Begging your pardon, everyone but the N scale Toad has arrived.  A bizarre statement that I wouldn't have guessed I'd be saying over a year ago before his announcement for sure, but here we are.  Unlike most rolling stock announcements, there's a lot I have to say about the N scale Toad so I'll share my thoughts. 


Looking at this model, all I really have to say is, wow!  Part of me is still in disbelief that we have an N scale model of Toad the Brake van of all things.  I remember when this got announced last year feeling, while excited also a little confused.  I thought this would just be a Graham farish repaint with a face slapped on at first since that was the only possible reason I thought they would do Toad.  Especially he was announced alongside Gordon.  Once the engineering sample was revealed and it was a new tooling, I was even more stumped, but at the same time all the more excited.  So how does this model hold up?


The N scale Toad, in my opinion, is the new best rolling stock addition in the range by a landslide.  The tooling itself is perfectly proportioned with that of the CGI render, and the paint that is applied onto Toad looks wonderful.  The decals are placed on one side of the body and not the other, with the latter being shown in this picture. But the model is so small it doesn't bother me nearly as much as it did with the HO model. 


The face on Toad was captured beautifully and matches that of the CGI design perfectly.  It's also one of the few face designs that doesn't stray too far away from the model era face either so it would look great regardless of whichever era of the show you prefer to model.


The separately added tail lamps have to be my favorite detail of the N scale Toad.  I love how these turned out, especially with the red paint for the LED light.  It was a detail that was completely missing on the HO Toad and a missed opportunity for sure. 


Speaking of the HO model, I want to talk about that real quick.  The difference between the HO and N scale Toad models are night and day.  The HO Toad is made of a light plastic that's not fully attached to the chassis all that well, has no real weight to it and the paint in some areas (particularly the silver on the buffers which I repainted black) feel like they were splashed on.  It feels like they made Toad in a rush, which feels questionable considering that they went with a Bachmann branch line tooling this one and only time instead of the usual mainline tooling.  Not only that but the quality of Toad was just not there compared to the N scale one.  It honestly makes me feel like the HO modelers REALLY got robbed of a good Toad model in terms of quality and overall accuracy when you compare it to the N scale model.


But going back to the N scale Toad, it's clear that this a winner in the range and a very fun piece of rolling stock in the range.  Aesthetically, it really exceeded my expectations.  Considering it's a model of a character who seems odd on the surface to add to the range, it manages to hit the right areas of accuracy and fits in with the rest of the range nicely.  I wish I could say the same for the N scale tankers though...


As far as performance goes, Toad runs very smoothly behind any N scale goods train. It handles tighter radiuses pretty well too and I think it's clear as day that it works as a nice placeholder for the time being until Bachmann adds more brake vans in the near future to their Thomas range.  I see more of an urgency for those to happen sooner than Oliver to go with Toad, if I'm honest.  As a stand-alone rolling stock announcement though, Toad is a lot of fun for your N scale Thomas collection.


Overall, the N scale Toad, while an odd choice on the surface, really is an outstanding model and gets a huge thumbs up for me.  Whether you're a fan of the character or collect the N scale line, I highly recommend picking this one up for sure.  Bachmann continues to deliver excellent quality with their N scale models and I am looking forward to further updates on several other projects that we have left to anticipate.  Hopefully the next model that arrives in stock will be the N scale Gordon!

Been meaning to respond to some of the posts earlier, sorry I haven't gotten around to it until now!

I'm glad MontagueGWR08 brought up the brake van recolors I mentioned earlier, I feel these would work really well for all the ranges.  Large scale hasn't really touched the brake van tooling since spiteful's announcement and it really would add some nice variety, in addition to justifying the N scale range making a new 20 ton brake van tooling and releasing brake van variants, regardless if spiteful is included or not.  I wouldn't mind an LBSC Thomas in N scale either, they could probably announce that alongside an Origin James (or even Edward if they announce Henry in 2024) and that would be a really fun way to honor the 80th anniversary.

I also like the idea of Bachmann introducing non-rail characters in the N scale range.  I'm personally hoping for Cranky the Crane in particular since it would help fans recreate Brendam Docks in N scale, in addition to being the first piece of scenery in N scale too.  I know scenery items from Bachmann, particularly the resin buildings haven't lasted very long in HO, but it would be very nice to see some of these make their way into N scale as well.  Heck, part of me wants to see Bachmann's attempt at an N scale Tidmouth sheds at some point in the future, considering the recent reintroduction in HO. Hopefully an N scale Tidmouth sheds would have better proportions than the HO model too, but I won't hold my breath on that one just yet. 

