, but my big super excitement release is Rosie this year. I know that Rheneas is the second Thomas & Friends Narrow Gauge Locomotive, but I think we all knew that he was coming this year, and Rosie having her announcement is a surprise to everybody, and I am really excited by it!

[Titanic5972]

Rosie's announcement is more a disappointment than anything. She is such a minor character compared to the likes of Daisy, Boco, Stepney etc. Like I said I am looking forward to the rolling stock but Rosie will never be on my purchase list.

[Jacob Wilson]

^ Above 1 Reply - @Reply #26 By Tiranic5972: I think Rosie is little more then a minor character. She has appeared in more Episodes than you think. Check out her Thomas & Friends Wikia page: http://ttte.wikia.com/wiki/Rosie. Murdoch and Arthur are more minor characters, as they have hardly ever been shown. Rosie has been shown more than Murdoch and Arthur has, and she is a newer character than these two.

[mully]

I believe that the lobster wagon will look similar too one of these http://thomas-and-friends-cgi-series.wikia.com/wiki/%22The_Flying_Kipper%22. Perfect for the kipper. Also i don't know why people are moaning about Rosie. Seen for years people asking for her. We should be a bit more grateful for what we have. Lastly i have a theory the standard cattle wagon my be discontinued this year to make room for the great western cattle wagon. I can't see Bachmann selling 3 types of cattle wagon.

[AJW98Productions]

^ Above 1 Reply - @Reply #26 By Tiranic5972: I think Rosie is little more then a minor character. She has appeared in more Episodes than you think. Check out her Thomas & Friends Wikia page: http://ttte.wikia.com/wiki/Rosie. Murdoch and Arthur are more minor characters, as they have hardly ever been shown. Rosie has been shown more than Murdoch and Arthur has, and she is a newer character than these two.

Yes, you are correct, she has shown up more than those two, but no one's exactly calling Murdoch or Arthur main characters either, and looking through the list of episodes she appeared in, lot's of them are just cameos, so I'd barely call her a fleshed out character, it also doesn't help that in a lot of those episodes (notably her first appearance too), her personality is very "one note" and bland, I went over this about her and Stanley not all that long ago actually. However I do now find myself eating my own words, something I really hate doing, guess like perhaps other members here I need to think more before I post.

The obsession with these two characters, from my perspective is that the obsession can only created out of their unique designs and liveries, Stanley I guess had an interesting enough introduction (despite my personal thoughts on "The Great Discovery", I can't deny that it was interesting). Personally, I don't care about Rosie as a character, but I would like a model, so I guess the marketing team has struck again. But I recognise that as a model, she'll never be released by Bachmann for the foreseeable future, because [...] they [Rosie and Stanley] are just blank slates of characters with little to no personality, but endlessly marketable designs and unique liveries.

So there we have it, my thoughts on Rosie, are however, less negative than they may seem. She is very much a stock standard Season 9-16 character, as she has little to no personality, and should probably be more fleshed out, but is most interesting for the fact that she has a unique livery and interesting basis, one of the few reasons why I probably would get a model of her at some point if I could, so I recognise the marketing team has struck again!

Anyway, my thoughts on the actual range for this year:
Narrow Gauge:
Rheneas really was a given, almost everyone called it, but I think next years engine may be a little more of a surprise, as people seem to have more mixed opinions on the next release, but I'm thinking Peter Sam might be next.

I'm glad to see the Slate Wagons, and I'm a little surprised that we're getting three variants of them (twins philosophy I guess), but I stand by the idea that I would've liked to see a brakevan this year, I probably would've rather had coaches as well, but I don't mind Slate Wagons in the slightest, I do hope next year we get some coaches and two brake vans (twins philosophy, one tooling but two colour variations, like with the Box Vans released last year), so as ever, this was what I was hoping for, but I am more than happy with what was released, maybe next year but I know it's too soon to start calling 2017 announcements, so I leave you with these images:



HO Gauge:
Rosie...well since I already ate my own words I won't dig the hole any deeper, I think there were smarter choices, definitely Engines I'd rather see, but I guess they could've done worse, and hey, since we only have two female engines in the HO range, I suppose a third is rather nice in that regard, and she is at least a unique design and has made more starring and background roles than most other characters that were made to sell merchandise, I know a lot of people are thinking "could've been better", but for now I'm going to just say "hey, could've been worse" and to me Rosie is at least a very...marketable character. Even with everything she's got going against her, she's got enough going for her to warrant a model apparently, so there's something I guess.

I'm glad to hear the Salt Van is making a comeback, I think I'll try and get my hands on a few more quick this time, as I only got one before it was discontinued previously, I'd like to say fan demand brought it back, but by that logic Gordon's Express Coaches should've returned a while ago, I've seen more demand for them since they've been discontinued, but I guess the Salt Van is cheaper to produce, so can be sold at lower prices, which I guess increases likelihood of sales.

I imagine the GWR Cattle Van is being released to compliment Duck, Oliver and Toad, I don't actually know if it'll be that different to the tooling that already exists, or if it'll be the same tooling with a "GW" label on it. Whatever the case may be, I look forward to seeing it.

Troublesome Truck #5, there is a lot of potential with the Troublesome Trucks, so I don't know what to expect. Another product I'm going to keep an eye out for.

Finally, the Refrigerator Van. I really think I'm repeating myself, but I don't entirely know what to expect the tooling to look like, if it'll have lobsters on it or whatnot, I suspect this could be something previously seen in the CGI series perhaps, in which case that could give us better indication of to what it would look like. Personally I recognise I've done a terrible job of keeping up with the CGI series, so I could be equally wrong.

Large Scale:
I'm honestly surprised we're seeing DCC sound equipped Thomas and Percy in G Gauge before an analogue sound Percy is released in HO, I'm even more surprised that a chip is being sold separately as well, but since Large Scale is such a price-y (for lack of a better word) range, I imagine it has more mature modelers in it, so I guess that could be part of why.

What interests me is that Box Vans are being released into Large Scale before HO too, I look forward to seeing the final products, and hope they eventually migrate into HO scale, I would've thought they would be good sellers in HO too.

Unfortunately Henrietta is still not being announced, quite disappointing in all honesty, but hey! This just proves that the range is far from being discontinued, as I remember seeing speculation about last year, and considering there are again, more interesting releases this year, I'm honestly just happy the range isn't in a bad place, and I don't even collect it.

But moving on now, I think it's time for...
Final thoughts:
This year's announcements, to me at least are far from disappointing. Am I surprised? Yes. Is that a bad thing? Not really. Honestly I'm just glad this year's range is as big as it is, I really didn't expect the range this year to be so large with Oliver and Winston still on the back-burner, perhaps a bit disappointing here and there, but ultimately there were a lot of people who didn't think we'd get as much as we did get this year, so I can hardly call it a disappointment at all. This year's range seems to be the most divisive I've seen yet, but ultimately, I'm looking forward to it...with great anticipation actually. I'm very curious to how things will turn out.

Ultimately, I'm glad to see this year was far from the year I expected in a few ways at least, I expected a much quieter year in all honesty. So overall, I'm happy enough, more to anticipate for later, I suppose, but plenty to look forward to in the meantime,
~Alex