Is there a market for a "scale" Thomas the Tank Engine O-Gauge product line?

While I admire the workmanship on the Thomas models on the original children's story videos, I can't imagine that serious, and costly "0" gauge replicas would appeal to a large market.  Kind of hard to make a "scale model" of a fictional item. 

MTH offered an equally fantastic model of another fictional train, the Budweiser "steam" engine  train and, from what I understand from reports from some dealers, was not a huge success.  And that was a "toy" that would have a more adult kind of appeal.

Paul Fischer

I was just thinking of this the other day.

My son, nearly 18 months, loves to watch Thomas and run watch my trains run. I was wondering why Lionel hasn't offered more detailed items from the show (Like some of the Bachmann HO stuff). It doesn't need to be on the Vision Line level, nor would it even need Legacy IMHO. Some spoked drivers, a die-cast body, and a whistle/bell and I would be satisfied.

After some thought I figured there wouldn't be much of a market. A "scale" Thomas would be at least $400 for just the engine, probably more. Thats's a Legacy diesel or a steam engine blow-out, or more importantly, a Polar Express set or a nice set from MTH. 

I doubt I would by one for myself, and if I were buying it for my boy, I would lean toward a set as mentioned above. They would likely have more of a long-term appeal than Thomas.

But it would be neat to see one.

Ron,

I think you've touched on it.

By the time Lionel factors in any rights that they have to secure for the name/likeness, plus their profit, the cost would probably soar above what most casual fans are willing to spend. It's then competing with full size, true-prototype, scale offerings.

As a side note Bachmann landed the Chuginton license for model trains.....HO right now...but who knows.

I got into Thomas around age 2, which was 1994. My parents bought the Ringo Starr and George Carlin VHS tapes, so even though it was originally filmed before my time, that was the Thomas I grew up on as well. All live-action and hand-crafted models at the time. I really wonder whatever happened to the actual large scale engines they used in the show. I'm sure if they still existed they'd be worth quite a bit.

As for the Lionel models, I too was figuring the cost of development for such a line might outweigh the actual sales, but just wanted to hear everyone's opinion anyway. Good discussion, and I'm glad at least I'm not the only person that would like to see a little more detail in the Thomas line.

Some fictional and fantastic do sell well to adults, like the MTH Coor's Silver Bullet set which may have something to do with the thirst factor.

I used Lionel Hogwarts engines for painting up Gordon and Henry from the Thomas series.

I think the cost is to high and not that many would want to spend big bucks on the set of characters.

If you want more detailed engines from the series Bachmann seems to have done a really good job with a well detailed set of HO Thomas series of many of the engines, freight and passenger cars and detail parts buildings from the series! This would be the route to go!

now wait a min...You ment the Coors silver bullet train??..The coors silver bulit train was a hit..go try to find one..if id had the cash at the time its pops up on ebay would like to grab one..

A scale model of a caricatured loco with a face on it? I don't think so.

However there are a considerable range of O scale trains made specifically for the English market, where there is modeller demand. As a general rule, foreign train scale models don't sell so well in the American market.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LB%26SCR_E2_class

Thomas the Tank Engine

In 1946, Reginald Payne used the later series of E2 locomotives as the basis for the character Thomas the Tank Engine

Yes, I remember Ringo from that, and before ... 

I think the word scale got misinterpreted here. I meant it in the sense of fidelity to the trains on the show, which themselves had a reasonable amount of detail in areas such as the cab and drivers. If such a line did exist I would probably buy a lot of it. Gordon and Henry were my favorites as a kid and I always liked the realistic freight cars (or trucks as they were referred to in the show's British dialect).

However, I too have seen Bachmann's product and have to agree they've essentialy done what I'm suggesting here just in HO. I've given serious thought to building a small Thomas-themed HO layout just for these products. Here's a guy on YouTube that's made some cute remakes of Thomas episodes with the Bachmann models:

the only thing I didnt like about the coors silver bullet train is,its subposed to be a steam engine wright?  Then why the heck do they have a diesel engine sound in it?..But other wise its a neat train thow!!

That's a really nice model and scene Dave, thanks for sharing that!

On an unrelated note, It's probably 4 in the afternoon on your side of the world. My sleep schedule has been thrown horrifically off track by upcoming exams. I should call my family in Perth, Western Australia while I'm up. 

The word scale is tough as is the price point.

Williams makes great engines that sell in the $200 to $300 range. Would Thomas, Percy, et al sell in that range? I'd bet they would. And I'd also bet that this isn't the place to ask. This is the world of the rivet counters and rivet counters probably aren't the likely buyers.

My grandchildren love to play with Thomas, Percy and James when they come over. Now they're graduating to DCS and Legacy but still like Thomas. So if you re-phrase the question to how much would you pay for a remote Thomas so that your grandchildren don't want to run your BigBoy, you might get a different answer.

Gerry

As much as I enjoy Thomas and his friends, I don't feel there would be a sufficient market to support more detailed (and more costly) models.  