But going back to the subject of non-rail characters.  I think in addition to Cranky, the only other two I could see being introduced would be Bertie and Harold.  It should be worth noting that Bertie and Harold, who were also introduced the same time as Cranky in HO, are both available in Bachmann's UK range proving that they were popular enough to be considered for their lineup.  I feel like these three would make for a nice lineup of non-rail characters in N scale, similarly to how HO started.  I'd include Terence as well, but I feel like he is a lot less iconic than the three I mentioned earlier, but if these three do well first I wouldn't rule him out from being included in a future lineup.

As I said in the Facebook group Kempton, Thomas looks great and I love how your snowplow turned out.  Keep it up!

On that note:



Looks like Toad's official image has been posted.  Looks like he's getting closer to being released!

Quote from: N Scale Sudrian on October 02, 2023, 11:25:07 PMI'm sorry, Chaz, I wasn't trying to be passive-aggressive or trying to launch an "ad-hominem" at your idea. I'll do my best to not post like that in the future.

Thank you, apology accepted.

Thank you everyone for your feedback, and I'm really glad to see that we're starting to dive into ideas for troublesome truck #7 design ideas.  I'm curious to see what ideas you will be sharing Christian, (or anyone else for that matter), but either way regardless of design there's something always exciting about new troublesome truck releases.  Hopefully Bachmann will look into a new troublesome truck at some point in the future. 

I'm also very optimistic for the future of the N scale range as well, as noted in my previous post.  The fact that we're at eight characters announced already in just under 5 years of the range's first announcement back in 2019 really is amazing.  I'm glad a lot of us are on the same page with Henry, as well as Edward.  I'm also happy to see some light shining on Duck and Mavis, who the latter is a very close fourth right behind Duck in terms of engines I would like to see in the range.  Along with Henry and Edward, Mavis' CGI render was made by Nitrogen, which I thought had a pretty accurate design compared to the original prop used on the show, in addition to being a very easy design to work with.  These four engines (and Oliver to go along with Toad), are on my top 5 list for sure with Donald and Douglas and Daisy not far behind.

Quote from: N Scale Sudrian on October 02, 2023, 02:40:41 PMIt's a very diverse and accepting island, and any arguments to the contrary would be blatantly ignoring the entirety the series' nearly-80-year history, ha ha.

A little provocative much?

Not wanting African/Chinese repaints doesn't mean anything regarding "ignoring the entirety series' nearly-80-year history", when those renders were created as cheap rolling stock renders during the production of BWBA.  The reference photo that was used at the time for Troublesome truck #6 in the catalog was the first image for troublesome tankers on the Wiki at the time, and it probably wasn't intentional during that time either.  Fans eventually brought up to Bachmann that the tanker was one of the African repaints during BWBA, hence why they've casually mentioned the tanker being an "African tanker" on the stream.  It wasn't my first choice personally once the final product was revealed, but I had a feeling it was the case once the model was released but that's beside the point. 

The point is, your remark on "blatantly ignoring the history" was not only completely unnecessary, but it is also completely false.  You could have easily just left it as "I personally like these variants and wouldn't mind them being chosen" and explained why and left it at that and I would have moved on and respected your views (like with the N scale tanker debate earlier).  Instead, you decided to throw an ad hominem on a point I made, which I really do not appreciate.  As stated by admins and moderators on this forum, you're allowed to agree/disagree with others on their views or points but please be civil about it and do not make passive aggressive remarks like that on the forum.  Thank you.

I've been meaning to do a new prediction post after the announcements.  However, even over the last month my thoughts have been continuing to change, at least in terms of engine announcements in HO and narrow gauge.  This post will more or less talk about my suggestions 2024 and 2025, to an extent.  Not much more left to say, so I'll just get started:


For HO, I'm betting on an engine recolor announcement in 2024 at most since we only just recently got an engineering sample for Rebecca and now we have Stanley on the table.  Sidney is kind of an obvious one, if they want to do one, or maybe Bachmann might surprise us and do a new Paxton with a smaller and more accurate face and a small eye mech that can be shared with Sidney?  I know that may be a stretch, but clearly Bachmann have listened to feedback on the HO Paxton enough to make a drastic change on the large scale model and the upcoming N scale Paxton wouldn't have an issue with the face at all due to not having a moving eye mechanism.  If they can't/won't change the eye mech for Sidney then I personally think it's best to skip an engine in 2024 and wait til 2025 once Rebecca is completed and released.  Any other engine repaint like the mainland diesels or green salty would be way too niche and would just be shelf warmers like Yellow Rheneas, which wouldn't be worth it.

