It's a peculiar thing really. Oliver has been available in Japan until early 2012 when the line-up was adjusted, and since then, he can only be found second hand. I'm not sure if there is much value associated with Oliver yet opposed to TrackMaster flip-faces or Plarail Talk 'n' Actions/Oshaberis, because it may need some work, but it's not almost impossible to find an Oliver online.
I cannot really understand his absence in the US. He was one of the first new additions to the Tomica World Thomas range in the UK in 1999. The range had a rather different design in the US and I believe releases at the beginning were slower than the UK. It seems that the US stayed with their original lineup of three-pack engines, only expanding with Ben and Edward, and UK releases such as Oliver, Lady, Diesel 10, Splatter and Dodge, Donald, Boco, Mavis, and Stepney were being held off. Instead the US line featured some engines and cars sold individually. I think there finally was some catch-up around 2005 when the Motor Road and Rail line now had most of those engines released by themselves or with one truck with 2-4 pieces of half straight/curved track, and the three-packs line also expanded as exclusives to certain stores, but it seems Tomy US skipped a few engines for both lines.
There was some attempt by HiT Toy Company to fill in gaps in the TrackMaster line and there were belated but first US releases of Donald, Douglas, Boco, Splatter, Dodge, and individual Mighty Mac. I think in this time period from 2007-2009, there was still some subtle continuation from the Motor Road and Rail line-up so that's how the releases happened, but Oliver just somehow missed out. Fisher-Price sort of repeated this from 2010-2013, but since Oliver hadn't been released in the US earlier, there was no chance by this point.
Lastly there's something about the appeal of the item itself. There were up to 50 engines being sold at this point so I don't think it's a matter of any particular items being more popular than another. Some people just like Oliver because he is an old character and has the number 11 (Mind you, if a new character today was an Awdry creation instead and had a number, it would get loved unconditionally...). Another thing is the coaches. The Red Coaches, just like in the show, are perfect standard coaches for most engines to take passengers, and are one of the few ways to get them. The TrackMaster line has seen these coaches sold in a couple of other ways, such as with Hector, repainted with black roofs Sir Handel, a yellow in the James Classic Figure 8 Playset, a green Works Unit one in Station Repair Cars, and red and yellow in Express Coaches. These items are also likely hard to find.
I cannot really understand his absence in the US. He was one of the first new additions to the Tomica World Thomas range in the UK in 1999. The range had a rather different design in the US and I believe releases at the beginning were slower than the UK. It seems that the US stayed with their original lineup of three-pack engines, only expanding with Ben and Edward, and UK releases such as Oliver, Lady, Diesel 10, Splatter and Dodge, Donald, Boco, Mavis, and Stepney were being held off. Instead the US line featured some engines and cars sold individually. I think there finally was some catch-up around 2005 when the Motor Road and Rail line now had most of those engines released by themselves or with one truck with 2-4 pieces of half straight/curved track, and the three-packs line also expanded as exclusives to certain stores, but it seems Tomy US skipped a few engines for both lines.
There was some attempt by HiT Toy Company to fill in gaps in the TrackMaster line and there were belated but first US releases of Donald, Douglas, Boco, Splatter, Dodge, and individual Mighty Mac. I think in this time period from 2007-2009, there was still some subtle continuation from the Motor Road and Rail line-up so that's how the releases happened, but Oliver just somehow missed out. Fisher-Price sort of repeated this from 2010-2013, but since Oliver hadn't been released in the US earlier, there was no chance by this point.
Lastly there's something about the appeal of the item itself. There were up to 50 engines being sold at this point so I don't think it's a matter of any particular items being more popular than another. Some people just like Oliver because he is an old character and has the number 11 (Mind you, if a new character today was an Awdry creation instead and had a number, it would get loved unconditionally...). Another thing is the coaches. The Red Coaches, just like in the show, are perfect standard coaches for most engines to take passengers, and are one of the few ways to get them. The TrackMaster line has seen these coaches sold in a couple of other ways, such as with Hector, repainted with black roofs Sir Handel, a yellow in the James Classic Figure 8 Playset, a green Works Unit one in Station Repair Cars, and red and yellow in Express Coaches. These items are also likely hard to find.
(05-15-2017, 02:34 AM)plarailandponiesfan Wrote: Also isn't kind of odd that toy/plarail Duck comes with Toad and S.C.ruffey while Oliver comes with two coaches? Should be the other way around.Not an uncommon thing to say, but Duck was released first. At the time, it was likely there were not enough unique rolling stock choices, and barely a few were characters so it just seemed a decent fit. No one didn't really know they were going to make Oliver. Even me when I was younger thought that the range was going to stop with Edward and Ben.
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