It may be about 6 in the west, it's 9.30 pm on the east coast.

quote:

Were you old enough to remember shining time station when ringo star was the conductor then George carlin? That's the Thomas I grew up on

My children loved Shining Time Station. They watched the show on PBS, and we had the first six video tapes. Ringo Starr did a fantastic job as Mr. Narrator. There was something about the way he spoke that added a lot to the stories. George Carlin became the narrator after Ringo. I thought he was OK, I preferred Ringo.

I don't see the market for scale Thomas the Tank Engine stuff, but I don't understand the desire for scale Polar Express stuff either.

Nick:

You offer an excellent observation. My son is beyond interest in Thomas now other than the former BEDT 0-6-0T the Strasburg rebuilt as a 1:1 Thomas locomotive; however, when I was an active purchaser of Thomas themed trains, I was of the opinion Bachmann offered the best option in terms of fidelity to the equipment as it appeared on the show, ease of operation and product selection with its HO range. Conversely, I believe Lionel's effort fell short. The equipment is somewhat fragile and shortcuts were taken. Lionel's versions of James and Diesel were poor representations of the show's characters and I consider the substitution of North American styled rolling stock unacceptable.

When I speak with prospective purchasers of Thomas themed electric trains, I point them in the direction of Bachmann's HO line. There are many things Lionel does well. In my opinion, again just my opnion, the line of Thomas themed items is not one of them.

Respectfully,

Bob  

I bought my kids a Bachmann HO scale Gordon with coaches, along with Percy and some trucks. We were just running them last weekend for my 6 year old nephew. These trains run quite well, and have a very nice level of detail. The drivers and even the smaller wheels are all open-spoked. And they can be had for a fraction of what an inferior looking O gauge version would cost. I was thinking of building a small layout for these trains for my nephew to run them on when he comes over. It would give me a scenery project to work on, and making it appear to look like the British countryside would be a nice change of pace. The whole island could be modeled on a 4x8 sheet of plywood, but I was thinking more along the lines of a portable layout built on a door.

We had many of the Lionel Thomas trains, but I never was impressed with any of them except Thomas. James was too small and couldn't pull very much. Percy had an odd sounding horn, and Diesel had next to no detail. We had hoped to add Gordon, but Lionel never made one.

I'd believe anything. Who thought, years back, we'd ever see a Cadillac pick-up or a Porshe station wagon/SUV?

I remember Shining Time Station dating back to its 1989 debut in the U.S.  Always have been a fan, and I'm still a big fan of Thomas.

The Large Scale Thomas items from Bachmann are excellent, and they offer a good variety to choose from.

Thomas and his buddies ran on one gauge track on TV.  As I recall, the mechanisms were from Marklin.

Rusty

I would buy an o- gauge Thomas.

I had a Thomas-themed O gauge layout for years. It was a big hit with visitors. Paired with the right coaches, and running farther from the front of the layout, James could work. There were an external whistle we worked up to stand-in for the 'blat' for all three steamers. It sure was fun working up the British scenery (fencing in the lines, semaphores, signal boxes, etc.) Wish Lionel put out a Gordon, Edward or Henry, but I'm hoping to see Percy with the new remote.

As others have noted, the Bachmann HO line and large scale line is wonderful. Before moving into this gauge, I imported Thomas, Henry and his pals that were put out by Tomix in Japan in N scale for a nice 3 by 5 ft. layout.  

I feel the current items produced by Lionel are sufficient.

The original show with Ringo was the one I remember.   I have those on DVD for my daughter to watch now.     Being a huge Beatles fan, I always liked Ringo doing the voice overs.  He really added something that has been lacking since the others have done the voice overs.

I feel that market is dominated by Bachmann in HO gauge, and while there might be a market, it just doesn't seem suitable for youngsters who may intentionally wreck their engines like in many of the episodes. That said, there are plenty of favorite Thomas characters that would look cool if all detailed and sported with sounds and features like their TV counterparts (albeit the excellent live-action series before it became the awful CGI series of today.....) such as Thomas, Edward, Henry, Gordon, James, Duck, etc.

(my video above )

The Silver Bullet locomotive was, as Coors envisioned it supposed to be a cross between a locomotive and snowmobile (hence the giant spinning wheels on the side)

Allegedly, as oversize as this RailKing model was, an early prototype had even more clearance issues than the version that made it to production. Also, it appears Coors itself wanted the train to happen first, and MTH happened to be in the right place at the right time.

---PCJ

Lionel made some large scale Thomas the Tank engine sets some years back. We had Thomas with two passenger cars. The engine ran OK. But the track was poorly made, and my kids tended to break the couples. I purchased a few extras to have on hand.

This guy would be first in line!

Whistle steam and the ability for the engines to actually talk to each other when in close approximation -  Ya I'd buy.

Jim

Here's a photo of Bachmann's HO Spencer:

Bob

Like the others have said, where the Bachmann HO line really wins is the detail of the drivers and rods. Also, today I answered my own question on what ever happened to the original models from the show:

It's funny to see it out of the context of the episodes.

Nick

I believe that we have an O scale Gordon available.