VERY excited to do so indeed! I recently acquired Skarloey and Rheneas (with Peter Sam on order as we speak) and they are honestly some of the very best Bachmann has to offer. Sir Handel's stories and overall character were always enjoyable to watch and the prospect of owning what undoubtedly will be another banger model and finally finishing off the "Four Little Engines" group is something I'm genuinely looking forward to!

Quote from: Awesometrain77 on September 23, 2023, 11:23:47 PMOooh I live a bunch of these ideas . Reusing the existing British molds has been done since day for rolling stock . But I think doing it for engines could get a lot of characters get made faster.

However D261 is very unlikely considering that he only appeared once.

What if Bachmann reused Gordon and Spencer's tenders with serval mods to make flying Scotsman .

Also what about making the ulfstead castle characters to go along with the coach they announced earlier .

Rerelease the well wagon with a jet engine load and replace the logs on the flatbed with a Chinese dragon mold . These are both iconic episodes of the show and the dragon will go in with the fun fair vans .

Also on the topic why not update the graphics on the live lobster to topham circus to fit in .

Maybe in the upcoming years 2024 and after we can see some more troublesome trucks .
Mainly a van a troublesome van would be cool if Bachmann does I hope they give it the iconic face as seen in toad stands by and haunted Henry.
 

I've gotta say, both The Jet Engine and The Chinese Dragon sound like awesome ideas for future products. Both are iconic in their own right and also open up more possibilities for newer sets. Despite Emily and Percy receiving their own sets in N Scale, Bachmann seem to prefer producing sets revolving around only Thomas. If this is the case, then why not produce two brand new starter sets with the dragon and jet engine respectively? As stated before, model series rolling stock seems to be something that has a higher likelihood of being made than model series engines for some reason and to be honest, if Bachmann are willing to produce a Gunpowder Wagon that hasn't been seen since Season 4, what's really stopping them from producing wagons like these which you could argue are just as, if not more iconic? Just a thought...

Thought I'd make something for us to all share our thoughts on the silver tank engine. I'm personally really happy that Stanley's being made. I love The Great Discovery, the introduction and lore of Great Waterton and Stanley was also a nice addition too. While he may not have done much since his debut, I still think he's a solid character and I feel Bachmann will definitely do him justice. What do you all think?

Is there any news regarding the rerelease of Bachmann Salty? We haven't heard anything for a while and I was wondering if it's still going ahead?

Quote from: TrainFan97 on June 13, 2023, 01:48:55 PMWow, an admin actually confirmed we are indeed getting new product announcements later this summer, with the NMRA being in August.


If Hiro can't be the next newly-tooled engine for HO Scale, other good choices would be Stanley, Whiff, or Nia. The latter only because we're getting Rebecca. Recolors to settle on would be Sidney, Fernando or Green Salty.

With N Scale Gordon and Emily soon to be shown fully painted, it's time another N Scale engine gets announced, which no doubt must be Henry, which would leave Edward as the only member of the original main cast left for N Scale. Then it would really be time to move on to side characters like Diesel.

Also I have to agree with you on Stanley! I personally love The Great Discovery and Stanley's a really cool looking character that I wish the show had done more with in hindsight.

Wow! Wasn't expecting a reply directly from Bachmann themselves! 

With the announcement of Sir Topham Hatt's Car, I'd really love to see off rail-characters be made. I'd personally love to see Trevor and Bulgy. A model of George the Steamroller would be amazing too, though Trevor and Bulgy seem a lot more likely. Maybe even some of the pack characters might have a chance as a good few did in fact return in CGI.

Unrelated, but does anyone know if we're getting announcements for the summer? If so, does anyone know roughly when that may happen and what would y'all want to see announced?

I agree with your choices of characters to be produced in the meantime Terence. Hiro is a character that is popular with both fans old and new and while I'm not a fan of Rebecca being produced, that opens up an opportunity for another large tender engine to be produced in the future. Hiro would also open up opportunities for modellers to make the model into that of the real D51 engine class.

Stanley is also another engine I could see being made and going down well with old and new fans. Stanley is a pretty underused character and I feel that's a shame as he looks cool and debuted in a pretty solid Thomas film. His shiny, silver paint would certainly look nice among the other engines in the range. He could probably also reuse Thomas's chassis.

On the subject of rolling stock; I would like to think there's more possibility of seeing more classic series products like The Spiteful Brakevan (albeit that being a simple repaint). I'd personally love to see the old coaches seen all the way back in Series 1 if possible as I think they'd go nicely with pretty much all the engines and would complement the green express coaches well too.

