The Everything Thomas Topic

[Kemptown Branch]

Here's a pic of my Thomas Christmas train from last year.
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That's a very nice looking Christmas train! Great job!

[Terry Toenges]

The reindeer car was Clarabel and I removed the body. The Santa car was a bobber caboose. I removed the body and put different couplers on it so it would connect with the Thomas cars.

[Zekeism]

Just curious, when is Toyfair this year?

[TerencetheTractor525]

Toy Fair is in the fall for this year. Thus, I would expect the new announcements to be posted at the end of January or the beginning of February.

[GlennockGoblin]

Its been a moment since I've actually contributed anything worth while so here's a little shot of Bluebell Valley since its officially Spring here in the UK now.
Hope everyone is doing ok

WOW. Now THAT'S a quality Thomas layout if I've ever seen one.

[N Scale Sudrian]

On the Bachmann online store, there are a lot of new "coming soon" listings, including the N Scale Box Vans and HOn30 Vans. Toby and Ryan were listed as "coming soon" as well a month or so before they finally came into stock, so perhaps this means these items are on the water and will be distributed rather soon?

Narrow Gauge fans will no doubt be pleased to finally have the vans they were promised two or three years ago, but I'm astounded by the speed at which the N Scale Vans went from reveal to release. I was anticipating them to be releasing at the very end of the year, to be honest. I hope this method of announcing a product when it is ready to ship becomes more common, it gives one heart to see (what appears to us as) speedy product release cycles when the new engine tools (or Narrow Gauge vans, evidently) take 2+ years to make their way to market...

Either way, I've already made my pre-orders, so I'm eagerly awaiting the new Box Vans. (As well as the N Scale MKT wide-vision caboose. My old man's an MKT enthusiast, so it's something he'd get a kick out of, ha ha ha.)

[Chaz]

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. 

[JacobSK]

You make some excellent points here, Chaz.

I honestly was indifferent to Yellow Rheneas. I thought it was better suited to the likes of Wooden Railway and Take N Play (which was exactly that when Blue Mountain Mystery came out), both of which had that variety of so many things to choose from. The livery turned out great, but sadly, both the announcement and release model had horrible timing.

I am surprised that Busy Bee James and to a lesser extent, both versions of Rosie and Diesel are both pretty solid. I'd have thought pink Rosie and Happy Diesel would've been discontinued by now, but the variety in HO Standard gauge is what's making them do well, I suppose.

I also agree with you on the subject of recolors in N scale. Henry and Edward (maybe Diesel and Paxton, too? That might be wishing a little too much...) need to be announced before the LBSC Thomas and Origin James recolors can be on the radar for the 80th Anniversary. Variety is the key. Tomy Plarail were able to do face variants and later, recolors, because they already had a vast amount of things to choose from.

I guess the big takeaway here is that recolors and to a degree, face variants (although, so far, only Diesel seems to be the only engine to have received this treatment) succeed when there's a good variety of products to choose from. If there are limited products, then all it will do is just sit around as shelf/peg warmers before prices must be slashed.

[BubbleBuddyFan]

I will be interested to get Old Shape Henry with Moving Eyes (Limited Edition), Norman with Moving Eyes, Stanley with Moving Eyes and Level Crossing Gates at some point in the future! HO/OO Scale Metallic Thomas Engines with Moving Eyes (Limited Edition) would be cool!

When I was very sad and disappointed of didn't get HO James with Moving Eyes in 14 years ago! I just got HO James with Moving Eyes in the mail in 13 years ago! Metallic Narrow Gauge Engines (Limited Edition) would be a great idea!

[TrainFan97]

Still waiting to hear on when the HO Scale Explosives, Brendam Bay and Mr. Jolly vans will show up in stock. It would be nice if they started selling their Christmas rolling stock separately so that you don't have to pay so much for the sets or get extra Thomas models you don't need. Christmas rolling stock including the 1-plank wagon with presents, 1-plank wagon with sleigh, and the two Christmas brake vans, including Naughty and Nice. One idea for a Christmas rolling stock they haven't done yet would be a flatbed with a Christmas tree, which can be tarped over for protection. With more rolling stock options coming to N Scale, it's only a matter of time before Bachmann announces a Christmas-themed N Scale Thomas set.

The Chocolate Syrup and Toffee Tankers still have yet to be on the cards for HO Scale. The Cream Tanker is discontinued, and the Raspberry Syrup Tanker may soon follow.

With the next Trainworld stream in a few weeks or so, we can hope they'll finally have painted samples of N Scale Gordon and Emily. Also hoping there's an update on HO Scale Rebecca and Sir Handel. Progress should have been made on those. The Narrow Gauge Brake Vans and Box Vans may finally show up in stock soon, and might be shown in boxes.

[Falcon the 2nd]

I don't know if anyone else has noticed this yet, but the Narrow Gauge Box Vans and Brake Vans (both in red and blue) are now for sale on Bachmann's official store. No word on whether retailers like TrainWorld have gotten them so far.

Interestingly, the N Scale Box Vans are also been added to the store, but they are not yet for sale. Hoping their production cycle will be finished soon.

[Kemptown Branch]

Just to add to this, the Bachmann Web Store is having a Father's Day Sale where you get 25% off and free shipping in the U.S., which would mean you could get the vans and Brake Vans for around as cheap as you could from other model stores, if you don't want to wait for them to show up there to buy them.

[TrainFan97]

After a seemingly endless wait, the Narrow Gauge Brake Vans and Box Vans are FINALLY in stock. After so many delays, it took forever. Three years for the Narrow Gauge brake vans is just crazy. The longest wait we had for Bachmann Thomas models to show up in stock.

Still no word on when the next Trainworld stream is. Within a few months, they should hopefully have unpainted samples of HO Scale Rebecca and Sir Handel.

[Angelob6660]

I was confirmed about NG brake vans being mail out today. Totally surprised since I checked Bachmann's Facebook and Twitter with no news. Luckily I had money for them.

[TrainFan97]

The recent Trainworld stream still didn't show N Scale Gordon or Emily fully painted, but did show unpainted samples of the HO Scale figures.

Progress has been made on Rebecca, but Doug still didn't know much on Sir Handel.