Back and Go Thomas discovery

28/09/2022

The Back & Go Thomas and The talk 'n' action Thomas. You may be wondering what these two have in common. But first a little bit of history on both:

1.The Back & Go Thomas was exclusive to the 2011 set, Back and Go! Thomas Misty Island Set. While the original prototype featured a updated face, the final one had an original molded one.
https://thomasmotorized.fandom.com/wiki/...Island_Set

2.The talk 'n' action Thomas was first released in 2000 (Japan) and featured in a few sets.
https://thomasmotorized.fandom.com/wiki/...ail_Thomas

Now back to how I made the discovery

This morning I was just looking through some tomy items on eBay. On of these was a TNA Thomas, and I noticed something about it, that I never noticed before, the coal was lifted. At first II thought it was interesting as my back and go Thomas also had raised coal, and then it hit me (no, the back & go Thomas didn't fall of the shelf and hit me in the head).But before I could be sure that my theory was true I needed to check the back & go Thomas' shell.

I remembered something about it since I first put in a battery, in the top of the body, a small circular shape could be spotted.


             


   

a quick check with my TNA Toby showed that the speaker could fit in it (PS: I don't own a TNA Thomas, but if someone could provide images of the inside of the body, that would be great!). I then tried looking for more clues, and then, I spotted something else(I always thought that the fact that the switch hole was much shorter than on other engines). I noticed the part where the mold had been changed for this Thomas, and when compared to the TNA Toby switch hole it was clear that before the mold change they would have been the same size.







This confirms to me at least 99.99% that the body is used from the TNA Thomas, just modified



As a quick side note here's the way the direction changes are done:

[Super]

Detective DD&O

I actually put a Talk N Action speaker in mine, it works well.

01/01/23

First day of the year and I want to update this post with some info on the truck that comes with the back and go Thomas.




Even if in most images it looks black it's actually dark brown, as you can see bellow, when compared to a black truck:




Just like the Thomas the body tooling is reused from other trucks that came in these two sets: https://thomasmotorized.fandom.com/wiki/..._Wagon_Set & https://thomasmotorized.fandom.com/wiki/...Wagons_Set

The load is also exactly the same as the one from the 65th anniversary set. This specific truck features a gimmick: It wobbles from side to side when on the track. As a difference from all of the other wagons, it has the couplings with the walls and correctors, just like on the Thomas from the set. Despite this the cut and support for the coupling is still featured on the inside of the body:










An extra piece is fitted on the inside of the wagon, in order to support the front hook:




 The wheels may be new or they could be reused from the Hit toys truck with the same gimmick.





As you can see, the wheels are off center when compared to the axels, this makes the rocking work. The load can be removed and I have found that at least the crate loads can maybe fit, but they do sit a bit high.





The wagon is 1 plank shorter than the regular one:




some more pics.








I wrote this quite fast so I hadn't any time to accent any of the words, but I may change this in the future.

[Super]

Thanks for the details 👍

I may try to post some better images of Thomas' gear box, but to sum it up, it's got more weights in the rear behind the motor, witch is the only thing that blocks shel swapping with other Thomases

The switch is different and the direction is sellected by a contact change when the switch, that has some contacts moves across the circuit board

[Super]

I would be interested in seeing that D,D&O 😃

Here they are

[Super]

Excellent photo of the guts...thanks DD&O