The only items that are taken out this year are the lobster vans, the McColl figure and the Brendam Bay Conflat. The McColl one is kinda surprising as he was the last large human figure made and the only one that is based on the CGI looks. Also the Brendam Bay Conflat as that was only released just the start of the 2020s, and one of the few that only lasted a few years. I'm gonna buy more of those before they're gone.

So with the recent store closures of Hattons UK and ModelTrainStuff, I wanna ask if you guys think the hobby is dying or not.

I never had much history with Hattons, but I bought from ModelTrainStuff for years until they made a lot of changes, such as adding taxes and when they closed their reward system late last month. Then I found out about their closures from instagram.

What do you guys think?

I'm probably in the minority, but I rather have Bachmann make a new tooling for either Murdoch or Arthur than using an existing tooling like with Beau.  I don't mind Beau being an existing retooling as he only appeared once and at least has a working light rather than the moving eyes. But for Arthur and Murdoch, I'm rather picky for them to look like how they are from the show, considering there are modifications between the real basis and how they're depicted in the show. Sooner or later, Mattel would have to let Bachmann do characters that weren't in the CGI era unless they plan to bring it back later on, but that's a topic for another day.

I don't much have to say for HO/OO, but for N scale, since they already have some of the Steam Team up, I like to see if they can do a Christmas set as it's only been a few years since the range started. I wouldn't mind having a Christmas themed set as my family has those little tabletop trees and it can go well with the table. Though it depends if they can just do a smaller scale version of one of the existing sets or make a new one. If they can go with an existing one, the first set would be good as they already have all the existing toolings for it. They can't do the ones after that as the later ones have a conflat and the other set from 2019 has the first brake van tooling.

I saw the models through their facebook and I feel like they're very spot on! They would be very good for multiple ranges and not just the Bachmann line!

Quote from: RailwayRoundhouse on June 13, 2023, 03:48:38 PMWow! 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.

That's something I would like to see more of now that we have the Hatt Car coming soon. I heard from Doug years ago that they were thinking on doing Trevor, and he would be a good edition if Bachmann plans to do Jem Cole as he's an important character to Trevor as well, and he still shows up in the CGI era as well.

I'm not sure why the recent posts on Daisy just vanished, but I got her last year and she's one of the best models Bachmann made since getting back into the hobby.

I didn't noticed that the forum was back up after many months of delays on updating, but I stumble back after the recent announcements for 2023.

Aside from Ryan and Salty, I'm very happy that Bachmann is doing Rebecca as not only a fan of the character, but also the engine class itself. Beau is one I didn't thought they would do, but I'll grab him regardless as I want to expand the roster. The only things being discontinued is the rest of buildings aside from the red water tower and the lighthouse. It's kinda ashame as I thought they would expand more on that after they got Tidmouth Sheds back. Speaking of which, I don't understand why they stopped making the expansion packs just after they got the main one back. One thing Im' surprised they kept is the analog Thomas due to the fact it was out of stock for over a year, but has a new packaging based on the recent style.

If Bachmann does another diesel shunter that isn't a 08, the ones I think would work are Den, Dart, Dennis and Norman.

Since everyone is talking about smaller engines, that made me thinking on how Bachmann can do Den and Dart, as they are a very unique design. Plus Hornby only ever did Dart, and I don't think it was accurate to how he was in the show. Plus that would one way closer to get all of the diesels from "Day of the Diesels" being completed in the line.

The other diesel shunter I would like to see if Dennis, as like most people said, there hasn't been a legit HO/OO model on the BR 11001 so far, and I think Bachmann could take this advantage to make it. As for why I said Dennis instead of Norman is because of the face. Remember when Paxton was made in the line a few years ago? The problem is that he has a smaller face compare to Diesel, and because of it Bachmann kinda had to make the face larger as they only made the tooling for Diesel as Paxton and Sidney didn't existed yet (which is what I fear if they did Sidney next as it be botched like with Paxton). If Bachmann did Norman first instead of Dennis, it would be a repeat of the Paxton problem. The only way they can get around this is if Bachmann made both Norman and Dennis at the same time (like when they made the large scale Diesel and Paxton) and they can figure out how to make the same tooling fit for both engines without making the smaller face being out of scale.

Personally, I like to see Diesel 10 be made as most of the other large diesels are green and I don't know if they would clash too much with Daisy. Plus D10 is the one diesel in almost every line that sells the most.

