Just saw on Facebook that Henrietta's painted sample came in... She looks exquisite! Her detailing is excellent and the Fall ETA is good to hear...

Now, with the exception of the Diesel 0-6-0s and Express Coaches, all of the currently undelivered project for N Scale 'Thomas' have a decorated sample and are seemingly expected to come out within the year... You love to see it...

Bachmann's Facebook has a teaser for Rebecca's painted sample once more, now proclaiming it will be revealed in full during the "Thomas Tuesday" in two weeks... It looks very nicely painted and detailed... Definitely interested in seeing the full thing...

The slate wagon samples shown on today's Thomas Tuesday look much nicer than they do on the catalog... That is nice...

Also, the ex-Bachmann UK van shown off was an unpainted sample after all... My mistake looking at the promo, but I do wonder why they needed an unpainted sample of a wagon that's already been finished by their sister branch...

The 12 Ton Van teaser was very revealing... The door shown does not match the door on the Large Scale/N Scale "Box Van" tooling, and in fact does not match either of the previous HO Scale covered vans... Upon further investigation, it seems these new Box Vans are in fact, yet another re-use of Bachmann UK tooling... The door is a perfect match with the LNER 12 Ton Van sold in the 'Bachmann Branchline' range of OO Scale products...
This strikes me as a very odd thing to do... I'm certain these will be very handsome vans given the quality of the tooling, but I don't quite understand why they aren't using the Large Scale/N Scale "Box Van" body shell, since they had just brought that tooling to N Scale...

I suppose this also means the van in the teaser isn't a tooling sample, but a decorated sample of the Gray van... Perhaps I may be off in that assertion since it seems a bit shinier than the usual finish of a decorated sample, but the blueish-gray body and black roof do match the reference picture seen in the catalog...

The way myself and the modellers in my circle see it, it's easier to sort new locos for N Scale 'Thomas' into tiers of priority rather than a hard numbered ranking... Mostly because the demand for Henry and Edward is so suffocating that it is more or less impossible to talk about any other characters without the proviso of "after Henry and Edward, of course"...

Tier 1 would be Henry and Edward, naturally... They're the final two classic main characters... Both are very popular and frequently requested... Henry specifically has the benefit of sharing a common driving wheels and motion with Gordon, which means that the only requirements to create him are to make a new loco shell, tender, and front wheelset to surround the main chassis... Edward would almost entirely be new tooling (albeit likely using the same wheel pattern as Thomas, James, and Toby) but his development cost would be easily justified by how popular he would be upon release...

Tier 2 and below are more subjective and nebulous... I think these would be a combination of popular secondary loco characters from the HO Scale 'Thomas' line and general popular requests for the N Scale 'Thomas' line specifically... At time of writing, I would put four characters into this category; Duck, Spencer, Mavis, and Oliver... Duck and Oliver fit the bill for both criteria... Mavis has been getting a lot of support for N Scale (including from myself)... and Spencer is rather popular in HO Scale despite that model's shortcomings, so I believe he'll make the jump sooner rather than later...

Tier 3 is every other engine that is currently released in the HO Scale 'Thomas' line. Rosie, Donald and Douglas, Daisy, Ryan, Bill and Ben, and Salty... Salty may be cheating slightly since his reintroduction isn't on the market yet... But he is in the catalog, so I count him among these regardless, ha ha... Not much to say about them, I believe all of them will come to pass in due time...

Tier 4 are the characters that are either extremely new or currently discontinued without a plan to be reintroduce... Beau, Rebecca, Stanley, and Iron 'Arry and Iron Bert... The only characters I can see 'jumping the line' as it were are the Iron Diesels for being based on Paxton and Diesel, or Rebecca solely because she is a main character in the legacy 'Thomas' series... Beau is complicated by Bachmann's Old-Time 4-4-0 being a discontinued tooling, and in all honestly would be better off using an updated model as a base... Meanwhile Stanley feels too recent of an announcement to consider placing any higher... That said in a year or two, he and Rebecca would likely move up to Tier 3 once their HO Scale models make it to market, and their places will be taken by whatever new loco characters are announced...

