I don't think they can fully recycle the HO/OO 'Thomas' chassis for Stanley. That chassis is far from correct to Thomas' appearance in the 'CGI' series, and Stanley has different enough wheel spacing that he would need a whole new chassis. Depending on how correctly sized they are, I could see Oliver's drivers used for Stanley like they were with Ryan, but given they lack the correct counterweights it would probably be best for Bachmann to just make a new wheel pattern.

I believe CGI Thomas and Stanley share the same wheel pattern, so perhaps Large Scale and N Scale can reuse the Thomas wheels if he were to ever migrate to those scales. But a new chassis would definitely be required in either scale. I'm sure he would be much appreciated as a newcomer to either scale, though.

(Tangentially on the subject of 'shared chassis'; Having further inspected the N Scale Toby model, it's only the wheels that are borrowed from Thomas. the chassis block is fully new and I believe the side rods are new in order to accommodate Toby's shorter wheelbase. Incidentally the die-cast block seems a bit too tall and wide in certain places to perfectly accommodate a future Mavis, but the only thing I think would need changing is that block's shape, the general sizing and wheelbase are otherwise good.)

But anyway, glad to see Stanley finally brought into the fold. At last, that old Hornby "Stanley's Shed" resin building will finally have a function, ha ha!

If the new '12 Ton Van' tool is indeed the Large Scale/N Scale 'Thomas' Box Van body scaled to HO/OO, I must wonder if that means the new liveries seen on the 12 Ton Vans will be included as 'Box Van' liveries for Large Scale and N Scale as well... Personally, I'd be most interested in having a rake of Gray vans in N Scale, but wouldn't mind having some Funfair or Christmas vans as well.

Very pleasantly surprised by how much was announced for the 'Thomas' line this year. Stanley and Bulgy are great character picks for HO/OO. It's odd to see yet more HOn30 stock announced despite not having seen hide nor hair of Sir Handel or the High-Side Wagons or Gondolas, but it's nice to see Duncan is going to happen.

I'm not quite sure how to feel about Diesel and Paxton being the next N Scale locomotives. I was quite invested in the idea of Henry and Edward being next... I suppose those two are still inevitable, at the very least. Paxton is one of my favorite engines so I will happily pick him up, and I will likely get Diesel at some point as well.

The sneakily-hinted Express Coaches in N are great to see as well. The use of the HO/OO model as reference is making me a bit unsure as to their final look but I very much hope these will be downscaled versions of the HO/OO model rather than new tools based on the 'CGI' coaches. The 'CGI' coaches are awful things, far too skinny and short. The HO/OO tool looks much better and a side-benefit of shrinking it will be providing ready-to-run Era 2 LMS coaches in N Scale, which would surely be appreciated by modelers of certain eras in that region.

The fact Stanley, the 12 Ton Vans, and Paxton/Diesel already have suggested prices is interesting, perhaps these have already had decent progress made on their tooling?

I don't expect much of importance this year other than Henry, and now the Express Coaches due to the teaser, in N. I don't see a new 'Thomas' loco for HO being announced until the 2024 Catalog at the earliest, same for HOn30. Large Scale could possibly see something, but I don't hold out much hope for anything groundbreaking like a new tool. (Would love to be proven wrong, the LS crowd deserve to have something good happen, ha ha)

It's been a while since there's been new Tank Cars in HO or LS, so it feels like about the right time to see some new ones. A redesign of the Tar Tank to match the 'CGI' version with the blocky stencil lettering would be my first choice (if only so it can propagate into N Scale, ha ha) but bringing the LS-exclusive liveries into HO would be good as well. Brand new liveries would be interesting as well, especially if they can bring some color variety in, such as a Red or Green livery.

But otherwise, I expect this batch of mid-year announcements to be like this year's annual catalog announcements... Overall rather light and with N getting the lion's share of attention. (Which isn't necessarily personal bias speaking, it does make sense to prioritize adding more to N Scale right now given the how the cost of new HO tooling is skyrocketing, and the lineup can safely re-tread the 'greatest hits' from HO in miniature form. It'll be a steady line of successes while HO is developing new ideas.)

Bachmann's Facebook page is doing a countdown to the NMRA 2023 Show, and the "3 Days" graphic features a very familiar set of rectangles... eerily similar to the window placement on the 'Thomas' line's Express Coaches, even down to how the clusters of windows are spaced further apart towards one side... I am hopeful this means Gordon's Express Coaches in N Scale are among this slate of mid-year announcements. If the teaser is meant to be literal, that may mean these may be shrunken versions of the HO/OO Express Coaches. (Which would be great for multiple reasons, but those can have their own post if these are indeed announced.)

I suppose it could also be a teaser for a new livery for the HO/OO Express Coaches... but given how recently the Red Express Coaches were released, I would be surprised if they were making yet another rake this soon...

