Since Mattel owns Thomas pretty much out right (I’m not sure what, if any, rights are retained by Christopher Awdry and/or his father’s estate), they have ultimate control over all licensing. If they wanted to end Tomy’s right to produce Thomas toys, they probably could. I suspect there’s a sort of “gentleman’s agreement” between the two companies where Mattel agrees to let Tomy produce Thomas items and Tomy doesn’t fight Mattel over production rights they share (Disney properties, for example).
I only buy current Trackmaster items for my kids and even they are increasingly unimpressed. Rarely, Mattel will still make a pretty decent product, like Trackmaster Lexi, but mostly, the stuff if kinda lame and lackluster. If there’s a Plarail alternative, it will almost always be better. Yeah, there’s the travesty of the newly redesigned Edward but let’s just ignore him for now!
About the only thing I like with the current Trackmaster line is the basic, dark gray track. It looks more realistic than Plarail blue track and except for stop tracks and a few special features, Plarail engines work fine on it.
I only buy current Trackmaster items for my kids and even they are increasingly unimpressed. Rarely, Mattel will still make a pretty decent product, like Trackmaster Lexi, but mostly, the stuff if kinda lame and lackluster. If there’s a Plarail alternative, it will almost always be better. Yeah, there’s the travesty of the newly redesigned Edward but let’s just ignore him for now!
About the only thing I like with the current Trackmaster line is the basic, dark gray track. It looks more realistic than Plarail blue track and except for stop tracks and a few special features, Plarail engines work fine on it.