OFFICIAL 2017 THOMAS & FRIENDS NEW PRODUCTS ANNOUNCEMENT!

[InsideTrack]

Dear Thomas & Friends™ fans,
Below is a list of the new items we are announcing for 2017. This is the COMPLETE list. Enjoy!

HO Scale
58817 Paxton (with moving eyes)
77011 Ventilated Van – Great Western
77012 Ventilated Van – Sodor Fruit & Vegetable Co.
77013 McColl's Cattle Wagon

Narrow Gauge
58603 Rusty

Large Scale
91407 Diesel (with moving eyes)
98021 Spiteful Brake Van

Please watch Bachmann's website for an announcement of Oliver's arrival as well as for all other new Thomas & Friends™ product arrivals.

[Chaz]

Wow, Rusty beat Sir Handel and Peter Sam!  This took me by total surprise, nonetheless I'm really excited for him and Rheneas!  A bit disappointed that there is no rolling stock in narrow gauge but with the slate wagons still on the way we at least have something decent to look forward to.

Paxton was inevitable, but another welcome addition nonetheless, I could see him being a lot more popular than Rosie.  Its nice seeing some of the same vans from large scale make it to HO, didn't expect another cattle wagon.  Probably going to pass on these but might consider Paxton.

Diesel is exciting in large scale, and inevitable, but glad that an actual locomotive has joined the range after Toby's announcement.  I did not see the spiteful brake van coming but I imagine it will just be the regular brake van with a face on it, possibly a new livery.  Already these two are an improvement over anything large scale got in years.

A small lineup of announcements, but not disappointed, great job Bachmann!

[sean1994rail]

Kudos to you, bachmann!

[JD417]

Paxton. Ah, we all knew this was happening.

Large Scale Diesel.
Well we know who's coming out next year 

I really hope that Diesel will come with black rods, considering they'll be plastic like the rest of the engines. (Those who have them, that is. Even if he doesn't, it's a simple fix I guess.)

Also, The large scale Spiteful Brake Van is something I could've seen from a mile away, as the Brake van was the only rolling stock piece in the range not to have been subjected to having a recolour.

But in all seriousness, I wonder why they skipped over 2 narrow gauge engines, and didn't want to add to the list of rolling stock for the range?

[Griffin (TheBlueSnowplow)]

Interesting to note that all the engines announced this year were diesels...hmm...

Paxton is expected. Hopefully the break from HO will allow them to catch up with Oliver and Rosie.

The HO rolling stock is lame but i'll probably buy the GW van and McColl cattle wagon.

Rusty is gonna look so cute in narrow gauge. Bachmann was smart to not release another carbon copy steam engine. They would've probably seen sales decrease if they had. Plus the color pallette so far is nice. Red, red, orange.

Large scale Diesel will no doubt look very impressive. I guess hindsight is 20/20, he's always been kinda the token diesel of the show and that's what large scale seems to be focused on- the target characters of the show. They could almost stop making new engines after Diesel if they felt so inclined...

Spiteful brakevan is suuuuper weird, but the Large Scale line does love repaints, so that's probably all he'll be.

Very exciting!!

[DinoNTrains]

Nice announcements. I'm surprised that the Spiteful Brake Van has been announced for LS! For someone who doesn't collect LS, I'm very much looking forward to seeing what the model will look like. As for the rest, I can't wait to see, either. And I find it nice to see more ventilated vans for the HO range.

[TrainshockeylifE]

Wow, I can't wait for rusty, and Paxton!

[TrainshockeylifE]

No redesigned James???

[JLK2707]

Maybe, but they usually don't mention these things until later. Look at the CGI updates of the mail car, oil tanker, cream tanker and raspberry syrup tanker. But I'm still just looking forward to getting BOTH Rusty and Paxton!:)

[TrainFan97]

I really hope Paxton sells better than 'Arry and Bert. Now that he's been confirmed, the ONLY Diesel repaint left would be Sidney. (Not counting Splodge, since they were one-offs)

I'm a little surprised Daisy wasn't chosen, or Stanley, but we're already getting two engines with completely new toolings; Oliver and Rosie. Paxton sounds like an economical decision, using Diesel's tooling like 'Arry and Bert. We might see him released this year depending on whether or not he's delayed. 'Arry and Bert were announced in 2013, but weren't released until Summer 2014. Their images were first revealed in the 2014 catalog.

Rusty is confirmed for Narrow Gauge. We might see Peter Sam next year.

Diesel is the first PROPER engine to be made in Large Scale since Toby. Next, I'd expect Mavis or Duck.

[Cheeky_ULP]

It took 6 years since we first started really getting into the idea of a Spiteful Brake Van by Bachmann to have him made.



...and they make it in the Large Scale range.

[Titanic5972]

Nice to see Paxton announced. And I'm guessing the did Rusty to add a bit of variation to the steam theme in Narrow Gauge. Good choices Bachmann.

[sodorlad]

How long will it take before someone starts a 2018 predictions thread..?  

I'm pleasantly surprised by the announcement of Rusty. Generally speaking, I don't think anyone saw this coming, however it makes total sense. Television series wise, Rusty was amongst the first NG characters to receive a large scale model, had a scattering of focus episodes and is in the hearts of Thomas fans old and new as being a kind and helpful, little diesel. Exactly the sort of character to promote to children in the world's current social climate.

Large scale Diesel I'm super excited for, particularly as we haven't had a 'proper' announcement for 4 years! His wheelbase will negotiate R1 curves and I know he will look fantastic... especially his side rod mechanism in this scale.  Paradoxically to Rusty, we need a pantomime villain to shakes things up in LS and generate some excitement - and prepare to see a lot of kitbashing for class 08 conversions on YouTube.

Paxton's announcement is a not so surprising, albeit a very welcome addition to the range. Our first Nitrogen character (that classic fans like, too!) in HO. Most of the tooling is on hand for him... however I don't expect to see him so quickly. Paxton's face is considerably smaller than Diesel's and the eye mechanism will also have to move, plus he'll need more plastic framing surrounding where his face will sit. I maybe wrong of course, but this isn't just a simple repaint IMO.

Rolling stock I'm not so stoked by but realistically in HO - what is there to do? If the cattle wagon resembles the one seen currently on the show, this will be my only purchase.
Spiteful brake van. I should be more excited than I am by the fan service... but meh. I will buy him but I remain hopeful for mail cars, red coaches and Henrietta for future years.
Narrow gauge, no rolling stock announcements this year, buit it's obvious the range is good hands and is being built on.

Thank you Bachmann for a cracking year of announcements. Certainly nothing to spread a 'bad atmosphere in the yard.'. Writing this, I'm hopeful the discussions for the following year can return to a more mature (in attitude) arena that the forum once was.

Mark

[BassTbone]

Wow!  Really happy about these!

Glad to see Paxton in the line-up.  A great character and personally one of my favorites.  I am also glad to see the vent van getting the GWR treatment.  It gives me some more stock for the GWR layout I have. 

Rusty was a pleasant surprise too!

[Duke]

A little sad that they only makes the Spiteful Brake Van in large scale and not HO as well, but otherwise nothing to complain about.