Future suggestions/predictions thread

[JLK2707]

BoCo and Stepney would be cool. I'd just get them in a heartbeat.

[TrainFan97]

Hi all,

We appreciate the suggestions. We were uncertain as to how to handle this topic, but as it's come up many times now, I feel I need to address one piece of speculation:

Bachmann does not have a CGI "mandate" from Mattel. We are not required or forced to make exclusively CGI character and items, as can be seen from items like the 80th Anniversary set, the China Clay Wagons, the Museum Coaches, S.C. Ruffey, etc.

It's been our choice to focus primarily on characters that have appeared in the CGI series, particularly the engines. We do this in order to have a strong relationship with Mattel and to help promote their brand, by making sure to highlight engines that are most recognizable to children watching the newer seasons of the show. While all of our models do need to be approved by Mattel, they've never outright forced us to only create CGI products.

We'd love to do every character across all eras of the franchise someday- we just can't say when or if all of them will be feasible. But never say never!

After being discussed for like, several years, it was finally time for one of the admins to debunk the CGI mandate.

Turns out the CGI mandate isn't real, and was nothing more than a myth. Bachmann isn't forced to stick with characters that only appeared in the CGI series. They just CHOOSE to stick with engines that appeared in the CGI series in order to have a strong relationship with Mattel, and highlight engines that would be most recognizable to the younger fans. While it is true that all products do need to be approved by Mattel, they never forced Bachmann to ONLY make CGI series characters.

So this means that characters like Stepney, BoCo, or Duke are still worth discussing. Although they've never officially appeared in the CGI series, that doesn't mean they'll never be made. Though they do have fan-made CGI renders as seen in fan-made productions. Splatter and Dodge are still possible, especially since their tooling actually exists.

Now that the CGI mandate has been debunked, we can stop talking about that, and still suggest characters, even if they didn't appear in full CGI.

[JLK2707]

I just take back what I said about Mattel with this.

[JLK2707]

I would just love Splatter and Dodge in HO Scale.

[Coaltronn]

Please make splatter and Dodge! I think it would be cool to see some of the older model series trains in the AEG just because they can create toys for the younger kids like my son and use older fans would buy through bachmann. my son plays with all the trains with my HO bachmann and recognizes them. he would play with both a motorized duke and because of Magic railroad he loves splatter and dodge. he would play the crap out of HO bachmann. then when we are upstairs or we went away to grandmas house he would take the motorized ones.

The collector in me wants them all.

[Cheeky_ULP]

It's always good to get clarification on these kinds of rumors, now that theory can be put to rest. Mandates are a popular speculative topic among fandoms and it's not always easy for people working for respective companies to verify if they're true or not.

That said, I think this opens up another interesting topic: What -is- relevant to kids nowadays within the Thomas brand? All Engines Go has been going on for several seasons now, and BWBA was the last CGI related content the show got. My nephew also began watching Thomas recently and has been hooked, so the accessibility of Thomas content has been on my mind. With that said...

It seems there's two "easily accessible" avenues to watch Thomas: Amazon Prime Video and Netflix. Amazon Prime Video is what my nephew has been watching, and that started him right off at Season 1, goes up to Season 7, Season 16, and then 18 to 22. Most CGI era specials are also available on Prime. Netflix continues behind that with the BWBA seasons and specials, as well ass AEG.

There's no doubt that the most recent content is on Netflix so that Mattel can get their moneys worth out of the investment, but once AEG took over the brand, most of BWBA just kind of melted into the rest of the CGI era. I don't think there's a whole lot of BWBA era characters that would be a worthy on return investment for a new tooling, given how mixed their reception was to fans young and old.

Rebecca is already in the Bachmann range now, and between her and Nia, seemed the safer choice of BWBA representation. Any other BWBA characters tend to be a combination of too niche and too expensive to warrant making a new tooling of. If Bachmann were to make anything else from the BWBA era, I feel like Nia is the only one that would get a new tooling, with Gina not far behind her; any other character would need to be something that can be repurposed from an old Bachmann USA tooling or one of the Class 08 repaints.

From there, you're left with two branches of engine picks for the range: CGI era in general, and "nostalgia" picks. There's still a lot of characters in both categories, and I feel like we might get a better gauge on what to predict next after Monday.

[DustyMarie53!]

Building off of what Cheeky ULP said, there is a mold that could blend the best of both worlds. Make a character from the CGI series, while also make a more nostalgia engine. That pf course being Norman, and his brother Dennis.


Norman is a prototype that doesn't currently have a ready to run model as well so that's a nice bonus. He isn't the most popular character, but he is in a trio with Paxton and Sidney, so getting him to complete the set would be nice. Dennis is nearly identical so they wouldn't need to be a new tooling. Now that we know there is no model mandate there is really nothing holding this back from being a dual release to maximize the new tooling cost. This would be an ideal way to test viability for model only characters without breaking the bank. Similar to how the TR locos Bachmann are producing are tests for viability of the new molds in the same style. Splatter and Dodge could also fill a similar niche. However being 08 diesels, while different, I could see a hesitance after the failure of the iron twins. Splodge could risk a repeat. But they would be welcome inclusions.

[Cheeky_ULP]

Norman and Dennis is a pair I have vouched for before, and I still hold to the idea that they would be a smart investment on Bachmann's end, and even more-so now that we know there isn't a formal mandate. Dennis has slightly less detail than Norman does, but I don't think fans would mind if those details were included on a Dennis model; the only major difference is the triangular bits on Norman's buffer beam. I definitely feel like if Bachmann wants to do another tooling engine after Stanley that can get a lot of return on their investment, Dennis/Norman is the way to go next.

[Zorran202]

And given that Dennis was gonna be originally appear in Day of the Diesels, but quickly got the "Charlie" treatment in that they decided to create a whole new character instead to make it fresh, I'd wonder what Dennis would've looked like with the CGI details of Norman had he'd shown up on-screen. Heck, his real-life basis also had that detail on his bufferbeam, whatever those things are, but point being that his and Norman's faces would be the only thing that'd be the challenge to deal with....

[crazymarioflims]

If bachmann needs re-color. Here are few ideas
Blue Donald and Douglas

They look great in blue. They never appeared blue the show besides the books.

Pink James

It would be cool and funny to see this.

Blue Henry

This would be cool for the Henry fans. Henry is my favorite character. Behind Edward.

Few character that I want to see
1. Charlie
2. Stafford
3. whiff
4. Sonny
5. Stephen

Unlikely but
1. Neville, Arthur, Dennis and Murdock

[TEHNewClearwaterFeatures]

Rebecca is already in the Bachmann range now, and between her and Nia, seemed the safer choice of BWBA representation. Any other BWBA characters tend to be a combination of too niche and too expensive to warrant making a new tooling of. If Bachmann were to make anything else from the BWBA era, I feel like Nia is the only one that would get a new tooling, with Gina not far behind her; any other character would need to be something that can be repurposed from an old Bachmann USA tooling or one of the Class 08 repaints.

I for one would LOVE to get my hands on a Bachamnn Nia along with Rebecca.

[TRAINSROCK!]

Recently I've been thinking about more troublesome trucks. (i did share ideas on more of them). two i thought of were the shortbase wagon (as seen in percy's predicament and busy going backwards). the other is another troublesome oil tanker. (since the one bachmann did was from the baba movie i thought they could add another tanker but this one more based from journy beyond sodor with the oil tanker). this one could be used as a second tanker. one that's good and one that's misbehave since there's four of the open troublesome wagons (troublesome trucks 1 2 4 and counting s.c. ruffy).  as four). so that's what I got to offer for now.