Some wooden railway faces will fit Bachmann standard gauge HO Thomas engines (eg. Thomas' wooden railway face, from what I've seen can fit a Bachmann Thomas) so I don't see any way the wooden railway Narrow Gauge engines would fit Bachmann narrow gauge engines, especially as in wooden railway, they use the same track gauge.

~Alex

Ah, my apologies, it didn't read that way. Sorry!

~Alex.

Quote from: Anthony P2 on March 23, 2016, 09:12:41 PM
It's just a gimmick to sell more toys.

I was trying to be optimistic before, but it's proving difficult for me to keep that mindset now. I think that sentence could basically sum up my thoughts on this whole special so far really.
Like, I hope it's good, but realistically...I think it's just around to sell toys, I even checked the TTTEWikia for some more info on the special to see what I could find. It's introducing more new engines than any other special...and with streamlining existing characters meaning more merchandising possibilities...I think we can mostly see where that train of thought is going.
Whilst I'm happy to see Flying Scotsman make an appearance, I think this special may be one of the weaker ones, it already seems very merchandise driven, which is a shame to me, but I suppose it could be far worse, and I also could be surprised...it could turn out really good in the end...maybe.

Another issue I see is the special's length...all these new characters in just 60 minutes? The special may have a hard time staying focused, that is, if these new characters aren't going to end up all being one dimensional cardboard cut-outs of characters, which I suspect plenty could end up being...so I'm hoping this isn't going to end up like seasons 9-16 and some of the special in between...but I wouldn't be surprised if that was the end result.

To me, it could go one way, or the other, but I suspect the final product will just be very merchandise driven, and overall, maybe not as good to me as it could be to others. Perhaps it's too early to make this kind of judgement, but based on some of the series' history, I wouldn't be surprised if it did end up that way.

Here's hoping it's still good in the end though,
~Alex

Actually, the website does have an expected shipping date, it says:
Est. Ship Date: 4/5/2016
Unfortunately, because of the way numerals are arranged in the date in the US or other countries, it could mean April or May, as some countries put the day before the month, others put the month before the day. As this site is American (or at least, I think it is, based on the currency being US Dollars), I would assume they have put the month before the day, as this is a more common practice in the USA than other countries, but then again, I expect a May release to be more likely than April, but the site is all I have to go from, I guess I'll just take it as April for now, but I won't be disappointed if it isn't.

Thank you for sharing BassTBone, it's nice to have a good estimate of the release date

~Alex

I recall that it was early, not sure how early, but I remember it caught everyone by surprise, as it wasn't normal for the range at the time. I could be wrong, but as we don't even have photos of Oliver yet, I suspect Rosie's won't come out for a little while either, I certainly do not expect her photos to be out in a hurry, but that's just my thoughts. I could be entirely wrong.

~Alex

Quote from: Jacob Wilson on February 18, 2016, 07:45:26 PM
No, prototype of Rosie, which is a shame!

She was just announced, of course there isn't going to be a prototype. Usually the prototypes aren't ready until roughly halfway between the official release and announcement, usually favouring the side closer to the release too.

Quote from: Metal on February 18, 2016, 07:37:07 PM
The Bachmann 2016 catalog is up, feel free to look.
http://resources.bachmanntrains.com/bachmann2016/

Thank you for sharing, Metal

~Alex

Quote from: Jacob Wilson on February 14, 2016, 01:14:57 PM
But Live Lobsters Utility Wagon is for carrying lobsters. I do believe that The Flying Kipper is a train of fish. Have lobsters ever been part of The Flying Kipper? [...] Also, has this Live Lobsters Utility Wagon's ever been seen in the TV Series?

[...] Which USA Tank Engine have you pre-ordered?

[...] What is the Sodor Salt Wagon for, exactly? To carry fish or salt?

1. I don't recall that it was never explicitly stated, but considering the nature of livestock trains, I wouldn't call it unrealistic, but the van has been seen in the show itself recently, so again, I wouldn't put it past them, but the name I'd say could just be for the sake of making it...distinctive. I could be wrong though.
2. Sparks would be purchasing the SR USA Dock Tank I imagine...A.K.A Rosie's basis.
3. In real life, Salt. Definitely Salt. In the show? I don't recall it ever being mentioned, so I would say they could easily be used for fish if one can stretch their imagination far enough.