For rolling stock I would like to see Bachmann invest in repainted brake vans.  I love the spiteful brake van model and if you choose to remove the face off a spare spiteful brake van you pick up, it makes for a smart looking brake van on your layout.  However, it would be nice if Bachmann invested in more screen accurate liveries for brake vans.  The two I think would make the most sense would be brown and purple with one representing the model era and the other in CGI (I'd mention gray but that may be a little redundant with the spiteful brake van in the range).  It's an easy repaint that while it may seem a little odd on the surface, it doesn't seem that unusual considering the gray van that was announced this summer:




I also think it's a good time to revisit troublesome truck #7.  Usually, Bachmann would announce a new troublesome truck once every three years or so, but they hadn't done so in a while due to lack of options in the CGI series for truck options since the double vent van never appeared in CGI.  Now that the 12 ton vans are coming in HO, I think now is the perfect time to announce troublesome truck #7 as an upcoming 12 ton van, based on this design from the CGI series:



HOWEVER, while I'm personally not opposed to CGI, it should be worth noting that prior to TT6, Bachmann still went ahead with a model era face for TT5 in 2016.  So maybe we might get lucky with a model era face this time around?  I do think the model era faces are far more expressive and stand out a lot more than the CGI expressions.  If we do I'd like to see an angry face for a nice contrast to the other faces:



Though, I sadly understand why they would more likely go for the former.  That being said I will gladly take that over an African van or some other international rolling stock repaint from one of the BWBA episodes no one cares about.

Any other rolling stock in HO at this point I think will be only be recolors until the open carriage gets released first.  I don't think we'll get more figure packs until 2025 once the first set of packs are either released/fully painted first. 

Moving onto narrow gauge, I think this goes without saying but with how slow production is going for Sir Handel and now we have Duncan in the lineup, it's probably best Bachmann skips making an engine for the time being. 

Same goes for rolling stock, though if they announce anything I would love to see them release a brown brake van as a repaint and a slate wagon with another Talyllyn road number.  The latter was a nice surprise last year and I'd love to see them do the same in the future.  Once they make progress on the new wagons announced last year I'd really like to see them discontinue their Peco open wagon repaint and announce a more accurate open wagon tooling in its place:



They can offer these in green, red and gray variants as per the CGI series.  If Bachmann can't announce these in 2024, I would be more than happy with this being the only new tooling announcement for narrow gauge in 2025 if it means Sir Handel makes decent progress in 2024 and released the following year.

Now we have N scale, with the blatantly obvious answer for the next engine candidate: Henry. 


Regardless if it's either the catalog announcements in January or February or the NMRA announcements next summer, Henry is a clear, if not inevitable pick.  I think once Gordon is released either in the spring of 2024 (or maybe earlier if we are lucky), Henry would in no doubt be the perfect follow up to the N scale Gordon announcement.  With how slow progress has been on Emily in contrast and now adding Diesel and Paxton to the lineup, I could see Edward and Duck being saved for 2025, but I'll discuss that later.


For rolling stock, seeing as how Toad will most likely be out fairly soon I can see them adding brake vans this year but making a new mold based on the 20 ton brake van that's more iconic in the show.  They can even have the spiteful brake van be one of the brake vans, and the purple and brown variants I mentioned earlier being other worthy additions making a solid lineup of three brake vans to choose from. 


I also can see the red coaches getting their inevitable announcement in 2024 as well too.  These have proven to very popular in both HO and large scale and even Bachmann's UK lineup so it's only a matter of time until they announce these.  I can see these getting announced once Emily's coaches are released. 


I also think it would be nice seeing other repaints as well, particularly the original coal wagon with load finding its way into N scale.  If it also means getting the blue and red ones as well then by all means I would welcome them as well.  As long as we get those and not the wagons with the decals like "Sodor coal company" or whatever, I would be perfectly okay with this.


And lastly, I think we will get a Gordon's express set in N scale.  Considering Percy and Emily both got sets recently and Gordon's coaches got announced this summer I think this is pretty much a given.  It's definitely a good way to get people excited for the upcoming Gordon model release as well. 

