HO Scale Nia and Rebecca Release Speculation

[Derpyunikitty]

Alright, I may be getting too ahead of myself, but due to the upcoming terrible overhaul to Thomas and Friends, there are 2 new main characters being added into the show, Nia, an African tank engine, and Rebecca, a mainland tender engine. I think that these characters should be released in the future, since again, they're becoming main characters, but when?

I suspect that since Bachmann's designers are rather slow to respond to character introductions, designing the models, prodiction making and prototypes, and many other factors (Seriously, Paxton after 7 years since his debut?), I suspect that we could wait for a while now just to see the two get their HO Scale models. I suspect by 2020 or 2021 we'll see them on store shelves, or they could be delayed for a [l]lllloooonnnnggg[/l] time, like Oliver.

Do any of you have bets or oredictions about these two coming out?

[Cheeky_ULP]

We had a discussion similar to this recently at http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,34031.0.html and the general agreement seems to be nobody wants these engines to come out for a long time.

Bachmann and Mattel should not even be considering the two chracters for the range. Their popularity and reception is unproven, and to make them anytime soon would be nothing short of jumping the gun.

Right now interest seems to be focused on rooting for Daisy, and more recently, reviving Stepney as a possible plan B.

[Derpyunikitty]

Hmm, true that nobody asked for these characters to exist in the first place, but I don't think the userbase of the T&F Bachmann decides what comes out and what doesn't. It's Bachamann's decision.

Also, I completely agree with releasing Daisy and Stepney. Daisy was very irrelavant in the classic series, but in the CGI series, she's gone VERY far as a character. As for Stepney, he's pretty much dead, but he has a huge fanbase (proud to be a Stepney fan) and is not roo difdicult to produce, so I'm hoping they come.

[Cheeky_ULP]

The "userbase" is the one buying the engines and rolling stock, most of the time. Normal parents usually buy the bare bones stuff like Thomas, the Fun With Freight set, Christmas set, Percy, James, etc. It's the more niche fanbase that is buying characters like Duck, Donald, Douglas, Rosie, etc.

The problem with Rebecca and Nia is their special hasn't even come out yet, and by 2019, it will have only been out for 5 months (if it has a September release date). Mattel may be trying to push them hard in the media and merchandise ranges like Wood and Trackmaster, but Bachmann rarely gives in to trends like that.

Emily and Spencer came to the range in 2007 and 2006 respectively, which was 3-4 years after their debut episodes. Rosie came into the Bachmann range 10 years after her debut episode. Paxton debuted in 2011 in Day of the Diesels, but didn't become a fan favorite until his role in Blue Mountain Mystery in 2012, with Bachmann making a model of him 5 years later.

[TerencetheTractor525]

The other issue that I see with Nia and Rebecca is that neither character would be inexpensive to make. I especially see the side rods as a costly problem. Both characters utilize complex side-rod configurations, which means that more metal would have to be invested. Consequently, not only do fans dislike the characters, but they would also be expensive to make, a massive lose-lose situation for Bachmann. And, after not seeing a new tooling for an HO locomotive get announced since 2016, announcing a character that is disliked by so many people would be just sad.

Overall, I don't think that it is a matter of accepting Nia and Rebecca into the range. It's a matter of deciding on the order in which Bachmann announces new products. If we can see Daisy and/or Stepney (both of whom would be less costly options that would definitely do better in the market) first, then I don't think that fans would be as bothered with Nia and Rebecca.

[Cheeky_ULP]

That's a good point; we can rule out Rebecca by default, being a large tender engine and all. Hiro would have a better chance than she does. Nia has a lot of much more competition from more viable small engines like Daisy and Stepney from the classic series, as well as Sidney, Philip or other side characters from the CGI episodes.

[Chaz]

I can also see Rebecca getting ruled out too, Nia on the other hand does strike me as more of a red flag, particularly with how Mattel has been taking control of the brand recently.

Personally I hope that Bachmann is reading the negative feedback on here on certain characters as well as positive ones too.  Besides the demand and positive sales that would follow behind classics like Stepney and Daisy, I hope they can also know that some characters would not be welcomed in the range at all and would only hurt the range and damage their sales, while also knowing that a lot of fans on here care about what happens with Bachmann long-term.

To say Nia would do more harm for Bachmann than good would be a HUGE understatement.

[Angelob6660]

If they want to make these locomotives. Then wait for 5 or more years. Second thought would be the popularity of them if people really want them.

[Griffin (TheBlueSnowplow)]

If the new show has a postive reception, they are both inevitable- it's as easy as that. Siderods configs and size will not matter- Mattel has way more control over Bachmann than I think any of us realize.

