The Fisher Price website depicts what is to come from Take 'n' Play with a first glimpse at Stephen the aptly named Rocket engine. Since the initial appearance of Stephen on the collector poster more pictures have surfaced.
This collector poster gave fans a first look at Stephen. it is available to be printed and viewed online and is suggested as a printable, from the Fisher Price website, which looks like it is still in construction. Further pictures appeared of Stephen close up and with the background removed. This enabled us to have a very good look at him.
On first impression he looks impressive but on closer scrutiny, you may argue that he is lacking in places. For example his tender is attached, he is all one piece, it would have been better if he had a separate tender. His wheel arrangement is correct although very close together. His funnel is very short, but if it was longer the packaging would have to be specially adapted for him, also it would be more likely to snap off completely. It is interesting that his nameplate says 'Rocket' rather than Stephen.
A new picture of Stephen with a treasure chest and gold horse has appeared today. There are a couple of differences between the above picture and the original picture of Stephen For a start his funnel has changed colour. Also he has little speckle of gold, but that is part of the theme. There is a bit of silver detailing in his piston. View this image here.
Finally is a picture of a Take 'n' Play set, featuring what we can assume is Ulfstead castle featured in the trailer. this is from the Fisher Price website. The description for which says:
"There’s plenty of action and excitement in this fast-paced toy inspired by the King of the Railway DVD movie! The Troublesome Truck tries to catch Thomas as he races down the spiral track! Will it be successful in catching him? As Thomas zooms downward the flags unfurl and the treasure drops. Connects to other Take-n-Play™ portable playsets and folds up for easy portability and storage! Includes a die-cast Thomas engine, a Troublesome Truck, and two additional play pieces."
Please leave your thoughts and comments below or in the new chat box.
Today Bachmann released their new catalogue, it shows all the engines for this year including some new faces coupled with plenty of familiar ones. As well as the much anticipated Duck we also see the Iron Works duo diesels; 'Arry and Bert. Further more Bachmann have given mention of Thomas with sounds! So let's take a look.
This years catalogue features Bachmanns new range of Chuggington engines:
"Traintastic Chuggington™ is pulling into Bachmann! Based on the popular TV series Chuggington™ that airs weekdays on Disney Channel’s Disney Junior programming block for kids and their families, and daily on the new 24-hour Disney Junior basic cable and satellite channel, HO Scale Chuggington electric Locomotives, Rolling Stock, and Accessories are arriving in 2013! Join your favourite “trainees” —Brewster, Wilson, and Koko— as they ride the rails pulling Chuggington cars that include a Box Car, Low-Sided Gondola, Flat Car, two Hopper Cars, and a Passenger Car. Vee, the depot dispatcher, will be there to keep all the Chuggers on schedulee."
But don't worry Thomas fans, we get a mention, surprisingly no mention of the new Duck in there; but it's not all bad!
"This year, Thomas & Friends™
fans can look forward toIron ‘Arry, Iron Bert, Jeremy, and
Troublesome Truck #4 as well as the new Thomas’ Christmas Express set in HO scale and Toby the Tram Engine and new rolling stock in Large Scale."
We will start with the sounds Thomas:
"Now you can hear Thomas’ steam sounds! With an analog sound system including steam chuffs, periodic whistle, and steam blow-down upon stopping, this sound-equipped Thomas brings to life the sights and sounds of the Island of Sodor."
He is set to retail at $99 which is $38 more expensive than the basic Thomas, but will it be worth it? He runs on normal DC current and the sounds activate according to the speed of Thomas, this should help make the sounds more realistic. However many are always a little wary of sound chips, we will have to wait and see. Some can be good but plenty of them aren't great! Thomas is likely to cost between £70 and £75 when he arrives in the UK. With thanks to TheDieselWorks for reminding us to mention the sounds Thomas.
Jeremy seems a bit of an odd choice to me, Jeremy the plane that only appeared in six episodes (of which he only spoke in one!) and a special. Toby however seems like a good choice, it would be nice to see him in HO, hopefully his faithful coach Henrietta will make it to HO as well.
Most interestingly it features 'Arry and Bert, although sadly they are just CGI stock images at the moment, but that is something to look forward to. Also it is good to see that a few minor modifications have been made to Duck.
Although the image above is blurry you can see that Duck now has a grey (sadly not white) running plate, which as we all know really does make a difference! Also that bit of black on top of his safety valve has been removed. Bachmann must have been reading the viewers responses! It is really good to see a little more progress on Duck. Fingers crossed he will be released at the end of this month as planned.
Back in November 2012 there was much excitement as a picture of Bachmann's new Duck model was released! Comments were flowing with enthusiasm, applauding the engines detail and classic features, this was all from one small picture. Now we have a large scale picture and even a hands on review thanks to Youtube user Sodoradvertures. So I think it is good time to have another look at Duck.