And finally the large scale range. 


Taking a breather with large scale makes the most sense considering how slow that particular market is.  However I think 2024 would be a good time to announce 'Arry and Bert, but have them as conditional announcements.  Bachmann recently announced some Dash 9's in large scale this summer subject to orders received, and I think this would be a good way for Bachmann to handle releasing Arry and Bert in large scale.  Why I think this is because of how poorly Arry and Bert did in HO, their sales in large scale would most likely be even smaller.  But, if Bachmann can at least make them in smaller quantities and instead of making an excessive amount with a lot of leftover stock sitting on shelves, the  they will go to the customers who will want them and will follow through with the preorders and thus not be such a major waste in production.

Apart from Arry and Bert, the only other announcements I see happening in large scale next year are the 12 ton vans that just got announced in HO.  Seems like an obvious choice with no further explanation.

I also want to do some quick mentions for 2025.  Before I do, it's worth noting that 2025 will be the 80th anniversary of Thomas and Friends and I can only imagine Bachmann would have a lot of fun and exciting announcements for the anniversary.  This is when I think we will finally get a model of Hiro in HO since this is the most logical choice after Rebecca and would undoubtedly sell a lot better and be a much more well-received announcement.  I also think that if they announce N scale Henry in 2024 and have N scale Emily released in either late 2024/early 2025 that it would be the perfect time to announce Edward in N scale.  Edward was the first character introduced in the railway series so announcing him in N scale for the 80th anniversary in 2025 after Henry would be simply poetic.  I also think once Diesel and Paxton are released, Bachmann can also announce Duck in N scale in the summer of 2025 so fans can finally have all members of the original 8 engines in N scale.  As for large scale in 2025, I think that will be the perfect time to announce the LBSC Thomas.  However, like Arry and Bert, I think a large scale LBSC Thomas should be a conditional announcement, or at the very least a limited run.  Other big announcements I think should be saved for 2025 would be more figure pack announcements in HO, large scale Henrietta and Hannah as a special new tooling announcement for the range, and -hopefully- now that Bulgy is coming in HO, Trevor can finally get a very long overdue introduction from Bachmann.  Either way I think 2025 is gonna be the next big year for Bachmann, so here's hoping these happen at some point in the future.


Anyways that was a mouthful on my end.  Let me know your guys' thoughts and hopefully we can continue to see further updates from Bachmann down the road. 

So this was something I purely decided to do for fun, but also out of curiosity since I've been noticing fans bring up which narrow gauge engine they want to see following Duncan.  Since Bachmann have now announced every member of the original Skarloey Railway who found their way in CGI, it begs the question which one is going to be the next big demand.  I personally would love to see Duke as I'm sure an overwhelming amount of many other Thomas fans would as well, but with how Mattel has been preventing Bachmann from doing model era only engines like Stepney and BoCo, I have a feeling the same logic will be applied for narrow gauge for now.  Which is a real shame, given Duke's massive following from both Thomas fans as well as the OO9 modeling community.

However, there are still some narrow gauge engine choices left that I want to discuss. I asked another fan, Bluebells5529, on Twitter to make a poll while I made a poll in a Thomas modeling group on Facebook asking which of the remaining three narrow gauge engines in CGI should be introduced next. So, I want to discuss the results on here starting from the top request to the least. 

Before I begin, I really want to emphasize that I don't think another narrow gauge engine announcement will happen for sometime, now that we have two engines in production with little to no updates on both of them.  Again, this is purely just for fun and not much else.  Anyways, here are the results:





While the numbers are different, the results are exactly the same as far as which one has the more popular demand following them.  It's quite clear which one is the most liked out of the remaining three and which one should probably be skipped or saved for last. So, let's talk about Luke.

Luke undeniably won first place in both of the polls. This to me makes the most sense, since unlike Victor and Millie, Luke is actually a member of the Skarloey Railway in the CGI series. But more importantly, with all of the Blue Mountain Quarry rolling stock and themes that Bachmann has provided since the launch of the range in 2015, Luke would feel like a very natural addition to the range.  He also doesn't require another character he is associated with or even another location to have his presence in the range make sense like how Victor or Millie would. The one major thing that would probably be a problem with Luke would be the design of his chassis, particularly his siderods.  It would make the Luke model a little more difficult to produce and probably a little more expensive than some of the other engines.  But, I don't think this would rule Luke out entirely since I think Bachmann can still pull it off, it just might mean he may be a little more of a delicate model in the range.  Seeing as how the range is usually selling well with adult collectors who take better care of these models and don't run these models on the floor like a toy, I can't imagine it would affect that particular audience all that much anyway. 

