Wednesday 18 January 2017

Leicester Mercury - William Middleton

I came across this article quite a while ago but completely forgot to post it here. The title incorrectly proclaims that William Middleton was the first to illustrate Thomas the Tank Engine but, as well all know, this was actually done by Reginald Payne. You can read our previous article on him here

ThomasTankCollectables Archives 2014

Rev T Robin Martin wrote into the Leicester Mercury to share a lovely little anecdote involving the highly mysterious artist William Middleton. Unfortunately very little is know about William Middleton or his successor Reginald Payne. Each of them illustrated books that were improved by C. Reginald Dalby shortly after publication. Furthermore they were not credited for the illustrations they provided. Nicholas Jones, producer of "The Thomas the Tank Engine Man" Bookmark documentary (1995), told me that they tried to research both Mr. Payne and Mr. Middleton to no avail. 

Anyway the anecdote shared by Rev T Robin Martin is provided below, thanks to the Leicester Mercury. 

"My uncle, the late Gordon Tipping, whom many will remember as the dapper station master at Rothley, Loughborough Central and the first station master at Leicester North, told me the following story.The very first illustrator of the Thomas the Tank Engines stories was a William (Bill) Middleton, had his studio from before the war and into the 1950s on Halford Street." 
He is of course referring to the Railway Series here, William Middleton only provided illustrations for The Three Railway Engines, which did not feature Thomas the Tank Engine.
"As he was my grandfather's friend, I knew him as 'Uncle Bill' and remember visiting his place of work on upper floors, over a shop, about halfway down from Dunn's hat shop, now a Café Nero. Bill was given the job of the drawings for The Three Railway Engines and Thomas, but, as he thought stories of what were, by then, dirty old locomotives would not be a success, he didn't try very hard over the illustrations." 
Again, Thomas did not feature in this book! 
"I remember them, as my younger cousin Henry had the very first in the series and I read them. The locomotives were somewhat crudely illustrated, with flat faces on the smoke box doors. The stories were, of course, a great success, so Ward Locke, dissatisfied with Bill's attempts, gave the commission to whom I now know to have been Reggie Dalby. This was for the subsequent books and reprints of the earlier ones. If anyone still has a first edition illustrated by Bill Middleton, they will see what I mean."
The commission was in fact given to Reginald Payne for the next book Thomas the Tank Engine (1946). Reginald Payne was not available to illustrate the next book (James the Red Engine), this is the point at which C. Reginald Dalby was employed. 
This anecdote gives us a tantalising insight into the man we all know so little about. It would be great to see a picture of William Middleton or find out some more about him. 
You can see the original illustrations of the Three Railway Engines by William Middleton on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtGilLqROo3vASDVWeJ_EVR6W8r89RtiF 
If you have any corrections or comments, please feel free to comment below or send us an email: thomastankcollectables@hotmail.co.uk

Friday 13 January 2017

Thomas the Tank Engine VHS Collection Update

Since my complete VHS collection back in March I have managed to acquire a few more videos for my ever expanding collection. You can read the blog post about the previous video here. This post will be having a closer look at the videos featured in the latest collection update. 

Experienced collectors will have been able to work out almost every VHS featured in the update from the promo released yesterday. Did you work it out?

Tomica World Videos 

Most of you will remember the days long before Trackmaster when TOMY produced sets under the "Tomica World" name. At this time you could get generic trains and vehicles alongside the normal Thomas and Friends range we are familiar with today. The videos were released as promotional items in boxes that featured a 'Free Video' sticker as seen in the pictures below. 

Picture credit: eBay

Picture credit: eBay

The Thomas Adventure set appears to be the most common one to feature the video and, correct me if I am wrong, but I believe I have seen sets featuring a blue sticker. I assume the colour of the sticker corresponds to the colour on the label of the video, as you will see below.

First release (Red Label) VHS 0619
The first video has Mr. Tomica (Mr. T) giving a tour of Tomica World, including a look at Thomas and Friends, regular Tomica World trains, quizzes, and rail safety tips. The video also includes one song and first season episode.
  • Thomas Anthem
  • Thomas and Bertie
Picture credit: ThomasTankCollectables

Second release (Blue Label) VHS 0700

In the second video, Mr. T brings a boy named Kevin (David in the US version) to look and play around Tomica World. The video includes footage of real trains in action plus one Thomas song:
  • Thomas Anthem


Picture credit: ThomasTankCollectables

Information thanks to the Thomas Wikia. You can watch the contents of the TOMY videos on YouTube, VHS 0619 and VHS 0700 (US version). 

Thomas Video Collection VCI1636

This video will have been released as a free video back in 2002. However other than the Chad Valley logo we do not have any clues as to which set it would have been released with. If anyone has any pictures of the exact set it was released with, please send your pictures in to thomastankcollectables@hotmail.co.uk or message us via Facebook/twitter

Picture credit: ThomasTankCollectables

My guess is that this would have been released with an ERTL set because Chad Valley produced a few ERTL sets around that time, such as the examples below. 

Picture credit: eBay

Picture credit: eBay


The second ERTL set above included a free video, however the video did not feature the Chad Valley logo. Pictures of the video found in the set above can be found on the Wikia.

The episodes featured on the Thomas Video Collection video (more commonly referred to as the 'Chad Valley Video') are as follows: 
  1. Thomas, Percy and the Coal
  2. Toby and the Flood
  3. Edward's Exploit
  4. Henry's Forest
  5. Donald's Duck

My Little Volume 1 - Treat Size tapes VCI1653

Now for the pièce de résistance of the update video. This video box set was released in 2002 by the Video Collection. We are all familiar with the 'My Little' video series that originated in the mid 1990s. This title continued into the early 2000s, but I have never seen them as a collection like this before. 

Picture credit: ThomasTankCollectables

The copy I have acquired is still packaged so unfortunately I cannot reveal if there are any differences in the packaging of the videos inside. I thought that they may not have individual bar codes as they have been released as a set in this instance. The videos included in this box set are: 

  1. Thomas and Percy Adventures
  2. Thomas and Bertie Adventures
  3. Thomas and Toby Adventures
Interestingly the front of the box says 'Volume 1', was there ever a Volume 2? It does seem unlikely because there was only ever four videos in this set anyway, not enough to make another box set. Nevertheless this is an excellent addition to my collection and a box-set that I have never come across before. 

A previously unseen box set was also featured in the complete VHS collection video, the Peep! Peep! Party gift set featuring a block puzzle set. See the full video below. 

As always thank you for reading and please e-mail or message if you have any correction(s) or extra information that I have not provided above.