Does anyone else like the new TM?

Now, before you all start flaming me, lemme explain. They genuinely can climb steeper hills, they're faster, and, TBH, some look better than their 2012 counterparts. Look at Thomas: the 2014 one has portholes and yellow lining. The 2012 one didn't. As for the bowing up of the track in ucwepn's review, it seems that it all fits together until you put the water tower track in. Why? Because the water tower track is taller. The hard-to-assemble track pays off because the connectors genuinely are stronger. Does anyone else like the new range?

I don't mind the new range but I prefer the ones before it as those are the ones I have come to know and like.

[Ucwepn]

Hi Darth hopefully there will be no flaming lol, we welcome enlightened discussion of the new range here. You probably wont convert any of the purists here with your good points above but more and more people I know are coming to accept the drastic change mattel have made and are buying it. Personally I feel despite their climbing ability (with the new track only) they are still inferior to the older designs as they are not backwards compatible and do not free roll.

Do I like the new TM? Not really, not yet. But I am willing to give it a little try.

So far have only played with a new redesigned Thomas on both blue and brown track. The train runs fast but the performance is lacking. Wheels are constantly spinning out or off the track just with Thomas himself. Put a few cars behind him is just a waste of time.

For my grandson's birthday, (he will be five) I have him a Troublesome Traps Set with James. Looking forward to the new track to see how all his trains will run, not just the new redesign.

His mother likes that the new trains are quieter. I think trains ought to be a little loud and noisy, just like the real thing.

My grandson thinks the blue tracks are cool.

So even if the new trains are cool in their own way, faster, goes up and down steeper hills, I am not sure that it will make me want to invest much time, space or money in them. They look like they are made of plastic that appears to be much more fragile. Time will tell if that is true. We need our trains to stand up to constant play and imagination without breaking.

I also don't like Thomas's boxcar is so much smaller on the new redesign. That must be because new Thomas just can't pull his old nice size boxcars.

i admit to liking the idea behind the sets, like the troublesome traps and the avalanche escape, but at the same time its not enough to make me re-invest in these.
i will likely buy a couple of decent sets, such as the two mentioned above, but only because i often do public shows and like to have variety for the children to marvel at. ive bought the gator, scared james and timothy, simply as they are new to the scene for the most part.

id have been happier if they had kept things much more compatible with the old and retained the free rolling ability. ive spent most of my life collecting from magnetic tomy to present [25 years and counting!] and its really sad to see what my beloved toys have been turned into. thankfully, with the help of the internet, i can quit collecting the new stuff and focus on plarail etc.

I think should should have run these redisigned engines seperatly and kept making the 2012 models. I honestly saw no reason for a redisign.

[Ucwepn]

I don't know if you guys collect take n play but Mattel are doing a reboot of that as well with a seeming aim toward cutting costs and lowering quality. Take Spencer for an example,

I'll let the pics of then and now speak for themselves

the whole upper on the new one looks plastic, same with the tender. i dont collect tnp, but its just as frustrating as what they did to tm.

[HankAmericanEngine]

To be quite blunt, there are some things that I do and do not like about the new redesign for the TrackMaster line.

The things I like include:
1.) Some of the rolling stock. I enjoy Gator's green 16-ton open wagons, especially the tarpaulin, and I like the China Clay rubble that comes with Timothy's red China Clay wagon. The other rolling stock is simply generic, and heavily lackluster.

2.) Some of the detail. Some detailing on the new characters is phenomenal. There are no stickers on Timothy and, let's face it, if the redesign never came to fruition, the old style Timothy would have been festooned with stickers.

3.) The character promotional pictures on the box. Yes, I know it's a waste of cardboard, but the picture is still a nice touch.

Things I do not like:
1.) Lack of free wheeling. Free wheeling is useful in remakes or videos to do a locomotive starting/stopping with the use of a few behind-the-scenes tricks and, in order to make these new models free wheel, you have to remove the main component of the motorized engine to do so.

2.) Lack of backwards compatibility. The activation tab underneath these new models catches on almost anything from the blue or brown track. No kidding, I've had both Gator and Timothy stall, running light engine, on a single straight, curve, junction, or rising curve of TAKARA TOMY Plarail blue track or HiT Toys/Fisher-Price TrackMaster track. Really annoying, especially when filming.

3.) Shrunken and disproportionate size. The engines don't look any better to this scaled down redesign, and the rolling stock doesn't look any better either. The 16-ton open wagons look like little mine carts, and the other rolling stock just doesn't appear to look any better compared to the older style.

4.) Pricing. The prices still remained too high for something worth $12.00 U.S. When HiT Toys sold their "Greatest Moments/New Friend!" with three half-straights, no niches in the wheels, and quality plastic for $11.99 U.S. plus tax, that was a great deal. $18.40 for a "wham, bam, thank you ma'am" train with finicky motors, lackluster rolling stock and cargo, faulty couplings, no track, niches in the wheels, six sticks and inferior plastic is just way too much.

5.) Lack of circulation. The other engines in 2-packs are easily overstocked, but Gator and Timothy are only up to 3 of each on the shelves.

6.) Overuse of plastic and cardboard. Need I really say more?

7.) Laziness. Not much of a surprise, and not really going to delve into this one.

8.) The motors. One of my high-powered and high-speed engines is always overtaking Gator and Timothy, with a full train behind it too. 2 AAA batteries don't do a good job of beating a C-Cell battery, and the two named above certainly have troubles with an 8 car train, even when it's the redesigned rolling stock.

9.) The track. Although a touch more realistic, it doesn't like to stay down and flat. At all. Ucwepn showed it to us in one of his videos, and it doesn't really go over well with me. You'd use up a full clip in a nail gun putting this track down onto a baseboard for a layout.

I'm sure there are still things to add to both lists, but I can't really say I'd advocate this redesign as much as I do for HiT Toys TrackMaster or TAKARA TOMY Plarail. I do like Gator and his rolling stock, both to an extent, but I don't think I could endorse it with enthusiasm.

I've been out of the loop, but I didn't realize that the new Trackmaster trains were not free-rolling. I was already not a fan of the odd proportitions of the trains, but that's negotiable. Lack of freewheeling is a complete dealbreaker for me because I've been acquiring TMaster and Tomy for my son who likes to be able to push the trains back and forth. Several other parents I have spoken to have also said that their kids like to push them as much or more than to run them.

One thing I do like is the $10 3-pack of rolling stock. The stock is basic and the stuff you build with the cargo is a bit cheesy, but I'll probably be picking up one or two for my son's trains. I hope they make more versions of them.

Luckily I've already got dozens of engines, and plenty of the Tomy blue and TrackMaster Brown Track.

Ucwepn,
Are the new TakeNPlay reallyplastic bodied or just cheap looking metal?