There's not much I could add on to this that hasn't already been said, but I'm on team Stepney.
Just as he's one of the very few classic characters left and I really would like to see them wrap off the golden age of Thomas before moving onto nothing but new characters. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see Ryan, but Stepney should be first, no doubt.

Quote from: Chaz on February 26, 2018, 10:55:12 PM

• Would you buy a Bachmann Peter Sam?
• Do you think he should be made next or should a different narrow gauge engine come before him?
• Can you also see his sales doing as well as Skarloey and Rheneas?

Yes, no questions.
Either Pepper Sam or Sir Handel
Definitely, due to his class not being a one of one type of deal, as there have been several Tattoo fellas

I'm only making this a separate topic because I want to ensure an admin reads it, as this is a big deal for the Thomas Range. (First time an engine has been announced and then canceled. Not counting Rickety and Fred.)

Simply put; Large Scale Diesel has been left out of the catalogue for 2018. What happened?
-Cancelled?
-Accidentally forgot to add him in? (Hey mistakes happen)
-Or did they literally finish a design, say nevermind, and then reuse the face file for the new "Grumpy Diesel"?

My bet is on the last one. Don't know why they would cancel it, it opened the possibility of a few more products to reuse a lot of parts. Maybe this time they could of thought ahead and designed the face pin slots more towards the center of the front so they could have literally recoloured him for Paxton/Sidney.
Dunno, but I'm pretty upset about how poorly the Large Scale Thomas range is being treated the past few years.

Chaz asked me what I thought privately, and I thought it was relevant enough to throw in here

What I think will be announced?

HO
-Sidney or Stanley
-Explosives Van
-Spiteful Breakvan

HOn30
-Duncan
-a new Flatbed tooling (Could come in a cheap two pack like the Peco ones) or an Open Wagon which can be recoloured 2+ times (my money's on the open wagon )
-Breakvan (Brown (CGI))

LS
-Red Coach
-Red Brake Coach
-Paxton

What I genuinely hope to be announced?

HO
-Daisy
-Express Coaches reintroduction (Hopefully not a new tooling based on the CGI ones, but a tooling that's more accurate)
-Spiteful Breakvan
-Troublesome Truck #6 (Could care less what face and what tooling, and it's probably going to be an odd colour anyway so I'm not that picky)

HOn30
-Sir Handel or Peter Sam
-Red or Blue or Green Coach
-Breakvan (Red, Blue and Brown) Granted all they need to do is make one, and you could paint it yourself. So one's enough to be fair.

LS
-Red Coach
-Red Brake Coach
-Henrietta
-Edward (If Edward honestly doesn't come out this year, the final moments before he's cut from the main cast, his chances from this point onward don't seem good at all then)

This could be applied for both scales (If we get the HO one this year):
If worse comes to worse and Bachmann end up using the wrong face, it's no big deal as there is the 3D one on the Trainz model. (I dunno if that is available to buy right now though) and then you'd be able to pop off the Bachmann one and then put that on another truck. So we'd basically get another troublesome truck and another character at the same time really.

Since 2 out of 3 wagons for this year are finally finished, I'm very eager to see Paxton now.
I'm even more eager to see if they actually go forth and paint his rods.

Painted rods would be a first for the range. The other Class 08's not having theirs painted has always been a let down for me, but you got the excuse for Diesel that they wanted a "Classic look" for him, bar the face. For Arry and Bert they blackened the metal a bit, so they appeared in the proper black colour, so I guess that one can slide.
But in Paxton's case? Paxton has red-orange rods, so if they let that be plain metal/blackened metal, I'm gonna be calling this the laziest release to date. Reused tooling, and not even fully painted. Sure hope they don't go an even lazier route and make them in the correct colour, but in plastic. Having those low swinging/high speed rods made out of the flimsy plastic that Bachmann uses for crossheads (Skarloey and Rosie) hook on one thing on the trackside, and they're goners.

As Alex said, I'm surprised that they decided to go with the double ventilated van tooling for these two pieces, because the predecessors in large scale are single ventilated vans. No matter which basis they use I'm not bothered, they both look nice.

I'm sure the next Troublesome Truck will probably use the single ventilated van (Ice Cream Wagon) tooling, as that tooling hasn't been utilized for anything else in the range yet.

Also, got to be honest here, I'm pretty deeply shocked that the McColl Cattle Wagon didn't get a product photo at the same time as these two, considering they were all recolours, and announced simultaneously.

