I've spoken out against most of Bachmann's recent rolling stick recolors in the past as they don't resemble anything seen on the show.  These however I would be more than open to as these are accurate to what's been on the show in the past.

Toby's Museum coach I would be the most open to as these are probably one of the few pieces of rolling stock on the show past the classic seasons that looks pretty decent and not too colorful or wacky.  It would be a little odd to see it without a standard coach though even though one was never made for the show.  If they made a standard coach to go with it I would happily buy a pair of them.

It would honestly be pretty funny yet a little frustrating if they went that route and didn't even bother to make a brake coach for Spencer, but that's water under the bridge.

Gordon's special coaches would be fun too.  Like Toby's museum coach I am curious to know if they would just stick to one coach or if they would go the full mile and make a brake coach as well.  Probably not something I would be interested in though but I can see these being fairly popular. 

Thomas and James' Trucks I would probably pass on too, but if they go the full mile and make new model era style faces for these and not reuse any of the previous truck faces, I can see these being extremely popular sellers and I would happily buy some myself.

Bachmann just added a photo of the box artwork for the N scale set in their web store.

The fact that the BoCo model is going for well over $800 and the auction isn't over yet is really saying something... definitely curious to see what the final sale will be.

I'm honestly a little surprised no one made a thread for the Bachmann Peter Sam until now, especially since the hype for him is on the same level as Daisy.

I think it goes without saying, but if Rusty is anything to go off of Peter Sam will likely be based on his CG render including his basis' proportions.  Unlike Rusty, I don't think this would be a bad thing for Peter Sam as I feel he has one of the best renders in the CGI series.

I think the rear style will most likely be CGI based too but I don't see that as being a dealbreaker for most people.  I could see Peter Sam easily being another top seller for Bachmann.

Quote from: Falcon the 2nd on October 01, 2020, 12:39:10 PM
If I were to add anything in an already impressive list of product suggestions, it'd be two for Large Scale - Henretta and maybe one more engine. They'd be long shots considering how many rolling stock recolors occurred lately and how long it took for Diesel to be physically realized, but they're still equally ideal and big notes to go out on for the line as the Red Coaches. Toby's signature coach has amazingly been missing for as long as he's been around and there's plenty of options to choose for a last engine in that line - Mavis, Edward, Duck, Bill/Ben, Oliver, or even a recolor like LBSC Thomas or Origins James. I don't expect either of these to happen for how much they'd cost Bachmann to make and how niche the Large Scale market may have gotten by now, but I still think they'd be worth considering for an end-of-the-line situation.

While I don't think the large scale range itself is going to be dropped, I do think that if they were to only announce only Edward or Henrietta and continue to make the range stagnant or only announce recolors in the future, I don't think Bachmann could have ended their range on a better note.  Edward has always been a popular request in large scale, and his sounds are available for the DCC module (for some reason, along with other characters not in the range), and I feel he would fit the budget as well as the size for Bachmann's large scale range.  He would sell better than Winston, and probably Diesel too honestly.  Henrietta again was always a popular request ever since and even before Toby's announcement and with people turning to making their own custom Henrietta's it shows that the market for a large scale Henrietta is starting to become evident.  Even if Bachmann wanted to reuse the Henrietta tooling for Hannah (as much as I don't care for the character, at all) it would at least be a nice way for Bachmann to reuse the tooling in the future if they wished.  

Narrow gauge is a lot more limited with possibilities that they can do engine wise.  Bachmann's managed to announce about 2/3 of the main six Skarloey railway engines, so based on that alone I could see that range taking things slower for the time being, at least until Peter Sam and the brake vans come out.  Once they're out I can see new announcements coming in for narrow gauge (hopefully Sir Handel is next!)

HO and N scale I think are going to be just fine long term, especially N scale as you mentioned it's still a fairly new range.  Plus, according to Bachmann's Twitter they are expecting the N scale Thomas and Percy to be in stock this month.  So at least something else to look forward to, in addition to the tankers coming out sometime this year.

Looking over the last two years, I think BWBA never had any influence on anything Bachmann's announced over the last two years, apart from the -most likely- design choice from Troublesome Truck #6 (hopefully there will be an update on that soon).  But even if "that" era of the show didn't have that much influence on Bachmann, I can't imagine the same would apply for this new reboot as well, especially with how much of a following Bachmann has with Thomas fans, as you mentioned earlier.  The worst case scenario I could see happening in 2021 would probably just be an increase of recolors at Toy Fair next year with hardly any new toolings (unless it's something simple like an N scale Toby or an N scale brake van).  Even that would most likely be due to the global pandemic on top of still working on Daisy, Peter Sam and the N scale James.  Plus the large scale Diesel is making swift progress as shown in the Trainworld stream, so that's something else to look forward to. 

