Other than cost-cutting, I can't imagine why Fisher-Price/Mattel/Trackmaster decided to make wholesale changes to the Trackmaster line, with redesigned engines, and an all new track system. To make them incompatible with the blue Tomy track and the existing brown Trackmaster track is incomprehensible!
I think Fisher-Price/Mattel has been secretly trying to kill off the Trackmaster line, since they seem to put much more effort into the Take N Play line. (More characters, faster release, more overall products)
Perhaps this redesign is intended to be the nail-in-the-coffin? "Look, Executive Board, we redesigned the whole line to make the engines more realistic, faster, and better performing, and sales have tanked! Let's drop this line to concentrate more on Take N Play."
After all, the brown Trackmaster track was their design to begin with. Why abandon it after only a few years?
Sorry for the rant, but needed to get it off my chest!
I think Fisher-Price/Mattel has been secretly trying to kill off the Trackmaster line, since they seem to put much more effort into the Take N Play line. (More characters, faster release, more overall products)
Perhaps this redesign is intended to be the nail-in-the-coffin? "Look, Executive Board, we redesigned the whole line to make the engines more realistic, faster, and better performing, and sales have tanked! Let's drop this line to concentrate more on Take N Play."
After all, the brown Trackmaster track was their design to begin with. Why abandon it after only a few years?
Sorry for the rant, but needed to get it off my chest!
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