Gordon looks amazing, very excited for his eventual release. Toad's imminent shipment is great news as well, I think he looks very nice albeit I am disappointed by the adherence to the lettering only being on one side of his body. It is accurate to the "CGI" and "Model" versions of the character, but it would have been nice to deviate slightly for the sake of fixing the show's mistakes and add text to both sides, considering the UK version of the HO Toad apparently does feature lettering on both sides...

I do very much hope we get a confirmation for Henry in the upcoming NMRA show. Frankly I expect N Scale to get the lion's share of content from this year's show, considering every other line is quite occupied right now. Most I'd expect from the others is some rolling stock recolors. (Though out of solidarity I do hope the Large Scale modelers can get a new locomotive soon...) I don't know if we'd get a rolling stock announcement alongside a Henry announcement, but personally I would like to see some faceless open wagons of the older varieties, Red Open/Blue Open/Green Coal Wagon. Express Coaches would be nice as well but may be better suited to a catalog announcement.

Personally I see Murdoch as a more likely "exception" they could make than Arthur, since his previous model from Hornby is notoriously sought after, and his appearance is much closer to the scale 9F than Arthur is to a scale Ivatt Prairie... although given the fair number of realistically-likely "CGI" characters they could make in HO/OO (remind me to post my predictive short-list on the topic someday), I think we're far more likely to see them bring "model-only" characters to the Narrow Gauge range far sooner. Smudger is an obvious choice, but also Proteus would be an easy way to reuse the upcoming Sir Handel tool. According to the fan wiki, he apparently does show up in a "CGI" themed podcast, so perhaps he can make the cut?

I think if they were ever to do a "model-only" locomotive before running out of viable "CGI" locomotives, it would probably be for the sake of an anniversary year, such as the upcoming 80th in 2025. But that is only if Bachmann and/or the licensor decide to re-evaluate their policy on what characters to greenlight. It makes sense to prioritize the characters who were in the modern version of the legacy series, but surely one or two older engines interspersed among the new crowd wouldn't hurt?

I'm excited to see the painted Gordon. Not terribly fussed over if it will be next Tuesday or not, honestly I would prefer if the next show were saved for August 1st so the streams can be back on the first Tuesday of the month. (As is right and proper!) But whatever they decide to do is fine by me.

Emily's revealed sample seemed like it was a lot less far along than Gordon's, so I'm not surprised her painted sample hasn't been teased yet. She didn't even have a face, ha ha! Perhaps later in the year we'll see her pop up in full color. Seeing Gordon will suffice for now in my opinion.

Checked in on the Bachmann online store this morning, seems that the N Scale "Thomas" Box Vans have finally come into stock, as they say "Add to Cart" rather than "Coming Soon". I expect it won't be long 'till they make their way out to retailers. Will post my thoughts in the main N Scale thread once I've got my hands on them...

I suppose their use of it is consistent with previous announcements using past models as a reference point. I would like it if Bachmann used the promotional and internal renders as illustrations for their upcoming models more often, though. It'd remove ambiguity in expectations with cases like Henrietta, and would undoubtedly look more professional than the fan-wiki screenshots used as illustrations for the recent Narrow Gauge wagons, ha ha.

After much delay I have finally gotten my hands on the N Scale Toby. It's an excellent model. Perfectly captures the design from the show, and also performs very well as a locomotive. Operates smoothly, can pull lots of cars, and capable of more prototypical slow-speed running as well. Very much recommend picking it up if you're at all interested in N.

All he needs now is Henrietta to keep him 'on track', whom I expect will make it to market in 2024 given the current turn-around time on the upcoming rolling stock projects. I hope that she is a new tool based on the "CGI" iteration with the face. She became a very fun character once that design change took place.

I think in HO, what a side-character focused set needs to succeed is to have a better value for money than the standard "Thomas + Annie & Clarabel + Circle of Track" set. Something along the lines of the Salty or Thomas freight set but featuring a more widely-popular character who isn't just Thomas might do the trick. Say, James with a rake of four wagons? They could be either unique color schemes for existing tools or items plucked from the separate-sale range of wagons, preferably the former to get in more appeal to newcomers. Maybe a bit of both would work? Something like S.C. Ruffey and the Spiteful Brake Van coupled with a Box Van and Tank Car in unique schemes would be a pretty enticing draw for newcomers to the hobby. James has traditionally been the 2nd most popular character in Thomas merchandising as a whole, so I think something like this would be a hit.

As for other scales, you're completely right that we're well over-due for an HOn30 starter set. I think Skarloey with a rake of passenger cars (perhaps ones with liveries unique to the set?) with a loop of track would be a popular item. A Gordon set in N Scale sounds reasonable as well. I think the reason Bachmann is doing N Scale versions of all these discontinued HO sets is because they don't plan on keeping them around forever to begin with. But once Gordon's coaches are announced, I think it's pretty safe to assume they'll be making a set with them and Gordon too. Now all we need in N is a Christmas set...