The only other large diesels the show has are Hugo, Noor Jehan and the Chinese Diesel. The only issues with all three is that they're still recent characters (two of which are from BWBA), but they have separate issues.

Like Daisy, Hugo doesn't pull other wagons but unlike her, he has that big propeller on the back. Also like with the Diesel 10 issue, it depends if Bachmann wants to either motor power or just a piece of decoration that you can just spin.

Noor Jehan is based on a American diesel, which wouldn't be too hard for Bachmann to be made. The issue is that she has tinsel on the front of her, which I don't know if Bachmann could try making it. But then again, that didn't stop them from doing Salty's handrails.

The Chinese Diesel (the one that appears in some the China based episodes) looks very promising as it is a European design. The only issue is that like either the 08 shunters in the Great Race, she isn't properly named unless Mattel has some notes on what her name is.

Skiff would be an interesting character as we are getting Ryan. But I do see him either in rolling stock or accessories like with Bertie and Harold as he's not motor power. Also it depends on how they use his gimmick as he is a boat, but deploys from the little chassis that he uses to travel on the rails.

I personally feel like it's better than last year's as I felt kinda disappointed with just the Black James repaint (which I don't know why that's taking a a long time to get release, unless the updated James might have to do with the delay). I'm not into the large scale stuff at the moment, but I'm glad they're adding more rolling stock in it.  The Santa set looks very good and I like they recolored the Toad tooling, though I kinda wish they can add some extra details on Thomas as the problem with the Christmas sets is that I already have the same Thomas and I only want the wagons to add into my collection. I would like it if they can add some details on the engine, as this is based on the S17 episode, maybe add those branches he had on the side or least a red nose if they don't want to deal with pointy objects on the model.

I don't think I see any threads about this person on the forums aside from a few mentions. But after seeing the gap between 2002 to 2005 from Bachmann's range, I thought on making this.

For those who don't know, Captain Punjab is a user on who made this fanmade Thomas series on Sodor Island Fansite at first, but then posted it on YouTube after the series ended in 2006. It was made using mostly the Bachmann Thomas range that was out at the time (which is Thomas, Percy, James, Annie and Clarabel) and did a comedic take of the characters. Now I don't know if there was another fan series that existed before, but as Diesel puts it "Very revolutionary" as it was the first one to made for the public back in the early days when the fandom was new. As I said in another post, I was aware of the Bachmann Thomas range, but didn't care or know much about it until I discovered SIF and that series in particular. It was kinda thanks to that I was kinda interested in that range. But it wasn't until much later in late 2007 that after seeing other similar series that were inspired by that guy that convinced me to buy some to get into the hobby.

So what happened to the guy? Well, the series was in a hiatus for a while until around 2012/2013 that there was gonna be another series that he made some music pieces and even showed a clip of a behind the scenes that he was planning to do, that was scrapped and the behind the scenes video was either removed or privated. The only evidence that was left is the music pieces he created. He is involved with something else, but when I mentioned it online, he told me to remove on what he worked on as he doesn't want me to ruin his reputation on bringing that series in attention to his current career. Still you have to credit him for help inspire many people to make their own fan series.

However, one question that still lingers into mind is this; do you think Captain Punjab may've help bring the Bachmann range more attention on making more models? Because between the time the line was launched and 2005, there were no new products for a while. Then 2005 happened and Bachmann announced new products, which is around the time Captain Punjab was working on the series. So I kinda wonder if someone at Bachmann saw his content and was motivated to make more products?

So one thing I noticed from Bachmann is that most of the coaches are in pairs with the expectation of Spencer's, which is weird as Bachmann recently did a composite coach on Toby's Museum Coach, even though it never had one in the show. And since it's still in the market, I would like to see if Bachmann can try do a brake coach on Spencer's as there are a few episodes before and after he appeared that there was a pair of them.


Since a lot of people were talking about Diesel 10 in the Daisy thread, it made me think if Bachmann could try either Judy and Jerome or Rocky as quite a few people wanted some sort of breakdown crane in the line after Hornby stopped the Thomas line a few years ago.

Rocky would be interesting as he's been in the show for 10+ years and has a very big design. The only issue is that even without the NMRA, he would be a bit too outlandish due to the basis.

