Thanks Cirkit!  Jeremy certainly was the wild card for this year, though based on the posts and threads regarding predictions and wishlists before the 2013 announcements were up, I don't think Jeremy is going to sell well as he was not mentioned once in either of them...  

One of the horrid lorries wouldn't be a horrible idea (or all three for that matter), since they'd be easy to make but the only thing stopping me from thinking they have a fair chance is that they were only featured in one episode.  If we were to get another road character anytime soon then I'd think Trevor, Bulgy, Butch, or Elizabeth would seem more likely since they are all iconic in the show in some way.

For Stepney I imagine he'd be a new tooling altogether, his chassis doesn't exactly match any of the other current engines chassis, which could hold him back.  

Outside of Oliver, I'll admit Rosie sounds like a good possibility since she's been pretty high-demanded too.  I myself, never cared for Rosie as much, but I'm not going to pretend any longer she'd be a good seller due to popularity amongst the fans.  Eventually Bachmann may have to make the newer characters though as they haven't done any of the characters in the newer era, or possibly going back to introducing characters who were introduced in the season 6-7 era.  Though for that category alone I can only see Arthur, Harvey, or possibly Murdoch happening, but I wouldn't hold my breath so much on those three happening unless if they were to return in full CGI.

If you support the company and it's products, you will continue to get more products from that company.  When Bachmann introduced Bill and Ben, they became successful models resulting Bachmann to make Diesel.  'Arry and Bert then joined the range due to the success of the Bachmann Diesel (and of course the tooling that was available).  The exact same thing can be said for Duck following the success of the Donald and Douglas models.  I imagine that the speed-activated sound Thomas will be a huge seller, due to the fact that this was something fans have wanted for quite some time.  Sound in locomotives is becoming very popular in the hobby of model railroading, and is really bringing the models to life more than ever.  It's also another unique way of getting younger fans involved.  I can't say for certain what would happen in the future, but if Thomas goes well I imagine that they will continue to add one new engine after another, which would be none other than Percy and/or James.  

It's exactly why I can see Bachmann doing Oliver very soon as I can't imagine why the Bachmann Duck wouldn't be a huge success since it's a model that fans had been waiting for what felt like well over five years.  

We have a wishlist thread and a 2014 thread for you to make these suggestions to. 

I'm sure both suggestions you mentioned will be in the range soon though!

Quote from: seanrail on May 04, 2013, 06:06:14 AM
Bachmann cannot discontinue the locomotives because of the motors and electrics inside them.

Sure they can.  If a product doesn't sell well after a while, if at all, then I don't see why they wouldn't.  If a product is a poor seller or not too many people are buying them, then Bachmann discontinuing a locomotive isn't a horrible idea at all.  If anything, it'd be a smart idea.  They could save money and use it on new tooling for a different locomotive (IE discontinuing Spencer and introducing Oliver later).

In terms of what Sparks posted, I really think he hit the nail with the hammer.  However, I would take Charlie out of the picture and add Trevor:

There are three reasons why I feel this way:
1. Bachmann generally do one locomotive a year per range (except when they're doing twins).  So Bachmann doing Oliver one year and doing Paxton the next actually sounds extremely convincing if not very likely.  First Bachmann did Donald and Douglas who were delayed, then Diesel joined the range the next year, resulting to both being out around the same time in 2011.  With Duck being delayed from last year and the newly announced 'Arry and Bert models being on the way, something tells me that they will be released right around the same time too.  With Oliver being inevitable due to recent additions and Paxton being easy to make, I can see them coming out in the near future!
2. It's not often Bachmann do non-rail characters, however, when they do it's usually unexpected.  This could be said for the time when Bachmann announced Terence and for this year when Jeremy joined the range.  The former was welcome, but it doesn't seem like too many people are fond of the latter (which frankly I can see why).  Unlike Jeremy, Trevor actually has the right demand from fans, and would easily be a great seller.  If anything, I think Trevor is the only non-rail character who has some serious demand.  
3. Jeremy is too new of a character.  He is one of many newer characters who was made just so fans can go buy his toys and playsets.  He's not exactly a popular character with the older and arguably newer fans, on top of not appearing on the show regularly.  Yet at the same time, despite being an older character, Terence isn't exactly popular amongst the younger audience of Thomas and hasn't appeared in quite some time either.  Trevor is popular with both old and new Thomas fans, providing some middle ground in that respect.

