The title explains it all. Why is all the sudden they are out of stock? Is it because a lot of people are buying those models the most?
It's just the production cycle. According to a post made a while back they were actually expecting James to go out of stock around this time. Models were just produced at a certain time with a certain supply being sent to the Bachmann warehouse. Seeing as atleast Thomas is the main character there's no way they'd get rid of him. So it's just that people bought their warehouse stock and they're just now waiting on a shipment from China. Though this does mean we may see the new James repaints soon, if they were to be produced like announced 2 years ago.
Only time will tell, or an image change on the web store for that matter.
I think that Bachmann will not only re design James but Thomas and Percy as well hopefully they get front couplings this time.
James isn't getting redesigned, just more accurately painted. So seeing as the others have more accurate liveries, all they might do now is replace the faces with more accurate CGI ones, and even that's a stretch.
Well, Thomas, being the star biller he always is, is back in stock first.
Thomas is also in the new packaging that Rosie was in. So it would seem that Percy and James would be that way as well.
Edit: I should also mention that there were no upgrades to Thomas. Gray hooks, same face and no front coupler still.
James might be the only one to get changed.
Upgrades to Thomas and Percy may never happen. They look SO out-of-date compared to the newer models, but Bachmann is a lot more expensive and complicated than Adventures or TrackMaster. Not everyone's gonna feel like spending a lot of money on a new model of the same character.
The range could go on for 10 more years, and the first models could still be the same they were since day one of release. Regardless, whether or not they get changed is up to Mattel.
Has percy or james came back in stock yet?