I was a teenager when I was posting on the Bachmann Forum and suggesting that Bachmann update Thomas, Percy and James to look more accurate. 17 years later, it looks like that wish has finally come true.



So far, a lot of curiosities have come up.

1. Will these new toolings be designed to be DCC Ready? There is a DCC Thomas and Percy, so it makes sense that the new tooling would be designed with that in mind.
2. Will there be front couplers? It seems like yes would be the obvious answer. A very long and overdue update.
3. Will the new tooling be compatible with the snow plough?
4. Is the chassis entirely new? The descriptions specify the bodies will be updated, but not the chassis. I can only imagine Thomas will at least get Stanley's side rods, and it would be great if Percy's valve gear gets updated to be more accurate.

Hopefully we will get these answers in due time. This is a very exciting day.

We never thought in a million years that Bachmann would be retooling the first engines in the range. Once they get released, it may be time to discontinue the original Thomas and Percy models. The new models must have front couplers. Percy especially needed it, since his model was bad. Maybe the new Thomas will get Celebration and LBSC variants.

Maybe a re-tooled HO Scale James will also be announced next year, and he'd get Origin and Busy Bee variants later on. The re-tooled James should get an open cab, front coupler, and a CGI face.

The new Thomas and Percy are probably the highlights of the announcements for me, and I really hope they get them right!

I hope that they do make new chassis for them, especially Thomas. I've always felt that the wheels Bachmann originally used for Thomas look way to big when comparing him to either the Live Action or CGI models. I hope they use different wheels, especially since the N Scale Thomas got the wheel size right. If they could basically do the N Scale model, but scaled up to OO, I think this has the chance of being the most accurate Thomas ever, especially with an open cab and spokes!

I also think that Percy should get a new chassis, since the current model's chassis block looks way too big, and it just doesn't look good on Percy.

A new chassis would also let them use bearings, which would help with running performance quite a bit, especially paired with a flywheel. Since Thomas and Percy are main characters, I hope Bachmann is able to do everything they can to ensure they run well.

Also, I kind of hope they use the faces from the photos in the catalog. I think Thomas' closed-mouth smile looks really good, and it would help him stand out a bit from other characters in the range, since most have open smiles.

As far as sizing goes, I think they might end up being a tad smaller than the originals, since some of the proportions were stretched to fit the motors/eye mechs, but I don't think they would scale them down too much, since most of the models are scaled to fit in with the original Thomas model. Didn't Bachmann also scale Oliver up compared to his CGI render to help him fit in better with the rest of the range?

I was actually just reading through that old thread last night after the "leak" went out. Talk about a flashback!

I'm really happy that the new versions of Thomas and Percy have been announced. The fact that they are brand-new tools with updated designs is something fans have wanted for a very long time. Even if you are not a CGI fan, the face is an easy fix, and the bodies are, more likely than not, going to be based on the earlier Nitrogen renders, as shown by the illustrations in the brochure and not those awful designs from BWBA with the incessant rivet details that no one likes.

I am also curious what this means for other products featuring Thomas and Percy, such as the different starter sets, the DCC and sound models that were released last year, and, of course, the various Thomas variants, the LBSC Thomas in particular.

I'd like to think that this is going to be much more of a gradual upgrade/release with all these in mind. James will definitely be the odd one out for some time now, but I have no doubt that, depending on how Thomas and Percy do, he will be next to receive this full-on upgrade.

Apart from James and a new face for Paxton, I don't see Bachmann doing this for other engines like Gordon and Henry, since I feel their flaws are a lot more minor than those on Thomas, Percy, and James (besides Henry's tender being too short).  Even if later down the road we only receive new models of Thomas, Percy and (eventually), James, that is an incredible win for the fans because of how popular this request has been and how long it's been pushed for (as far back as 2009!)

Either way, it's great seeing Bachmann giving Thomas and Percy these long-overdue modern upgrades, and I'm curious to see what's in store for them once we see/hear more updates.

I definitely agree that anything after James and Paxton would be considered overkill. Gordon and Henry are inaccurate in their own ways, but they're not the bread winners and "face of the brand" that Thomas, Percy and James are. Maybe later down the road in 5 years or so, if the Thomas, Percy, and hopefully James retoolings are a success and a lot of popular characters have been addressed already, then Gordon and Henry might be a more reasonable topic.

This has me thinking too: if this new Thomas and Percy are being designed with their DCC Sound variants in mind, then it's possible we could see a DCC Sound James on the horizon too.

Well, we did get some questions answered today, as a fan shared publicly that the bodies and faces of Thomas and Percy will be upgraded, while the chassis on both will remain the same with some upgrades of their own.

Even though a completely new chassis would have been nice, I understand why they'd want to retain some of the original chassis design. If anything, I'm slightly relieved they're going this route because I own the DCC versions of both Thomas and Percy, and I was wondering if I'd be able to transfer the modules from the older models to the new ones. Knowing that the chassis will remain largely the same makes that seem like a much more likely possibility.

Plus, it's not like they're taking the cheap route here, since they've confirmed that the chassis on both models will receive upgrades, which I'm perfectly happy with. If anything, maybe this could be a good chance for Bachmann to make these two DCC-ready... 🤞

I'm also loving the official confirmation that the designs are going to look like the renders used in the brochure and not the awful BWBA designs with those ugly rivet details. Can't complain there!

Quote from: Cheeky_ULP on August 02, 2026, 04:22:15 PMThis has me thinking too: if this new Thomas and Percy are being designed with their DCC Sound variants in mind, then it's possible we could see a DCC Sound James on the horizon too.

I genuinely hope they do this, especially since they already have sounds available for James in both HO and large scale. Hopefully, when they eventually announce a new James, they can offer a standard analog version as well as a DCC and sound version.

And they will certainly have front couplers.

I think the reason they haven't done DCC Sound James yet is because they're saving that for his retooled model.

Once we get Percy's retooled model, one potential repaint is Chocolate Covered Percy, which would not only be the first paint variant for Percy, but would also appeal to model series fans. He can pull the Mr. Jolly van and the chocolate syrup tanker, then we'd have the chocolate train. Another Percy repaint, but one that no one has ever mentioned is Ghost Percy, from the Season 2 episode "Ghost Train/Percy's Ghostly Trick" where he accidentally gets covered in lime to get back at Thomas. Ghost Percy would also be great for Halloween. In fact, he'd be the first Halloween model for the Thomas range.

As my whole thing is DCC, if Thomas and Percy were made DCC ready that would be a huge step in the right direction for the range!  Sometimes it can be rather tough fitting a decoder, resistors, speakers and keep alive capacitors into these models with having to manage all that wiring.  A DCC ready models would be a huge time saving and hopefully get more modelers who are concerned with making the switch over to DCC that much more inclined to take that leap.

Is it me or am I beginning to notice a pattern here? Once the retooled Thomas & Percy models sell extremely well, I predict Bachmann will retool two of their prior HO models to match their CGI counterparts starting at either next year's main catalog or NMRA brochure.