Monday, 26 February 2018

The Early Days of ERTL

I have to say I really enjoyed making this video and I can only hope some of you enjoyed watching it! ERTL was one of the first brands to start making Thomas the Tank Engine merchandise and went on to be one of the longest lasting ranges. From 1984 to 2004 (in the UK, 2002 in the US and elsewhere) ERTL made high quality die-cast models of Thomas and his many friends, primarily in the 1/64 scale although they did make several different variants over the years.  That means that there are 20 years' worth of models to collect and some of them are becoming increasingly harder to find. 


Sticker Face 

When you start collecting ERTL one of the first terms you will most likely come across is "sticker face", to anyone other than a Thomas fan this really won't mean anything! But to nearly everyone in the Thomas community this has just become a standard term. 

When ERTL first started producing Thomas The Tank Engine models or toys they were made with a paper sticker face. This method of applying a face was soon replaced in 1990 with plastic moulded faces. The paper faces were prone to falling off and getting damaged. Engines 1-7 and Bertie were the only characters released in this original format and as a result all of these characters now have both a sticker face and a 3D moulded face version. This was the basis for the video, a comparison between the original sticker face line-up and their replacements.

Thomas was the only engine released with a decal sheet. 


Interestingly Thomas was the only engine released with a decal sheet. This sheet included his buffer stickers and an alternative face, clearly based on an illustration from Thomas's Train. I have always wanted to take this decal sheet out and scan it, but there is no way I could bring myself to open a packaged ERTL Thomas from 1984! Thankfully SkarloeyFan recently got a packaged Thomas where the decal sheet was right near the edge of the package and he very carefully managed to extract and photograph the decal sheet. He has very kindly allowed me to show it here.

With thanks to @ThomasTankMerch for supplying this picture of a very rare ERTL misprint of Thomas featuring the sad face

All of the sticker faces are quite clearly based on the Railway Series illustrations and although the drawings are quite simple they really capture each character. I personally think the sticker faces have much more character than the later moulded face engines. I feel the moulded faces don't have all that much detail and the facial features are somewhat lessened in the plastic form. The later ERTL models had painted faces and although these were very prone to chipping they were much more detailed. I would be interested to hear your opinions on the sticker faces compared to the plastic faces.


White Running Boards

Another thing that quickly becomes apparent with the early ERTL models is the use of white running boards. By this I don't mean the usual splash of white on an otherwise red running board, I mean literally the whole running board is white, then the red was painted on afterwards! It seems like a bit of a backwards way to do it, but again this was soon dropped in favour of all red running boards for all engines. The only engines that were released with a white running board where Thomas, James and Henry. This makes sense as these were the first three engines released in 1984. Toby, Percy and Bertie were released in 1985, then Edward and Gordon followed in 1988. 

Unfortunately I don't have an unboxed version of James with a white running board! 

Differences


There were quite a few minor differences between the first ERTL models and the later releases beyond just the face. The most prominent to me is the differences in the detailing of Percy's whistle and dome. They are quite a lot smaller on the later release. RWS_Collection also pointed out that there are some differences with how far the running boards and side tanks stick out on Thomas. I don't personally know of any other differences, but you are more than welcome to contact me if you do.

Track Systems

I started this video with pictures of the first ERTL Playset. This was a cardboard set that popped out and could be constructed into a little layout. Surprisingly for a company producing trains ERTL didn't actually settle on a track system until as late in 1993. So ERTL had been producing trains without a proper train set for almost 10 years. That shows you just how successful the toys were, they could be sold without even having a track! I can't think of any other Thomas The Tank Engine ranges that have been released without a proper track system.
So the first attempt at a track system came in the form of a illustrated couple of pieces of cardboard. ERTL planned to release a wooden track system, as seen in the 1990 Catalogue, but this was cancelled. In 1994, a moulded plastic track playset was released, before settling on the grey track we know and don't really love today. This was also given a face lift in 2002 to make it more colourful. It had decal track and the plastic was green. I have never been a fan of the ERTL track system, I think it is too wide and makes the engines look very narrow. It is quite clunky to put together as well. I do like the later green track, especially some of the viaducts and bridges. Sometimes you will see job lots on eBay where ERTL models are included with track from other sets, often Hornby Playtrains red track.

I hope you enjoyed seeing all of the original 1/64 ERTL models in all their glory. I also tried to include the ERTL sets and merchandise I have from the 1980s. I really loved looking through all the original models and sets, they are all so good looking. I may have got a little carried away with all the pictures! 




A big thank you to @RWS_Collection for the use of his decal sheet photograph and discussing the ERTL models in preparation of this blog. I would also like to say a big thank you to @ThomasTankMerch for proof reading this and adding some extra details! 

As always you can contact me via Twitter or email: thomastankcollectables@hotmail.co.uk

You may also like: 
http://ttte.wikia.com/wiki/Ertl_Company 
ERTL Personalised Money Box: https://youtu.be/BHanzlYnjkI
ERTL Haul: https://youtu.be/YXfVEICOdag
Thomas Merchandise on SiF: http://www.sodor-island.net/merchandise.html


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