Goodbye and Hello

Edward gets the Shaft again, ho hum.

I cannot believe this, how disgusting off Mattel to do this. I grew up with Thomas and Friends and have probably watched every episode of it (model not cgi series). I can't believe that they would just cut such meaningful characters of the series. My mum told me this morning that they were introducing 2 new characters to the series but I didn't know that they would cut such meaningful characters, Edward is the oldest train on the railway, Henry has his signature coal problem and Toby is the old and wise character that we all love, and to just cut them off to make way for some new characters that no one has ever heard of. I am truly ashamed of Mattel doing this. I fear that what Mattel has been doing with the merchandise and now altering the actual series, could be the sign of the end of the Thomas and Friends series.

Here is a news article about it
http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-15...fmredir=sm

With some other changes including a new theme song, no narrator with it being Thomas and and the trains visiting new countries.

On the plus side I do like the design of rebecca and the fact that the trains will visit new countries.

Rebecca


Nia

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Sorry I got a bit angry before, I'm just really sad that Mattel would do this

That article ends with this kicker, "Viewership of Thomas & Friends is evenly split between girls and boys...and girls are more likely than boys to watch every week." Right now there are 6 boy engines and 1 girl engine in the shed, and I can tell you that does matter to the girls that are watching this show. Too early, girls start getting told that "trains are for boys" and will stop watching.

Sure, girls absolutely like the boy engines, too. We have copies of all the original books and I loved reading those stories at bedtime. But having more girl engines on the show (and including girls in the advertising and merchandising so girls, too, can get the Thomas clothes they want) is going to make a huge difference for all the girls out there that are Thomas fans. If this works out, 20-30 years from now there are going to be a whole lot more grownup Thomas and train fans, just from the little girls who weren't kicked out of train fandom growing up.

Great...they can start thier target marketing for the My Little Pony, Rainbow Bright, Strawberry Shortcake, and Barbie franchises for boys too.

Sadly we havent watched any new movies. The boys are just not into them. I think the last ones I purchased were The Adventure Begins and Dinos and Discoveries. They love the older ones. To hear they are getting rid of Toby is very disappointing. He is my little ones very favorite.