Bachmann Sidney and Mainland Diesel Thread

[TrainFan97]

I've been asking for Sidney for about a decade, and HO Scale Paxton was announced back in 2017. Only now do we finally have Sidney on the cards. 7 1/2 years after Paxton was first announced for HO Scale. I still can't believe it took this long. I thought HO Scale would never get Sidney, and that he was going to be in N Scale first. Well, better late than never. We all certainly hope Sidney's eye mechanism will be fixed, which unfortunately botched Paxton's HO Scale model, but was corrected on his Large Scale model. Hope they can do the same for HO Scale with the upcoming Sidney model. Not many have even bothered to make customs of Sidney, most likely because he never had a TrackMaster model to source a face from.

Mainland Diesel was a weird niche pick, but still welcome to me. This is also the first official piece of merchandise for these background characters, but only one was announced, and that begs the question: Will there be more variants with different faces? One of them is Ulli; the only one to actually have a name. There's also the Brazilian Class 08, Fernando, who would also share the same tooling, and his face is on one of the Mainland Diesels, as well as an Indian one. Bachmann still has Grumpy Diesel, in addition to the original one with the friendly face, but with the Mainland Diesels having different faces, it would actually make sense to own more than one. The only thing holding Bachmann back from making Splatter and Dodge is the CGI mandate.

On the topic of niche recolors, Green Salty would be possible, but it's taking indefinitely long to bring Salty himself back.

[Armada Starscream]

I suspect that a lot of people will reenact Escape using the new Mainland Diesel as some generic Other Railway diesels.

If they do, I hope they will get an autocoach, or even just repurpose a Toby's Museum Coach as Isabel. I miss that Oliver, Isabel, and Toad as a unit of 3.

[TrainFan97]

The only reason we never saw the autocoaches in the TV series was budget. It's the same reason Flying Scotsman's model was never finished, and only the tenders were made: Budget constraints.

Anyway, I think Bachmann should do a few variants of the Mainland Diesel with different faces, like Ulli, and a variant using Fernando's face. If they make Fernando as the next Class 08 repaint for the HO Scale range, they could also put his face on a Mainland Diesel model. Especially for those doing a Bridlington layout, it would make sense to own more than one, so a few variants with different faces would be a good idea, including Ulli, and the one with Fernando's face. Though, Bachmann should make Fernando himself with his normal livery.

This would be better than having the original Diesel as well as Grumpy Diesel, and the only reason Grumpy Diesel even happened was because the face on his original model looked too friendly for his character. I'm personally excited that the Mainland Diesels are finally getting their very first piece of merchandise, and it's Bachmann.

Maybe they could make one for Large Scale, as well as Sidney, knowing Large Scale hasn't been getting much love in recent times. They could at least make Sidney and one Mainland Diesel for Large Scale too. That's an idea for 2025, since their tooling exists, but then again, they could also make LBSC Thomas and Origin James for Large Scale. I'm glad HO Scale is getting Sidney first. It may be several years before Norman even gets considered, and he requires a new tooling, but he would complete the trio with Paxton and Sidney in HO Scale.