All Engines Go! Review - Sodor Sings Together Review

 And so as usual when it comes to a new series of AEG, we finally had come to the final special of 'All Engines Go!' *cue music* that made its world debut here in Australia on May 11th 2025, just one day off from the official 80th anniversary day on ABC Australia. 

In previous anniversary years we had some specials released to celebrate the occasion starting off one about an airport being built which was 'Calling All Engines!' in 2005 for the 60th, a Misty Island full of misfit and annoying engines called 'Misty Island Rescue' in 2010 for the 65th, two specials for the 70th one being about pirates called 'Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure', featuring the debut of Rex, Mike and Bert who were once Railway Series exclusive characters and a recount of Thomas' first time on Sodor basing it on the second book of the series that started this franchise called 'The Adventure Begins' both released in 2015 and closing off the original series we had an anniversary special for the 75th where Thomas was going to London with the Fat Controller to meet Queen Elizabeth II and her son Prince Charles called 'Thomas and the Royal Engine' that was released in the terrible year known as 2020, give thanks to a little thing called Covid-19 for making that year absolutely horrible! 

For the year 2025, the special for this anniversary year is called 'Sodor Sings Together' but will this special have an anniversary feeling or would it just be another run of the mill long episode that is called a special? Will it be better than the dreaded, boring Christmas special from last year that could've easily worked as a typical episode as well? 

Well then let's find out but first, the usual:

THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FANDOM

THIS POST MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS, 

THAT IS IF ANYONE CARES.

SODOR SINGS TOGETHER

Written by

Craig Carlisle 

Directed by

Campbell Bryer

Produced by

Suzie Gallo

Release Date

10/05/25 - ITA

11/05/25 - AUS

25/05/25 - UK

Plot

In preparation for the big Sodor Sings Festival - the biggest musical event on the Island of Sodor - the engines are hard at work to make the night one to remember.

MY VIEWS

I'll get this out of the way, Duck was in this special with the slip coaches and he only had two cameos in the early part of it. No voice role or even a big or small role. But Donald? Nope! He was not seen anywhere in the special and with this being the last special of the show he will just remain as a toy. How or why they were given toys but not a role in the show I'll never know, the same can be said about Edward and Henry but they were, as I heard, last minute additions during the show's early production, probably to make up the number count of engines 1-6 whereas Duck and Donald were maybe planned to have a role for this season but were later scrapped by the production team but Mattel went with the manufacturing of their toys without knowing of a possible change likely based on early concept art since Duck in the special can be seen with grey wheels not yellow as seen on the toy.

Now on with the special. It opens up with Thomas and the other restricted cast members singing one of the songs which was about tonight's music festival with the other engines. Anyway after that the engines were all getting ready for their last deliveries for the day before the festival with Percy taking a snack wagon, Diesel with benches and Thomas with lights in a pretty dragged out scene. Honestly the way the scene panned out it feels like they were building up for a big race scene to see who can make their deliveries first, perhaps the stuff ups along the way and them trying to put it right but then again that could easily work as a typical run of the mill episode of this show. 

Then Nia came along with Bruno saying that she'll be taking the secret surprise. The engines were excited and wanted to know what the surprise was but Nia refuses to say. One bit of the scene that made me sigh a bit was Bruno saying he doesn't like surprises, which would've been great to explore as the whole Cronk crossing story arc could've been his moment as a character but no all we got was a boring so-so story arc with no character progression or drive. I mentioned it all in my episode review of 'No More Surprises'. So after Nia told everyone that all deliveries are important, after a pretty boring scene, the engines all went on with their deliveries. All except for Thomas as his delivery was too heavy. 

Nia offered to help and Thomas accepted it, with Diesel teasing Thomas while Thomas said that he and Nia would discuss about the surprise. So Nia took half of Thomas' load as the two set off to Vicarstown while Percy and Diesel make their way with their deliveries, though Percy with a snack wagon isn't really much of a delivery as the show is not on yet and was very like made as a 'delivery' for the sake of plot? I don't know. Meanwhile Percy and Diesel were making music of their using their whistle and horn while Bruno placed his headphones on. I'm glad there wasn't much focus on that because it already sounded obnoxious. 

So Thomas and Nia make their way to their first stop Farmer McColl's farm as they echoed through the tunnel with them blowing their whistles for some reason to fill in time, though I will say the music in this scene wasn't that bad, that was until Gordon came alongside with Annie and Clarabel who was on his way to pick up the kazoo orchestra where see Gordon had an interest in them. We're seven minutes in with this special and the pacing is just horribly slow! Most of the special that we've seen so far was just the engines chatting, puffing around and blowing their whistles! Seriously why do these specials, that could easily work as a standard episode, need to be nearly 60 minutes long? The Thomas specials from the Brenner/McCue era had better pacing than this. Hell the Miller/Barlow era specials have better pacing and that is saying something! It didn't take long for 'Misty Island Rescue' to have Diesel loosing the jobi wood because Thomas was a dick to him in the first place to help set up Thomas' adventure on the Island of the obnoxious misfit logging locos and THAT is saying something! I can't believe I'm actually siding with a special from the first dark era of the franchise. Yes I consider AEG to be the second dark era.

So Thomas and Nia arrived at the farm looking at McColl practicing his animal orchestra, don't ask me why that's a thing it suppose to part of the show's 'comedy', with Terence surprising the two and give them another bad animal pun but hey at least we didn't have Terence going 'you get it baaad because they're sheep' to tell the audience what the joke is! After delivering the lights, the two engines made their way to the beach where Salty was to perform his sea shanty. 