[JLK2707]

I strongly doubt the new show will get a lot of positive reception since a lot of people are angry at Mattel for getting rid of Edward, Henry and Toby from the steam team. I also think that nia and Rebecca being announced in HO scale would just further add fuel to the fire since Mattel would be simply giving the middle finger to those who enjoyed the three I mentioned in the steam team.

What do you think? I would love to hear the opinions of others on this subject.

[Plow_Bender]

Mattel has way more control over Bachmann than I think any of us realize.

Alright, lets take a few steps back here for a moment because that statement is not entirely true.  Yes Mattel does have the final say in what Bachmann can/will produce for the range, but at the same time Bachmann themselves (being the ones that produce whatever is announced) does have the final say on whether or not a product gets made.  A perfect example of this would be items like Large Scale Diesel and/or McColl's Cattle Wagon which even though Mattel approved, we're canceled before release.  Regardless of what I've heard from others, Bachmann do listen to what the fans want to see, but in the end they only have so much leeway.  Still, it's not like Mattel is holding them at knifepoint demanding they make characters like Nia and/or Rebecca.

I'm going to be honest and agree with a few people that Rebecca is out of the question simply because of the fact she's a tender engine.  The last time we had any tender engines announced in the range was back in 2010, and that's because it was a set of twins which in turn made for better costs on both production and RRP.  As I've mentioned before (mainly in large scale) size plays a big factor in whether or not a model gets made, which I think is also an issue engines such as Daisy have when it comes to being produced.  That being said, I wouldn't even get my hopes up to see Hiro added to the range either.

The big issue Nia and Rebecca face at this time is the fact that (as mentioned before) they're not popular characters nor have they even been properly introduced at this time.  2020-2021 seems about right for them to be announced, but a lot could happen within the next 3-4 years.  Going back to a post Mr. Metal made last year, he stated that within a couple seasons the show will probably return to normal.  In other words (or at least in my opinion) BWBA is going to be a complete failure, Nia and Rebecca will be erased, and the show will go back to the original characters just to please the angry mob of Thomas fans that Mattel screwed over.  Put simply, I could honestly see Mattel just sweeping the whole thing under the rug and acting as if nothing ever happened.

-Rusty

[DrNickRiviera995]

I strongly doubt the new show will get a lot of positive reception since a lot of people are angry at Mattel for getting rid of Edward, Henry and Toby from the steam team. I also think that nia and Rebecca being announced in HO scale would just further add fuel to the fire since Mattel would be simply giving the middle finger to those who enjoyed the three I mentioned in the steam team.

What do you think? I would love to hear the opinions of others on this subject.

I think it's just more pandering to the pc police again.  So tired of this stuff.  It's a show about trains, the primary audience will always be boys.  I don't know why they feel they need to shove female characters down our throats.  Next thing, they'll introduce an engine who isn't sure what gender he/she is.

We haven't had any cable TV in years, so unless the new seasons are available for streaming on Netflix, Hulu, or Prime, we probably won't see the characters for a few years until the DVD of the season is released, assuming they're still working through the seasons, currently think they're only at S18 and seems like one comes out a year as of late.

Hopefully it will fail and things will go back to how they were.  They already had a few strong female characters, no need to add more just for the sake of needing more females, let alone bump the original main engines out of the picture.

[Chaz]

Gender never really seemed to make much, if any difference at all to Bachmann when it comes to sales.  Even when Bachmann made Rosie her sales were pretty minimal compared to Duck, Oliver, and the narrow gauge engines.  Heck, even Emily is a main character and is far more recognizable of a character on the show than Rosie and yet despite that, her sales aren't exactly huge in HO either.  Emily is not even on the bestsellers list in the online store either, unlike the rest of the steam team or Duck and Oliver for that matter.  Even Spencer sold better than Emily too.

If neither Emily and Rosie were popular sellers, then that's honestly saying something about the sales for Nia and Rebecca models, regardless of however much input Mattel has on these characters or not.

[Angelob6660]

Chaz, you forgot to mention Mavis.

I got just got tired Nia and Rebecca communication. This subject should wait later on the year.
I don't have problems with females. My problem is there is so many trains for a very short island. (The last time I measured the island's mainline was 150 or so more miles. I never measured the height.) Adding more characters doesn't make sense to me. I'm surprised they're not bumping bumper to bumper.

[Chaz]

Chaz, you forgot to mention Mavis.

I left out Mavis intentionally because she was one of the original characters introduced by Awdry.  Emily and Rosie were introduced much later than Mavis and have been more or less "token female characters" in terms of the main cast for Emily and marketing for both engines.