In terms of discontinued locomotives, out of all the ones Sparks posted I can easily see Spencer being discontinued, but I don't know about the others just yet.  

Honestly, I don't see any chance of Bachmann making Lady at all.  She has only appeared twice (one of them being rather brief) and probably won't appear anytime soon after that.  Plus, she isn't really to popular nowadays.  Characters like Oliver, Rosie, Hiro, or even Paxton are far more likely to appear in next year's lineup as they have not only proven to be popular enough characters, but also very memorable. 

Plus Lady's overall design would be rather hard to put together in terms of new tooling, which certainly doesn't help her become a more likely canidate to be made in the near future.

Quote from: Choobacca on April 21, 2013, 11:13:55 AM

Bachmann / Mainline Opening Door Ventilated Wagon:

Honestly, I'm surprised Bachmann HASN'T announced something like this for the Thomas line.  It'd be be easy enough for them to pull off with the ex-mainline tooling, and it'd be a fun feature for the kids to throw little animals or any other load into the van.  It'd be a big seller amongst older and newer fans, that's for sure! 

I was honestly impressed with what I saw with season 17.  The only episodes I didn't really like were Scruff's makeover and Steamie Stafford.  Gordon Runs Dry and Wayward Winston I found to be very enjoyable episodes and Kevin's Cranky Friend I liked simply due to the humor from both of the cranes.  

Thoughts on each of the episodes:

Gordon runs dry - 10/10 - No fault on my card with this episode whatsoever, to be honest.  I loved how everyone was in perfect character and I liked how Paxton played a decent role too.  I especially liked how Gordon was complaining to Thomas about why he doesn't fetch his own coaches (Season 1 reference anyone?), not to mention the picture provided by railwayinspector showing the angle of Gordon going by the stream.  It's quite clear that Andrew Brenner has done his homework while writing this episode!  
Kevin's Cranky Friend - 7/10 - I'd normally look down at episodes like this, but this episode got me to laugh.  It's interesting seeing Kevin and Cranky interact with one another, and their relationship throughout the episode was quite enjoyable.  
Scruff's makeover - 5/10 - This episode was honestly kind of boring, and extremely predictable.  I like how Annie and Clarabel spoke and how Gordon, James, and Henry were together at the shed giving Scruff a hard time.  They seemed to be in perfect character in that scene.  Outside of that I can't say I found the rest of the episode entertaining.  
Wayward Winston - 9/10 - I know a lot of people didn't like this episode but I honestly found it to be really enjoyable.  I would have given it a perfect score if they ended the episode with Bertie still waiting at the railroad crossing providing some comic relief.  Outside of that though, I love how Percy was explaining to Winston about why engines need drivers, (totally contradicts everything in seasons 8-16).  My favorite part of the episode has to be where right as Sir Topham Hatt confronts Winston and Winston defends himself by saying that Sir Topham Hatt didn't leave his brakes on... the reactions from everyone in that scene were what made this episode worth watching, IMO.
Steamie Stafford - 2/10 - The only thing I liked about this episode was how they called the cattle wagons livestock cars.  The rest of this episode was really silly and honestly not my cup of tea.  I don't plan on watching it twice.  

So in my opinion... so far so good!  Looking forward to the rest of this season!

Quote from: mrrailroad on April 10, 2013, 07:01:53 PM

What do you think about Harvey being made

Quote from: Fergusfan17 on April 10, 2013, 07:25:03 PM
Has already been made.

Bachmann has never announced or made Harvey.

Quote from: Sodor Perfection on March 23, 2013, 03:49:10 PM
Are we really doing this?

I sort of thought we'd agreed to leave the predictions until much later in the year.

