Mister No's Pics & Vids

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Trackmaster did get the silver plating on Merlin perfect. Nice video Mr No.

That’s exactly why I like this TM2 Merlin. He has that "mirror-silver" colour, and he really shines.
Great paint job.

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I have often wondered if Lemax and/or Dept56 ever dabbled in making buildings and accessories for other seasons of the year so one could keep their displays up all year and not just the winter. Maybe the tried and proved to be unpopular to continue.

I've been thinking about it. They certainly have many buildings (and other elements) that are exclusively suitable for the holiday season (Santa's workshops, houses with elves, skating rinks, etc.), but many do not have that much Christmas elements. For example, most of my facades have only one Christmas tree in the windows. The Italian buildings (Tuscany & Venice) don't have anything really "Christmassy", they just look like they do. What makes them part of the Christmas village is the overall design of the village, with snow, colours, decorations, etc. So some of them could look good any season...

One of the buildings, the "Tannenbaum Clock Tower", I will definitely keep on the layout all year round, because the plaque with the inscription "Merry Christmas" can be removed, and the Christmas garlands around the tower are holding on magnets, so they can be removed as well. It would be good if they make more of such universal, yet seasonally flexible buildings. 

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Nice video Mr No. Gives me the perspective of what these new things actually look like and their size compared to your Layout which I now know very well.

Wow...look at how big Thomas's whistles are. Not much room left for any front facing cab windows are there. 

Question: Does the packaging for these use the hole in the drive wheels?

Look how tall is Diesel! You can barely see his red switch! The rolling stock is too small for these models. 
In my opinion, they could squeeze the front cab windows in on Thomas & Percy... And there is no reason to "forget" the front light, too. The models are full of detail (indented side windows, whistles and middle wheels as separate peaces of plastic, etc.), but no front lights and no cab windows, and, of course, no painted buffers (except on push alongs).

No, there aren't sticks that were holding the wheels; models are in appropriately shaped clear plastic in their boxes. The holes on the wheels are, however, still there...

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I just don't get why the holes are still there especially since they don't plan on using side rods since you say the wheels are their 'arms' in the show.