With the new Thomas & Friends Announcements for Winter 2021 revealed, I think that we can all agree that the line-up is solid. However, the one announcement that has especially received mixed thoughts from fans is the Narrow Gauge Yellow Rheneas. Thus, I wanted to bring up one Thomas product that would be a very pleasant surprise for the NMRA this summer to make up for that, as he also shares the same tooling as Rheneas: Smudger!
This idea first came up when thinking about one product that was announced with mixed thoughts from Winter 2020 (Busy Bee James), and what was announced in the summer afterwards (Origin James), which many more fans were happy with, plus both models utilized the same tooling.
I have zero doubt that a Bachmann Smudger would do much better than a Yellow Rheneas in terms of sales, primarily because he is a classic character from the model era. Hence, there is nostalgic value to him. Announcing Smudger would also provide an additional model that modellers can purchase to make Dolgoch, in case the Rheneas models are out of stock.
While some may argue that Smudger would not make sense without a model of Duke first, take a look at Yellow Rheneas. Rheneas appeared in the yellow paint scheme at the end of a movie for 20 seconds with Victor and Luke, two other engines that Bachmann have not made. Furthermore, while others may argue that Smudger is not relevant anymore, neither is Yellow Rheneas. Plus, take a look at the Spiteful Brake Van or even Toby's Museum Coaches. Those were both only seen briefly, yet the reception for them was positive because they have appealing designs and nostalgic value, which Smudger also has.
All in all, I hope that this suggestion can be passed along for the summer, as I know for a fact that many fans would be ecstatic to see a Bachmann Smudger announced, and make up for Yellow Rheneas' announcement. I, without a doubt, would purchase a Bachmann Smudger, unlike Yellow Rheneas.
As always, here are some follow-up questions for other fans:
1. Would you buy a Bachmann Smudger?
2. Do you think that Smudger would have been a better announcement than Yellow Rheneas?
3. Do you think that an announcement of Smudger for this summer would make up for the mixed reception on Yellow Rheneas?
Thank you very much for reading my post, and I look forward to reading everyone's thoughts!