The "stunt trains" controversy.

I've noticed a lot of people criticizing Trackmaster (particularly since 2012-ish) for the fact that the sets are now very stunt-based. I'm not going to pretend I don't like the simplicity; I grew up with Plarail. However, I don't think the stunt concept hurts the range. The kids (I hate pulling that card, believe me, but we have to remember that with the Thomas-based stuff, they're the Target audience) like having trains that can do cool stuff. It's unrealistic, totally, and I wish they wouldn't discourage using rolling stock, but I fail to realize how becoming what people call "stunt trains" is a bad thing. Of course I think Plarail is much better than TrackMaster ever was, but I would hardly call TrackMaster "bad."

So yeah. Rant over. As I've said before, the internet is my therapist I don't wanna start an argument here, but I just wanna kind of know why exactly the whole stunt concept is such a terrible thing.

from my perspective, the stunt trains, and their tracks, are an issue because the tracks arent not easily incorporated into a larger layout.
this means, once youve watched thomas leap the impossible gap however many times, theres not much else you can do with it.

the old tomy special pieces, like roller coaster mountain, the terence logging set and others, were all able to slot into a space without much thought required. ok, you still had to think it out, but it was always possible.

(03-03-2016, 12:01 AM)DarthShaymin14 Wrote: I've noticed a lot of people criticizing Trackmaster (particularly since 2012-ish) for the fact that the sets are now very stunt-based. I'm not going to pretend I don't like the simplicity; I grew up with Plarail. However, I don't think the stunt concept hurts the range. The kids (I hate pulling that card, believe me, but we have to remember that with the Thomas-based stuff, they're the Target audience) like having trains that can do cool stuff. It's unrealistic, totally, and I wish they wouldn't discourage using rolling stock, but I fail to realize how becoming what people call "stunt trains" is a bad thing. Of course I think Plarail is much better than TrackMaster ever was, but I would hardly call TrackMaster "bad."

So yeah. Rant over. As I've said before, the internet is my therapist I don't wanna start an argument here, but I just wanna kind of know why exactly the whole stunt concept is such a terrible thing.

There really isn't any reason it's a bad thing other than what you and Sunhuntin have said. I actually think most of the new TrackMaster sets are extremely cool, but I don't buy them because they really aren't my thing, and they would indeed get boring after some time.

They are crap!!
Fisher Price "redesigned" them not because they were flawed, but strictly for profit!! It is an inferior hunk of garbage, as is the idea of a "stunt train"... They are all hype and flash, but without a solid foundation of substance. The old models were far superior to the Revolutions in every way, as were the sets, and overall concept of their uses and playability. I have watched countless demos of climbing gimmicky sets that fail 25% of the time with these junky little engines, and nearly 100% of the time with the old versions, sending them crashing to the ground!! One of the main reasons I chose the trackmaster line was its reliability and durability, but not as a reason to purposely abuse them..these new sets and whole line conceptually is just a lot of smoke being blown back up your own smokestacks!!! Greed is why they exist. Period.

(03-03-2016, 01:10 AM)Muddy Poppins Wrote: They are crap!!
Fisher Price "redesigned" them not because they were flawed, but strictly for profit!! It is an inferior hunk of garbage, as is the idea of a "stunt train"... They are all hype and flash, but without a solid foundation of substance. The old models were far superior to the Revolutions in every way, as were the sets, and overall concept of their uses and playability. I have watched countless demos of climbing gimmicky sets that fail 25% of the time with these junky little engines, and nearly 100% of the time with the old versions, sending them crashing to the ground!! One of the main reasons I chose the trackmaster line was its reliability and durability, but not as a reason to purposely abuse them..these new sets and whole line conceptually is just a lot of smoke being blown back up your own smokestacks!!! Greed is why they exist. Period.

I'm going to sound like a broken record here (and might unintentionally sound like I'm trying to start an argument) but isn't the point of a company to make a profit? It's not greed, it's just good business. *gets shot*
While I know that the new trains are nowhere near as good as the old ones, I wouldn't call them bad. They're lower quality but are still somewhat reasonably good build quality from what I can tell

I don't mind it. The Thomas TrackMaster range has almost always been an action-packed range, particularly when Fisher-Price took over. I can see that with every year, the team at Fisher-Price have been looking for more new clever ways to make the range even more exciting than before, and I wouldn't have been surprised if they were trying to do something like Sky-High Bridge Jump for a long time.