Either way, I'm not too concerned at this time with how Bachmann is doing as far as the reboot is concerned.  Mattel will always have an influence/their approval on what gets announced and what doesn't get announced, but if Big World didn't have as much of an influence in recent years despite Mattel's push/marketing then I can't imagine the same will happen with the reboot as well. 

Quote from: MrNormalDraws on September 27, 2020, 06:50:35 PM
Sets with other characters
The one thing I missed from Bachmann is that they would make sets on different characters besides Thomas. I think these sets were charming as it allows consumers on picking out a set besides Thomas. I think the sets they could bring back are either Percy's or Emily's as they have those engines and exact rolling stock still being made.

Bachmann staff have stated that they aren't planning on introducing anymore sets for any other characters (besides Thomas) since sets for other characters like Percy, Emily, James or even Salty proved to not sell very well.  Sets with Thomas sell better because Thomas is the main character and is almost always the first engine fans want when they pick up a starter set to get them invested in the hobby.  It's exactly why they only gave Thomas a starter set in the N scale range and didn't bother to give one to Percy.

Quote from: Kemptown Branch on September 17, 2020, 08:54:05 AM
And I'm not entirely sure that it was their choice where the question went. If you look to the right of our names a little bit, it shows "Re: N Scale Thomas." For the person who asked the question, it says "Wanna Discuss Something."

I'm not sure why it would be different, but the same thing happened in another topic on another sub-forum a few days ago.

I didn't notice that until you pointed this out earlier.  Thanks for helping clarify, since I was confused as to how/why this thread was brought up again.

So while looking at what's been available in the newer packaging as well as some interesting choices Bachmann has made while listing parts in their parts catalog, I figured I would go ahead and add something a little different which would be products that are going to be discontinued/dropped next.  Only going to stick with HO for this list, since large scale is starting to get a breather again with Diesel coming out and the N scale and narrow gauge lines are still fairly new (though if anything is getting dropped from NG it would be the peco rolling stock recolors, I hope I don't have to explain why for those..).  So anyway here's my thoughts.

So the next HO engine I could see getting discontinued would be Rosie.  Not the red one, but the original.  Upon looking at Bachmann's parts lot they added some of their recent engines.  They skipped over the original Rosie but have parts available for the red Rosie instead.  This tells me that due to the original one not being all that popular or being well received, that the original Rosie model will be dropped in favor of the newer red livery which I think fans seemed to appreciate a lot more. 

For rolling stock my money is on the following:
The Green mail car
Cargo Car
Raspberry Syrup Tank
Cream Tank

These pieces of rolling stock have not been updated with the newer packaging, and I don't recall too many people going crazy over these when they first came out which is why I can see these four being discontinued next over the next year or two. 

As far as buildings and accessories go, the Tidmouth shed expansion pack seems to be a given after how the sheds themselves got discontinued.  I still don't know why the switch tower is still up after all these years, even outlasting some of the resin buildings, but I feel that will probably be dropped at some point too. 

As for resin buildings, I could see the Storage shed being dropped next (since I don't think that was ever based off of anything from the show), and maybe once the resin line is reduced to four buildings maybe Bachmann can introduce four new resin buildings in their place?  I feel that with Bachmann's Thomas range coming to the UK and resin buildings being a lot more popular over there it would be a missed opportunity for Bachmann to not introduce some new resin buildings in the future.  My thoughts on what resin buildings I would be most interested in seeing haven't really changed much, as they remain the same being:

Ffarquhar station
Toby's shed
Narrow gauge sheds
narrow gauge water tower (If they made this in resin, I think it would especially be popular with the OO9 crowd)

Anyway, curious to know what everyone else's thoughts are on what you think might get dropped or if there are other resin buildings you think should come out next. 

Quote from: Kemptown Branch on July 04, 2020, 11:47:52 AM
I think I saw a Sir Topham Hatt in the new box style at a train show in January. I didn't take a picture, though.

I updated my list as I recently found an image of STH in the newer style packaging along with the sound Thomas (who was in the older package but had a new label/sticker in the packaging showing he was in production), as well as the lobster van and oil tanker.  The list has been updated thanks again for pointing that out.  Apart from the fuel tank which is coming to the UK range, I think the rest of the HO rolling stock that hasn't had the new packaging yet I could see getting discontinued sometime next year or the year after. 

