Is Mattel Dumbing Down Things With Revolution?

[HankAmericanEngine]

Since finding this forum I've found out about all the 'issues' with the current crop of 'revolutions' locomotives and backward compatibility with blue track etc... The relative poor quality of the new style revolutions track etc...

However there's one thing I've not seen discussed yet (although of course I may have missed it). That is to my mind the current 'revolutions' Thomas sets are really dumbing down the whole subject.

Now let me explain that comment. I know there are lots of sets which have some sort of theme or action feature - some are initially even quite cool. But like the other mattel ranges such as Hot Wheels are these sets a 'one trick pony'?

What I mean is they may be impressive when you first see them, but longer term what can you do with that set apart from the one or two stunt(s) it may be designed to deliver?

With the older Tomy Thomas (or Hypercity) sets you may have a cool accessory such as a water tower or the dock crane etc... But other than that the rest of the set is pretty generic.

Now I know that may sound almost like a negative, but the point is by being 'generic' you can then use your imagination to build your own layout, you can also add other sets or accessories or track you've obtained to expand it.

Basically long term it is as clever as you are and can allow you to pretty much build what you want. Add to that you can generally run any locomotive/rolling stock on any of it rather than being limited to a single locomotive or train formation that works with a mattel 'special feature' which limits the latter to its 'one trick' with mattel's restriction of a loco/formation for it actually work.

To me it would seem that the initial excitement of a 'special feature' will soon become boring to a child (or the inner child ) whereas the infinite flexibility of Tomy's idea of sets will instead stimulate the child and even form a bond between the child and the parent.

Also the mattel sets although on the surface appear exciting they are in fact very poor value in comparison to the older Tomy (or even 1st gen Trackmaster) sets. Sure they don't seem bad value when you first look at them, but look closer and typically you seem to get a single track run (i.e. oval, spiral, etc...) a Thomas loco and if you are really lucky maybe a wagon and/or even a set of points with a siding.

Compare this with a Tomy set that would give you one or two runs of track, often several sets of points, maybe an incline, maybe a road layout, station, other building, etc... a locomotive, rolling stock, maybe road vehicles or other things too and it seems to me the Tomy sets were (are if you import) a much better value proposition.

What do you think?!?

Nigels, I think you just gave this forum its own epiphany about the TMR line as a whole.

I personally enjoy the thought of the Railway Builder Bucket (have yet to get it; hope it gets States' side soon), as it gives you lots of extra track, and those Trucks and Track Packs give lots more fun and creativity to the users.

I bought four of the "Risky Rail Repair" Trucks and Tracks Pack some time ago to get some exposure to the Revolution Track, and I'm hoping to get a hold of the Railway Builder Bucket to have some experiments done before I can give a full review of the TrackMaster Revolution Line to the customers.

It is genuinely interesting to compare one thing to the other with TOMY, HiT Toys, and Fisher-Price during their reigns; certainly, I cannot say I have ever had any fun with a Fisher-Price set as I have with either TOMY or HiT Toys, but that remains to be seen.