Rolling Stock is a lot less interesting to make a priority tiering for in the same way, since most of it is just a laundry list of essentials... More 7-Plank Open Wagons, more versions of the Tank Cars, Cattle Vans, the Spiteful Brake Van (or other BR 20 Ton Brake Van recolors, if possible), Red Coaches, Toby's Museum Coaches, Red Express Coaches, et cetera... I may have missed it if somebody has posted it, but I feel the Mail Cars would be a good pick for the line as well. It's another piece that was present in TOMIX's 'Thomas' line that isn't currently represented in Bachmann's N Scale line, and comes in at least three colors... Red, Green, and even Live Lobsters if they want to have some fun...

Needless to say, the annual catalog's offerings for N Scale 'Thomas' are very disappointing... I don't entirely understand why we couldn't have gotten some Open Wagon or Tank Car recolors for N Scale instead of the Narrow Gauge Slate Wagon recolors in HO... The HO Narrow Gauge line is already plagued with a backlog of wagons in the development pipeline, meanwhile the N Scale line is fully up-to-date in terms of wagon releases.

It feels like Bachmann have misplaced their priorities... That said I think it is a good idea for them to not bother with any new tooling in the catalog this year... And, I don't doubt NMRA will yield better developments, given track record of the past few years... But the lack of updates in this catalog seems to me like a major hit to the forward momentum built up by the last two years of announcements.

I think at this point, if it's going to take them that long to upload the catalog PDF, a moderator should at the very least make a post now with the new Thomas announcements on these forums, like in the old days... Especially if they're not going to make the bi-annual announcement videos for Thomas anymore... I understand the latter is due to needing Mattel to approve any promotional material they create, but surely just posting a text list of new announcements here wouldn't require any licensor oversight? If Bachmann is willing to list all of their 'main line' releases in a video a month before releasing the catalog, then I'm sure it would be reasonable for them to just say what they're doing here so that we aren't left in suspense for weeks...

Someone in my modelling circle showed this to me. It seems Emily's painted sample has made its way to this year's Amherst show...
https://twitter.com/DCCSodor/status/1751267015933751374?s=20

She looks excellent. With all the excitement surrounding Gordon I can understand why there hasn't been as much 'hype' over Emily's development. But I think she is the greatest achievement in the whole N Scale 'Thomas' line. A ready-to-run Stirling Single in N Scale, with the entire motorized mechanism contained within the locomotive is no joke. The N Scale 'Thomas' line is definitely pushing the envelope in terms of locomotive design, and I think Emily should be lauded for it.

I very much hope it sends a message to the rest of the industry, given how the UK outline N Scale market is nearly entirely plagued by tender locos that are either driveshaft-driven or tender-driven. (The only exceptions that spring to mind are Bachmann's own more recent offerings, such as the 8F, 4MTs, Duchesses, and Merchant Navies...) I understand some of those tools are products of their time, but given how many very small tank engines like the Terriers and 14XXs (or indeed, Thomas, Percy, and Toby!) have been achieved in N Scale, one would think a loco with more internal real estate like the Black 5s or Gresley Pacifics would be trivial to make in loco-driven form... (Case in point, hello Gordon!)

Since we're a week away from the 2024 Catalog, I don't have any 'predictions' for anything other than N Scale. I'd still very much like to see Henry announced, as well as some faceless open wagons, and the introduction of vehicle characters such as Bertie and Harold. Given the past year's release patterns I wouldn't be surprised if some of these are being saved for an NMRA announcement. But I do think it would be a bit silly to put off Henry any longer given how easy it would be for them to make him, especially now that Gordon is supposedly hitting the market in Q2 this year.

Henrietta sample looks excellent. It definitely looks like a new tool based on the "CGI" version of the character, face and all. The give-away is very minute. I didn't notice until someone else in my modelling circle pointed it out to me. When they updated Henrietta to include the face, they added some extra support beams to the end of the carriage body with the face. You can see the outer-most support beams on the side facing Toby.