Guess who came in as a birthday present yesterday!  Yes the N scale Annie and Clarabel arrived yesterday and it seems now I won't need to buy the starter set and just focus on Thomas and Percy then.  Anyways time for another brief review on Annie and Clarabel.



Looking at these coaches in comparison between the HO models, the difference is night and day.  Right down to the more accurate paintwork with their black frames and red buffer housing, Annie and Clarabel are a huge improvement over their predecessors.  I also like the inclusion of both of the coaches having CGI styled faces which was absent on both the HO and large scale models.  I know some don't care for the CGI look but as long as it's more accurate than what came before I personally say it's a welcome change for Annie and Clarabel.  They both do look exactly the same but fortunately their names are painted on them so it will be easy to tell which is which. 



The only minor complaint I have is the missing guard compartment on Clarabel, we both Annie and Clarabel use the same tooling.  Considering that nearly every toy range does this same approach with Annie and Clarabel, including the other Bachmann models, I feel it's a very small nitpick and not hard to fix if you are bothered.  But apart from that nitpick I really don't have an issue with these two at all and I'd say that the extra effort they put into these than the troublesome trucks really shows. 



So overall the new N scale rolling stock have been fun display pieces but I'm hoping to give these a run at the club layout soon.  In the meantime though due to the pandemic I may just do my Thomas and Percy reviews on my OO9 layout.  I know it'll look off scaling wise but I feel that it would make for more fun and engaging reviews instead of displaying them on my table and it would give me a chance to give feedback on both of their performances while mentioning how rolling stock does alongside them. 

In the meantime, what are your guy's thoughts on the N scale Annie and Clarabel? 

Glad to hear you're getting started collecting the N scale range too!  Regarding Lady and Diesel 10, besides the fact that they are not in HO, I think it might be too soon for Bachmann to consider any other engine outside of the remaining first 7 engines, Emily or Diesel.  Hope you have a great day as well.

I would bet on the red coaches happening sooner than express coaches in sooner if there are no plans to do Gordon or Henry in N scale.  If Gordon and Henry are being planned though then adding the express coaches would be the most logical additions for the next N scale rolling stock additions.

I've said it before, but Gordon and Henry really are the low-hanging fruit that would really take off in N scale and have phenomenal sales.  If they can't pull them off due to pricing or even the pandemic slowing things down then Edward or Toby would be the best back-up options for Bachmann to consider after James (especially Toby).

Here you go:





American stock towers over the Thomas range.

Look what came in the mail today!



I finally caved in after seeing some nice in depth looks at the Bachmann troublesome trucks as well as scaling comparisons I finally decided to purchase the N scale troublesome trucks.  Once I have a more stable job lined up I plan on buying the starter set and Percy shortly after.  For now though I'd like to talk about the troublesome trucks and my thoughts on them.  Either way I like how these are in small compact boxes to keep the models protected, something I wish the HO/OO models would do.


To be honest there isn't a whole lot to say about them since they are the same models in HO and large scale just scaled down to N.  For what they are I think they're okay, I do think a more updated design would have been preferred, even if they went with CGI.  However with the CGI faces not being as expressive maybe Bachmann wanted to stick with the two faces that offer more of a contrast?  It's an odd design choice, especially almost 2 decades after the HO ones came out but I digress.  If you liked the HO and large scale ones, then chances are you'll like these fine.  I personally wanted to add them since I am starting to get ready to start my collection and for that reason I think these trucks will do the right amount of justice.


The other thing I want to talk about is scaling.  These are -mostly- scaled down the British N gauge, albeit being a little taller but not by much.  Honestly, I was a little skeptical on this at first but the more I think about it the more I realize this was probably a smart move as modeling in N scale Thomas will now be a lot easier if you want to get more creative with rolling stock and other custom engine ideas if you are willing to start collecting the range.  It opens the door for a lot more modeling possibilities when it comes to scaling which I'm all for.


Overall while I'm not sold on the trucks design I am a lot more sold on the scaling as I am now.  I know this isn't as exciting as my more thoughtful and in-depth reviews especially regarding pictures (I don't have an actual N scale setup at the moment so bare with me )but once the Thomas set comes out expect my usual in-depth review from there.  Until then, if you got the trucks already, what are your thoughts on them?  I'd like to hear other thoughts on this as well as the scaling.