Second place goes to Victor. The Victor talk I have been seeing lately is what really started to initiate this idea of a poll for me, as Victor was not talked about all that much when the narrow gauge range started or even as more characters kept getting introduced.  That being said, Victor has always been a very consistent character with the brand in the CGI series and is easily one of the most iconic non-steam team characters in the brand. He definitely has the most simple design to work with compared to Luke and Millie, but I do think he would look a little too tall as well as too long to fit in with the rest of the narrow gauge lineup.  He also would need other additions to make his addition in the range make sense like Kevin or a simplistic attempt at a Steamworks similar to how Bachmann made Tidmouth and Knapford.  Either way, Victor has quite the following and appeal going for him.  I would personally be fine with Victor and I think he would go great along with Hiro if Bachmann were to consider him in HO in the future as both of them were introduced in the first full CGI production, Hero of the Rails.

And lastly, the character who barely got any votes, (literally only one vote on the Facebook poll), is Millie.  I can easily see why Millie is the last out of the remaining three narrow gauge engines because in addition to being an out of place announcement without additions like Stephen and Glynn, Millie is nowhere near as iconic as Victor or Luke.  The only reason I could see Millie happen next would be a push from Mattel to introduce a female narrow gauge engine since she is literally the only female narrow gauge engine in the whole show, otherwise I don't really see any other reason Bachmann would go out of their way to make Millie.  I'm personally not against the idea of Millie being made and I think there would be some fun OO9 mods and projects that would come from her design, particularly with her chassis.  However, the numbers are showing that the demand and following for Millie just isn't there, and it makes perfect sense to save Millie for last out of the remaining three narrow gauge engines in CGI, if Bachmann even decides that it's worth pursuing.


Anyway, polls do a great job at telling us numbers but they don't seem to show as much when it comes to letting voters share their reasons for their choices, so I'll leave the rest of this discussion open for you guys.  Which narrow gauge engine left from the CGI series do you want to see introduced next?  Do you think there's still potential for any of these characters or do you think Bachmann should quit while they are ahead and focus more on the other Thomas ranges like HO, N and/or possibly large scale?  Or should Bachmann even bite the bullet and try to convince Mattel to introduce Duke anyway since it's very clearly the next narrow gauge engine that a lot of fans would love to see next despite the CGI mandate?  Either way, let me know your thoughts.

No worries N Scale Sudrian, posts (regardless of length) for suggestions and ideas are what this thread is all about, no need to apologize! 

In response to the tankers, the main reason why I'm indifferent to them using the graham farish tooling with the tankers comes down to two things, the first being the size of the tankers compared to other stock and engines since the tankers on the show are roughly around the same size as the wagons and vans on the show.  The other is the additional nozzle that's placed at the back of the tanker, which isn't present on the tankers in the show always made the tankers look a little off in comparison.  I do also find it baffling that this was the only time they used the graham farish tooling for the tankers, so I'm not sure if that was meant to be a one-off or not.  It's even more baffling when you consider they made a new tooling for Toad the brake van of all things in N scale with no immediate plans for Oliver to come out.  A welcome addition for sure, but definitely random on the surface.  I do agree with you though on the wiring details, I own a graham farish tanker myself and I appreciate the detail on that model itself.  The only major reason why I still bring them up on occasion is that Bachmann has gone back and made new box vans for the narrow gauge range, granted they're just the brake vans with the guard compartments removed which is I'm sure a factor with why they did that, but still a nice improvement all the same.   

I also agree on the flatbed with crates with the crates being smaller than the HO ones, I'd buy those in a heartbeat.  It'd be interesting to see if they would go for the same crate decals in HO or if they try to go for something that's exclusive to N scale too.  Also thanks for reminding me of Mavis, that's actually one I forgot to mention earlier and I would probably pick up a model of her as well since I always liked her design.  Still a little bummed she hasn't been announced in large scale, but hopefully she won't be overlooked in N scale in the future.