I assume they're keeping the face in that direction because they're somewhat wishy-washy on whether or not its okay for them to show the incomplete faces, ha ha. But it is nice to see Henrietta will have her face after all. Her "upgrades" in the "CGI" show were very gratifying to me. They allowed her to actually participate in stories instead of just being a glorified prop. It felt very natural alongside the expanded usage of other rolling stock characters around that same time. Annie and Clarabel, Toad, etc...

(Making this version of Henrietta also means they can re-use the same tool to make Hannah. I think she's relatively low on the list of "priority rolling stock" as it were, but I wouldn't mind having her in the fleet...)

I've been rather busy with work and life during the past few months so I haven't been able to check in on things outside of the usual Thomas Tuesday, and finally getting my hands on N Scale Toad (who is excellent, and I am very happy with, but haven't enough specific thoughts toward that I find it worth posting about on its own.) I'm not surprised nobody has commented on the Rebecca sample from October, but I was rather impressed with by the detailing present on it. Very nice to see such high fidelity detailing and construction on an HO Thomas model. It's a breath of fresh air compared to the HO models of most other 'main characters' in Thomas. If there were ever retooled versions of Thomas and the other mainstays made to the same high standard set by recent models like Ryan and Rebecca, that would probably be the only thing that would ever tempt me to try out HO again, ha ha.

Quote from: Chaz on December 01, 2023, 09:29:49 AMHello all, a quick question for all N scale Thomas modelers:

A former student of mine and his dad are building an N scale Thomas layout.  They'd really like to add Cranky onto their layout, but obviously Bachmann has no plans to do Cranky in N anytime soon. So I'd like help finding alternatives for them in the meantime.  What would you guys recommend? And if possible, I'd love to see a side by side comparison of Cranky next to the Bachmann N scale Thomas (not Tomix, please).  This could be either the ERTL, capsule plarail or any other brand that has made Cranky that could work with N scale.

Thanks in advance!

Sadly not able to provide a photo due to my layout being in boxes at the moment, but I find the Capsule Plarail toy to be a decent stand-in. I think it might be slightly small compared to his appearance in the show, but it looks fine on its own merits. Unfortunately in N Scale, there's not a lot of viable 'stand-in' options for Cranky or any other tower crane-type character at this size outside of Capsule Plarail toys, since most of their toys in the other toy ranges are far too big to fit well in an N Scale setting.

I'm sorry, Chaz, I wasn't trying to be passive-aggressive or trying to launch an "ad-hominem" at your idea. I'll do my best to not post like that in the future.

I would like to clarify my stance for the sake of being able to move on from this... When I read the original books, I found they presented the idea of the Island being a safe space that the vulnerable can turn to in times of crisis. It's how characters in mortal peril like the Scottish Twins and Oliver are able to have a happy ending, and later works do often corroborate this with characters like Hiro or Nia. Characters from different walks of life learn to co-operate, and characters who hate and discriminate receive comeuppance... I think Sodor's diversity is very much a part of the 'Thomas' tapestry, and it's a part I find quite comforting.

The cream 12 Ton Van from the show becoming Troublesome Truck #7 would make the most sense. That color of van is more or less treated as the "standard version" in the 3D animated show, so the fact it's not represented in the upcoming HO 12 Ton Van lineup is definitely an indicator of that color variant being planned for Troublesome Truck #7. That said, I wouldn't mind the African or Chinese equivalent of the van being chosen. They look perfectly fine and there's no reason that those wagons couldn't exist on Sodor anyway regardless of where they showed up in the show. It's a very diverse and accepting island, and any arguments to the contrary would be blatantly ignoring the entirety the series' nearly-80-year history, ha ha.

I definitely agree with Henry being the next 'Thomas' loco in N Scale, no reason mulling over why given how obvious he is. It would be nice to see the Spiteful Brake Van and faceless, textless 7-Plank wagons as well. Personally my biggest wish for the next year's product announcements are vehicle accessories such as Bertie, Harold, Cranky, etc. It's very hard to source appropriately-sized versions of those characters for an N Scale layout, so having Bachmann produce some would be much appreciated!

