Blue Mountain Mystery Review

Blue Mountain Mystery Review

The release of Blue Mountain Mystery marks almost a year since the release of 'Day Of The Diesels', with the bad feelings of DOTD looming over them HiT must have been keen to make a good impression with this next film and they certainly did. The overwhelming success of this film is in stark contrast to the success. or lack of, with prior films. 

Blue Mountain Mystery is the sixth Thomas & Friends special and the last one written by 'Sharon Miller'; a name which is implanted on every Thomas fan's mind, sadly not for good cause. Not only does it mark the last film written by Sharon, but it is also the last one animated by Nitrogen Studios, so a lot rides on this film's success.

Plot

Right let’s get started with the plot, I will just briefly out line it, as most of you will have seen it already. Blodin bridge collapses badly damaging Paxton who is sent away to be repaired. Thomas is sent to help out while Paxton is away. Thomas briefly meets a little green engine whom we later find is called Luke, Thomas wants to talk to this engine. Thomas try’s to find out who the green engine is by asking the narrow gauge engine but none of them will give him an answer. Eventually Skarloey tells Thomas about Luke and how he did something ‘very bad’ and he thinks that if he is found again he will be sent away from Sodor. Luke soon comes up to Thomas apologising and asks to be friends. After Thomas is told he is to go back to his normal duties he asks Luke what he did that was so bad. At which point Luke explains how he knocked a yellow engine (which spoke a different language) off a boat, as he wanted to be offloaded first; Paxton hears all of this. Whilst at the diesel works looking for the yellow engine Thomas hears Paxton telling Diesel all about Luke. Thomas speeds away to the Steamworks for further exploration into the yellow engine, he questions Victor if he recalls anything about a yellow engine, at which point Victor makes an exclamation in Spanish. Surprisingly Thomas realises that Victor is the yellow engine. Thomas insists upon Victor telling the full story, which is the same as Luke’s except that a big wave hit the ship making Victor roll backwards, the chains securing him in place were already weak. Luke who was hanging from a crane at this point knocks into Victor who rolls back helplessly into the sea, where he stayed for a long time due to bad weather. Victor was repainted and repaired. Thomas rushes to the quarry trying to beat the diesels, wheh he arrives Skarloey makes the other narrow gauge engines dislike Thomas as they feel he has not kept his promise, as he has told other engines about Luke, really this was Paxton and Diesel. The Diesels arrive shortly. Thomas persuades Rocky to life him onto Owens narrow gauge platform so that Thomas can explain to Luke. Thomas tries to chase Luke forgetting that he is on narrow gauge track, he lurches over the cliff edge only to be saved by Luke. Both engines and up at the lower level of Owen’s platform after a bit of drama. The Fat and Thin controllers arrive, Victor arrives and explains to Luke. Rheneas is painted yellow like Victor used to be. The end.

The Film

We are thrown straight into the action as Rheneas a 147 year old narrow gauge engine is hurtling down the track ignoring warnings of the bridge’s collapse, he brakes only to restart shortly, he last truck rumbles over; the bridge collapses. Rheneas, after going faster than ever is fine and somehow not derailed. Paxton however is buried under a heap of bridge! A final rock thuds on Paxton, making a comical introduction to this character who we all warmed too quickly, more about him later.

The film as the title suggests is based solely around the quarry, which looks great and has loads of interest for the audience. Lot’s of strangely coloured rolling stock, which may look a bit daft however they do add extra interest for younger viewers. Most of the narrow gauge engines are at the quarry. The different levels of the quarry look great, again these add a lot of interest; a great combination of bridges, cliffs, tunnels and of course Owen. We must assume that Duke, Bertram, Duncan, Mighty-Mac and Freddie have been left to work the passenger trains, maybe even Proteus would have had to do some work for a change! I found it a bit odd that Duncan wasn't included in this film as he is still a prominent character in the TV series and is always included with the narrow gauge ‘steam team’ if you like.