Nia told Thomas to pick up the pace, ah yes pace the thing that these specials lack, as she needs to collect the surprise while Thomas was trying to get Nia to tell him what the surprise is but Nia refuses to say what it is, much to Thomas' disappointment. So he decided to guess what it is but blew his three chances and decided to get a hint instead with Nia saying it would sound great at Cronk's crossing with its acoustics. So Thomas decided to race to Cronk's crossing and if he looses he won't ask her about the surprise ever again to which she agreed and so the race was on with the comeback of the very first song of the show that debuted in 'A Thomas Promise' in S1 which feels so pointless and didn't need to be there and could've just been a montage of them racing with he forgettable music in the background. It just felt so random and unnecessary. 

Nia won much to Thomas's disappointment but told him that there are other performances to look forward too such as the kazoo concert at the museum in Vicarstown. Thomas offered Nia to race there and the two set off again. Meanwhile we see Gordon picking them up reminding us again that he loves kazoos because of course we need to know again because we might've forgotten it after that little brief moment. At the museum, Thomas won the race. After their delivery, Nia decided to show Thomas the surprise anyway. 

What's the point of not revealing the surprise when you're going to do it anyway? You could at least have Nia saying to Thomas earlier that she would show him the surprise when they get to Vicarstown and you can still use the scenes of Thomas wanting to know. It would still have the same outcome and would make a lot more sense of Nia showing Thomas the surprise anyway instead of trying to keep it secret. Perhaps to give the special more conflict instead of boring filler scenes to fill in time you can have Thomas racing around not looking after his load, it would at least add some spice to the story instead of boring the audience. We're about 14 minutes in and it feels like such a slog fest!

It turned out that the big surprise was the calliope, maybe in universe it was amazing but honestly to me it feels like such a disappointment because the damn thing was seen in the past which makes it less special. You could at least have Sandy make something like an automatic brass band or anything at least something unique and different but no the calliope is what you get. So after Nia is seen posing with it a few times for whatever reason, comedy I guess? The show was never that good with its comedy, Nia made her way to Cronk crossing while Thomas makes his way to the stage at Vicarstown for the Fat Controller's opera. 

At the stage everyone was in preparation with the opera group practicing their singing while the Fat Controller was being annoyingly frantic that there was two hours until the show starts. Thomas delivered the lights and can relax while Sandy and Carly set up the lights on the stage. With the light all set up, everything was ready for the opera but Thomas wondered it was and the Fat Controller showed him as they were getting ready for their last rehearsal. However one opera singer showed off their singing by holding a note and ended up breaking all things made of glass including the lights around the island finally bringing in the actual conflict of the special after a long boring set up.

  After the incident, Thomas offered to go to Whiff's to see if he had any spare lights and with that Sandy and Carly went off to replace all the lights that were broken by the guy's singing. Before Thomas set off we get another force down pun by having the Fat Controller explaining the use of the word Harmony because sure after four seasons no one's intelligence should be trusted to get the joke without explanation because what it's too deep to understand? being sarcastic here, see I can explain it here because this is a wall of text and not many people would get it that it was suppose to be a joke. 

As Thomas puffed past the museum at Vicarstown he saw that the other lights were broken and needs twice as much as Gordon was bringing the kazoo players. Speaking of Gordon, he was lost due to the broken signal and couldn't find his way, for an engine who was suppose to be experienced in the show he does suck at direction. Sure it's for story purposes but I would rather James, at least have some variety of a character they'd rarely used since that night light episode.

Meanwhile Nia was on the same track as Gordon and were about to collide with each other in the most underwhelming way with not just the music but the voice acting and 'speed' of the engines too. Not much sense of urgency and it reminded me of this when I'd first watched it. But of course the reason for that scene is because Nia has to loose the calliope because there is about 34 minutes left and we need something to fill in the void and that is Nia chasing the thing. Meanwhile Thomas arrived at Whiff's recycling plant for the lights and after seeing Whiff's glasses broken from the musical note, Thomas wondered how it happened and it was because of the sound vibration hitting at the right key. 

After that Thomas collected the new recycled lights and off he went singing one of the previously released songs that is just easily skippable and didn't need to be there but hey guess time needs to be filled in. After that we meet up with Percy and Diesel who were still making their music with their whistles with Bruno having his headphones on and Thomas catching up towards them and explaining everything that had happened again and this whole scene is nothing but them talking and boasting and then we have another skippable song.

So after everyone heard the calliope and Percy realised that that was the surprise. Thomas decided to help her but needed to get the lights to Vicarstown but Diesel ended up taking them for him with Diesel hammering down the message that all parts of the show are important because this show LOVES to repeat things that we'd already knew from earlier! As Gordon was still lost, Thomas and Nia were chasing the Calliope and pretty much the next four minutes of the special was nothing more but them chasing it with another skippable, pointless song until the calliope went through the train wash blowing out bubble and wouldn't be dry for days making Nia very sad and tired. 

Thomas mentioned what Whiff told him about vibrations after Sandy mentioned about the high opera note and the two tried to think of a new idea and we get another pointless song, seriously could it hurt to make a small montage of them finding sounds instead of another boring forgettable song? They are just pointless. Meanwhile Thomas and Nia were on the top of lookout mountain and Kana came along as well, who was not seen at all in the special since the very start! Thomas even mentioned where'd she come from which was through the mine and then she just left to take passengers to the festival. Honestly as small as it, Percy or Diesel could've at least taken her place but Kana needs her time in the sun I suppose. 

After she'd mentioned the mines it gave Nia an idea of using the crystals and after banging them about to make them chime they got the right ones at the right key to create music and after collecting the crystals they met with Gordon after hearing kazoo music who was completely lost and Annie and Clarabel taught Gordon that everyone needs help, despite that they'd never asked to help him nor did Gordon refuse their help, perhaps that could've been a subplot? Maybe instead of him being this one note older engine he could be a little boastful that he knows the way, he said in the original series he had instinct. They could at least adopt that and make a story out from it? Seriously these two whinging coaches taught Gordon about needing help but there was nothing building to that? God this is bad writing.