I really liked sets like Risky Rails Bridge Drop and Castle Quest, and the later ones have certainly upped the ante thanks to the new engines, but like others say, they don't really fit in well enough with another train set, or they have limited functions and can only take one engine, being Thomas. And I think we know that kids don't really play like that, they moreso run as many engines and trucks through as possible, which I and I'm sure some of you guys did as well.

I have actually managed to fit in Risky Rails Bridge Drop and Castle Quest into a big layout, but that's because I had lots of track and space. I'm very sure that a majority of Fisher-Price's sales are those big sets, and then parents might buy a couple of engines and/or a track pack before that child outgrows Thomas.

I don't mind a lack of realism. After all, in the Motor Road and Rail range you could construct large circle towers with big yellow risers, and I'm pretty sure they're not in seen in Thomas.

There is a methodical intellectual mentality that is cultivated during the process of constructing a layout.
It's is creativity and mathematical...it is freedom focused. When you close your eyes and see track as you drift off to sleep, or suddenly realize "The Way!" to to complete a connection, and stop whatever it is you're doing to go complete the layout. It's planning and engineering that is learned through trial and error and experience...it builds pride and character with these experiences and understandings, and produces sound thoughts and concepts of the external workings of the world around us. It's it a good decent wholesome hobby that produces patcient thinkers of substance. It seems the line is clearly being drawn by Fisher Price VS Plarail at this point, and it is clear that in the "throw away" world of today's trivial superficialness, Fisher Price has chosen to entertain and cater to the majority of the masses...it's just an apple to an orange now.

you know muddy, you are right. train sets like ours help build fine motor and cognitive skills. the way they used to be, the early stage was building to the box design and the result was a feeling of pride and accomplishment.
they were able to be built with little to no adult/older sibling help. then, the parent could buy expansion packs, and junior could extend their learning and skill building to incorporate the new parts.

now, virtually every set requires adult assistance and not much extension is possible. i think even the tracks are too difficult for a young child/preschooler to put together in a basic circle. i can see a kid of about 8 managing, but most 8 year olds are beyond thomas.
the other issue is certain tracks have very slight differences... like some curves can be slightly inclined and look the same as a normal curve until you put them in the layout and wonder why everything is skewiff.

(03-03-2016, 05:37 AM)sunhuntin Wrote: you know muddy, you are right. train sets like ours help build fine motor and cognitive skills. the way they used to be, the early stage was building to the box design and the result was a feeling of pride and accomplishment.
they were able to be built with little to no adult/older sibling help. then, the parent could buy expansion packs, and junior could extend their learning and skill building to incorporate the new parts.

now, virtually every set requires adult assistance and not much extension is possible. i think even the tracks are too difficult for a young child/preschooler to put together in a basic circle. i can see a kid of about 8 managing, but most 8 year olds are beyond thomas.
the other issue is certain tracks have very slight differences... like some curves can be slightly inclined and look the same as a normal curve until you put them in the layout and wonder why everything is skewiff.

The more I think about it, I can't think of a single other toy with the exception of Hotwheels (which only cost a dollar) that encourages dropping or crashing it from heights of 3 ft.?? Does anyone here on BPT ever intentionally drop their Tomy/Plarail trains or abuse any of their favorite plastic toys this way?...these aren't Tonka toys.

The trackmaster, TnP & wooden range was targeted for cost cutting as soon as Mattel bought HiT and took control of Thomas, remember on trackmaster 1 when they added those dark grey tires that are glued to the wheels? (2012) when I did a packup and cleanup of the trains on the layout I noticed many of these glued grey tires were nearly all brittle cracked and destroyed in many places even on a 2013 Gordon, many of them were split and I know they weren't stored in sunlight but the shed where they are stored is subject to extreme temperature fluctuations between hot and cold. It's naive to think that mattel doesn't know this was going to occur and hence switched to the solid wheels of trackmaster 2, they are an expert in plastics and rubbers. So anyway if these engines (2012-2014) are stored out in the open please check the traction tires. I was horrified I tell you!