THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND NOT FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FAN BASE
NWR EDITORIAL:
2015 BACHMANN RANGE
With preparation for the 70th anniversary of the Railway Series well underway for 2015 and that Hornby had announced that they'll be bringing back their Thomas range, Bachmann had announced their release for 2015. Here are my views on the 2015 range.
I think the big surprise for all fans is the announcement of Oliver and Toad . There has been many fan requests for it since the incarnation of Bill, Ben, Donald and Douglas as well as Duck and considering that a Bachmann representative had stated that they had no plans for them on a video from a fan on Facebook sometime last year. However I will say this to some fans. Don't expect them to be like there classic series model since now that he has been rendered into CGI.
Another surprise would have to be Skarloey and it's a first time they're introducing an N gauge range, although I'm really interested in seeing how a HO scale model running on N scale track as it's something that I've never seen before. It'll be interesting, and if I have some money saved up, to start a collection of these and I hope Bachmann creates more of the Skarloey engines.
With the 70th anniversary underway Bachmann has a way to celebrate the anniversary there own and here is the picture of there 'Celebration Thomas'. Personally the metallic blue livery reminds me of the old ERTL toys that they've released in 1995 for the 50th anniversary. I am looking forward to the model, however I hope Bachmann would improve the Thomas and Percy models. I know that they're improving James and I believe they might release him next year.
For the large scale range it was surprising that Winston was announced even though no fan have a demand for him. I know that Winston is not the best character, but he is growing a persona since the new writing staff had entered in 2013. Plus I think it is quite interesting to have character with a unique basis. I'm not a big collector on the large scale models, considering that I don't have the garden size nor the money to spend on the models. I know there are other models such as the red coaches and from the looks on a video from Bachmann on YouTube, the coach looks splendid.
OVERALL
I think this is a good range of models and to be honest, I'm glad that they're not introducing sets that look cheap like their Christmas set they had a few years back. Bachmann had been doing good models since 2002 and I'm glad that they're open towards fan's wish lists. So let's hope 2015 is good for Bachmann and the 70th anniversary.