Speaking of the two coaches, why can't Annie have any development over her dislike of kazoo as she stated earlier? Perhaps after hearing it a few times she was starting to enjoying it and realises its importance when it comes help. Sure it may be short but in the special I didn't really see much effort into that little story. There was some potential and it was another swing and a miss. So anyway the kazoo players were playing their music to see if they can get nearby help and sure enough Kana arrived after hearing the kazoos. Thomas and Nia too and told them that they were on the mainland? Despite that he was going around Sodor? I know that Gordon said he was going round in circles but the mainland? There's never any established location to make it different? 

The layout design is all the same! Either set on Sodor or not, the scene above was seen in the Famer's Market episode from the third season. I get that it's recycled to save time and money but man when the original series did it, particularly the CG era, they used the same setting but at least give it a distinction to make it look completely different. Some might say that it's cheap and lazy but when Jam Filled did it they at least tried to make it look different. I don't usually knock down on the animators because they have to work with time and money but maybe they've could at least be more distinct to make something look different.

So with all that said and done, they all must head to Vicarstown, with a little push from Kana and another pointless recap song from here to fill in time because you know this special needs to be 60mins for some reason! So everyone reached Vicarstown and we got another song as they set up the stage and later that night we got a montage of all the other performances as well as the kazoo players.

And to close the night, Thomas and the others sang the last and final ever song from this show with use of of the crystals and while I'm not that much of a fan of the song I will say there was some emotion put into it to make it conclusive even for a special that is now served as the series finale and with that the show can finally end once and for all and despite the song, the special as a whole was a very disappointing one to commemorate the Railway Series' 80th anniversary. 

OVERALL

After watching this special, I would rather sit through 60mins of 'Misty Island Rescue' and as bad as that special is with its writing, repetition and characterisation it was at least more entertaining with its concept of Thomas going missing on an island that lives across Brendam docks plus I remember the pacing being much better in comparison to this. 

We skimmed through a montage of footage to see the engines working to get the search and rescue centre done until we get to the set up with Diesel loosing the jobi wood because Thomas was putting him down being a diesel engine, which should've been the other way round but then again Thomas wouldn't be rewarded the trip to the mainland then, though it could've been done the other way like maybe Thomas telling Diesel not to take the logs. We didn't have a long seven minute scene of the engines at work that adds no importance to the special, it was trimmed down to keep with the pacing. 

Yes to anyone who remember just how bad that era was when it was new, I would rather sit through a Miller/Barlow era special or hell 'Marvellous Machinery' from BWBA than this or anyone of the AEG specials, except Bubbly Build, and despite MIR's level of badness they do at least know not bore the audience and at least make the storyline a little more special instead of a long episode, unlike 'Hero of the Rails' but even that's more of a special than any of the AEG specials.

I will always say this but the AEG specials didn't need to be 60mins! They didn't need to be and from watching all five of them during this iteration's tenure they can't hold a story for that long and would just rely on slapstick humour or long, long looooong scenes of dialogue that are just so boring to sit through. The only special that did a much better at job at its pacing was Bubbly Build as it ran for 30mins! It had much better pacing and there wasn't much need for songs. Sure it's also an extended episode but my god it worked fine as one. 

I'll never forget how exhausting it was watching the Lookout Mountain special as there was no subplot to give off some breathing room and was focused so heavily on the main cast finding this mystery and seeing that the next special was 30mins shorter felt like a godsend but no Mattel decided to keep with the 60min mark probably because they need an amount of boring, forgettable songs for a digital album that might likely get a release or not since Mattel had given up on this show anyway. Yes the Christmas special had subplots last year but it sucked at delivering it!

The one thing I dislike about the AEG specials is that they feel like extended episodes instead of feeling like specials. The original series, at times, tend to give a big story when it comes to yearly specials and I will say the Miller/Barlow era of the show did just that too, same can be said about BWBA and Journey Beyond Sodor. Everything just feels so big especially for an episode. 

With this being the 80th anniversary special I think they could've made it more celebratory instead of just being this. Maybe it's the North Western Railway's 80th anniversary and the engines were to have a party but Thomas wants it to be extra special by finding the first engine that worked on the railway before it became the railway that it is today and maybe add in a villain who wants it to be destroyed, maybe introduce Diesel 10 since he's been a marketable character. Perhaps he thinks the railway should stop clinging to the past. Sure it might not be AEG friendly but it's better than this dribble that just plays it safe and requires no effort, not to mention it would be a much more entertaining storyline than this long extended episode.

I also think we got nothing out from the characters in these specials, apart from Sodor Cup. No development from them, no conflict for them or anything and it's just more story focused. I keep hearing from some people that Nia has more character in the show but the only thing I could think of from memory of this show was that she loves music and that's it. I don't see anything else that made her anymore interesting in comparison to her from the original series. 

When watching her S22 episode and even the BWBA special I see more character from those two things than this show all together. Nia in the original series was sassy but intelligent, clever as mentioned in the show, but gives in to things like Ace telling her to race Thomas in the special while they were travelling through the American west. She also had a flaw which was her not admitting that she not clever at anything such as her with numbers. She also has some cheekiness as seen in the Glows Away episode from S23 and we've seen her jumping ahead that she could handle elephants because she comes from Africa but it turns out the elephant doesn't fancy steam engines. I see more character in the original series compare to her AEG counterpart who was so dull, boring and flat.

They've written up a whole persona for her with her being adventurous and trying new things but I can't remember that much of her being that in this show, I have seen all the episodes there were just so many and most of them feel all the same or are just very forgettable, and the only thing they actually picked out from that was her interest in music. 

