New Thomas Revamp for 2021

[TerencetheTractor525]

Mattel has done it again. For those who were not yet aware, Mattel is revamping the Thomas brand once more. Thus, there is concern about the direction of new products for the Bachmann Thomas line again, as Bachmann is one of the only companies that still continues to produce Thomas products of high quality to this day.

My hope is that Bachmann can make Stepney and one more long diesel (Boco, Derek, or Diesel 10) for the HO line, as well as Sir Handel, Duncan, and possibly Duke for the Narrow Gauge line. These are the main classics that are still missing, and it is amazing to know that there are not many left.

As for rolling stock, the only piece with a new tooling that I would really like to see is a Narrow Gauge Green Open Carriage. I would be very interested and happy with creative repaints such as the Explosives Van and Circus Train too, as long as they can be announced alongside the missing classic engines.

One more batch of resin buildings would be nice to see as well, especially with the Thomas line now entering markets overseas.

In terms of Large Scale, it would be nice to see the Red Branch Line Coaches finally announced, and while the N Scale line is still new, I would imagine that previously announced products from the HO and Large Scale lines would eventually be announced in N Scale.

Just as we did when Mattel made the controversial change to Big World Big Adventures, it is important that we express our thoughts on the Bachmann Forum. After all, we know that the admins read our posts with great care and consideration. That's why Daisy and Peter Sam were previously announced .

[Chaz]

Looking over the last two years, I think BWBA never had any influence on anything Bachmann's announced over the last two years, apart from the -most likely- design choice from Troublesome Truck #6 (hopefully there will be an update on that soon).  But even if "that" era of the show didn't have that much influence on Bachmann, I can't imagine the same would apply for this new reboot as well, especially with how much of a following Bachmann has with Thomas fans, as you mentioned earlier.  The worst case scenario I could see happening in 2021 would probably just be an increase of recolors at Toy Fair next year with hardly any new toolings (unless it's something simple like an N scale Toby or an N scale brake van).  Even that would most likely be due to the global pandemic on top of still working on Daisy, Peter Sam and the N scale James.  Plus the large scale Diesel is making swift progress as shown in the Trainworld stream, so that's something else to look forward to. 

Either way, I'm not too concerned at this time with how Bachmann is doing as far as the reboot is concerned.  Mattel will always have an influence/their approval on what gets announced and what doesn't get announced, but if Big World didn't have as much of an influence in recent years despite Mattel's push/marketing then I can't imagine the same will happen with the reboot as well. 

[Falcon the 2nd]

My thoughts are similar to Chaz's in a sense. I don't see this new wave of official content affecting Bachmann as severely or quickly as we may think at first, at least unless complete character redesigns occur. I still understand Terence's point of view, however, and I have my own fears for what could happen to both the Bachmann's catalogue and permission if this content ends up failing hard. From what I've seen, fans are handling this revamp as the ultimate franchise finisher for Thomas & Friends taking into account what it's been through in the past five years. Things look just fine for Bachmann at the moment and it's evident that there's no signs of stopping for them anytime soon, but it's still best to approach the future with caution in all aspects.

If the entire Bachmann run were to hypothetically come to a simultaneous end, all the products that Terence mentioned are very good notes to go out on for their respective lines and each for good reasons. I'm also amazed that they've gotten this far with classic characters and that there's not much left to cover in actuality.

If I were to add anything in an already impressive list of product suggestions, it'd be two for Large Scale - Henretta and maybe one more engine. They'd be long shots considering how many rolling stock recolors occurred lately and how long it took for Diesel to be physically realized, but they're still equally ideal and big notes to go out on for the line as the Red Coaches. Toby's signature coach has amazingly been missing for as long as he's been around and there's plenty of options to choose for a last engine in that line - Mavis, Edward, Duck, Bill/Ben, Oliver, or even a recolor like LBSC Thomas or Origins James. I don't expect either of these to happen for how much they'd cost Bachmann to make and how niche the Large Scale market may have gotten by now, but I still think they'd be worth considering for an end-of-the-line situation.

N Scale's still quite young so I don't see it ending too soon, but if it were to end, having the old Steam Team (Season 1 engines and Emily) at the very least would do itself a service. Maybe at least one diesel character too, most likely Diesel for being a franchise mainstay or Mavis for easy reuse of Toby's chassis.

