The end of Thomas and friends from Plarail?

I think, instead of redesigning an engine, they rerelease an old engine like Diesel or Salty.

(08-09-2016, 01:05 PM)TrainMan2001 Wrote: I think, instead of redesigning an engine, they rerelease an old engine like Diesel or Salty.

Or duck,Ben,Donald,Stepney,lady,splodge or even which should happen Oliver

(08-07-2016, 07:34 PM)Bertsan531 Wrote: We"ll see if they will do a Re-Designed Edward and Henry maybe in the Coming months and maybe The Flying Scotsman

Or even Re-Designed versions of Thomas, Percy, Toby ,Duck, Donald, Douglas, Oliver, Skarloey, Rheneas, Sir Handel, Rusty, Duncan, Luke, Diesel, Diesel 10, Salty, BoCo, Stepney, Bill and Ben, Mighty Mac (New redeisgned motor for the coach), Molly (Redesigned from Tender Powered to Locomotive powered with moving Siderods), Victor, and Stanley.

I also think they should release Millie, the international engines from The Great Race, Streamlined Thomas, Shooting Star Gordon, Den, Dart, Sidney, Paxton, Peter Sam, Iron Arry and Iron Bert, Samson, Sam, Porter, Timothy, Mike, Bert, Rex, Duke and Bertram, Decorated James and Emily from The Great Race, and Philip.

I also think they should make spare wheels and siderods for plarail models incase their wheels crack and break and siderods as well.

I also think that the redesigned models of Skarloey, Den, and Diesel should have moving Sideods but Diesel's siderods should be black, and Den's should be Orange. Paxton and Sidney's would be red.

We'll see what happens.

(05-07-2015, 01:27 PM)Ucwepn Wrote: I have been doing some detective work after hearing rumors that Trackmaster is going global next year (2016), will this be the end of the TOMY/Plarail Thomas and friends line of toys?

In 2012 there was a bidding war over licensing rights for the Thomas and friends brand between TOMY and Mattel, TOMY won the bid. Mattel responded by buying HiT entertainment the company that owns Thomas and Friends. Mattel then seemingly withdrew the licensing for TOMY to make Thomas and friends toys. The wooden line and take along line was made by learning curve who are owned by RC2 who are in turn owned by TOMY. Mattel/Fisher price now makes both of these lines in house and has redesigned both ranges so that they own all the new designs and to reduce costs etc.

So...what is the story with the motorized lines? Is/Was there an agreement in place that Mattel/Fisher price could use all of TOMY's designs to create the Trackmaster line in other world markets? Thus allowing TOMY to continue the motorized line in the Asian market? Now that Mattel has gone "in house" with a new design of Trackmaster trains what is the fate of TOMY/Plarail producing the Thomas and friends motorized trains?

I have a bad feeling that the current wave or next wave could be the last, TOMY/Plarail did spend allot of money redesigning some engines but that means little as so did Mattel just months before switching over.

So does anyone know anything about this? Discuss!

If that's true, I will be so depressed.

If those Trackmaster II trains do go international then couldn't Tomy still make their bullet trains and Japanese steam locos?

If that does happen, Tomy would be allowed to continue producing anything in Plarail that isn't Thomas (including Chuggington and Disney).

I Wonder if Takara Tomy reached an agreement or renewed their contract to continue to produce the Plarail Thomas & Friends line, if that's the case we may see more Thomas & Friends characters to be released by them like for the The Great Race movie to be release in Japan next year.

Guys, Plarail is still making new models for the Thomas and Friends line.

Yes we have seen thanks, there is a dedicated thread about Plarail TOMY Thomas new releases.

Sorry to bump this but when Thomas & Friends Season 25 comes out, Mattel might plan on pulling the plug on the Plarail lineup and replace them all with Thomas motorized. I'm not sure what's going to happen then but I hope they continue producing them as they're popular over in Japan.