If this more of a character driven special you could make her want to be part of the music festival she knows about music but she doesn't play instruments or can sing and feels left out that was until she learns either to practice and despite trying to play things like a trumpet or a guitar she fails and maybe she realises that her whistle is like an instrument and maybe she could create an engine orchestra and it was successful. That seems more like a much better idea than this special's outcome. 

The only special from this show that feels like a character driven special was Sodor Cup. Kana had traits helped her get through the story when it comes to the big race, it's a shame that they never really did anything else with those traits for other episodes and just make this one-note character whose trait is that she's fast and that's it. It also had villains to go against Kana. It feels like a big story but after that they started to feel more like long written episodes and in this most scenes were just long chase scenes and pointless subplots with little to no effort to make them engaging like Gordon being lost. 

He didn't get lost because of his character traits he just got lost because he just did thanks to the broken lights! They felt boring and such a slog to sit through. If you really want to watch a Thomas special that feels like an actual special go and watch the specials of the original series as far back as 2005! Sure 'Calling All Engines!' was an extended episode but despite its lousy setbacks with the learning segments, even though they have their importance to the overall story, there was at least something entertaining behind it all with the steam vs diesel conflict, and as overused as that was during the original series, give that to me any day over boring, lousy stories that could easily work as an episode!

I'm glad that this wasn't the big anniversary thing and instead Mattel focused their attention of the 'Down the Mine' pilot, which had been a stuff of legend amongst the Thomas fandom since Britt Allcroft had first mentioned it in 2009 via a phone call on a radio show here in Australia. Imagine if this special was the one that was given the most hype? Then again Mattel would at least give the show some much needed attention that they'd been lacking in the last four years. But if this was given the level of the hype the pilot did in May, imagine the disappointment of it all. I don't believe kids would just consume it and move onto the next thing when they're smarter than society gives them credit for and I believe kids deserve better stuff than this crap. 

I'm glad that this blip within Thomas' 80 year history has finally come to an end. Sure you might say that there's no official word on the show's cancellation. But there hadn't been official world for the original series in 2020 nor the Bob the Builder reboot from 2018 and yet Mattel still quietly cancelled those shows anyway. Daniel Share-Strom's comment on the AEG wiki is proof enough that the show had not been renewed as he mentioned he hadn't been approached to write more episodes since writing for the season had been completed in 2023 and, according to him, people like Craig Carlisle are not working with Mattel anymore and he would be in the know of the show since he'd worked on it. 

But I think the biggest confirmation of AEG having no future beyond 2025 comes from this recent press release about the 80th anniversary offering no mention of its fourth season nor this special as well and there is the vague statement that Thomas is ready for a thrilling new journey in 2026 that will delight fans young and old likely indicating that we will be getting either a new iteration of the show or maybe a continuation or maybe its the Marc Forster movie, though I think for the latter they would've likely said that it anyway. 

Plus if there was any indication of a 5th/6th series, which would be labelled as S29/30 from Mattel likely to keep investors happy, I believe they would've mentioned it anyway in that press release instead of hinting it. The statement of what will happen next year had mentioned 'new journey' and very likely we are getting something different as AEG is no longer anything new at this point. But anyway, the lack of a mention of this show in the recent press release, to me, really confirms that Mattel had well and truly given up on it. 

For the past four years I felt that it was such a shame that we never had gotten an episode of Nia and Kawku reuniting since their last encounter in the 2018 special or that we never got an episode of Thomas visiting Hiro and Kenji in Japan, as hinted in 'Kenji on the Rails Again' because Mattel thought this would be better for some reason. But anyway I'm glad it's all over and that Mattel are going for something new for the blue tank engine and his friends not just for new fans but for old fans too in 2026. But only time will tell what that could mean and I hope that Mattel does better marketing for it this time because the marketing for this show was atrocious!

So in the words of Frodo from 'The Lord of the Rings' and a goodbye and good riddance to 'All Engines Go!' I know it's part of Thomas history and I'm not going to deny that but I have the right to dislike the show. Now with that out of the way, I might start looking over S23 of the original series.

OVERALL RATING:

1/10

All Engines Go! Review - S4 Ep.26 - The Feels of Sodor + Series Overall

 THESE ARE MY OWN OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FANBASE

THE FEELS OF SODOR

Written by

Craig Carlisle

Directed by

Campbell Bryer 

Produced by

Suzie Gallo

Air Date

24/04/25 - SNG

Plot

A fog had covered the island blocking the views for the tourist!

NOTE: Please be mindful that is some mild swearing in this post

---

And here we are the FINAL episode of not just the fourth season but of the entire show as well! But I'll talk more about this season, the entirety of the show as well as its existence and exposure later on in the overall section because this part is devoted to the episode. First we had the 'Song of Sodor' a boring season finale about Nia creating a song in dedication for a new bench. Then we had the 'Sights of Sodor' that was nothing more but the same tour train as we've seen in other episodes prior with the word new slapped onto it and then we had the 'Smells of Sodor' which was a mediocre season finale that could've been better if was about Thomas loosing the smell of the dinosaur pancakes by opening the van's door three times. 

Now we have the 'Feels of Sodor' and all that the episode was about was Thomas giving people a tour of the island but it was covered in fog and it was resolved not even half way through the episode and the rest of the episode was just him and the coaches going around the locations on Sodor to make it feel like the place because the passengers like it. That's it that's the episode. This is probably the worst episode of the season and of the whole show itself and that is saying something as I had given plenty of low scores for episodes in the past but for some reason there is an episode that is somehow the worst of the worst! 

