Thomas & Friends: Railway Stories Review - Really Helpful Engines (2026)

After hinting the new reboot via press release in May 2025, Mattel had unveiled to us the brand new look of Thomas the Tank Engine for the new reboot series in January 2026 by sharing its render and a little four second clip to give us a taste on what to expect. After that it was radio silence, apart from the toys that were revealed on a website that deals with Mattel's toy lines and unlike what we saw in the past, we are getting a variety of characters from the standard gauge engines, road vehicles, rolling stock to narrow gauge engines, just what the Thomas toy line needed after so long. The promise of characters, who I hope would be in the new show, including the likes of Stepney and BoCo, in the toys could show how much faith Mattel might have in the show and the toy line is now under the control of the people who look after the Cars toy line for Disney Pixar and you can see that the influence of the Cars line had been transferred to Thomas. 

But now after eight months of silence, we're now given our first look of the new series. Would it hold up something superior or would it just be another All Engines Go? For the latter, god I hope not. But let's find out! But first, the usual: 

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

REALLY HELPFUL ENGINES

Written by

James Hamilton & Jill Cozza-Turner

Directed by

Bronagh O'Hanlon 

Produced by

Rob David

Release Date

17/09/26 - YouTube

30/09/26 - Netflix

Plot

Thomas is on a mission to prove he is the most helpful engine on Sodor. When Thomas finds out that Percy and Gordon all have a mission for their day, Thomas goes on a mission to find a big important job to do.

The special opens up with a visual reference to the 2nd book of the Railway Series that introduced Thomas the Tank Engine to the world 80 years ago the week this special came out with the narration by Henry Golding, 'Crazy Rich Asians' fame, who was the first non-Liverpudlian storyteller, barring John Hasler, to take over the mic. There was also another little easter egg of the 1958 Sodor map over in the corner as well, deep cut right there *insert overused 'Mattel Does Care' joke no.281885*. But I digress, as the book opens we are transported into the new, revamped world of Sodor where the engines now act like real engines pulling coaches and trucks again with no jumping around, 360 degree turns or anything out of the ordinary.

Also it's wonderful to see shots that are dynamic again instead of side shot, after side shot, after side shot using the same angles. I don't like to disrespect the animators of 'All Engines Go!' but after watching four seasons of that show, the repetition of it all was really grating and made me realise just how CGI was a much better animation style for Thomas. The sweeping camera shots reminded me of the opening of 'The Adventure Begins'. After our brief visual intro of Sodor, we're introduced to our main character of the story, Thomas the Tank Engine, voiced by Harry Sparkes who I would say at the age that he was in when voicing this, 13 years old, did an excellent job of voicing him.

In the special, Thomas was on the mission to find the biggest job he can do and he broke out into the first song of the special called 'The Most Useful Engine'. I will say, the song was fine but I think it could do without one and instead why not have a montage showing Thomas just how helpful he can be like helping an engine up the hill or pushing trucks from one siding to another as song as they ask him. See him doing some of jobs well but also struggling at the same time but determined. You don't need a song to tell us who he is.  But at least the song doesn't sound like those dreadful songs from AEG that tell kids the moral of the story instead of showing it. I know the show's subsequent episodes that will come out early next year will have songs in them and I hope to god they're not forgettable, bland and moral pushing. 

Thomas arrived at Knapford station, the 'BIGGG station' as its called, and it hadn't been called that since the original series' 7th season in 2003! Thomas tells the audience that's where he'll find a big job to do. It was also great to see that the franchise had finally added in female railway workers into the show. Sure the original series was set in a bygone era where the railways were run entirely by men in real life. But after years and years of Thomas being criticised for its lack of female characters and railway workers, it's good to see that finally happening despite that we had Nia's female crew in the 'Big World, Big Adventures' movie and its subsequent episodes.

As Thomas puffed into the big station, Percy did as well with a delivery for the Fat Controller, Sir Topham Hatt as he is now officially called. It's a bit of a shame that Mattel had retired his nickname for likely sensitivity reasons but I'm not at all too bothered by this change going back to the AEG era because the name Sir Topham Hatt was created by Rev Awdry himself and it's still respectful towards the original source material and wasn't just made up for the sake of censorship. However some people, the ones who boast that they have thick skin, in the land of Joe Public would make a song and dance about it complaining how people are offended by anything these days despite they're also being offended by people for being offended which is a form of anything and is an emotion that people had for eons. Makes you think doesn't it?