I definitely agree on the general consensus that Henry and Edward would make the most sense to be announced next. I also think Duck would make a pretty solid addition following Henry and Edward, since he has an established rivalry with Diesel and had made somewhat consistent appearances in the CGI series as far as returning characters from the Brenner era are concerned.  His HO model was an extremely popular request before he was announced and has remained a top seller in HO ever since it was released back in 2013, 10 years ago (anyone else feel old yet? ).  He's also my favorite character and I personally am most interested in getting engines 1-8 plus Diesel in N scale due to my nostalgia or growing up with the five Ringo tapes when I was a kid. Though, I may get Emily and Paxton depending on how they turn out once fully painted.


Based on the engines that are being worked on now, I'm betting Henry will likely be announced once Gordon is finished, Edward after Emily is finished and lastly Duck after Diesel and Paxton are finished.  It would make a really solid lineup of characters if these three are considered to be introduced next in N. I'm sure this will take at least another 2 or so years from now but once Bachmann announces those three, I'm pretty much an open book as far as whatever other engines Bachmann would like to introduce after that.


As for rolling stock, I think once Toad and Emily's coaches are released (since they are both fully painted), I could see brake vans (the standard 20t brake van and the spiteful brake van) and the red coaches most likely joining the range after that.  I do agree though that open wagon recolors would make solid additions, the green coal wagon with load and the red open wagon would make perfect additions and I would love to see the gray van find its way in the lineup of N scale box vans.  As for the tankers, I think Bachmann still needs to make a new tanker tooling over the Graham farish ones, but while doing so they can announce a new lineup of three tankers including milk, and tar being two of them.  The third can be something random for fun like the toffee tanker or even the raspberry syrup tanker if they wish, just as long as we get milk and tar first, especially since those two are in the CGI series.

Quote from: N Scale Sudrian on August 27, 2023, 02:24:33 PMI think Nia being the next HO locomotive is more or less guaranteed. Stanley seemed like the only new tool that could come before her, and now that he's out, I can't think of another new character that has a chance of making it in before her. I know everybody wants to see Hiro, but I think his sheer size makes him a long ways away from happening right now...

I am going to have to respectfully disagree with you on Hiro being a long way off for Bachmann, considering that Rebecca is in production now, who in hindsight might be a good sign that another tender engine is not off the table from being introduced.  I feel like the biggest reasons for Rebecca being introduced before Hiro (besides the obvious Mattel push), come down to her being a main character in the CGI seasons, (during its final years) and Rebecca is less detailed than Hiro thus being the cheaper of the two to produce.  That being said, I'd argue Hiro would actually be the perfect follow-up announcement after Rebecca since Rebecca is the first tender engine Bachmann had introduced in the range in a really, really long time and Hiro had a much higher demand and has a much bigger following, especially in Japan. However, I personally think if Rebecca turns out decent and sells well enough, then I see it as a really good opportunity for Bachmann to introduce Hiro as he would sell incredibly well and would have a very wide appeal for both younger and older audiences alike, despite the inevitable higher price the model would have.  So if there's one thing I can appreciate about Bachmann introducing Rebecca into the range is that it could mean that we as fans can expect more than just an engine repaint or new toolings going to only tank engines and diesels.  Similarly to how Bulgy was just introduced, it also means that Thomas fans can also expect more non-rail characters to join the range depending on how Bulgy's sales go, like Trevor or maybe Butch.

That being said, I don't disagree with you on Nia being an inevitable addition in the range too, but Hiro's had a much stronger demand before both Nia and Rebecca were even a thing, and a lot of people were disappointed that Rebecca was picked before Hiro for that reason alone.  So while Nia seems like the most obvious pick for the next HO engine, I personally think the better choice and overall higher seller would be Hiro.

Well now that the NMRA announcements are up, here are my thoughts:

https://resources.bachmanntrains.com/NMRA2023/NMRA2023.pdf

Stanley is, for lack of better words, a "welcome "addition. I remember he was a lot more of a popular request from the late model era to the earlier CGI years but his requests somewhat died down a little in recent years, but still had a mostly consistent following. Either way, I think Stanley will be a fun addition and will probably sell better than both Rebecca and Beau.  That being said, because Stanley is such an iconic character introduced in the model era and made a fair share of appearances in CGI, you could argue that his introduction in the range is overdue.  I'd argue he should have been introduced in 2016 instead of Rosie, but at least he's here now.  While I personally would've preferred Hiro over Stanley, I think Bachmann is probably taking a step back and waiting to see how Rebecca will do first before tackling another tender engine like Hiro (even though it really should have been the other way around).  Stanley isn't high on my list of characters I'm keen on personally, but like how I felt about Ryan originally, that might change depending on how he turns out. 

