Trackmaster Revolution (TMR) New releases

@Off The Rails
Well them being an oil burner makes sense as it didn't dawn on me that if it were coal it would be difficult to get the coal to the firebox since that is now in the front. Still all the pictures I have seen have the tenders looking pretty normal like coal ones except they are sealed where the oil is in one side and water in the other. Although I did see some unusual looking tenders like the one pictured so maybe Lexi follows a different design.

I did a bit more reading on Lexi's prototype and the trailing flatbed with the two tanks is indeed the tender. It was built in the shops of the North Pacific Coast Railroad on the chassis of a wrecked Baldwin 4-4-0 and is apparently the first oil fueled cab-forward locomotive. The cab-forward design was done to accommodate an unusual marine style oil fueled boiler. In NPCRR service, it was #21 and referred to as the Thomas Stetson. It had a fairly short service life, being built sometime after 1897 and scrapped by 1905, due to a lack of tractive weight over the drive wheels and a design flaw that placed the burners too close to the steam tubes, damaging them beyond feasible repair.

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Very interesting, thanks for the research and information OTR. So this type of Cab Forward engine #21 was the very first and only one of its kind with the tanks on the flat bed like that. Cool history of Lexi.

Lexi the Experimental Engine, Helpful Harvey, and Runaway Stephen are out in Target stores in the US. The latter two are based on Season 21 episodes.

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Fantastic, Thanks Jdogman

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Well, went to a couple of Targets in my area this morning and one Walmart and no Lexi to be found, I hate that. Has anyone else found a Lexi for sale anywhere?

These three came to my attention today:



They're set to be the first Big World! Big Adventures! (Season 22-24) releases. The yellow race car on Thomas' flatbed is called Ace, who is said to "inspire Thomas to become the first engine to travel the world".

Yong Bao from The Great Race (as well as Ashima and Shane) will be returning in BWBA (with a voice), and this seems to be the first half decent toy of him. Rather than being a repaint of Hiro, he will be made entirely from scratch (including his tender). I still don't get why they use those geared wheels for rolling stock that doesn't have a special function (possibly for enhanced grip on the track, or just "laziness"/cost-cutting).

Nia the African Engine looks good, and I have no idea what the truck between her and the elephant is meant to carry. Speaking of the latter, I wonder if the elephant's head will move as the slate truck rolls (similar to the Wooden Railway Hippo Car), and it looks much better than the one from the old Duncan pack. One person already had the idea to use Nia to make a custom Duck, which I found brilliant after looking at it closely. I'd say Yong Bao is the best in this wave.

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Many thanks for the heads up DalaGStanator

Hmmm...brown wheels on Thomas and his accompanying cars. Has there ever been brown wheels on any other train including rolling stock in Trackmaster or Plarail before?

Just guessing, because I have not run any Trackmaster II's, I would say the reason why they have the geared wheels on rolling stock that performs no action is that...maybe since some are so light weight and flimsy it prevents them from bouncing around behind an engine and helps them track better being pulled although this theory doesn't explain why they all don't have them.

With a new Thomas series in the works as you say, I am hoping that, down the line, Plarail may create some of these.

Thanks again.

My son definitely wants these. He’s a bit disappointed that Rebecca isn’t in the first wave but I imagine she’ll be showing up soon.

New York Toy Fair is on this weekend. While it has not yet been spotlighted, a new TrackMaster set is being shown, and it may or may not be based on the upcoming Big World! Big Adventures!.

You can see a few clips of it between all the other toys. Thomas appears to be done up as a rocket, and it features a high speed jump feature similar to Sky-High Bridge Jump.



There's also a promo image of that Thomas.

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Thanks Jdog

I don't know about you but that Rocket Thomas is a pretty poor, stubby looking thing almost like it was made by a knockoff company. Wonder what that button on the cab roof is for?