I personally don't see 'Arry and Bert happening in Large Scale, even as a conditional release. Diesel and Paxton are still very recent and following them up with another pair of Class 08s sounds like a recipe for not meeting the release conditions and wasting the time of everybody involved when they could be announcing a new product that would undoubtedly be more popular. Edward, Mavis, and Rosie come to mind as much stronger picks for new tools, perhaps Stanley as well if he proves popular in HO. I could see conditional releases for alternate character liveries such as LBSC Thomas or Busy Bee James (or Pink Rosie if Rosie is picked for Large Scale, given they'd probably do what they did with Grumpy Diesel and release the later HO version as the main/only version in Large Scale), but not 'Arry and Bert, at least not until there's been something that the market for LS finds more compelling first.

I was back-reading this thread somedays back to see if there was any interesting history to learn here (This was not the case unfortunately, it is very dull in how similar it is to today's conversations, ha ha) and found this discussion of a 2019 news article about 'Thomas' licensing in preparation for the 75th anniversary somewhat interesting:

Quote from: TrainshockeylifE on September 25, 2019, 07:07:07 AMLater in 2020, model railroad manufacturers Bachmann will work with the brand on a two-year licensing deal to bring the world of Thomas to life. The traditional electric trains will encompass the adventure and discovery of Thomas & Friends, to provide fans of the brand, railway enthusiasts and collectors with a realistic re-creation of the adventures on the Island of Sodor.

This alone does not mean much. It's just this article including the regular contract re-negotiations between Bachmann and Mattel for the 'Thomas' license among all the other licensing deals. That said, I find the timing of this contract lines up oddly well with certain recent moves Bachmann has made with their 'Thomas' range.

Assuming this two-year contract renewal that went into effect mid-2020 was good for exactly two years, the next extension of the license would go into effect in mid-2022. I suppose the contract would have likely been signed for well ahead of time, such as how the 2020 contract was signed in 2019, but the NMRA 2022 announcements and possibly the 2022 Catalog announcements were likely influenced by the terms of the new contract.

I say this specifically because on Facebook, Bachmann mentioned that the reason their N Scale 'Toad' didn't utilize Graham Farish's existing GWR Brake Van design was because "the dimensions didn't match up". This is interesting, since the dimensions of an existing GWR tool didn't stop them from making the HO Scale 'Toad' use the Bachmann Branchline (ex-Mainline) GWR Brake Van tool. The current Graham Farish GWR Brake Van is more or less a scaled down version of that ex-Mainline tool to begin with, if I remember correctly... So it is somewhat odd that the licensor would agree to that tooling economy the first time but not the second. I believe that the stricter standards regarding Toad's appearance are the results of terms being re-negotiated at some point between then and now. It makes me wonder why they allowed Beau to reuse Bachmann's existing 'American' 4-4-0 tool, but I suppose that may have been a specially-arranged exception to these new guidelines, and it may not have been worth arranging such a thing for Toad when they were perfectly capable of just making the new van tool...

Also worth bringing up is Stepney. He is officially denounced as of the NMRA 2022 announcements, despite the good Mr. Doug Blaine seeming rather coy about a potential future model of Stepney whenever he was brought up in conversation. I think it would be very odd for him to act that way on these streams if he *knew* he was ultimately going to end up having to deliver disappointing news to the fans. But knowing now that there was a new contract implemented around the same time as these instances, I think it is possible that the terms used in the contract that went into effect in mid-2022 may have put a stop to any plans for non-3D animated 'Thomas & Friends' characters to be made for the Bachmann 'Thomas' line.

