Just remembered this post from October 2nd on the official Thomas and Friends AUS/NZ Facebook page regarding someone's concerns over the redesign and this is what they had to say about it:
Interesting isn't it... ?
Quote:We know we have a large community of devoted Thomas & Friends fans who are very passionate about the line. The Fisher-Price team is too. Our combined observations and the feedback loop will continue to strengthen this brand, so thanks for taking the time to let us know what you think. We've passed your message on to the team.
We have made design enhancements to the TrackMaster line to improve the overall play experience and the excitement little Engineers have come to love and expect of Thomas & Friends products.
We worked hard to maintain compatibility with our old track systems because we know how important this is to you, but our focus on optimizing the product performance required a few design tweaks. To ease the transition, every TrackMaster set includes backwards compatible adapter pieces that work with the old track so that you can combine the old with the new. Some of the new engines may not work on all of the features/destinations from the prior playsets and old engines will not be able to handle the new steeper inclines in the enhanced products, but we've aimed to strike a balance between better performance and compatibility.
If you'd like to know more about the changes, send us a message and we'll go through all of the details
On the batteries, it might not be a bad idea to look at rechargeable AAAs and a charger, they do cost a little more to begin with, but if you're using them often they may well work out cheaper in the long run.
Interesting isn't it... ?
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