 Why not just use the three strike formula? They did it PLENTY of times in previous episodes, why not in this one? Have Thomas go around Sodor trying to show tourists the sites but failed because the fog covered it but the tourists loving the feeling of  him going round curves and all but Thomas didn't realised it until after the third time he'd failed. Yes it's typical but I would take that over this final outcome because it would at least FEEL more like a story! Honestly this episode makes a typical Miller/Barlow era episode (S13-16) more like gold! I can't believe I'm saying that after 13 years since S16 broadcasted here in Australia! I think 'Wonky Whistle' from S15 had a much better story structure than this! Yes to those people who remember that episode when it was new in 2011, Wonky Whistle is a much better episode than this in the Thomas franchise! I can't believe I'm saying that!

If Mattel had decided to give the show an actual series finale I think it could've been about Annie and Clarabel's last tour of Sodor. Have the Fat Controller deciding that he's done with the tour trains due to the passengers not interested in it anymore as they've seen all the same sites and couldn't offer anything new to it. Annie and Clarabel were worried that with no more tours they have no other purpose and are worried they'll be forgotten forever, I think the word scrap is too strong for a show that has been too safe with things. 

Thomas decides to give them the best tour ever and that it might change the Fat Controller's mind but they've been to the same sites that they've been to before and the passengers were bored and Thomas was sad that the Fat Controller was right and was worried for his friends and decides to throw a party for them to say thank you for the tours. The Fat Controller heard they were worried about scrap but told them that they'll move into the Vicarstown Museum so the passengers can admire them for the many years to come. That sounds like a more interesting, engaging and emotional plot instead of this crap that resolved its conflict too quickly. It would give closure to the AEG era while also serves as a metaphor that the show is coming to an end. Hell you can still fit in within the many titles of that have the phrase 'of Sodor' attached to it like 'The Last Tour of Sodor'.  

This episode deserves the lowest rating that I'd given to any episode. This was a lousy, thin, boring and dull 'story'. Like I said before when you're writing a story for kids you're suppose to make it entertaining NOT BORING! Hell the episode 'The Case of the Puzzling Parts' from S22, as boring as that episode was at least it had some entertainment with Paxton and Sidney's dynamic and character!

 I hate this episode and I remember having such anger of sitting through this episode where the last five minutes was just basically filler instead of a proper structural storyline! Say what would want about Big World but at least it has structed storylines despite the limited run time they had to fit in for the Thomas segments and it at least knows how to make its stories entertaining, at times. I can remember an episode like 'Tiger Trouble' within a second than whatever episode from this show that Mattel believed would serve as a great replacement to the original for the brand instead of improving the original show to be better, but money over quality I suppose for this corporate made slop.

That's how I sum up AEG's existence, corporate slop!

OVERALL

Before I make my overall of this season, the show and Mattel's marketing and justification for this show, I want to state this first about Corus' debt problem which resulted in some layoffs last year. Just because I full on hate AEG does NOT mean that I'm happy that the people of Nelvana would be loosing their jobs due to Corus' one billion dollar debt problem blunder. I'm sorry to hear these layoffs and the animation industry is not in the best place right now what with the corporate world's obsession with generative A.I. 

That's all I can say nor I can't do anything about it as an animation fan but just because I have a huge disliking to the show DOESN'T mean I don't care about the creative team being laid off. I don't like when someone tries to make people feel bad because they just have a different opinion about the show. You can dislike the show and still care about the people behind the scenes because they are just doing their job in a very competitive field and need the money to pay the rent or bills to keep themselves afloat. 

 Sure its sucks being bullied, abused and teased for liking something that others don't and I know that feeling with liking BWBA and the stuff that some of these 'critics' have said about AEG such as being 'The 9/11 of the Thomas fandom', a stupid and disgusting comparison of one of the biggest tragedies on a global scale, or from one user who made a terrible antisemitic comment, not sharing it here, and leaking someone's personal phone number on twitter for the sake of harassing or even just down playing people by saying crap about them liking it when it's not really harming you! Throwing insults and verbal abuse at people for liking something that you don't is not being critical about the show. 

It makes you more of a bully and for a fandom who may've had past experience of being teased and bullied for liking the show beyond the age that it was designed for, like me in school, you are just becoming what you despise. Sometimes I believe that some people in this fandom have such server lack of awareness. Everyone sees something different and it should be respected even if you don't agree. 

But some fans should also not be generalising this show's critics who look at it more constructively as possible, like myself included, as being 'weird' or 'strange' or 'obsessive' for some reason because they have a different opinion and when it comes to the show's critics 'complaining about it too much', I had said this before in my review for last year's season, but I've seen people still complaining about BWBA despite that had been finished for five years now. 

How come some people in this fandom wants AEG to be exempt from criticism while there's none for BWBA, S17-21, the HIT era and the classic series? It just seems very hypocritical, highly illogical and makes no absolute sense from this fandom. If I can't say something negative about some aspect of AEG, then can I say people should stop criticising BWBA or the Brenner era? See how stupid that sounds! You can not agree with my opinion about AEG that's fine. But if you can't handle someone's personal opinion about the show whether you're a fan or not, despite not all them not attacking you, then you're not making yourself look any better with an attempt at silencing people.

Now as I said before, I'll say it again, this season was the worst of  'All Engines Go!' some of these stories feel like first draft scripts that were never given any time to improve to better or engaging. When watching these episode I could come up with something better than what we got for some of them. There were some decent episodes but nothing really came off to me as a favourite. Thankfully 'Bruno to the Rescue' was the one that came out on top for me. 

Sure this is a kids show but my god if I were a kid watching this I think I would be bored stiff sitting through these episodes for how slow, thin and dull they are with the same formula and basic characterisation of the characters. I've seen people using that excuse to defend this show and remembered for years being told that that excuse does not justify anything. After watching this garbage season that excuse is still not justifiable because I strongly believe that kids deserve better! 

