Bachmann Thomas & Friends Summer 2021 NMRA Predictions

[Kemptown Branch]

Guys, we only have around 2 weeks left until we find out about the new announcements if there are some!

[Falcon the 2nd]

Can anyone remind me when NMRA is supposed to be hosted? I'm eager to see what's in store for this year, but I don't know when exactly it's going to take place.

[Kemptown Branch]

It's most of next week, and I think there might be Trainworld's Thomas Tuesday on top of that, unless it was canceled for the show. Either way, I think we'll know the announcements by Friday. That seems to be the day they're always announced.

[Falcon the 2nd]

Great, thanks for the response. I actually almost forgot about Thomas Tuesdays for a little while!

[TrainFan97]

The NMRA is almost here. It will either be exciting, or a letdown like last year when literally the only thing announced was Origin James.

I won't bet on Stepney being announced while HO Scale Ryan is currently in the works, but it would be a miracle if Bachmann pulls it off.

As for N Scale, we still need the Milk Tanker, and Henrietta to go along with Toby.

[Chaz]

Well the NMRA PDF is up, we are getting a new Christmas set and large scale red coaches!

https://resources.bachmanntrains.com/nmra-2021/html5/index.html


The Christmas set is a bit random since we just got a new one, what two years ago?  But the Santa sleigh load and Santa figure do look nice and I think it's somewhat of an improvement over the previous set.

The red coaches on the other hand are really exciting! It's nice that we are finally getting coaches outside of Annie Clarabel and Emily coaches.  I can see these being very hot sellers in the range.  

[TrainFan97]

So, the NMRA announcements weren't really much more exciting than last year's. All that got announced was yet another HO Scale Christmas Thomas set with Santa's sleigh, and Large Scale Red Coaches. Still no N Scale Milk Tanker or Henrietta yet.

I understand no new engines being announced just yet, considering we have Ryan coming to HO Scale, and Toby coming to N Scale. I guess this is it until early 2022.

[TerencetheTractor525]

Given the large amount of Thomas products that were announced in February of this year, I was very pleasantly surprised to see more additions for this year's NMRA!

The HO Christmas set was somewhat odd to me at first glance, mainly since the previous one was announced only two years ago. Yet, after looking more closely, it does look interesting with a festive Toad Brake Van, sleigh, and HO Santa figure.

The Large Scale Red Coaches are fantastic! I know that many Large Scale Thomas modelers have wanted Bachmann to announce these for years. Thus, it is nice to finally see them added to the line. I could see Toby's Museum Coaches as an additional recolor for the future too.

As always, I would like to thank Bachmann for thinking of us Thomas fans with these new product announcements, and I look forward to viewing Thursday's presentation very much.

[Falcon the 2nd]

It was wise for most of us to keep our expectations low all things considered, but what we got this year are still very much nice and welcome .

I haven't been a big fan of Bachmann introducing so many HO Christmas-themed Thomas sets within the last several years, but I will say that I like how they always make each one different and interesting in some way. The inclusion of Toad's basis is cool pun intended and I look forward to seeing that sleigh wagon in physical form.

At long last, the Red Coaches are coming to Large Scale! I had a strong feeling that they would come next and I'm certain they will make many Large Scale modellers happy. The range has had a fair share of remarkable announcements recently - between Diesel, Paxton and the Red Coaches - and I hope to see it continue to thrive in its offerings in the foreseeable future. Though I cannot account for potential other rolling stock, it would be great to see LBSC Thomas or Bill and Ben join the range as its next engine offering(s).

[JLK2707]

Cool. I just cannot wait to see the large scale red Branchline coaches. I also heard from Insidertrack that the reason bachmann have not done Henrietta in large scale is because it is too expensive or costly for them to manufacture.

[clrp5150]

Not gonna lie, those were pretty disappointing for me. As someone who doesn't care for Christmas trains and or do large scale, these are very boring. I had a dream recently that Bachmann announced Stepney, BoCo, Sir Handel and Duncan, but I knew that not all of them would actually happen be announced at once, so I was expecting 1 or 2. I guess I put my hopes too high this time

[DinoNTrains]

While it would have been nice to see engines like BoCo, Stepney, Sir Handel, etc., I'm not displeased with the updates. I think it's really cool that they're reusing Toad's tooling (GWR toads are cool brake vans), though, as others have stated before, we have had quite a few Christmas-themed sets before, so if they could make just a standard brake van with Toad's tooling, I'd be satisfied.

I'm not too surprised that the Red Coaches are being made in LS. With Annie & Clarabel already a part of the LS range, it only makes sense to make the Red Coaches (what with the similar tooling and all).

Also, on a somewhat non-Thomas related subject, I was very surprised to hear that Bachmann is making track cleaning brake vans! I wasn't expecting that at all. And I think they would make nice additions to any Sodor or British-inspired layout, without the need to order a Bachmann Branchline brake van from across the pond, or turning to eBay, etc.

[Kemptown Branch]

Does anybody know if there were any updates on Thomas stuff in the presentation today?

[MrNormalDraws]

I personally feel like it's better than last year's as I felt kinda disappointed with just the Black James repaint (which I don't know why that's taking a a long time to get release, unless the updated James might have to do with the delay). I'm not into the large scale stuff at the moment, but I'm glad they're adding more rolling stock in it.  The Santa set looks very good and I like they recolored the Toad tooling, though I kinda wish they can add some extra details on Thomas as the problem with the Christmas sets is that I already have the same Thomas and I only want the wagons to add into my collection. I would like it if they can add some details on the engine, as this is based on the S17 episode, maybe add those branches he had on the side or least a red nose if they don't want to deal with pointy objects on the model.