On a side note, I recall reading around here that they could just be another Mail Car repaint, which wouldn't be entirely accurate, as when one looks at them closely in these pictures, you can see they have different panels at the front and rear of the vans.


And on a final note, I look forward to seeing the Brown Salt Van join the range, I also look forward to seeing how the Great Western Cattle Van turns out, the prototype picture has me curious. This whole year's range has my curious if I'm honest, I'm very curious to see how all the stock that we currently haven't see prototypes of turns out.

~Alex

Quote from: Jacob Wilson on February 13, 2016, 07:25:41 AM
No, I do not count Murdoch, Arthur or Rosie as main characters. I do think though that calling Rosie a 'minor character' is a bit harsh though. She is something on a level more then minor. I call a minor character as Murdoch and Arthur, as well as Molly and Neville.

There really isn't much of a level between main and minor though, and considering her amount of appearances throughout the show's entire run, I'd say she's on the level of a minor character, especially since a bulk of those appearances were either as a background character or a character with limited dialogue, honestly, outside of the "core characters" and with some very limited exceptions, the other characters are comparatively quite minor, I'd say Rosie is on the level of a minor character as well, she may have more appearances to her name than the likes of Arthur and Murdoch, but when it comes to the stories she actually has an overall importance to, and was not just a background character for, she's about on par with Murdoch and Arthur really. But this has strayed from the idea of the actual announcements.

Back On Topic: I enjoy the anticipation that comes with every new release, especially with some of the announcements released this year, as there seems to be more room for speculation when compared to other years, for example: this year's Refrigerator Van vs. last year's Green Mail Coach, don't know about the rest of you but I found the title Green Mail Coach left little to the imagination. This year's Refrigerator Van seems to leave a little more to the imagination, as I don't even know what tooling to expect it to be. I do like Mully's idea though, that the Refigerator Van may look like the vans seen here: http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/thomas-and-friends-cgi-series/images/b/b4/CalmDownCaitlin56.png/revision/latest?cb=20140517071217

~Alex

Quote from: Jacob Wilson on February 13, 2016, 05:42:34 AM
^ Above 1 Reply - @Reply #26 By Tiranic5972: I think Rosie is little more then a minor character. She has appeared in more Episodes than you think. Check out her Thomas & Friends Wikia page: http://ttte.wikia.com/wiki/Rosie. Murdoch and Arthur are more minor characters, as they have hardly ever been shown. Rosie has been shown more than Murdoch and Arthur has, and she is a newer character than these two.

Yes, you are correct, she has shown up more than those two, but no one's exactly calling Murdoch or Arthur main characters either, and looking through the list of episodes she appeared in, lot's of them are just cameos, so I'd barely call her a fleshed out character, it also doesn't help that in a lot of those episodes (notably her first appearance too), her personality is very "one note" and bland, I went over this about her and Stanley not all that long ago actually. However I do now find myself eating my own words, something I really hate doing, guess like perhaps other members here I need to think more before I post.

Quote from: AJW98Productions on February 07, 2016, 12:38:10 AM
The obsession with these two characters, from my perspective is that the obsession can only created out of their unique designs and liveries, Stanley I guess had an interesting enough introduction (despite my personal thoughts on "The Great Discovery", I can't deny that it was interesting). Personally, I don't care about Rosie as a character, but I would like a model, so I guess the marketing team has struck again. But I recognise that as a model, she'll never be released by Bachmann for the foreseeable future, because [...] they [Rosie and Stanley] are just blank slates of characters with little to no personality, but endlessly marketable designs and unique liveries.

So there we have it, my thoughts on Rosie, are however, less negative than they may seem. She is very much a stock standard Season 9-16 character, as she has little to no personality, and should probably be more fleshed out, but is most interesting for the fact that she has a unique livery and interesting basis, one of the few reasons why I probably would get a model of her at some point if I could, so I recognise the marketing team has struck again!

Anyway, my thoughts on the actual range for this year:
Narrow Gauge:
Rheneas really was a given, almost everyone called it, but I think next years engine may be a little more of a surprise, as people seem to have more mixed opinions on the next release, but I'm thinking Peter Sam might be next.