If he's a bit too much, the second choice would be Judy and Jerome as they're more simple and because Bachmann is doing both Ryan and Daisy, I think they would be the next choice to complete the Harwick line. Plus, they're in the show for 5+ years, as I think Bachmann's gonna be safe on doing less recent characters in the line. One thing I would like to see if Bachmann could make the nameplates be a separate molding rather be stuck in the model as I feel like some model makers would just want to remove it to repaint them as a regular breakdown cranes if they want to do model series versions.

If Bachmann does another Class 08 retool, the only contenders left are Sidney, Splodge (Splatter and Dodge) and the diesels that appeared since "The Great Race". I'll explain whatever pros and cons that each of the engines might have.

Sidney
Now I think he would be a good one as he's more recent recent and like with Paxton became more utilized after his debut. Plus if he is made, Sidney would be the first blue character Bachmann made since 2008. The only issue I do is how are Bachmann gonna handle his face? Unlike most of the other Class 08s where they have rectangular faces, Sidney's face on the top is curved and I'm kinda worried how they would handle it considering how Paxton was badly made. The only way they can fix this is that they would go back with the body and rework it (I saw in the recent livestream they fixed Paxton's face for G Scale, so makes me wonder if they would do the same for later versions of the HO/OO version?) to fit with Sidney's structure. But that's even if they would have the money to do that.

Splodge
With Arry and Bert off the market, I think putting Splatter and Dodge would be another way on trying to sell the ladder-less Class 08 tooling. There are few pros for this one. For 1, they have different colors and their names are painted contrast to Arry and Bert where they're just the same with no way to differentiate. Plus because they never appeared in the CGI series, another benefit is that Bachmann could try giving the two different faces (similar to how they did with Bill and Ben back in 2010) as they haven't done this with model series characters for a while. If they do, they can try 2-3 of the faces.




Now there's a lot of drawbacks some might have with these (and I would play devil's advocate for these cons).
The first thing is that they only appeared in one story. But if you look at Bachmann's backlog, they had quite a bit of characters that are still in the market that only had 1-2 appearances (Jeremy, S.C. Ruffey, Spiteful Brake Van) and a lot of people wanted Bachmann to do Smudger as he was retooled from Rheneas. You can argue that both wagons and Smudger are Awdry characters, but Jeremy isn't so you can't argue with that. But the elephant in the room is because of the story they are in, which is Magic Railroad. For those unaware, it was one of the biggest flops that a lot of fans say that caused the show to go downhill. Now whenever or not you want to argue that the movie shouldn't been made, the point is that it's still part of the show's history and we can't go back and change. However, there are still fans who still like the movie no matter which cut we have (Me being one of those). Plus, if Bachmann can't do Diesel 10, at least they can try out those two.

The Mainland Diesels
I think these ones will be the least likely to be made (unless Mattel forces). While they have very cool color schemes, the main issue with them is that they don't have names aside from a few and the fact that the faces are slight retweaks of Diesel's and Paxton's. Nonetheless Bachmann would just use the coloring as claim it as a repaint of Diesel, but even then I feel like that would be too cheap for them. I understand we are still in a pandemic, but I feel like the repaints are starting to be a lazy way to get around. Plus because of the recent reception of Troublesome Truck 6, I don't know if Bachmann would risk trying to do that and that is most likely we won't get any new engines from the BWBA era. As much as I like to see Bachmann try out Rebecca and Nia, I doubt they would tackle them due to the one tweet they made over a year and from looking at their track record, at least in HO/OO they only do characters after a certain amount of years (eg Paxton was in the show 2011 and Bachmann made him in 2018, Ryan was in 2015 and Bachmann announced him 2021). I know they did Winston for G Scale three years after he was made, but I think they may've contributed to why that range is failing between that year to now.

At least in terms of what might be off the market next year, my bets are gonna be on the analog sounds Thomas as he's been in the market longer than original Rosie (I'm hoping they're keeping her as I prefer that livery over the recent one and that she was just in the market for less than 5 years. Plus Bachmann still has both Happy and Grumpy Diesels). But the main factor is that with the DCC stuff coming out, Bachmann would make more than likely to push that out as they only made Thomas in that range. Another factor I feel like that would be out of the market is that I see that they haven't updated the packaging with the CGI one (though I might be wrong about that as I don't see that much listings that show the box).