I would say the best way to do this is too look first at each model individually and then make comparisons. Above are the Hornby model, TV series model and Bachmann model. Ultimately I will be comparing them to the TV series model, but also to each other. Where are the TV series model's eye brows?!
Hornby
First of all the Hornby model has a grey running plate which his basically incorrect, also the face although well molded is too much of a dark grey. He is of a dark green, far darker than the other two. The boxes on the running plate are un-detailed and simply molded in green. The cab appears too curved at the top, the funnel looks out of proportion and shape. Finally the number '8' appears too thin. But it is not all doom and gloom for Hornby, the cab is open enabling more detail than that of the Bachmann. The wheels are of better proportion.
Bachmann
The only bad point I would have to say about this one is the wheels. I think they are too small, but please comment your thoughts. Also, the cab is closed, but that is only a minor point. I love the classic face, really nostalgic and suits Duck perfectly. The colour of his livery is near perfect. All the parts under his side tanks are detailed in black, just like the TV series model. Notice the little box under the running plate which I presume is supposed to be the cylinder, is there as it is with the TV series model. I think Bachmann have had a really good look at the TV series model when designing this.
Sadly both engines lack that splash of white on the running plate, which really does make a difference!
Now take a look at this video by Youtube user Sodoradventures. Take a close look at the wheels and see what you think, I still think they are too small. I really enjoyed this video, it was great to see the model and hear Sodor's thoughts.
Duck was originally due to be released in January 2013, but that hasn't happened yet, they are likely preparing for a large demand! Duck is now due to be released, in the US by 28th February 2013, so that is the date to remember, hopefully he will be available to the UK online around that time too. It is a shame that the much awaited Duck has been delayed almost a month, I am sure he will be worth the wait! You can pre-order Duck at 'The Diesel Works'
Yes the first glimpse of Sodor in all new CGI by Arc has been released! As the majority of you will know Thomas & Friends was previously animated by Nitrogen Studios, who went out with a bang with the highly successful 'Blue Mountain Mystery'. So Arc have a lot to live up to!
I have read a number of comments regarding this advert and a lot of people have been saying that the CGI is low quality, cheap and various other derogatory comments. First of all I think it is too early to start judging the quality of the CGI, this advert was likely released by mistake. But if I must pass judgement; I think the actual CGI does look good, but the quality of the video itself is quite poor. The engines look nicely detailed and coloured. Lip syncing is poor to say the least! The background scenery in places is bare but overall not too bad, I am sure it will look better in the finished product. What do you all think of the hill (I assume this is Ulfstead hill?) at the end? I think it was nicely detailed and very grand, quite impressive!
The characters all look good in my opinion. At times they look very much like the Nitrogen characters, not that this is a bad thing however. Some comments have said that they look too much like Nitrogen models, I don't see the problem with this, Nitrogen did a very good job. The troublesome trucks looked very much like the Nitrogen ones, shame that they were all the same, it used to be that the Troublesome trucks all had different faces! It is good though to see that they are back to their troublesome ways, that is what they are there for after all!
Andrew Brennar is writing this movie so this is a bit of a debut for him! Other than a few TV series episodes in the 1990's and editing Blue Mountain Mystery Andrew has had little chance to 'shine', so let's hope this film goes well for him! It won't be long before we start seeing Merchandise creeping onto the shelves, 'Train Cellar' have already released pictures of the new engines in wooden railway.
New characters included, Millie, Stephen (named of course after Robert Stephenson) and Sir Robert Norramby, The Earl of Sodor. It looks like Andrew Brennar has been reading the Wikia, to find out about Robert! (Joke)
Please feel free to tell us your opinions on the trailer and our comments.
With exams over and a new year, a new start has arrived for ThomasTankCollectables. Plans have been made for a whole series of new videos over the coming few weeks, work has started with pictures and videos being taken. This blog will be the first thing to be re-vamped. Our Youtube channel is likely to stay the same except we have a lot of of videos planned for that! Facebook and Twitter will be used to make announcements of latest videos and blog posts, so stay tuned there!
Please bear in mind that videos take a lot of time and I am still very busy with homework and my job, but I will try my utmost to prioritise a good amount of time to Thomas!
The plans for the blog are a new background, new banner, better page for my shop and more posts in the coming weeks. The News page will be removed as it is unnecessary really, if we want to comment on any news we will just make a new post.
If you have any comments, questions or queries regarding our plans for the future, comment on this post or message us on Youtube, facebook or Twitter (links above). You can also e-mail us at: thomastankcollectables@hotmail.co.uk
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.
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 20th 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!