You don't see people defending garbage like 'Cocomelon' as being made for kids hell I've seen plenty of grown adults attacking it and many of them would have to be parents. Hell when it was announced a movie of it was in the works, honestly I don't know why it needs one, but I've seen plenty of people on twitter complaining about it. Yes it's twitter but so what, people were still complaining about a movie based on brain rot. The excuse about something being made for kids to counter against any criticism is just a rubbish excuse because you don't want to hear it. Just like the 'Don't like don't watch' excuse that's been plastered everywhere because you don't like something saying something critical about your work. 

Now with this being the series finale I'll say this about the show itself. It had a few gems here and there in terms of story but overall most of the episodes were either boring, badly written, weak and forgettable. But when it comes to the look of the show, this was just a pointless and unnecessary change to the look of the original show. Why go through a drastic redesign when despite that all the changes the original series went through it still retains the same iconic look of Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends and was still as much as a success as it was since 1984?

Thomas' original look had proof that it can work in 2D form through book illustrations or promos. Hell we had those nursery rhyme videos that used the original look of the characters from the CGI era of the show in 2D animated form. Why change a design that had been so iconic and memorable to many people for decades and generations to something that just looks like a Happy Meal toy from McDonalds? To sell the toys? Because that didn't help with the sales around 2023-24! Though after seeing the toys and even Lionel's version of this iteration of Thomas, I think it works better three dimensionally compare to it in 2D and also after watching this show I much prefer the likes of CG and the model animation since it offers something more dynamic with its camera angles and creativity and for the former we have seen that being done when Arc Productions and later Jam Filled took on the helm of the show's animation after Nitrogen Studios ended its run.

I also feel the drastic redesign had put people from the general public off as well when it was first revealed to the public in 2021. There was that article from The Sun, of all publications, that says 'Thomas is a Thug' in 2021 and of course the late Britt Allcroft's article from The Times in 2024 saying that it lacked magic, which I personally agree with. 

But I feel that there was no reason for a drastic redesign change, maybe to make it more cartoony but those Thomas Birthday shorts from 2020 on the official YouTube channel kind of shows that it can work with the original design, despite the heavy negative reaction from long time fans. Thomas didn't need to have a modernised redesign for the sake of a relevant audience as his original look was still loved by many people even today. I've seen kids at railway events recently still wearing clothes of the original Thomas design despite that shops don't sell them anymore. 

It seems Mattel hadn't learn from that mistake of redesigning a popular and well known character such as their attempt at redesigning Bob the Builder a decade ago as a realistic human with bubble shaped like machines, I still remember the backlash it received when it was revealed by Mattel in 2014. It started to air in 2015 and it lasted until 2018 and after that there was never any attempt at revitalising it until the Jennifer Lopez produced movie was announced in January 2024. 

While that reboot did at least retain the feel of the show that it was before, based on the episodes that I remember seeing, I'd never liked the look of it all as I feel the stop motion look had some charm to it and I remember when I saw a thumbnail for those episodes years ago on YouTube it really stood out more in comparison to other kids shows, even its reboot counterpart. Mattel should just stop with the idea of redesigning these classic iconic characters as if that might help to make their toy sales popular again. Just keep them with their old look and just market it more properly instead of being lazy at getting people's attention. I will say Bob's claymated look doesn't translate well in CGI in comparison to the likes of Fireman Sam and Thomas as well, Thomas was pretty much the best looking out of those three to be honest and I'm not just saying that as a fan of the show.     

While competition is important for a company like Mattel to gain more audience and customers, Mattel's obsession of making Thomas to be like other kids shows instead of being itself had really hurt it in my opinion. Thomas, in the original series, was already unique itself because these are suppose to be like real working steam engines, based on actual engines too I will add, that you would find on a railway doing real things like pulling trucks and coaches but with faces, emotions and human characteristics that create fun, entertaining and engaging stories that are still memorable 80 years later. 

AEG, despite them being engines and somewhat work like real engines, despite their unrealistic loads, have them in some situations that could easily work in a human like setting. Like Percy's fear of rollercoasters you can have a human kid going through the same situation by using things to make a home made rollercoaster like shopping trollies or something or one child loosing their friend's lucky bell or one of them stealing a cow bell or write a song for a bench for some reason. 

The original series has situations that a human can relate too but when you look at the stories by the Awdry's themselves they at least work it around a railway setting basing it on some real life events that had happened and even some stories that were written for the show exclusively they at least worked around the limitations of them being engines, at times and still retaining a railway setting. That's what made the original series so special and unique among other kids shows, especially towards the ones that are focused on trains like 'Chugginton' and 'Mighty Express'. Even 'Big World, Big Adventures' retained all that as well from Andrew Brenner and his team, despite some creative liberties. 

You don't see Bluey or even Peppa Pig trying to be like other kids shows either. They're successful because they are there own thing. Sure Bluey was inspired from the likes of Peppa but the former at least had characters that feel more real and relevant unlike the latter with its characters, especially the adults of Peppa's world. If Mattel ever decides to revive the original show again I just want it to be exactly what it was before. Have the engines looking like their old selves doing actual railway work while still make fun, entertaining stories. I think they should reboot the show and retell Rev.W.Awdry's stories to a modern audience yes and that includes 'The Sad Story of Henry'! Show the general public why Henry was bricked up in the tunnel because they either have really, really, really bad memory of the episode or that they severely lack media literacy. However since Awdry's stories had the engines as all male and the coaches all female perhaps add some characters that would help with the gender balance while still retain the original stories. 

