Now that is really exciting news, it's nice seeing new products come out left and right from Bachmann. The narrow gauge box vans and brake vans I have been waiting for a very, very long time so I am really looking forward to getting those. I'm really surprised how fast it took Bachmann to get the N scale box vans done considering they are a new tooling. Regardless, I'm looking forward to those as well.
On a completely different note:
https://www.trainworld.com/model-train-sale.html?trains=18334
https://www.trainworld.com/model-train-sale/bachmann-58605-thomas-and-friends-narrow-gauge-yellow-rheneas-die-cast-bachmann-58605.html
I was browsing Trainworld and I was looking at some of the products that they had on sale/discount and the thing that stood out to me the most was that the Yellow Rheneas was there. Usually the things you find there are either products that are discontinued/on the verge of being discontinued (like the resin buildings and the switch tower) or products that don't sell really well and they're trying to get rid of excess stock that they ordered from the warehouse. So you can imagine what my initial thought was when I saw Yellow Rheneas on there and I truth be told, really wasn't all that surprised. But the fact that the Busy Bee James never made it on there surprised me even more, considering that one is a more niche recolor. This has me thinking and I wanted to share my thoughts on this.
I remember in the Trainworld streams they mentioned that the busy bee James was a popular seller, which did have me a little puzzled. But after a while, I think I may have a theory as to why the busy bee James has been working and why the yellow Rheneas was not. The simple answer comes down to the variety of characters in both the HO and narrow gauge lines as well as the timing of their introductions.
The HO Thomas range has a very wide diversity of engine characters to choose from, and if Bachmann wanted to do more niche recolors like the Busy Bee James, or even the recently announced Beau, they can can get away with introducing these variants because there is already such a wide range of characters to already choose from with even more new engine toolings being released on the way.
Yellow Rheneas on the other hand was announced too early, in my opinion. At the time Yellow Rheneas got announced, only four other engines were in the range and there was a pretty high demand for Sir Handel which really soured a lot of people's thoughts on Yellow Rheneas' introduction in the range , (myself included). And when Yellow Rheneas did come out a lot of people forgot about it since Peter Sam was on the water and would be available shortly after Yellow Rheneas. It probably didn't help that Sir Handel even got announced that same year making the Yellow Rheneas model all the more overlooked.
Even if you include Sir Handel though, that's still a small number of engines to choose from, which ties into the timing issue mentioned earlier. That being said, there really aren't a lot of narrow gauge characters on the show compared to standard gauge engines, especially when Mattel limits Bachmann to only making characters who appeared in the CGI series. There's about 9 narrow gauge engines in CGI total, (not counting recolor variants), and Bachmann has half of these engines being done if you include Sir Handel. Sadly though, it still feels like that Yellow Rheneas was announced a little too prematurely and it's showing signs already. Even saving him for after Sir Handel's introduction would have made a difference to Yellow Rheneas' reception. Also, just for the record I don't dislike the model itself and I think the livery on it turned out great on the model. Again, just wasn't a fan of it being announced too early. If anything, I almost want to pick one up before it becomes discontinued.
So point-being, while recolored engines aren't a bad idea on their own, timing plays a crucial factor to what will make them take off and what won't. Bachmann has pulled off several recolors before and it's never been as much of an issue up until this point. That being said, as we're starting to see with Yellow Rheneas, it's become a little clear that there are times when recolors work and when they don't and I hope Bachmann can take something away from this going forward. They haven't done any engine recolors in their N scale range yet. While I wouldn't mind seeing LBSC Thomas and origin James making it in N scale, I do think adding more newly tooled characters in N scale first (namely Henry and Edward) should be added if they go that route, otherwise they are just going to be a repeat of Yellow Rheneas and be shelf-warmers. Heck, if Bachmann plays their cards right, they could probably have both Henry and Edward announced in N scale between this years NMRA and 2024 while saving the LBSC Thomas and Origin James recolors for the brands 80th anniversary in 2025, but that's a whole different discussion for another thread and for a much later time.
On a completely different note:
https://www.trainworld.com/model-train-sale.html?trains=18334
https://www.trainworld.com/model-train-sale/bachmann-58605-thomas-and-friends-narrow-gauge-yellow-rheneas-die-cast-bachmann-58605.html
I was browsing Trainworld and I was looking at some of the products that they had on sale/discount and the thing that stood out to me the most was that the Yellow Rheneas was there. Usually the things you find there are either products that are discontinued/on the verge of being discontinued (like the resin buildings and the switch tower) or products that don't sell really well and they're trying to get rid of excess stock that they ordered from the warehouse. So you can imagine what my initial thought was when I saw Yellow Rheneas on there and I truth be told, really wasn't all that surprised. But the fact that the Busy Bee James never made it on there surprised me even more, considering that one is a more niche recolor. This has me thinking and I wanted to share my thoughts on this.
I remember in the Trainworld streams they mentioned that the busy bee James was a popular seller, which did have me a little puzzled. But after a while, I think I may have a theory as to why the busy bee James has been working and why the yellow Rheneas was not. The simple answer comes down to the variety of characters in both the HO and narrow gauge lines as well as the timing of their introductions.
The HO Thomas range has a very wide diversity of engine characters to choose from, and if Bachmann wanted to do more niche recolors like the Busy Bee James, or even the recently announced Beau, they can can get away with introducing these variants because there is already such a wide range of characters to already choose from with even more new engine toolings being released on the way.
Yellow Rheneas on the other hand was announced too early, in my opinion. At the time Yellow Rheneas got announced, only four other engines were in the range and there was a pretty high demand for Sir Handel which really soured a lot of people's thoughts on Yellow Rheneas' introduction in the range , (myself included). And when Yellow Rheneas did come out a lot of people forgot about it since Peter Sam was on the water and would be available shortly after Yellow Rheneas. It probably didn't help that Sir Handel even got announced that same year making the Yellow Rheneas model all the more overlooked.
Even if you include Sir Handel though, that's still a small number of engines to choose from, which ties into the timing issue mentioned earlier. That being said, there really aren't a lot of narrow gauge characters on the show compared to standard gauge engines, especially when Mattel limits Bachmann to only making characters who appeared in the CGI series. There's about 9 narrow gauge engines in CGI total, (not counting recolor variants), and Bachmann has half of these engines being done if you include Sir Handel. Sadly though, it still feels like that Yellow Rheneas was announced a little too prematurely and it's showing signs already. Even saving him for after Sir Handel's introduction would have made a difference to Yellow Rheneas' reception. Also, just for the record I don't dislike the model itself and I think the livery on it turned out great on the model. Again, just wasn't a fan of it being announced too early. If anything, I almost want to pick one up before it becomes discontinued.
So point-being, while recolored engines aren't a bad idea on their own, timing plays a crucial factor to what will make them take off and what won't. Bachmann has pulled off several recolors before and it's never been as much of an issue up until this point. That being said, as we're starting to see with Yellow Rheneas, it's become a little clear that there are times when recolors work and when they don't and I hope Bachmann can take something away from this going forward. They haven't done any engine recolors in their N scale range yet. While I wouldn't mind seeing LBSC Thomas and origin James making it in N scale, I do think adding more newly tooled characters in N scale first (namely Henry and Edward) should be added if they go that route, otherwise they are just going to be a repeat of Yellow Rheneas and be shelf-warmers. Heck, if Bachmann plays their cards right, they could probably have both Henry and Edward announced in N scale between this years NMRA and 2024 while saving the LBSC Thomas and Origin James recolors for the brands 80th anniversary in 2025, but that's a whole different discussion for another thread and for a much later time.