Although Sodor is not a particularly large island there always seems to be plenty of space for new characters, buildings and whole locations. Anyway I felt the new characters were good and added  to the story, they weren't just added for the sake of having a new character. Owen is a happy traction engine who pulls trucks up and down the incline, Merrick is a large and sleepy crane. Luke is a cheerful Irish narrow gauge tank engine, Paxton is a friendly Diesel engine and is easily taken advantage of, due to his gullibility. Winston is The Fat Controller’s ‘Track Inspection’ car, he is a car which drives on the rails. He is constantly stopping and starting giving the passengers a bumpy ride! In reality The Fat Controller wouldn't continue to use Winston in that condition, he would just use his ordinary car. So I think Winston is more for humour than anything else, he is funny at first but the joke gets old quickly throughout the film.

Michael Angelis was more enthusiastic in this film making him more enjoyable to listen too. It is really nice to still have him as a narrator, he has had a good career with Thomas and although he has been a little lack luster in latter years he does deserve a lot of credit for his contribution to the development of Thomas & Friends. Rheneas and Skarloey were given Welsh accents for this film (courtesy of Ben Small and Keith Wickham), I thought they were very good and I think The Reverend would approve! Although it is surprising that Skarloey and Rheneas still have a Welsh accent as they only lived in Wales for 1 year and have lived on Sodor for about 146 years, minor flaw but oh well.

Flashback Scenes

Many older Thomas fans where very excited to see the re-done flashback scenes. Thomas went back to the engine sheds after finding out that Luke was afraid of being sent away for doing something very bad, he asks the engine what the worst thing they have done.

Percy starts off with describing how he crashed into the luggage trolley. Percy’s is possibly the best for accuracy, only major difference is that the crash happens in a different place. It was originally set with the yards in the background, they have disappeared. Also the snow is thicker and more defined. Henry is next with his incident with the rain and the tuinnel! The scene is very good, Comparing the original scenes with the news ones is a bit like spot the difference. Henry’s is good arguably because you can’t see very much. Above the tunnel there isn’t a hill anymore, it is just a bridge, other than that the scene is very well made.  Finally Thomas’s. Well there are a number of problems with his. The worst being the Driver and Fireman are still in the cab. The ground has changed to mud, previously it was sand, so completely different colour! A great number of trees have appeared and a mine shaft has disappeared!

Have a look at my video and see what you think:

My Thoughts

Now I hope this review hasn't been too long, finally time for a quick rite up of my thoughts on the film. I enjoyed the film and thought it was well written and structured. Michael Angelis sounded good and brought back a slight feeling of nostalgia. This was a great way for Nitrogen Studios to go out, love that shot of Thomas puffing into to the sunset under the signal box. The film was a great success and I feel it deserved that, a big improvement on all of the other films.

Patrick Foley TTC 2012

Johnny Morris

Johnny Morris

 Me and RailwayStories1 have always shared a passion for the audio works of the Railway Series, so I thought we would be the perfect combination to do an informative and comprehensive review. When I contacted RailwayStories1 he was delighted to help and has written and contributed a huge amount to this piece. I really appreciate the time and effort he has dedicated to this, I know that without his help this review would be nothing like what is presented before you today. So please take your time to read through I am sure you will learn something new.

About Johnny Morris

Ernest John "Johnny" Morris OBE was born on the 20^th of June 1916 in the Welsh town of Newport, Monmouthshire and was a Welsh television presenter. He is known for his BBC children's programmes on the topic of zoology, most notably ‘Animal Magic’. He is also well known for his narration of children’s stories with ‘Tales of the Riverbank’ and ‘The Railway Stories’. ‘Animal Magic’ and ‘The Hot Chestnut Man’ had already won the hearts of many children so Johnny seemed like a good choice to narrate ‘The Railway Series’ stories. However he is quoted in Wilbert’s autobiography ‘The Thomas The Tank Engine Man’ as saying, "I was not all that mad about [the Railway Series books]. They were alright but…" Isabella Wallich (the founder and manager of Delysé Records) managed to persuade Johnny that the sales of the Railway Series books would lend themselves well to record sales, Johnny took up the reigns as the first storyteller, and it is a good thing he did!
The Rev.W.Awdry narrated two of The Railway Series stories (1952), but Johnny Morris was the first proper narrator of the series, he narrated books 1-11, he didn’t need any sound effects he did them all himself! This added to the fun and endearment of his narration’s. His recordings for the Railway Series were released between 1961 and 1966. After book 11 the narration where passed onto Willie Rushton. 
Johnny expressed a love of railways, he was Vice President of the Bluebell Railway (Home of course to Stepney!) in Sussex from its early days in the 1960s until the late 1980s. During this time he attended several anniversaries and landmark events over the first few decades of the railway's existence. He also made two promotional LP's for the Railway in the 1970s.
Johnny Morris died at the age of 82 in 1999, he left behind a large legacy which will be cherished in people’s memories and records for many many years to come.
　