The 12 ton vans are a nice addition to the range.  I hope these are going to be new single vent van toolings for HO like in N scale instead of just Bachmann UK repaints.  Then again, the fact we are getting single vent vans instead of the double vent van tooling in HO is a step in the right direction.  I also appreciate how one of the vans is going to be a standard gray van without the wacky colors and decals present in the others.  This one I'm sure is going to sell especially well with the older fans in particular since I know fans have been anxious for flying kipper like vans for their collection.  The funfair vans, like Stanley, are something I'm surprised it took this long for Bachmann to do.  Maybe the circus themed vans won't be too far away from joining too.  The wreath van is a little random since it's the first piece of Christmas themed stock to not be in a set, but I suppose that's a good thing.  They've been overdoing it with the Christmas sets lately, so it might be best to take a breather from those. 

Duncan was inevitable, but I'll admit I'm a little surprised that Bachmann announced him so soon when there are little to no updates on Sir Handel.  Regardless, I welcome Duncan as well, despite the fact we all know he will be based on his CGI render, which I know is not everyone's favorite.  However, the bigger takeaway for me is the fact that we have the original six Skarloey engines all announced by Bachmann.  And to me that is nothing short of incredible.  He isn't high on my priority list but I'm curious how updates on Duncan will go. 

I was definitely not expecting the gunpowder wagons, let alone one of them being the D fusit gun powder wagons from season 4! What a huge win this is for the narrow gauge crowd! These are the definite highlight for me for this year for sure and I am super ecstatic for these to come out!

And lastly for HO is Bulgy! The first ever non-rail character, we have gotten in a long time. Bulgy is a pretty solid choice too, although I would've preferred Trevor, I will happily settle for Bulgy.  Nice little surprise too from Bachmann!

As for Diesel and Paxton in N scale, nobody should be shocked these two made it in the range.  The HO and the large scale models of those two proved to be very successful, and it was really a matter of time before they would find their way into N scale as well. As I said before, Diesel is one of those characters that Bachmann could have added in N scale anytime they would like and it would've been fair game since Diesel is such a popular and well-established character with the brand, in addition to many recolor options to follow. The fact that Paxton is being announced alongside Diesel proves that point even further.

While Diesel wasn't my first choice personally, he was very comfortably in my top 5 so I'll gladly pick him up.  I may need to get on my custom N Duck project now to have him alongside his old rival!  Paxton will be fun too and I may pick him up as well, especially since the eye mech wouldn't be an issue for him like how it was in HO.  I know many, many others, including myself, would've rather seen Henry, but like the case with HO Hiro, I think Bachmann wants to wait and release Gordon (and maybe Emily) first before introducing Henry and Edward in N scale next.  Hopefully, we will at least see Henry next year either in the 2024 catalog or next years NMRA show.

The announcement that I am personally the most excited for, undoubtably, goes to the N scale Gordon's express coaches. It seemed like a crime to not introduce these alongside the N scale Gordon in the first place but getting some green express coaches to come out alongside the highly anticipated Gordon model is a smart move.  I have no doubt Bachmann has plans to announce a Gordon set in N soon once they start making progress on the coaches.  Like Diesel (and maybe Paxton), these will be joining my collection for sure too and I can't wait to see how nice Gordon will look with these coaches!

As for large scale not getting anything, Toby's Museum coaches are still not out yet and it's kind of clear there aren't a lot of repaint options left.  Maybe large scale will get something next year, who knows.   Maybe some of the 12 ton van liveries that just got announced in HO will find their way in large scale next year.  Otherwise I'm betting on 'Arry and Bert next or maybe Henrietta and Hannah if we're lucky.

Overall, the announcements themselves are actually pretty solid and I'm really happy with these.  While most of the choices weren't my number 1 picks personally, I can honestly say there aren't any bad or even questionable choices being made here.  There's no Nia or anything involving the reboot in the range yet and that is a major win in my books too so that's gotta count for something!  Thanks Bachmann for introducing these fun additions and I look forward to more updates soon.

Technically not Thomas-related but the Talyllyn models Bachmann announced last summer just had their painted samples posted on their Facebook page and they look great.  The green is a tad brighter than I would have liked to be but I like how the red and black liveries turned out and I love the headlamps placed in front of each engine.  Can't wait to pick up the red one soon!