I'm glad to see the Slate Wagons, and I'm a little surprised that we're getting three variants of them (twins philosophy I guess), but I stand by the idea that I would've liked to see a brakevan this year, I probably would've rather had coaches as well, but I don't mind Slate Wagons in the slightest, I do hope next year we get some coaches and two brake vans (twins philosophy, one tooling but two colour variations, like with the Box Vans released last year), so as ever, this was what I was hoping for, but I am more than happy with what was released, maybe next year but I know it's too soon to start calling 2017 announcements, so I leave you with these images:



HO Gauge:
Rosie...well since I already ate my own words I won't dig the hole any deeper, I think there were smarter choices, definitely Engines I'd rather see, but I guess they could've done worse, and hey, since we only have two female engines in the HO range, I suppose a third is rather nice in that regard, and she is at least a unique design and has made more starring and background roles than most other characters that were made to sell merchandise, I know a lot of people are thinking "could've been better", but for now I'm going to just say "hey, could've been worse" and to me Rosie is at least a very...marketable character. Even with everything she's got going against her, she's got enough going for her to warrant a model apparently, so there's something I guess.

I'm glad to hear the Salt Van is making a comeback, I think I'll try and get my hands on a few more quick this time, as I only got one before it was discontinued previously, I'd like to say fan demand brought it back, but by that logic Gordon's Express Coaches should've returned a while ago, I've seen more demand for them since they've been discontinued, but I guess the Salt Van is cheaper to produce, so can be sold at lower prices, which I guess increases likelihood of sales.

I imagine the GWR Cattle Van is being released to compliment Duck, Oliver and Toad, I don't actually know if it'll be that different to the tooling that already exists, or if it'll be the same tooling with a "GW" label on it. Whatever the case may be, I look forward to seeing it.

Troublesome Truck #5, there is a lot of potential with the Troublesome Trucks, so I don't know what to expect. Another product I'm going to keep an eye out for.

Finally, the Refrigerator Van. I really think I'm repeating myself, but I don't entirely know what to expect the tooling to look like, if it'll have lobsters on it or whatnot, I suspect this could be something previously seen in the CGI series perhaps, in which case that could give us better indication of to what it would look like. Personally I recognise I've done a terrible job of keeping up with the CGI series, so I could be equally wrong.

Large Scale:
I'm honestly surprised we're seeing DCC sound equipped Thomas and Percy in G Gauge before an analogue sound Percy is released in HO, I'm even more surprised that a chip is being sold separately as well, but since Large Scale is such a price-y (for lack of a better word) range, I imagine it has more mature modelers in it, so I guess that could be part of why.

What interests me is that Box Vans are being released into Large Scale before HO too, I look forward to seeing the final products, and hope they eventually migrate into HO scale, I would've thought they would be good sellers in HO too.

Unfortunately Henrietta is still not being announced, quite disappointing in all honesty, but hey! This just proves that the range is far from being discontinued, as I remember seeing speculation about last year, and considering there are again, more interesting releases this year, I'm honestly just happy the range isn't in a bad place, and I don't even collect it.

But moving on now, I think it's time for...
Final thoughts:
This year's announcements, to me at least are far from disappointing. Am I surprised? Yes. Is that a bad thing? Not really. Honestly I'm just glad this year's range is as big as it is, I really didn't expect the range this year to be so large with Oliver and Winston still on the back-burner, perhaps a bit disappointing here and there, but ultimately there were a lot of people who didn't think we'd get as much as we did get this year, so I can hardly call it a disappointment at all. This year's range seems to be the most divisive I've seen yet, but ultimately, I'm looking forward to it...with great anticipation actually. I'm very curious to how things will turn out.

Ultimately, I'm glad to see this year was far from the year I expected in a few ways at least, I expected a much quieter year in all honesty. So overall, I'm happy enough, more to anticipate for later, I suppose, but plenty to look forward to in the meantime,
~Alex

Quote from: Jacob Wilson on February 10, 2016, 03:36:39 AM
^ Above 1 Reply - @Reply #325 By AJW98Productions: What has Donald and Douglas' prototype got to do with Duncan? I am getting confused now!

Duncan's prototype is actually called "Douglas", that's what I was referring to.

Quote from: Jacob Wilson on February 10, 2016, 03:36:39 AM

^^^ Above 3 Replies - @Reply #323 By MeganekkoFury1126: That is true what you said there, that more people recognise Peter Sam with his original round funnel. This surely does not mean that Bachmann will produce Peter Sam without his round funnel though, does it?

