Bachmann Thomas & Friends in 2019

[TerencetheTractor525]

If I am not mistaken, Bachmann based Duck's face off his promo shot from the late model series (and painted the mouth white to resemble the season 7 face); if Stepney gets announced, I wonder if Bachmann will base Stepney's face off his promo shot from the late model series too.



This is my favorite Stepney face after all  .

[Chaz]

Actually the face that Bachmann used as a reference is from season 7:



Duck is, as of now, the last engine to be completely based on a model era appearance anyone who says otherwise, including those on the Wiki over the black running board on the prototype model is objectively wrong.  Hopefully, if Bachmann announces Stepney that would change.  I can easily see the face you mentioned in your post be the face Bachmann would go for since Bachmann has, for the most part, gone for more "toothy" facial expressions when it came to their faces.

[TerencetheTractor525]

No kidding! When looking more closely at Duck's face, the season 7 mouth is a different shape than the promo. I find it amazing that Bachmann used a face for Duck that was only seen in one season though. However, I'm glad to see that we are on the same page regarding Stepney's face.

[Angelob6660]

I didn't even notice the black running board on Duck.

Somebody noticed the Scottish twin engines tender don't have a water tank. I was like what  no way. I double checked the tender and no water tank. For months I wanted to get a actual HO duck to ride in Donald.

Its amazing what details goes in and what other things are forgotten.

[BoCoTheDiesel]

My 2019 Predictions!

HO Gauge

Daisy
Sidney
Stepney
G Scale

Diesel

Narrow Gauge

Luke

I'm not sure about the rolling stock though...

[TrainshockeylifE]

After reading your post, daisy or stepney are likely, but like isn't likely at all and Diesel won't happen because they were going to make him but cancelled him so they're clearly not making him sadly

[Toad139]

Its amazing what details goes in and what other things are forgotten.

The twins not having water tanks was done deliberately; it's not a detail Bachmann missed. They never actually had water tanks in the TV series.

[Cheeky_ULP]

Nevermind new products for 2019, will Bachmann have a 2019 range at all?

https://www.facebook.com/280631378673120/posts/1843558735713702/

Mattel is slowly laying the axe on Thomas ranges one by one. Wood failed and got pulled, Hornby retired their Thomas range, and now Adventures is being discontinued. In terms of Thomas ranges, the numbers seem to be dwindling more and more.

This raises the question if Lionel, Bachmann and Tomix are next. Will Mattel finally tire of sharing profits with these companies and cut ties? I really hope not, and I feel like that the Bachmann range is one of the most-supported ranges by the collector fandom. I'm hoping that if it -does- get discontinued, we'll at least get signs of it through item discontinuations, rather than have the rug pulled from our feet out of nowhere some time soon.

Either way, here's hoping that Bachmanns Thomas range is capable of surviving this ordeal.

[Chaz]

As I said in a post earlier, Thomas toys in general have suffered from poor quality and mediocre sales, so Adventures getting dropped doesn't entirely surprise me.  Though it is getting replaced with a new die cast range on Trackmaster track, which leads me to believe that Trackmaster is also getting dropped too to make room for the new range.

Despite what's going on with the franchise, I think Bachmann will be okay personally.  I think their HO and Large scale ranges will continue to be mostly stagnant with more recolors to join the range.  Narrow gauge will probably come out with one new tooling a year being either an engine or a new rolling stock tooling.  If Tomix isn't releasing to the US and Hornby gave up the UK rights to sell Thomas models, I'd argue that there is more going for Bachmann than not if they acquire said licenses from Japan and the UK.

Either way, with how bad the new season is turning out so far with a terrible movie following it and Mattel's terrible business and marketing decisions, it's definitely not a good time to be a Thomas fan. 

[Angelob6660]

My 2019 predictions

HO Scale
Troublesome truck #6 (van)
Recolor/redesign of a previous locomotive

Narrow Gauge
Sir Handel or Peter Sam
Brake van

[Rodimus Supreme]

As I said in a post earlier, Thomas toys in general have suffered from poor quality and mediocre sales, so Adventures getting dropped doesn't entirely surprise me.  Though it is getting replaced with a new die cast range on Trackmaster track, which leads me to believe that Trackmaster is also getting dropped too to make room for the new range.

Despite what's going on with the franchise, I think Bachmann will be okay personally.  I think their HO and Large scale ranges will continue to be mostly stagnant with more recolors to join the range.  Narrow gauge will probably come out with one new tooling a year being either an engine or a new rolling stock tooling.  If Tomix isn't releasing to the US and Hornby gave up the UK rights to sell Thomas models, I'd argue that there is more going for Bachmann than not if they acquire said licenses from Japan and the UK.

Either way, with how bad the new season is turning out so far with a terrible movie following it and Mattel's terrible business and marketing decisions, it's definitely not a good time to be a Thomas fan. 

Now that actually sounds like that could be a good toyline! Almost like a ERTL/Trackmaster Hybrid. Hopefully someone working on this knows what they're doing. Hopefully Trackmaster doesn't get discontinued, but hopefully fixed.

The first time I heard about Thomas Wood getting cancelled, I believe it was just a rumor at the time, and the poster mentioned another rumor that went along with that one, where they were going to bring back Thomas Wooden Railway. It's nice to see that Thomas Wood is really going away, but does anyone know if maybe they really are bringing Thomas Wooden Railway back? That information would be appreciated.

And I've said it before, I am a comic book nerd as well, so I've also seen Mattel's action figure side of things. Over there, they're slowly improving, but they still have a long way to go. I don't know why they can't get their act together and have good quality improvements all around, but hopefully all this negative feedback (to put it lightly) gives them the swift kick in the pants they need to get their act together and start making the necessary and wanted changes.

[Angelob6660]

I can't believe the wooden railway is getting cancelled. After 26 years I remember playing with them at the age of 6 at the mall.

I owed a few like Thomas, Henry, Percy, James but my interest was more into the ERTL models because they looked like the actual locomotives.

[TrainshockeylifE]

Just to let everyone know, that new range coming is only going to let have 8 items all together....

[Rodimus Supreme]

Just to let everyone know, that new range coming is only going to let have 8 items all together....

And is unmotorized...

It's like Mattel is trying to kill off the brand.

[TerencetheTractor525]

How about something nice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wesCEBy1TE

Also, check out Mike O'Donnell's rerecord of the song if you have not heard it yet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCpHWeFV8IE