Well, my Paxton model is here. Trainworld seems to do an excellent job of shipping things out quickly. He sold out fast over there too. A huge thank you to their wonderful customer service and fast shipping too, getting here a day earlier than anticipated. Of course as per usual here are my thoughts on this new model:
Talk about a character who quite literally went far. This is a character who is originally made just as a background character with no real personality or much of the following, aside from toy sales. However, when Blue Mountain mystery rolled around and his personality was a lot more fleshed out and was given more of a purpose than the rest of the characters from the "Miller era", he became a popular character almost instantly. This was even proven even further by his regular appearances since King of the Railway and season 17. When Paxton was first introduced on the show, if you had told me that he deserved a Bachmann model, I would've told you that you were crazy. However, now that the character is more fleshed out, he seems to be a lot more of a natural addition into the range. If anything I would argue that Paxton should have joined the range even sooner, right after Oliver to be exact, but unfortunately a stupid lavender tank engine was in the way of that one…
Of course, his popularity was not the only reason alone that he got made. It's no secret, he's a re-color of the diesel tooling. He was made more or less for economical reasons, and as we look even further into the model, we will be able to see why. Despite this, I feel like now though would be a good time to stop with the Diesel recolors, especially when releasing a "Grumpy Diesel" model. Regardless, the Paxton model is simple, yet effective. There is a lot to be said about this model, rather than just saying it is a re-color of the Diesel tooling.
Paxton is the first of many things for the range, besides the fact that he is the first character from the CGI series to be introduced in HO, he is the first engine to have side rods of a different color - bronze. Now, the diesel and the Arry and Bert models were left unpainted to match their classic model look (despite faces coming from the CG era). However, unlike those diesels, the siderod colors on Paxton have been more consistent. As a result, they were painted in the appropriate bronze color (though it would look even more accurate with some weathering). It gets a solid thumbs up in my book for remembering that minor detail. Hopefully if Bachmann makes Stepney it will be nice to see the model get red siderods too.
I also love the small detail of painting his rear bufferbeam black. This was something that was a small detail but not really noticeable unless you look carefully. Bachmann could have easily painted the rear bufferbeam orange for consistency's sake, but instead they went the extra mile and added that extra detail. Kudos to Bachmann for that one as I didn't know this originally when I first got the model.
Almost everything else on the model though, is aesthetically the same on the Diesel apart from the face, which I will talk about in a minute, and the paintwork. The Diesel model has always had a great amount of detail for matching up with was seen in the television series. I feel like the Diesel model and his recolors (and Oliver too) are easily the most detailed models in the Bachmann Thomas HO scale line.
And yes Jay, the windows on Paxton are silver. As they are with all the other diesels in the range. This is nothing new for Bachmann and it will never change. Deal with it.
But now it's time to address the elephant in the room, something that people have talked about on numerous occasions before both in and out of the forum - the face. A lot of people have complained about Paxton's face looking too big, and while I can see where they are coming from it doesn't bother that much. It's definitely understandable why people are put off, but is it worth not buying the model? Honestly? No, and anyone who thinks otherwise is
majorly over-reacting.
But then comes the question, why is the face plate as a whole is so wide in the first place? After some examination, I can gladly answer this for you.
After taking off the face from the model, you can see that this is literally the exact same diesel model from before repainted. A no-brainer right? But wait there's more!
The hole in the model with the eye mechanism fits the Diesel face perfectly, while the face for Paxton on the show is much too narrow and wouldn't fit in the gap on the body shell properly. So, Bachmann decided to take the easier route with Paxton where instead of messing with the eye mechanism and making an entire new tooling for the model so the smaller face could fit the body better, Bachmann went the cheaper/cost-effective route and just made the faceplate on Paxton a little wider than it should, which explained the glaring error on the prototype model. It's definitely better than the earlier prototype that was revealed and I'm glad they didn't go that route.
With 'Arry and Bert, this was a non-issue since the faces were just the right size, if not bigger than Diesel's, to make the eye mechanism work on the model. For Paxton though, Bachmann had to do the same thing, because they had to keep the eye mechanism intact on the model (it's the main gimmick of the Bachmann range). For smaller models like the narrow gauge engines or Winston, the mechanism would have been too small and fiddly to add, but for a standard gauge engine, this was something Bachmann had to do and had no real control over. It was either this, or they would've had to retool the entire Diesel body again to make Paxton's small face fit on the model. You tell me what the better approach is. (Honestly, it's a no-brainer.) Again, in my opinion, it's an overreaction to turn down this model because of the face. It's certainly better than putting a Trackmaster face on a Bachmann Diesel, which honestly looks a lot worse than the Bachmann face does.
I can't really say this is Bachmann's fault entirely considering their track record and their cost in production, so I won't hold it against them. I'm not even going to point fingers at Mattel for this one either. Especially since this has been a requested model for a long time, and Bachmann had to take the cheaper route in order to make this model work because there's no getting around the recent budget fans have witnessed from Bachmann in the last year or so. So, whether you choose to blame this on the eye mechanism gimmick that Bachmann offers their models, or the fact that Bachmann has been running on more of a budget in recent years, is entirely up to how you choose to view it. I'm personally relieved that this model at least still got released regardless of what was going against it. The fact that the large scale Diesel got canceled further proves my point.
All right, now moving on from the face, time to talk about everything else that this model has to offer, such as the motor and running quality. If you liked the Diesel model and appreciated it's slow and accurate speed and decent hauling power, you will definitely like what you see in Paxton. The model offers the exact same performance with no real difference between the two. It's a smooth and sturdy runner, and will look great running on your layout, especially with your narrow gauge engines. Paxton's always had a lot of appeal as a character and his Bachmann model would still carry that appeal in your collection.
I also found myself having fun running him at the back sections of the layout shunting instead of pulling trains around the main loops at my layout (or in this photos case, giving Gordon a push). His basis is a shunter in real life, and as well on the show but regardless of how you use Paxton he would still look great on anyone's Thomas layout.
Overall, whether you look at this model as simple a simple yet effective viewpoint or lazy recolor with a questionable production choice, you cannot deny the fact that Bachmann once again listened to the fans and made a character who in my opinion, was done almost the exact same way I expected Bachmann to do him. The pros on this model certainly outweigh the one con everyone keeps talking about with this model, and it's great to have him in my collection. It comes highly recommended by me if you are a fan of the character or if you are a collector of models from this range. This is easily an improvement over the Rosie model and the James revision - no contest. It's a model I'm glad I picked up, and I think fans who buy will also buy this model will be happy with what they got. Thank you Bachmann for pulling this model off, looking forward to getting Rusty and the HO spiteful brake van next!
It's nice having Paxton working with the narrow gauge engines... but at the same time, I can't help but feel that while it's nice having a green diesel in the range that perhaps next year a certain green narrow gauge engine joins the range next year...?
Very informative and detailed review on Paxton. he is a great model.
