Now this is interesting. This is my first time creating a new topic so some constructive criticism would be beneficial. I thought that this idea might warrent it's own thread so here we are.
I've brought up this concept before on one of my other posts but I was wondering what if Bachmann made HO Scale Figures.
Now I'm not talking about the Sir Topham Hatt, Conductor, and Farmer McColl figures that Bachmann made way back in the day (although I would love to see them make more of those too). Those figures were transfered to the Large Scale range after it's creation. I'm talking about proper HO scale human figures. I've seen many train stores and hobby shops sell little figures for HO scale. Like these:
https://www.hobbylinc.com/preiser-pedestrians-people-sitting-on-stairs-6-model-railroad-figures-ho-scale-10474 (https://www.hobbylinc.com/preiser-pedestrians-people-sitting-on-stairs-6-model-railroad-figures-ho-scale-10474)
Bachmann has made these type of figures before so it wouldn't be outside of their comfort zone to do something like this for Thomas and Friends. If you've ever heard of the Thomas Capsule Plarail line in Japan, they have little figures available that are much smaller than HO Scale figures but it's the same idea.
I think HO Scale figures would be a very inexpensive thing for Bachmann to do. There are many serious modelers in the Thomas fandom who would find these figures very useful. Plus, they would be good for Thomas Youtube modelers as well. A very well known Thomas youtuber named Tardisrescue uses HO scale figures in some of his videos. Here's a few examples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycfUWXqNKTo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycfUWXqNKTo) Tetley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7Y1UaH6_Jk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7Y1UaH6_Jk) Just Desserts
Having the colorful cast of human characters in figures form could prove quite useful. Even casual fans may like to purchase these figures. Many people who collect one Thomas brand, sometimes buy things from other brands because they could use them with their collection. Wouldn't that be the same with Bachmann. Sure you can argue that generic HO Scale figures would do suffice, but characters like Sir Topham, Dowager, Lady Hatt, Farmer McColl, Fergus Duncan, The Drivers and Firemen, etc would be worth having unique figures for in my opinion.
So that's my idea. I'm not sure if Bachmann would actually do this but if enough people want it, who knows? Comment down below if you like this concept and would like Bachmann to do it. Also which human characters would you want to see made in a HO Scale line (or the Large Scale line)? Peace.
Noch and Preiser both make European, including the UK, figure sets. It's fairly straight forward to repaint figures in many of the sets to match uniforms seen on 'Sodor'.
Noch figure sets can be seen here:
https://www.noch.com/en/product-categories/figures-and-decoration/figures/at-the-station.html
And here:
https://www.noch.com/en/product-categories/figures-and-decoration/figures/european-railway-officials.html
Preiser's full line of 1:76/OO railroad figures can be seen here (I used a UK site because it was the only one I could find quickly that listed the whole range of railroad figures):
http://www.gaugemaster.com/search_results.asp?searchstring=railways%20preiser%20scale~~%ACoo%AC~~scale%20category~~1241~~category
Len
Honestly, I think character packs would sell. Like a pack of Sir Topham Hatt and 3 or 4 engineers, a pack of workers in brown overalls, and a pack of Farmer McColl with his dog and 2 or 3 sheep. I think those would sell. Even a pack of just engineers would sell extremely well, as people would be buying a ton of those to fill out their Sodor railway workers.
Thinking about it, there are so many human characters, both classic and CGI, that they could make as figures. I thought I'd just list down all the possible people Bachmann could make as HO Scale Figures:
- Sir Topham Hatt (varients include: Regular, Santa, Safarri, Beach, Overalls from "Coal", Muddy from "Lady Hatt's Birthday", Casual from "STH's Holiday", Abominable Snowman, Scottish Kilt, Halloween Wizard, Pajamas, and Hatless)
- Lady Hatt (varients include: Regular and "Rosie is Red" Outfit)
- Dowager Hatt (varients include: Regular Green and Pink Outfit)
- Stephen and Bridget Hatt
- Mr. Percival and his wife
- Mr. Fergus Duncan
- Farmer McColl, Farmer Trotter, and Farmer Finney
- Cryil the Fogman
- Duke and Duchess of Boxford
- Mrs Kyndley (varients include: Season 1 Outfit and Season 5 Outfit)
- The Grumpy Passenger and the Bird Watcher
- The Photographer
- Franz- Hugo's Driver
- Dusty Miller and The Dairy Manager
- The Thin and Fat Clergyman
- Willie
- Great Race Announcer
- Mr. Bubbles
- Drivers, Firemen, Stationmasters, Guards, and Firelighters
- Workman (varients includes: Generic, Steamworks, Dieselworks, Rescue Centre, Steelworks, BMQ, and Hard Hat)
- Albert, his wife, and baby carriage
- Generic Passengers (Men, Women, Children, Floppy Green Hat Lady)
- Alicia Botti
- Miss Jenny
- Pack Operators and The Foreman
- Sir Robert Norramby
- Sailor John and Captain Joe
- Mayor of Sodor and the Railway Board
- Old Bailey
- Jem Cole and The Vicar of Wellsworth
- Lord Callan
- Charubala the Indian Railway Controller (varients include: Regular and Fairy Outfit)
And that's not even including animals like Katie, Trusty Trunky, Bluebell, her calf, and all the ones named after engines. (Seriously, Thomas has like three living things named after him now.) I could go on but I've been writting this post for like an hour and I'm tired. Tell me if I missed any down below.