Given the limited number of NG characters in Thomas (especially when compared to the number of standard gauge ones), does anyone think there's a fair chance that engines like Smudger, Proteus and even Duke could be manufactured in the future? I personally believe all three would sell ridiculously well. The tooling for Smudger is already available in the form of Rheneas and the same will be said for Proteus once Sir Handel is released. The only new things required for those characters are their respective repaints and faces. As for Duke, KATO/PECO have made NG models of the real locomotive and it makes me wonder if Bachmann would be allowed to take that tooling and make a model of both Granpuff and maybe even Bertram?

I know what's been said regarding Bachmann making characters exclusive to the model series, but given the limited number of narrow gauge engines and the fact that these characters are all fairly popular in their own right, I feel Bachmann would be making a big mistake in not considering this.

What do you guys all think?

To be fair to Bachmann, there's still a lot of products yet to come out, so it can't be too surprising that there isn't much this time around. Here are my thoughts;

HO Scale:

The Old Carriage: Out of the rolling stock that could've been announced, I certainly wasn't expecting this one! I'm really looking forward to seeing this. I really like the 1800s Era of trucks and coaches and I reckon these will go down a treat! Who knows, maybe Stephan could be announced further down the line (no pun intended).

Sir Topham Hatt's Car: I'll be honest, the figure announcements last year were the biggest surprise in my opinion. I've personally always wanted a scale figurine of The Fat Controller and now not only are we getting that, but we're getting the "Hatt Blue" car as well! It's so great to see Non-Rail characters/vehicles making a comeback! Hopefully one day we'll see a model of Trevor or maybe Bulgy? Here's hoping!

N Scale (I'll keep my thoughts brief as I'm not particularly bothered by N Scale personally):

Henrietta: It's nice to see Toby's faithful coach getting a release, though I can't help but wish one could be made for G Scale. We've been waiting years for that, so maybe with an N Scale version coming out, the chances of a G Scale model are more promising?


The Ventilated Vans: I mean, yeah... cool. I don't really have much to say regarding these honestly.

Emily's Passenger Set: This sounds like a good one to me. Personally speaking, I wish Bachmann went back to making sets with other characters besides Thomas, nice to see that happening for N Scale. Hopefully in the future the same can be done for HO/OO and G Scale.


Conclusion:

While there isn't a lot announced this time round, these sound like really cool products and besides that we've still got models like Sir Handel, the new NG wagons, Ryan, etc still coming. Nice work Bachmann! Looking forward to seeing the finished results!

Quote from: Chaz on January 22, 2023, 02:33:33 AMFigured I would post recent updates on my OO9 layout, a lot has changed:


I was able to add some more scenery like trees and bushes in addition to a lake which was by far the most tedious project on the layout by far.  Nonetheless I'm really happy with the result.

Chaz, this is incredible! Fantastic work man!

Quote from: JLK2707 on June 12, 2021, 09:49:28 AM
I think they should just do both.

Maybe. Though we have to take into account how much it costs to produce the toolings required.

Personally speaking, I'd love to see any classic characters made in the range and BoCo is no exception. The character is extremely popular among the fandom and the demand for a model of him is certainly there. Not to mention that by Boco being produced, you'd finally have all the engines that work on Edward's Branch Line (Edward, Boco, Bill & Ben). I'd buy BoCo in a heartbeat.

Now regarding Diesel 10. If I'm to be completely honest with you all, I'd like him to be made just as much as BoCo. Despite the undeniable fact that Thomas and the Magic Railroad is a massive flop with an extremely confusing and messy story, the film still has a special place in my heart. I adore the model work in the film, the characterisation of the engines, the soundtrack and the characters introduced the film (at least when it comes to the engines). I found Diesel 10 in particular to be throughly entertaining throughout and I'd honestly love to own a model of him. Of course, there would issues that would need addressing such as the claw, but I do believe there are ways to work around said issues.

In conclusion, I'd honestly be super happy should Boco or Diesel 10 end up being announced in the future. I like both characters equally (albeit for different reasons) and I'd no doubt buy a model of either engine in a heartbeat, regardless of price.

I would most definitely purchase a model of Smudger. I do believe Smudger would have received better results then a Yellow Rheneas and if Bachmann decided to release Smudger in the summer, I firmly believe that he'd still be met with great feedback and sell really well. Of course, these are just my personal thoughts.

Considering the fact that Bachmann is still working to release previous products like Daisy and Peter Sam, this is actually a really good line up. I didn't think we'd be getting any new toolings this year. Certainly a nice surprise.