Hero of the rails was originally going to be a model series special (season 12 style). Sam Barlow even comfirmed it. But when the script was finished, they decided to switch to full cgi as they did not have the budget to make another model series special. Even so, on some early 2009 trackmaster packaging, you can see the original logo, which features a model thomas with a CGI face. As far as I'm aware, this logo has not been seen anywhere else
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@Super Actually yes. Mat and Pat is a Czech stop motion TV series about 2 neighbours, who are best friends, that always find the most impractical solutions to simple problems. It is truly hillarious. The best part about it is that there is no dialogue, so anyone can understand it. Here is a link to one of my favourite episodes where the two have trouble with a frozen chicken and instead of just waiting for it to defrost, they do all sorts of ridiculous things like trying to defrost it with a blow torch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPXg9gUWS20
Mat (right) Pat (Left)
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I don't see the stop motion/claymation, on the same level as using real models in animation although I think that the master of stop motion, Ray Harryhausen was a genius. I do see claymation as a funny vessel for comic shorts like the one you linked to. It takes a special person a lot of time, experience and talent to pull it off well.
@Tonsoftrackmasters On the ttte wiki it says that the resin faces for hiro and kevin were for their merchandise, however it said that Victor's would have been for his model. No one really knows the truth. Some people say no because it does not have eye hole is in, although I don't think it would have been necessary as the characters would have had CGI faces, so it may have been for background shots.
P.S I heard that Hiro was originally going to be blue and also someone on a youtube comment (the video was about Gannons post talking about HOTR and Molly's prototype faces, the video was deleted for some reason) said that they heard a rumor that the production team were considering reusing Murdoch's model for Hiro. The latter is just a rumor, IDK if it's true or not (sounds realistic).
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That 'promo image' is actually a little plastic mirror in the box. I honestly prefer the colours and style of the original logo.
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@TonsofTrackmasters But why would mattel strike it down? It's not like it contained any copyrighted footage. It was just Gannons Post talking to images of Hiro , victor and kevin's faces and molly's prototype faces. BTW HOTR was planned to be the final model series production.
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