Considering that Mattel are giving their recent classic Thomas toy a British accent for its talking motorised range they should give the US the UK dub. Peppa Pig and Bluey have both shown that despite their respective dubs not being Americanised, American children still love the show thanks to more exposure to the outside world through the likes of phones and tablets when watching YouTube. As bad as that website is it at least helps expand the outside world for kids through the countless amount of videos. I just hope the marketing will be good for the toys but I have my doubts after this show's four years of abysmal marketing.

Speaking of Bluey and Peppa Pig, if Mattel wants Thomas to be like other shows for the sake of competition, why not look at those shows, Bluey especially. These two shows have a gentle, slice of life feeling towards their stories with loveable, relatable characters that both kids and adults love with no need to make them too fast, obnoxious and overstimulating like Paw Patrol that they're so obsessed to compete with. It just would be nice to have Thomas to be like that with him acting like a real steam locomotive you would find on heritage railways with stories that are properly structured.     

I remember hearing from SiF back in 2020 that Mattel had gotten a new marketing team to help resurge Thomas' toy sales and for a while they had been marketing the brand fine since August 2021 as they were telling people about the new show and where it's on, like Netflix and Cartoon Network in the US, as well as making little videos like you see on Tik-Tok although with bad acting and bad attempt at humour, kind of like the recent show itself, but by 2023 they were not reminding their followers about the show at least that's what I've seen on Instagram such as constant posting about its whereabouts and new seasons coming soon. They did however hype up Bubbly Build's YouTube premiere but that was about it when it comes to the show for that year. 

By 2024 however they'd only posted seven posts on Instagram alone and none of them were about the show, only some merch like a digital album, an app game, clothing and partyware and while they were relevant to the show there was NOTHING about the show nor its toys, I had said that despite Mattel having other interests they are a TOY company first and they hardly did a thing about it!

They'd also abandoned their twitter page around 2022 and their last post was about Bruno's introduction to the show and I'd managed to check out their Facebook page without logging in - because it would only take me to the Australian/New Zealand page that was abandoned in 2021 - but their official US Facebook page has been abandoned too with their last post being in June 2024. 

For a new marketing team they sure have done a god awful job of not giving much exposure to the new show or its toys. The official Japanese Instagram and Facebook page has done more marketing and exposure for the show and the Thomas brand as a whole itself than Mattel had ever done in the last four years. They're the only country right now that's going all out with the 80th anniversary merch from the Plarail toy to collabs with local fashion ware labels! 

Thomas' future right now is in limbo and it's all Mattel's doing for that with their terrible distribution of the toys, their marketing of the show and merchandise and their executive meddling to make what was the number one pre-school brand in the last decade going down to the road of irrelevance. I know that Mattel had been hinting of something new for Thomas in 2026 that would delight both fans old and new and, while that remains to be seen, I just hope that Mattel does market it properly. 

Barney the damn purple dinosaur that many people back in the 90's despised has a much better marketing push from Mattel than Thomas had recently on its social media! At the time of writing this, which was April 28th, 2025, its last post on Instagram was five days ago on April 23rd this year compare to the last post for Thomas which was in November 2024 and that was a repost from ABC Kids Australia! Barney's social media was nothing more but posting old clips from the 90's with the text that is typical of corporate made memes but also advertising its merchandise even a book, a thing that is published by a company that is licensed by Mattel. 

With the horrible marketing and low demand for toys at certain stores, I truly believe, no matter what some might say, AEG was a flop. It might've been a bit pretty back in 2021/22 but things went south in 2023, based on Mattel's Quartey earnings that year under Fisher Price. I'd hardly seen that many toys on the shelves here in Australia and during my times visiting the US, two of Thomas' major markets, when AEG debuted. If there isn't a demand for the toys to be stocked at the shops for people to buy then that tells me, at least in my opinion, that it's not a popular item. 

The toys for this show were terrible and lazy with the same main characters having crappy variants based on that year's special without the need of advertising the special to tie into for people to bloody watch! The sets for this show are garbage as well! All they just were were the same circular or oval set with no eye catching gimmick. It's just sloppy coloured trees and billboard signs with a character that a kid already got in their collection. The Barrel load set that Mattel are releasing this year for the 80th looks much better in comparison as the building has gimmick by loading and unloading the cargo and a turntable and some nice looking buildings and tunnels. I just hope that they give these toys more attention in order for people to buy them.

Talking of the show's merch tie-in, I can't believe Mattel decided to get rid of the idea of making special packaging to promote the specials! Sure they got rid of it around the time of the 75th in 2020 but I believe they were still sold well because they weren't only sold through a character pack that is filled with characters that kids had already bought before. The first two specials just as Sodor Cup and Lookout Mountain, the character sold separately such as Thomas and all have variants with NO advertising of them to promote that special! Hell the rainbow characters were supposedly based on the episode 'Chasing Rainbows' and yet the packaging is just a standard blue with Thomas on the side with the rainbow paint. Nothing else to promote the episode and where to find it? 

Talking of characters that were introduced to the first two specials such as Riff, Jiff, Farona, Frederico and Darcy, who was 'new' to AEG, they were only sold in character packs with the usual characters like Thomas, Percy, Kana etc. that parents may've already bought separately. Why sell a new character just in the box set when really they could've been sold on their own? You think kids might want the new characters separately instead of having their parents to buy a whole character for god knows how much all for just one character that could've been sold cheaper on its own? I don't think many kids would want to have a Thomas with dirt printed on him because a parent would likely tell them they'd already got it.  

The Thomas toys in the past, whether it's for a special or episode, would always, at least to my memory, advertised what it's tied into on the box! That's one of the things to give awareness that the show exists! You could just say that this toy was based on whatever episode and they will look it up and see that's part of the show! Without them they are just random pieces of merchandise slapped together to those who aren't aware of it. They had a new marketing team for this crap to help resurge toy sales for Thomas because it was struggling since 2017 and this team thought of NOT advertising its specials or episodes through its toys? What the hell where they thinking? That's like Disney not marketing a new live action remake despite investing so much money into making it. That's just being dumb!