Delysé 


Of the 26 Railway Series volumes that were written by Wilbert, Johnny told the stories of the first eleven, from 'The Three Railway Engines' to 'Percy the Small Engine'. These were released between 1961 and 1966 on the Delysé Records label, which would in time, become part of Decca Records when it was acquired by PolyGram in 1980.

All of his narration’s were pressed onto 7″ vinyl 45 RPM "singles", unlike many other 45s of the time, which were pressed onto polystyrene. Not the white crumbly stuff, but a stiff plastic form dyed black. They were also given the different title of 'The Railway Stories'.


The record's jackets were decorated with crumpled slabs of colour on a white background with an illustration from the book that the stories were from. There were several editions of these records released; some jackets had an older version of the Delysé logo, some had a newer, some had the illustration with rounded corners, some were made of card, some were made of paper and some were laminated. The record label remained the same throughout all these releases (a smiling red engine whose nose was filled when placed on the turntable!). The older releases of the records had a large push-out slot in the engine's face (in order to be compatible with both RCA Victor's and Columbia's record systems), and the newer ones had a solid label.

This was the first time that the famous foreword by the Reverend was printed for the audio format:


"My father was a railway enthusiast and brought me up accordingly. Our home at Box, Wiltshire, was near the Great Western main line and listening to heavy freights clawing up the grade it was not hard to imagine train engine and banker talking to each other, and for me, steam engines developed personality.

So when my son caught measles at the age of three I told him these stories to amuse him. They were not written down at first, I made them up as I went along. But I had to tell them so often, carefully using the same words, that both he and I soon knew them by heart.

It was only later, at my wife's suggestion, that I wrote them down, so that other children might have pleasure from them too."
Decca 


In 1972 (the same year Tramway Engines was released, the last of Wilberts books.) Johnny Morris's stories were re-released on 12″ 33⅓ RPM vinyl albums (LP’s) by Decca Records as part of their "World of Children's Stories" series.

Each record contained the stories from two complete books, one book on each side. The front sleeve illustrations were taken directly from the artwork of the original books and the back of the sleeve featured illustrations of trains of varying complexity by David Anstey. A photograph of Johnny was also printed with the same foreword by the Reverend.

Again, there were several editions of these records released; some had jackets laminated with Clarifoil and had a glossy front and a matt back, others did not have Clarifoil but were relatively shiny nonetheless on the front and back. There were also several variants of record label and inner sleeve.

By the early 1970s, audio cassettes began to become commonplace as more and more people invested in cassette players. Because of this, when Decca released records they often released matching cassettes; this was the case for the Railway Stories.

The cassette versions of Johnny's Decca recordings were the same colour as their corresponding records and featured the same text however only one illustration was used instead of the four tiled illustrations, due of course to the lack of space available on a cassette sleeve.
Argo 

When the time came for the next stories to be told, Johnny was working on something else so Willie Rushton stepped into his stead as the new Railway Stories reader. At this point, Decca moved the "World of Children's Stories" series over to its Argo branch which specialised in non-music recordings, such as voice recordings and tranport recordings (such as Argo's "Transacord" series).

There weren't as many variations of these records released; none were laminated with Clarifoil and there were none of David Anstey's doodle-like drawings either, however, as Willie was a cartoonist, he depicted himself in railway uniform on the back. Willie's record sleeves featured the names of the books that the stories were from.
Johnny, Willie and Argo 


Eventually, both the World of Children's Stories audio series and the original "Volumes" format of organisation were abandoned and Decca continued on to other projects. All of the Railway Stories were transferred to Decca's Argo arm and they were all released again as a series of audio cassettes.

Johnny's recordings were arranged into volumes one to four and Willie's were arranged into three volumes titled "The Railway Stories", "More Railway Stories" and "Further Railway Stories".