[Rodimus Supreme]

I'm more concerned with what kind of new damage Mattel will inflict on the brand. I will not sugar coat my dislike for Mattel.

[JLK2707]

Seriously, the show should just get canned!

[TrainFan97]

It says each story will be centered around Thomas. I don't like the sound of that. Sounds like Thomas is going to be the main character in every episode, and other characters won't have starring roles anymore. I have a bad feeling Mattel is going to botch it again, just like they did with Big World Big Adventures. Boy, they botched it big time, with cartoonish laws of physics that show lack of realism left and right, gesturing characters, no more third-person narrator, mediocre international episodes, blatant disrespect for Edward and Henry (who are barely used anymore, especially in Season 23), pointless fantasy sequences, extremely forced female tokenism, shortened episode segments, and much more.

When fans write much better episodes than the production team, you know there's a problem. Mattel is just way too conservative with the Thomas franchise. All they really did was fix what isn't broken. It's like they want the show to get cancelled. Mattel has no one to blame but themselves.

[MeganekkoFury1126]

I don't think this new revamp will have too much say on what Bachmann makes in the long run.

I think if the BWBA revamp has taught us anything, is that these fads and phases come and go, but in general most people (especially the largest group of customers) will still stick with the Thomas they grew up with and love, and the eras of the show when it stood out so well from its contemporaries.

The BWBA phase is pretty much over, but people still gush over the classic seasons and their strengths, and to the extent the Brenner era content as well. It's a reason why so much fan content focuses on the characters, music, themes, and morals from those parts of the show's legacy.

[Chaz]

If I were to add anything in an already impressive list of product suggestions, it'd be two for Large Scale - Henretta and maybe one more engine. They'd be long shots considering how many rolling stock recolors occurred lately and how long it took for Diesel to be physically realized, but they're still equally ideal and big notes to go out on for the line as the Red Coaches. Toby's signature coach has amazingly been missing for as long as he's been around and there's plenty of options to choose for a last engine in that line - Mavis, Edward, Duck, Bill/Ben, Oliver, or even a recolor like LBSC Thomas or Origins James. I don't expect either of these to happen for how much they'd cost Bachmann to make and how niche the Large Scale market may have gotten by now, but I still think they'd be worth considering for an end-of-the-line situation.

While I don't think the large scale range itself is going to be dropped, I do think that if they were to only announce only Edward or Henrietta and continue to make the range stagnant or only announce recolors in the future, I don't think Bachmann could have ended their range on a better note.  Edward has always been a popular request in large scale, and his sounds are available for the DCC module (for some reason, along with other characters not in the range), and I feel he would fit the budget as well as the size for Bachmann's large scale range.  He would sell better than Winston, and probably Diesel too honestly.  Henrietta again was always a popular request ever since and even before Toby's announcement and with people turning to making their own custom Henrietta's it shows that the market for a large scale Henrietta is starting to become evident.  Even if Bachmann wanted to reuse the Henrietta tooling for Hannah (as much as I don't care for the character, at all) it would at least be a nice way for Bachmann to reuse the tooling in the future if they wished.  

Narrow gauge is a lot more limited with possibilities that they can do engine wise.  Bachmann's managed to announce about 2/3 of the main six Skarloey railway engines, so based on that alone I could see that range taking things slower for the time being, at least until Peter Sam and the brake vans come out.  Once they're out I can see new announcements coming in for narrow gauge (hopefully Sir Handel is next!)

HO and N scale I think are going to be just fine long term, especially N scale as you mentioned it's still a fairly new range.  Plus, according to Bachmann's Twitter they are expecting the N scale Thomas and Percy to be in stock this month.  So at least something else to look forward to, in addition to the tankers coming out sometime this year.

[Rodimus Supreme]

https://variety.com/2020/film/news/thomas-friends-movie-mattel-marc-forster-1234793292/

WHY?!?! I have a bad feeling about this story.

[TrainFan97]

After seeing what this upcoming cartoon reboot is going to be like, I'm pretty sure it's going to be DOA. The CGI series has ended, and now they're switching over to 2D animation.

At this point, I think Mattel wants the Thomas franchise to fail. Why do you think they keep making such bad toys? Virtually the only good merchandise left is Bachmann. At least Bachmann cares, which is why we're getting Daisy.

Also, Thomas being the main character in literally every episode really takes away a lot of story potential.