Quote from: ModelRailwayFan38 on August 06, 2023, 05:39:23 PMOn the flip side of a range ending, does anyone think Bachmann will make an On30 line of products. They can't do O Scale, as Lionel own the rights, but would that apply to On30 as well?

Forgot to respond to this earlier, sorry about that. I think the same logic applies for On30 that Bachmann would need to acquire the license to produce O gauge Thomas products in order to make On30 products.  Since Lionel still has the license to produce O gauge Thomas products and has announced new products as recent as this year, it's unlikely Bachmann will be obtaining that license anytime soon. 

Now Bachmann is making Talyllyn models in OO9, so maybe Bachmann can think outside the box and introduce Talyllyn models in On30 too? The On30 crowd would have a major field day over these, and Thomas modelers would happily purchase them and convert them to models of Skarloey and sales would go over the roof!  Wishful thinking, I'm sure, but one can dream...

I'm sure Bachmann will announce Duncan eventually.  Considering it took Bachmann almost three years to announce Sir Handel after Peter Sam, I would imagine we will get a Duncan announcement once Bachmann makes significant progress on Sir Handel first.  Apart from last year, narrow gauge announcements have been typically very minimal with 1-2 announcements a year since it seemed clear Bachmann really did not want to overdo it with too many announcements for such a niche market.  It also doesn't help that there are not too many options left that Bachmann hasn't announced yet in terms of new engines, especially with Mattel's CGI mandate.  Last year though was an anomly as Bachmann managed to announce one new locomotive tooling (Sir Handel), two new wagon toolings and a slate wagon with a new road number, which is a lot considering their track record. It's also worth noting, though technically not part of the Thomas range, they also announced Talyllyn models last year in OO9 too.  Granted these are just repaints of the Bachmann Skarloey with the face replaced with a new smokebox door, (not sure why we still don't have any updates on those yet), but it still adds to the high pile of OO9 products we are currently waiting on.  Taking all of that into consideration, it's clear Bachmann really went above and beyond for OO9 last year!  Though, if the 2023 catalog announcements are anything to go off of, it's clear Bachmann really needs to take a breather before announcing anymore major projects for the time being, especially for OO9.

Going back to Duncan, I mentioned this in an earlier post, but I think the very earliest we would see a Bachmann Duncan announcement would be during next years NMRA show.  Even that though would really depend on progress on Sir Handel and several other projects first.  If Duncan is still not announced by then, then I think the more likely option would be in 2025 during the brand's 80th anniversary.  2025 would also be the 10th anniversary of the narrow gauge line's announcement, and what a better way to celebrate that anniversary than to introduce the sixth and final member of the original Skarloey Railway, (in CGI), in their OO9 range.  Kind of poetic, if you ask me.

Either way, I think it's really a matter of when Bachmann will announce Duncan, as opposed to "if".  It probably won't happen in the immediate future, but I'm sure it will happen in good time.  

I haven't really talked too much about large scale so much recently in my posts, mainly because I feel the range is on it's last legs.  Granted they've released some fun recolors recently, but the majority of what's been announced in large scale over the last decade has been just that - recolors.  I feel like if they introduce any new toolings at all in large scale it would have to be for something they could reuse for additional recolors to justify the tooling cost of the product. 

With engines, I think they are pretty much done aside from more Diesel repaints like Sidney or 'Arry and Bert.  Maybe an LBSC Thomas and Origin James too for the 80th anniversary, but that's really it.

As for rolling stock, I think it's pretty clear that if we get anything else in the future for large scale it will probably be more recolors.  I do, however think there is a lot more going for new rolling stock toolings than engines because of the recolor options out there.  The first is Henrietta since not only is she still a popular request after all of these years, but Hannah is a possible recolor option Bachmann can look into for either HO or N scale, they could easily introduce both Henrietta and Hannah either at the same time or a year or so apart from each other and it would be a good way to justify that tooling cost.   

Apart from Henrietta, the only other new rolling stock tooling I could potentially see them do in large scale would be 1 plank wagons with the large crate loads that were introduced in HO a few years ago since that seems like a simple enough tooling they could continue to reuse for repaints or different crate loads. 

Otherwise aside from those and potentially a new Thomas starter set, I think that's all I can see happening in large scale for the time being.