All Engines Go NEWS

@Chrisjo, It was in Awdry's vision from the 1970s: He literally predicted this all along!

"Once the Americans get a hold of it, the whole series will be vulgarized and ruined" is what Awdry responded to Andrew Lloyd Webber after he failed to get American interest in his 1976 tv adaptation of thomas.
That's one of my main problems with thomas: everyone is constantly trying to americanize it instead of keeping the british culture that was so prominent in the RWS and Classic era.

A lot of them are things like 3 second clips of an engine's whistle or a 2 second clip of a green gordon with a number 3 passing vicarstown. For crying out loud WHO CARES?

It's all for cheap views and subscribers at the end of the day.

And I bet because of this reboot, the current l motorized range will officially be discontinued soon and replaced with this new one. And Plarail will probably die.

In this episode, Sandy finds a cave of energon and all of them die. Good ending


But in all seriousness, I really don't know what the future holds for the series, I really hope the reboot fails.

And Plarail will probably die.

What on earth...? 

We must never forget Japan. Thomas has quite the following in Japan, too! So much so, in fact, that the country is home to two Thomas theme parks! 

Thomas the Tank Engine made his way to Japan in 1990, six years after the series debuted in the United Kingdom. Sony dubbed the program into Japanese before giving Fuji TV the rights to air the show. "Kikansha Thomas" got a prime time slot right before one of the country’s most popular children’s programs: Hirake! Pokkiki. From there, Thomas and his friends embarked on a rapid journey to stardom as they began to appear in magazine articles, and Sony released VHS copies of the series. The theme parks followed a few years after, with Thomas Land opening in 1998.

"Thomas & The Magic Railroad" was released as a manga, and city transportation systems have even had Thomas appear as part of themed liveries on their trains (Keihan!) and trams.

There are so many train enthusiasts in Japan because there are many kinds of trains here, and all of Japanese trains have attractive visual and excellent technology. ... Thus, railways and trains are really popular and vitally important part in Japan.

Takara Tomy's Plarail is so popular toy series in Japan (and not just in Japan!) and recognition rate of Plarail of the children aged 6 or under 6 is over 90 percent in Japan (of course, many older people love Plarail too) and Plarail's Thomas series is also really popular. Thomas is so popular in Japan that the makers of the original series added a Japanese train, Hiro, especially with the Japanese market in mind.

Plarail is most certainly not going to die. 

Products based on the hugely popular Thomas and Friends series are added to the Plarail family in 1992. They are enormously popular ever since. Takara Tomy still has the licence to make Thomas themed products. I don't know what will happen. Maybe a giant asteroid will hit Earth, and we will extinct like dinosaurs. But considering all the above facts (popularity, trains, theme parks, shows; it's a huge business!), they are probably not going to die or vanish now. And no one will take our Plarail models from us either. We have Rev. Awdry's books, we have so many beautiful Plarail Thomas trains and many good seasons of Thomas TV show.

Maybe Japan will point their middle finger to Mattel and refuse to air the reboot but will continue to keep Classic/CGI Thomas alive. Also if Plarail got discontinued we would most likely get high ebay quality knock offs. I am surprised we haven't got knock offs of Duck and Oliver yet considering their popularity.

[Super]

 I am surprised we haven't got knock offs of Duck and Oliver yet

Good point

I really hope Plarail keeps it the way it is now. I'm hoping Japan points the middle finger to Mattel for airing the crappy reboot.

And so bet what's going to happen is that Mattel is going to force Takara Tomy to redesign their Plarail line quickly or get discontinued by force like they did with Wooden Railway for Wood.

If Bachmann and Wooden Railway aren't being changed to the reboot I don't see why Plarail would be changed. Motorized could co-exist alongside Plarail in Japan as a brand for younger children.

Also, apparently the reboot was pulled in Mexico and replaced with reruns of BWBA due to backlash so I guess there is hope for Japan as well.

I found this on Twitter. Plarail Thomas will actually die, Mattel doesn't care how popular the range is. They'll replace them with the 2022 Motorized Lineup so get Japanese Audiences to watch the reboot and design every Japanese Thomas Toy line based on the reboot. R.I.P Plarail Thomas (1992-2021). The range will never see a 30th Anniversary thanks to the greedy Mattel. 

https://twitter.com/cheekychuffer01/stat...82400?s=19 

Hopefully it's not true

​​​​​​Plus the range is too popular to be discontinued