We never "agreed" on anything.  If you don't agree with what someone is saying or doing, please keep that opinion to yourself.  People post what they would like to see all the time it's not unusual at all.  There's nothing wrong with it.  Plus, in all honesty, not one user should EVER be in the place to criticize someone for posting a list of what they want to see in the future.  

Honestly, I agree.  The whole thing with people censoring Hornby's name or calling it "the red box company" is just really silly, and also comes off as extremely biased.  Mentioning the name is okay, it's not doing any harm.  When you compare Hornby's line to Bachmann's line or bash Hornby's line on a Bachmann forum, that's when it looks unprofessional and it makes Bachmann as a whole look bad.  

Quote from: TrainFan97 on March 01, 2013, 05:41:07 PM
If Bachmann were to make Stepney someday, they will have to paint his side rods red.

If Bachmann were to do Stepney, I would hope they would have his side-rods painted red as that's something that has remained consistent for Stepney as a character.  At the same time though, I wouldn't be surprised if they would be left unpainted.  That being said Hornby's Stepney model had their side-rods red, so it would be interesting to find out what kind of approach Bachmann were to do if they made a Stepney model of their own.

If the Bachmann 'Devious' Diesel of all characters got a more...jolly facial expression, then that's saying something about the faces we should expect from 'Arry and Bert.

The faces we should honestly expect from Bachmann are these two.  They are almost exactly identical, minus the stubble on Bert.  I imagine the Bachmann models would be no different in that respect.  I can also see them having silver side rods, again, because the Bachmann Diesel also had them.  I can't imagine siderods on Bachmann models ever being a different color other than silver.  The side rods are made of metal, and are usually left unpainted in most model trains in general.

I think the Bachmann 'Arry and Bert will be out by the end of this year, they really wouldn't require as much effort on Bachmann's part to put together.  Especially since it took Bachmann less than a year to release their Diesel model.

Honestly, I don't think the 2013 line is that bad.  The only addition in the 2013 line that was a poor choice on Bachmann's part was Jeremy, (which was very poor at that!).  It blows my mind that Bachmann picked Jeremy of all characters over the likes of Trevor, since Trevor has a lot more demand and potential for the range.  If not Trevor, than Butch, Bulgy, George, or even Elizabeth would have also been a lot nicer to see in this year's line than Jeremy.  

Everything else though that was announced seemed rather inevitable to me (see post above).  The only other surprises for me was the speed-activating sound Thomas, and arguably Troublesome Truck #4, but that all comes down to it's design choice.  

This year's line wasn't the greatest, but it definitely wasn't the worst.  I'll probably get Troublesome Truck #4 (depending on how it looks) and 'Arry and Bert.  

Quote from: TrainFan97 on February 11, 2013, 06:08:19 PM
I really think people shouldn't start making 2014 predictions or wishlists until around August. Having so many wishlists getting spammed all over here gets tiresome after a while.

I deleted the other 2013 thread for that same reason, due to comments relating to this subject and a lot of negativity in regards to some of the announcements.  

Not one user on this board should EVER get picky with another user for posting a wish list or predictions, because let's be honest, who here hasn't posted a list of products they wanted before?  Yes, it's too soon after the announcements, but let's not pretend any longer that everyone here has done this before, and more importantly feels that there were additions they would have rather seen appear in the lineup of products.  

Before this subject gets carried on any further, I feel the need to ask people to please move on from this subject and just talk about what's coming out this year.  We'll worry about next year when the time comes.

I am okay with the flat car with paint drums being discontinued, as long as the flat car comes back with a new load such as logs.

Gordon's express coaches being discontinued though?  Well I hope there are plans for new express coaches in the future to make more accurate ones, otherwise I can't see why Bachmann discontinued them in the first place.

Honestly, I don't see how.  If there's no chance of him appearing in the HO line then that's saying something for the large scale line.  I'll admit he'd look extremely nice in that line, but for Fergus as a character he only appeared in season 7 so he's not exactly memorable compared to most characters in the series.  

We'll find out who is going to be announced in two days from now, but I'm thinking we'll more likely see the likes of an engine who was already introduced in the HO line like Toby or Edward or maybe Bill and Ben.