I have two questions to anyone who has bought the sound chip as a separate item. (Now forgive me if it's already been said, I haven't read through all the previous messages)

-Does the separate sale include a speaker with the chip, or would you have to buy one, as I can't seem to find any pictures of the backside of the sound chip still in the bag.
-Also, if anyone has added the sound chip to Toby, can you confirm if he has his classic series bell, or CGI bell?
Thanks

I think that design would be best. Looks extremely Season 4ish, and obviously still has Midlander's design, and Bachmann's shown they're not afraid to mix a character's appearances into their model; like Arry and Bert having CGI faces, and Season 5 rods (Unpainted), and obviously what I've said so far about Skarloey and Rheneas.

It is completely safe to think of this idea, because it's what Bachmann has done for the entire range so far.
That's why I'm extremely curious to see what they do.

Quote from: Griffin on April 28, 2017, 03:29:32 PM
What on Earth makes you think that they won't go with how he looks in the TVS? It's pretty absurd to think that they'll actually make him accurate to his basis. Heck, his CGI promo was used in the catalog. That leaves very little to imagination imo

You need to look at Skarloey and Rheneas in full detail.
Every single rivet that Talyllyn has is present on the Bachmann Skarloey model, while in the show, he only has a few going up his bunker. Then there's the case of the number plate on the back of the cab, which Skarloey only had once or twice in the books, never in the show, but Talyllyn has. There's also the black bar at the end of the slide bars: Skarloey's goes straight up, while Talyllyn has it go up, inward, and then up again to line up with the saddle tank. As you could guess at this point, guess which one Bachmann went with. Yep, They went with Talyllyn's design over Skarloeys.

Then skipping to Bachmann's model of Rheneas, you can see the extra riveting detail along the splasher, which Dolgoch has, and Rheneas does not. Then there's the boiler supports as well, Dolgoch has them, Rheneas does not, and the Bachmann model has them. Finally, Bachmann Rheneas has rivets going all around the bottom half of the cab, Rheneas in the show, does not have those, but Dolgoch does.

As I said, the Bachmann Thomas Narrow Gauge range is based more so on the real engines, with the character's liveries (And face of course), which is why I'm very curious to what they're going to do with Rusty, him being so 'off' compared to Midlander.

I obviously couldn't wait to see Rheneas better, but I'm definitely more excited to see how Rusty turns out compared to Rheneas, and that's due to the fact that the Skarloey model is essentially Talyllyn in Skarloey's livery, so we pretty much knew Rheneas would follow the same path (Dolgoch in Rheneas' Livery).
But the reason why I'm more excited to see Rusty is because I can't wait to see what they go for with Rusty, as in will he completely look like CGI Rusty, with the poorly rendered front (Misshapen is the best way to describe it) and different shaped bufferbeam?



Or will they throw away the whole 'Basis in the character's livery' thing they've been doing this far in favour to make the character appear how they are in the show?
Personally I hope they go for a Midlander shape for Rusty, because at least then his face won't be so ridiculously large.

I also just realized as I was typing this that they forgot to give Rheneas a headlamp. Pity too, as we saw with Oliver they sure can make a good one.

Just to get the Duck complaining over and done with:

Bachmann Duck only has two real problems (Compared to his original model from the show):
-The cab is slightly too long.
-He's a bit short, due to his wheels being smaller than they should be, due to clearance issues as his funnel is quite tall. (As it should be)



Bachmann Duck photo from @SodorRyModeler on Twitter

Quote from: Sparks on April 03, 2017, 05:11:16 PM

Quote from: JD417 on April 03, 2017, 04:23:03 PM
I still find it quite hilarious that they knew how many James' they needed to keep a solid stock for 2 years, but yet Skarloey hasn't been in stock for more than a day since he was released

James has been in the market for a long time, so sales were easy to project for forthcoming years.

Skarloey on the other hand was a new avenue and they had no idea how the market would react to him. Bachmann making him faithful to Talyllyn paid off int he long run, as he became a home-run hit with the OO9 market.

Ah, makes sense. But they should've realized that it would've been a great seller as He was requested for many years.
Do you think that the reason Rheneas is taking even longer is so they can get up a solid stock this time round?

I still find it quite hilarious that they knew how many James' they needed to keep a solid stock for 2 years, but yet Skarloey hasn't been in stock for more than a day since he was released