Talk N Action James - The Mystery

So... why IS Talk N Action James so rare?

These are my thoughts, and they stem from this magazine page..



There's a call number at the top-- any chance James could've been a mall-in order exclusive?

Idk why the American James is so rare, but if I had to guess, here would be a couple of reasons:
1. Less distribution in the American market, as opposed to Britain and Japan.
But most importantly:
2. Of all the different T'nA characters, which are all slightly tweaked designs to suit each character (but are expected to preform identically), for whatever reason James seems to be the most problematic and difficult to fix. PLEASE correct me if I am wrong Ripley with all of your experience with them if you do not agree?
Even if the distribution was the same, James would be scarce because he's prone to breakage, and without someone who knows how to repair them, they would find the trash can more often than not...
AND if these inherent problems were realized by Tomy before James was put into full swing western distribution, they most likely just tapered of production and moved on...Leaving many bummed out kids, but really creating something special for future collectors!

I remember when I was a young one, I had a Talk N Action Percy- pretty sure it was the expansion kit (and it came with the Tomica World Tape... if anybody has these, hmu..). All that remains from that is one green track and the back car cover. I remember putting it in the sandbox with my brother, and we had a jolly good time with it haha! I think all the Talk N Action's were equally problematic, and for the kids, they usually broke. (Speaking from experience here ! )

[ripley802]

I would agree with both accounts of these being problematic. These have several design flaws and the shear complexity of them make them something to be both loved and hated. I can see these being dropped or maybe ran on the ground with the motor not on stripping the gears, etc. All of the wires for the TnA engines are fairly exposed which can cause them to break or become disconnected from the solder connection. In addition the fact they have the 3 AA battery setup with 2 being "hidden" would make them prone to battery leakage.

I still love them though..

I would put the James up there with Henry and Gordon as being the most difficult. They all have a similar style and seem to have similar issues with repairs that are needed. D10 is probably next, then Toby, followed by Percy and finally Thomas.

Yes all very finicky, but I've tinkered around with them all a bit, with a fair amount of success, except for James. It was James who made me throw in the towel with trying to fix them anymore too... I've seen so many more messed up James' than all the other broken models combined...Thank god for Ripley802!!

[ripley802]

Thanks Muddy. I am glad to help.

I do recall some British accent TnA James that did cause me some major pains. I was just starting out them though so attributed it to that, but it may have been just James. I will say, James (my 1st American Accent) was the one and only one so far that I had to go down to the circuit board component level to get him to work. Which was a real treat..

I would agree with both accounts of these being problematic. These have several design flaws and the shear complexity of them make them something to be both loved and hated. I can see these being dropped or maybe ran on the ground with the motor not on stripping the gears, etc. All of the wires for the TnA engines are fairly exposed which can cause them to break or become disconnected from the solder connection. In addition the fact they have the 3 AA battery setup with 2 being "hidden" would make them prone to battery leakage.

I still love them though..

I would put the James up there with Henry and Gordon as being the most difficult. They all have a similar style and seem to have similar issues with repairs that are needed. D10 is probably next, then Toby, followed by Percy and finally Thomas.

Out of Henry, Gordon and James, which have you seen broken the most?
Do Henry and Gordon both have fuses as well?

[ripley802]

I cannot be for sure on how many I have repaired but I know I have two of each Gordon, Henry, and James that are ready to be repaired, all of them I believe were battery terminal issues being the major failure. Out of those three characters though probably James and Gordon have been most repaired, then Henry. But overall I have probably repaired most the Japanese and British accent Thomas. I had won a large lot a while back and had probably 8-12 at one time.

Yes actually thinking through all of them I believe they all have or should have the fuse in between the AA batteries in the rear car/tender. This is a main failure component as well. I typically replace this with a short piece of wire which works fine in most cases.

If you're interested and you still have the UK James that I gave you, you will find an alternative fuse that was installed by my luthier friend, who called his electronics store with its ID numbers or whatnot, and its value was discussed at great length over the phone...it was way over my head, but I'm fairly sure that whatever was decided on was an appropriate substitution.