Wilbert’s Opinion
Now we all know that Wilbert Awdry was a very hard man to please and understandably so. The Railway Series was his life’s work and he was very protective over it as we have found out, but Johnny Morris got the thumbs up from Awdry and that is an achievement by anyone’s standard. Wilbert "seemed contented with the way his stories were interpreted", he also mentioned that when he should pass away he would love to take a recording of Johnny’s interpretation of Edward and Gordon with him, now that is praise indeed, well done Johnny!

Written by Patrick Foley and 'RailwayStories1'

TTC & RWS1 2012

The Meccano Percy Set

The Meccano Percy Set

In 1965 the twentieth book of the Railway Series was released entitled Very Old Engines. In this same year the very first train set was too come for The Railway Series. Yes, in 1965 Meccano released a loop of track with an engine; the engine was of course Percy. It is interesting that they decided to choose Percy. The set was an O gauge loop of blue "click together" track all was made out of plastic except for the clockwork motor of Percy. It is surprising that Meccano, a company famed for it’s metal toys decided to release a set entirely of plastic! Also included in the set was a yellow truck and a red Box van. Percy looks very much the way he does in Dalby's illustrations and is quite highly detailed, this adds to the appeal of the set, having something so close to what you see in the books is definite positive!

ThomasTankCollectables Archives 2012

It has long been thought that this set was produced for one year only in 1967, but this is not true. After some
extensive research I have concluded that this set was actually released two years earlier in the year of 1965. You will now of course want some hard evidence, for that I have a few pictures that should put your mind at rest. First of all is an advert from the Meccano magazine advertising the set, the advert is from 1965, also there is the adverts that were put onto the dust jackets of many of the books released around that time. There were actually two different styles of dust jacket adverts released, one in 1965 and the other 1967. Now for my favourite. In 1965 "Very Old Engines" was released and the first edition copy of this book came with a two page fold up advertisement, showing the set in all it‘s glory! So the set was actually in the market for three years between 1965 and 1967 and it didn't do very well. Despite the wonderful box art by Peter Edwards the set just didn't sell. Perhaps it was the fact that all you can do is play with a circle of track, there was no option of extending the set. Or maybe it was the fact that there wasn't any other characters available for it, all you had was exactly what was in the box. Whatever the reason the set was a flop and the remaining stocks had their faces removed and replaced with red smoke boxes, domes and whistles and where sold in France. It was a sad end to the very first train set for The Railway Series. Little did they know at this time how successful The Railway Series and related train sets would go on to be! Although the set was short lived, it found fame in it’s first and last TV debut in the 1967 episode of the ITV TV series "The Avengers" entitled "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Station", I am sure Percy enjoyed his six seconds of fame!

Even though the set didn't sell well I think it is a very good set, it is very big and a lot more fun to watch than many other train sets. The brightly coloured track, rolling stock and engine could keep any child entertained for a good while, the reason for this set’s failure shall remain lost in the depths of time, but the set however shall remain a great part of my collection for many years to come! I like the big size of the train set but you could argue that it is a little too big, imagine if you had a whole load of the track (should they have decided to expand the range) you would need a huge house to set it up! I also like the fact that it was the first ever train set, so it is a landmark in Thomas history. Another good part of this set is the detail, Percy is very well detailed, arguably higher detail than many product ranges of today. Overall a great set!

If you would like to see the pictures mentioned above, watch the Youtube video to find out more. A little history lesson!

Anyway I hope you have enjoyed the review, check out the pictures on my Youtube and Facebook page.

TTC 2012

This video includes an in depth look at Percy and his rolling stock and also looks at when this set was produced, proving that it was released before 1967. 

Guild Home Video

Guild Home Video

ThomasTankCollectables Archives 2012

In 1985 video cassette manufactures Guild Home Video, one of the biggest at the time, produced two "Thomas The Tank Engine" videos. These were entitled "Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends Cassette 1" and "Further Adventures Of Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends Cassette 2". These videos were released in the time when VHS and Betamax where in a heated battle, of which VHS reined the winner, but in order to reach both sectors of the market Guild Home Video decided to release it’s videos in both formats. As many readers may not have even seen a Betamax video never mind owned one, I thought a little introduction might be helpful! 