They probably never will, for reasons stated before, and we had a previous conversation about Henry's in a thread a few months ago, it's much the same principles with Peter Sam's funnel.

~Alex

Quote from: JLK2707 on February 09, 2016, 10:57:29 PM
Fair enough mate. But the wooden railways range made Peter sam with his original funnel.

To be fair, they made just about every product under the sun though, if Bachmann tried to mimic Learning Curve's release schedule, they'd find themselves practically bankrupt very quickly. I think MeganekkoFury1126 was quite right on that point, and also about the gradients (putting it in a way better than I could've dreamed of putting it).

Quote from: MeganekkoFury1126 on February 09, 2016, 11:38:00 AM
But back to the narrow gauge engines, it'll be interesting to see how Duncan (my most favorite narrow gauge engine) comes out when he eventually gets made. Yes, it certainly would be tricky fitting all the internal components inside. I didn't realize until recently just how skinny Duncan is compared to the others. We'll just have to see how the other characters get made. Personally, I'm most looking forward to see how they make Peter Sam with his special funnel.

Duncan's prototype is a very skinny engine too, but his CGI model is even more so than either classic series or his real life counterpart...so I think it could be hard for his model to match his CGI scaling, let alone his earlier scaling, but given how closely Skarloey matches Tallylyn (going so far as having rivet patterns that match Tallylyn instead of his CGI counterpart), it could be probable that Bachmann would manufacture Duncan's body to match his prototype (Douglas), closer than his CGI model. But that's just a thought...

~Alex

Quote from: Jacob Wilson on February 09, 2016, 05:14:45 AM
^^ Above 2 Replies - @Reply #313 By AJW98Productions: I am shocked to hear that! Why did the producers of Thomas & Friends include a big hill like Gordon's Hill, of the Locomotives where not able to go up it, at their own accord?

No idea, I guess a realistic incline wouldn't look all that steep to children, but I really don't know. It could also just be that the original models were not all that powerful, I honestly don't know.

~Alex

Quote from: MeganekkoFury1126 on February 09, 2016, 07:13:53 AM
Do remember in Toad's Adventure and Toad's Bright Idea that Toad trailed behind trains led by James and Gator respectively, so Toad can trail behind any train a Thomas enthusiast wants to.

Not to mention the events of "Toad Stands By" showing he was Douglas's brakevan for awhile...

~Alex

Quote from: UPTODAY on February 07, 2016, 03:55:50 PM
Alex, is that picture with the little blue coaches a cog railway. i cant believe a regular steamer could make it up that grade!!!
UPTODAY

I remember reading somewhere that the camera was tilted to give it that effect, but I don't recall where, and the TTTE Wikia doesn't seem to mention it. This extends to the Standard Gauge engines as well, I remember reading that the Standard Gauge engines could barely make it up Gordon's Hill in Season 1 unaided, which makes sense given you can see wires pulling them up Gordon's Hill in some shots if you look close enough.

Side note: Sadly that episode ("You Can't Win") is the fourth episode of the fourth season, which on its own isn't sad, but it is sad when one remembers that it was the last time Duke had a speaking role all to himself...this episode aired in 1996 as well...quite some time ago...

Whilst we're on the topic of this year's Narrow Gauge releases, I'd like to say that I'm not sure how they'd make a model of Duncan given his CGI scaling, he's underscaled next to the other engines and his real life counterpart, Douglas. Call me crazy but I imagine getting Skarloey's motor in his boiler would've already been a tight squeeze, a CGI scaled Duncan would be a nightmare by comparison.

Given how closely Skarloey was modeled off Tallylyn, I personally hope Duncan is modelled closer to his real life counterpart "Douglas" than his CGI model. Though all that may just be a "pipe-dream" of sorts...but it is still a personal hope of mine to see Duncan closer to this:

Than this:


But that's just me, I don't speak for everyone.

~Alex

Large engine, even though Diesel 10 is a simple enough design, he's a large engine, and with an added claw I don't imagine he'd be at the levels of Gordon and Spencer in price, but I don't really see him being cheap either. But I've more than had enough of talking about Diesel 10, other members covered it well enough, I tried to cover it pretty well. The long and short of it is it would be a terrible business move to release Diesel 10. So I don't even get why it's still a relevant topic.

Anyway, if we're talking about coaches, here is my personal pick:



~Alex