I mean recently this month, Mattel had been marketing the infamous 'Down the Mine' pilot episode that had been the stuff of legend in the Thomas fandom for over half a decade when the late Britt Allcroft first mentioned it on an Australian radio show in 2009 when it was the show's 25th anniversary and that a picture Gordon's pilot model surfaced through Christopher Noulton's SiF interview from 2010. The world's press was all over starting off through multiple major media outlets such as the BBC. I hadn't this much hype for Thomas media since the 75th anniversary and when the episode was released on YouTube, at the time of writing, it had gained over 200k views! That's more than all those lousy content farming videos showing clips from AEG put together. Even the Watch Out Thomas video that came out afterwards had only 4k viewers. Maybe this should be a sign towards Mattel that with much marketing and hype for Thomas content perhaps people will know and want to see it. 

Talking of the pilot I hope Mattel sees this as an opportunity to release more stuff from the Thomas archives. I would love to see the 3.5'' model test footage that Britt Allcroft and David Mitton had filmed in 1996 to see how they looked on film during production of Magic Railroad, still not fan but it would be nice to see it given the light of day. Plus given the amount of views it had and that it is model era stuff and how Mattel over the years since owning the franchise tries to separate it from something that is current, maybe they should show some love to the model era stuff perhaps remastering the classic series episodes to 4K? Though that might be difficult considering that some of the footage had been lost and were replaced with clips from the original masters, as mentioned on The Unlucky Tug's video about them on his channel. But I digress.

Speaking of MRR for years I had said that had always been the worst thing from this franchise. But I think after 25 years since that piece of garbage came out in 2000 I think this show had taken its crown as the worst thing from this franchise. It doesn't mean I love the movie, far from it, it just means that this iteration of the franchise is the worst thing I've seen now. I would rather have more seasons of 'Big World, Big Adventures' than more sloppy crap that is AEG. 

The one thing I will miss from AEG is Bruno the brake car. He was the only good thing coming out from this awful blip in Thomas' 80 year history because he was a positive example of a character who  has autism with the help of two organisations, thankfully NOT Autism Speaks, who are experts in that field, even Daniel Share-Strom, one of the writers of the show, is autistic himself and made him a great character with one episode about Bruno based on his own experience and yet I've seen people who were very critical of Bruno's existence slapping the word 'stereotype', very likely they hadn't seen an episode with him to make a proper judgement. If he was a negative stereotype he would be these things described by Autism Learning Partners. I feel some people in this fandom slap that word on anything they don't like and not understand the actual meaning of it. I believe Bruno would fit in well within the original series of Thomas and it's not like the original show had no characters based on an American made basis on a British isle before. Here's one example of him working in the original series' setting from ilovetrains323's series 'Thomas: The Trainz Adventures'.

The weird criticism of Bruno's inclusion from some fans of the show kind of reminds me of Nia's inclusion in the original series. Not that I'm saying she was a fantastic character, though her original character is much better than her AEG's counterpart who was boring as hell, but the criticism that I've seen from some people is this weird claim that her only trait was that she's African. Yes she's from Africa but if you had actually watched the episodes, without someone telling you it's bad, where she was the focal point it was more incline to her cleverness trait and there were three episodes showcasing that, not to mention there was one episode where she acted a bit over confident when it comes to an elephant as well as thinking of her reputation of being clever when she fears of anyone knowing of her not counting numbers. Sure there was like one video of her talking about Africa on the official YouTube channel but what do you expect from a video, about a continent, that was suppose to be educational? 

And she had character in the 2018 special such as her being sassy to Thomas because he thinks he doesn't need help, when really he does, while also being competitive and having a sense of humour but is also kind and helpful too. Wow it's like she has character all this time and she was only criticised by some because she replaced Edward, because he was hard to write for! Yes her character was shown for a short time and were never used again in future episodes but give thanks to Mattel who thinks this show is a 'great' replacement instead of wanting to improve the original show to be better!

So in conclusion and despite some gem episodes and Bruno, I will say this, so long 'All Engines Go!' I'm glad I won't be missing you. You maybe a a part of Thomas history but your existence will always be a massive stain in the history books like Magic Railroad with your sloppy writing, terrible consistency, weak characters, incredible loss of potential and boring stories, here's how I sum it up visually with this Spongebob clip. I highly recommend BWBA over this crap. That at least had stories and characters that are more entertaining and engaging despite its flaws.

Now the only thing left is the 'Sodor Sings Together' special which had aired here in Australia on May 11th on ABC so thankfully I don't have to wait months to finally say so long and good riddance to four years of bad rubbish once and for all! 

 

Series Rating:

Sheep Stampede - 6/10

The Berry Best - 3/10

Creepy Crawly Courage - 3/10

Windmill Woes - 2/10

Quacking Quandary - 1/10

The Stinking Delivery - 3/10

Don't Train on My Parade - 4/10

Shiny Spiffy Sandy - 3/10

Diesel's Bad Day - 4/10

Moo-Ving Friendship - 4.5/10

Art Engines Go - 1/10

Lightening the Load - 1/10

Baaa-tatsrophie! - 5.5/10

Terence Time Out - 1/10

Postage Percy - 4/10

A Crate Rescue - 1/10

Chaos at Cronk Crossing - 3/10

The Big Do-Over - 3/10

Did I Miss It? - 5/10

No More Surprises - 1/10

Bruno to the Rescue - 8/10

Kana's Last Minute Delivery - 1/10

Goodnight Gordon - 1/10

Cronk's Crossing Conundrum - 1/10

Bridge Builders - 2/10

The Feels of Sodor - 0/10

Overall Rating: 

71/250