Anyway the video I was going to be reviewing was originally "Cassette 2", but I think I might as well review the both in one go. So let’s start in chronological order with "Cassette 1". There is a bit of question as to whether these two cassettes were released in 1984 or 1985, but I think they were both released in 1985. Both tapes have the date "MCMLXXXV" which is 1985, this would make sense, as otherwise the videos would have been released before some episodes were even aired! The episode list for "Cassette 1" is as follows:

1.Thomas and Gordon

2. Edward and Gordon

ThomasTankCollectables Archives 2012

3. The Sad Story of Henry

4. Edward, Gordon and Henry

5. Thomas' Train

6. Thomas and the Trucks

7. Thomas and the Breakdown Train

8. James and the Coaches

9. Troublesome Trucks

10. James and the Express

11. Thomas and the Guard

12. Thomas Goes Fishing

13. Thomas, Terence and the Snow 

There were 13 episodes per tape, which is a lot better value than many of the latter tapes, in which a series was usually spread over three separate tapes. Obviously this is a good episode listing as it is the order the stories were supposed to be seen. A good thing about having the original tapes is that you will get the name-board openings, which are really nice. A great way for children and parents alike to learn character names. Another thing about the first videos, well first series really, is that Ringo Starr narrates them, this alone will have attracted a large audience when the series first aired. I like the cover design as well, it is the same picture that was used on the 1985 annual and of course the later Kaleidoscope release. I also like the stickers that show which format they are in, a nice touch. The videos are not actually Pre-certification, they have the correct age certificate printed on the back and have stickers on the spine and back. "Cassette 2" also has the certificate printed on the spine.

Now onto "Cassette 2". I have never actually been able to watch "Cassette 2" as I only have a copy in Betamax for which I don’t have a player. I expect it makes good viewing though, with the original name-boards and Guild Home Video opening logo. Here is the episode list:

1. Thomas and Bertie

2. Tenders and Turntables

ThomasTankCollectables Archives 2012

3. Trouble in the Shed

4. Percy Runs Away

5. Coal

6. The Flying Kipper

7. Whistles and Sneezes

8. Toby and the Stout Gentleman

9. Thomas in Trouble

10. Dirty Objects

11. Off the Rails

12. Down the Mine

13. Thomas' Christmas Party 

Again I do like the case design for this one. I think the big picture of Thomas on the front is great and is of course a rare picture in itself. On the back is the classic opening sequence picture, you can’t go wrong with that!

Another thing I find interesting about the Guild Home Video releases are the impact they had on the videos to come. Guild Home only released two videos and were only working with Thomas The Tank Engine for one year, but they had quite a big impact. Firstly the most obvious has got to be that the picture on "Cassette 1" is re-used by VCI with their release of "Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends" later to become "Thomas and Gordon". Also the back cover of "Thomas and Gordon" is almost completely identical to "Cassette 1", same colour scheme, picture, and blurb. The three videos released at this time did actually carry a note that said "A Guild Home Video Product distributed through the Video Collection", I think this means that VCI would have been paying royalties to GHV for the use of their cover design. With the next release from VCI, there was a completely different case design with didn’t really look like the first release. The second release was of course "Troublesome Trucks and Other Stories", this did take quite a lot of influence from "Cassette 2", with the "Further Adventures of" and the font of the text, for example the writing of "Storyteller Ringo Starr", was identical except for the colour. Interestingly the three videos have an odd primitive certification logo, this was not present on the GHV releases.

Now I think I have definitely said too much! I hope you have enjoyed reading about these fantastic two videos and I hope I haven’t bored you, my passion for these videos is quite high to say the least!

Please check out the Youtube video below for pictures of the videos.

TTC 2012

Welcome To The Thomas Tank Collectables Blog

Hello everyone,

It is Patrick here I am currently working on a new blog, Youtube channel and Facebook page. I plan to write written reviews on a great number of items from my Thomas collection. I look forward to embarking on this new venture! I hope you all enjoy my reviews and I look forward to talking to you all and sharing Thomas anecdotes! The first of a series of reviews will be posted very soon, all being well, each review will be accompanied with a Youtube video showing pictures or videos of the items, if I think it beneficial!

 Anyway, as I said before I hope you enjoy my Thomas content,

 Patrick Foley

Follow me!

TTC 2012