First new Trackmaster locos for 2015

[Ucwepn]

Those LBSC thomas will be produced for a short time only I think. Future classic.

So buy plarail now while you can?

Now I am really keen on seeing more of this and what's going to be included with it, and a #SKU! Didn't expect to see much 70th Anniversary in the TrackMaster direction being a less collectable range than Fisher-Price's other two ranges and since there was nothing for the 65th. so these have been a nice surprise. I actually thought they looked like customs at first glance. I reckon it's going to be a good year for Plarail Thomas stuff. The 60th and 65th Anniversary products looked fantastic so this year might top it.

Oh, I think plarail could easily top it without much hassle.

will see how the plarail looks, but can see myself buying 2 of the trackmaster editions... one to run, one to keep sealed. likely do the same with plarail, depending on how it all looks.

ucwepn, is this really the end of thomas plarail? end of an era if so, but then they wouldnt be able to keep releasing thomas town exclusives.

[Ucwepn]

There is some licensing agreement in place at the moment but what when that ends? Mattel paid $161 million for HiT entertainment and now own the whole Thomas brand and have brought the 3 major brands "in house".

Mattel were using the TOMY/Plarail designs for the trackmaster range up until 2014. Then for reasons unknown just redesigned the whole trackmaster range. Are they planning to pull the plug on Takara Tomy making Thomas? I am not privileged to such information of great importance hehe. Time will tell

I'm going to get my hands on whatever plarail does for 70th anniversary. And thanks for the info ucwepn. I have that feeling that Mattel will suffer a lot of damage if it pulls the plug on plarail thomas.

up until the recent changes, mattel had nothing to fear from plarail. now its a different story though.

Yes sunhuntin, very true. I haven't bought a single Trackmaster 2 engine, and I'm planning on keeping it that way.

[Ucwepn]

I'm confident the agreement states that plarail cannot be sold in western countries in retail stores, that way mattel/fisher price have nothing to fear from plarail. But...if trackmaster wants to increase its foothold in the eastern region they could sever ties with TOMY and effectively control the market for Thomas toys globally as they already do in the west.