For Large Scale, I think reintroducing the Thomas set would more or less be the only viable avenue for a new set. You basically hit the nail on the head, Large Scale's popularity dying down nowadays. But surely it having a Thomas-branded entry point into the hobby wouldn't make its situation any worse, would it?

I don't think explicit duo characters are something that Bachmann would necessarily be in the market to create right now. This is not an indictment of duos as a concept, moreso Bachmann's constantly rising prices for model trains. For example the price of purchasing both Bill and Ben is higher than buying a big engine like Spencer on its own. And for such small engines as Bill and Ben, even if they are excellent models, it is a poor value for money even compared to an ugly model like Spencer. This is likely one of the many reasons the Iron Twins got discontinued as well, seeing as they were more expensive than Bill and Ben.

The currently available twins (the Scots and the SCC saddle-tanks) in the range are likely only still here thanks to their classic notoriety, and with Donald and Douglas specifically they are not only bigger engines that better justify their price as a duo but also are not a 'mandatory pair' in the same way Bill and Ben or 'Arry and Bert are. Many stories feature one Scottish twin on his own, so having only one of them on a layout is less 'out of place' compared to just Ben or just 'Arry. Likewise, the 'Harwick Duo' are much the same way. While Daisy and Ryan do work together on that branch, Daisy has historically been a Ffarquhar Branch loco in the old stories, and Ryan is a pretty adaptable engine that can go just about anywhere if the modeller so desires. They are more flexible in use cases and will be more successful individually as a result.

I think out of all the characters mentioned in this thread Whiff is the most likely to be made. As far as I'm aware he's been a fairly consistent tertiary character in merchandising and whatnot. In terms of what is most likely to be the next new tool for HO, I'd say he's a solid 3rd place, right behind Nia (who would make sense as a follow-up to Rebecca) and Stanley (consistent request and also modestly popular). That said, I don't think Bachmann "needs" to make Scruff to go alongside Whiff if they do decide to make him. Unless he's significantly cheap, which he likely would not be given Bachmann's recent absurd prices for new train-set-quality tools, I think Scruff would be a pretty poor performer sales-wise. These two are also a bit of a 'one-way pair', since Whiff used to operate as a lone engine (and currently does operate alone in the 2D reboot). So, Whiff does not need to rely on Scruff to sell, but Scruff will rely on Whiff. This means that if Whiff bombs, Scruff will too.

Den and Dart would be nice additions to the range, but are fairly married to each other appearance-wise. So unless they can fix the pricing problem with duos, they might not be especially viable. Which I find a shame to be honest, as they're the ones I like the most out of the characters discussed so far. As for other options suggested such as Porter with Salty or Timothy with Bill and Ben, it's more or less the same case with Scruff. They are also 'one-way pairs', and Porter specifically is hinging his fate on a character who has already been discontinued once. And as illustrated earlier with Bill and Ben vs. Spencer alone pricing, adding a third loco to the Bill and Ben package would not make that value comparison any more favorable, ha ha.

Quote from: Red Tender 5 on May 22, 2023, 02:17:18 AMDoes Bachmann's license allow for products of objects not seen on screen?

I'm sure people would buy a Sodor Line bobber caboose to go with their Beau locomotive. Bachmann already produces a painted & unlettered version with the correct colors, all that is required is the "SODOR LINE" block letters.

I believe they are allowed to make rolling stock that was not seen on-screen. Many of the more recent rolling stock liveries make use of logos and lettering seen only on toys. "Sodor Scrap Co.", "Brendam Bay Shipping Co.", "Sodor Fruit & Vegetable Co.", etc. I assume putting the Sodor Line Caboose into the lineup would be at the mercy of licensor approval. However I think Mattel would be willing to approve its use, as they did approve the use of the Caboose in some CGI-style books which were published as recently as 2020. Lionel also has a version of the Caboose as a regular feature in their Thomas lineup, which I believe would have also required approval from Mattel.

I'm unsure about how popular it would be among hardcore Sodor modellers since it has never appeared in the TV show, but given Beau's reception has been positive enough to make Bachmann reconsider his 'limited run' status, I believe many would welcome it not only for its synergy with him but as a novelty item in general. And because Bachmann makes Bobber Cabooses in both HO and N Scales, it would also be easy to bring over to N Scale if it ends up being popular in HO.

I have a lot of UK outline N Gauge stock and want to convert the lot to knuckle couplers for a switching layout, and figured these could also pull double duty for a hybrid UK/US running session to entertain folks. One problem; the NEM knuckle couplers that are on the market (specifically from Dapol, who as far as I can tell are the only ones making anything like these) are much larger than the typical Kadee-style coupler and won't marry with them at all.

Anybody know any alternatives? Is there hope for Bachmann to provide their own like they have in HO/OO with their NEM E-Z Mates?