That said, since this contract is seemingly renewed regularly, it is entirely possible a future revision could reverse this stance. I don't foresee that happening any time soon given how many viable characters there are left from the 3D animated show (Nia, Hiro, Whiff, Charlie, Sidney, etc.) compared to how few truly viable options for new tools there are from the Model animated show (Lady, BoCo, Stepney). I suppose they are likely to want the ability to use Smudger and Proteus relatively soon as filler releases for the HOn30 line, as well as make Duke and Freddie into viable future options... It would make Arthur, Murdoch, and Class 40 into possible limited releases in the same vein as Beau by re-using the appropriate Bachmann Branchline tooling for each... But overall I don't think there is very much reason for Bachmann or Mattel to change this stance besides die-hard old-heads like us wanting to see the old characters instead of new ones, and we're only one part of the market for these trains.

(Also, tangentially, I don't think Mattel is playing a hand in who's introduced to Bachmann's 'Thomas' lines besides setting the guidelines of the contract. If Mattel was "forcing" Bachmann to make certain characters, we'd have gotten Nia instead of Stanley announced this year, or more likely we would have seen Nia at NMRA 2022 and Rebecca at NMRA 2023. I think Bachmann is fully in control of which locos they're choosing to give the green light under their current direction... which puts the NMRA 2022 new tool pick into a new light. If they were willing to green light a big tender engine, and picked Rebecca over Hiro despite how much longer-lived and internationally-popular Hiro is, it could be that Hiro is simply not possible for Bachmann to make happen right now for some reason, be it budgeting or logistical. If that is the case... ouch.)

That said, Mattel has made exceptions for their "no Model-animated-only characters" stance in the past... S.C.Ruffey and Jeremy the Jet made appearances every so often in their toys for the 3D animated era. Bulstrode made several appearances as well, he even made his way into the new 2D animated show! They're also seemingly fine with Bachmann using whatever is currently in their lineup, such as the Spiteful Brakevan. They also don't mind Bachmann using Model-animated-only colors for existing tools, such as Busy Bee James or Toby's Museum Coaches, or the upcoming Gunpowder Wagons including a D.Fusit livery despite the 3D animated gunpowder wagon not carrying that livery, or the upcoming Funfair Vans. Those last two are noteworthy, since they were announced well after the current contract would have been signed and implemented, so that means things like them are viable to happen again...

I don't know if I have an ultimate point to all of this rambling, besides just pointing out observations that can be made from between this old article and the things that have happened since its publication. I suppose Bachmann is justified in their current choices in what to make models of right now, contract stipulations or not, but it would be nice to get some of the Model animated characters alongside the 3D animated ones. Maybe we'll get lucky and the 2D animated show will make BoCo and Stepney as background filler character models, and that will be a loop-hole Bachmann can use to greenlight Model versions of them in HO, ha ha ha!

After a long wait, I finally have gotten my hands on the new N Scale 'Thomas' Box Vans. I pre-ordered these wagons months before they made their way state-side, and yet my retailer of choice (who shall go un-named) took nearly two full months after their arrival to actually get my order into my hands... They were also quite slow with my Toby order, so I think I'm going to switch to someone else's service for the sake of my own sanity...

Anyway, the wagons are excellent aesthetically. All three liveries are colorful and look good in a goods train, and I think the three varieties currently available pair well with each other in a consist. I think my favorite of the liveries is the "Fruit and Vegetable" version, though the "Great Western" version is nice as well (even if it is odd to have an LNER van with GWR markings, ha ha). The white "Ice Cream" version is probably the weakest of the three, if only because its a somewhat more niche and silly wagon. But 'Thomas' rolling stock is nothing if not occasionally niche and silly, so I am glad to have it all the same. All three roll along smoothly and freely when pushed or pulled.

My only complaint about the Box Vans is that they are all very light, lighter than the 7-Plank wagons, even. It makes them feel somewhat cheap, which isn't a great impression to get from something with a suggested price of $36 a pop. Upon inspection, they use the same metal weight piece as the 7-Plank wagons, so I suppose the culprit is the van body being lighter than the open body...? Seems counter-intuitive for the bigger body to be lighter, ha ha. It's simple enough to add extra weight inside the Box Vans, but it would be nice if future releases of the vans could have a more substantial metal weight included to begin with.

That said, my overall impressions are positive. They look nice and run well, and that's what I wanted out of these.