Speaking of the Fat Controller, I feel like his slim down look kind of goes against Mattel's diversity push they want for the show. We do see them including people and engines from different cultural and racial groups but wouldn't slimming down the Fat Controller go against it when it comes to body diversity? People all over the world all come in shapes and sizes and fatness is one of them through genetics. All Engines Go had retained his fatness, still called him Sir Topham Hatt and no one had thrown a fit outside of the right wing media bubble. Personally, I was never offended by the nickname 'The Fat Controller' nor his depiction over the years. He's a respectable authority figure who checks on and cares for his engines which makes him one of the best characters of the series, unlike what these so-called 'critics' say that he's a dictator who scraps engines for not being useful which is a HUGE misconception. If they want a true example of someone like that you can take a look at whose running the White House as of September 2026. But I'm just one person whose experience may differ to someone else's. However, it's also good to teach kids about loosing weight and be healthy too. Plus his redesign gives off a very Illumination/Dreamworks vibe. Also it's good to see they brought his Brenner-era comedic side. 

Thomas asked Percy if he wants help to deliver the mail but Henry, who pulled into the station and is in charge of all the mail, told him to never trust anyone with their letters and parcel or otherwise they might get lost and spell disaster. It's funny how after nearly a decade since Mattel had outed him in favour of Rebecca in BWBA, Mattel decided to bring him back into the main cast of the show, despite saying he was not marketable. I'm still glad they'd still retained Henry as a worrywart because I feel that makes him stand out from being a green fusion of Gordon and James. It would make the dynamic more interesting as Gordon and James' character where you can have the big green engine worry for his friends' welfare due to their overconfidence. 

There's just more story potential with this new persona, and I know that's a pretty unpopular opinion for some older fans. With this being a brand new show and not a continuation from S24, I can see this working for the show. I just hope the new show brings in more story variety instead of the same formulaic storylines like Thomas and Diesel being competitive but it takes place in a winter games contest. I don't want to see Henry being worried about the post and it's over a hat, scarf, skateboard whatever. 

While the Fat Controller was busy streching, Thomas asked him if he could be given a big special important job. Later on Gordon pulled grandly into the station, though his 'engine' was having trouble. This is one of my irks about this special. Back in January, Mattel had stated that they're bringing 'authentic train culture', which is a pretty fancy, corporate buzzword, in my opinion, for 'railway realism'. While Gordon was acting more like a diesel than a steam engine with the way his 'engine' was popping because it was having trouble and all. Not to mention all the wrong roading, which over in the UK and Australia, trains actually drive on the left. Whereas over in North America, they drive on the right. I understand that not everyone is a rail expert, and there had been problems like that in the original series as well and of course I had always said that the show had strayed away from railway realism since S5. But maybe if Mattel wants to make their corporate buzzword 'authentic train culture' a real thing, perhaps they should at least hire a railway consultant?

Mattel had done it before with Sam Wilkinson and the Britt Allcroft company had done it with David Maidment in S5, apart from their unrealistic episodes that would make 'Henry's Forest' blush. 

They had a consultant for this show as well as AEG to depict a character on the spectrum to be authentic as possible and a cultural consultant for Big World. So why not a consultant who knows how railways and steam engines actually work and the terminology behind it? I believe the National Railway Museum would gladly love to help consult the writers and animators with all of their source material from the archives. The people at the museum are fans of Thomas and the original books from the Railway Series and the books have been part of the National collection for decades given their contribution of getting kids into railway preservation. If anyone from the production team is reading this, please hire a railway consultant. 

After Gordon left to collect trucks at Knapford Harbour, whose last appearance in the official series was way back nearly 30 years ago in S5, Thomas followed suit and here we were introduced the show's newest exclusive character of the new series, Deepak the Crane. Meanwhile, the load for Gordon was very heavy and despite Thomas asking him if he wanted help, Gordon declined thinking a useful engine can do a job on their own. With his train already to go, Gordon steamed away until his 'engine' broke down. Thomas went off to get Rosie for help, despite Gordon's protest. When I first saw this after it came out on YouTube, I was a bit surprised that Rosie had an accent as I was used to her with a British accent like in the original series. But there was it was never a big problem for me anyway and it's still nice to see Mattel bringing in more diversity.

With Gordon out of action, Thomas now has the chance to be helpful and useful and we break into our second song, 'I Can Be Helper', which to be honest was kind of pointless like you can just add an interlude of music and it would just be the same. Listening to the song itself, it could've worked for a moment much later in the special and it wasn't a bad song, really. Much better and a bit more memorable than AEG's songs were. Despite Deepak warning Thomas about the heavy load, Thomas told him what Gordon had said which is really useful engines do things on their own. However, the train was very heavy as Thomas took all the way to a construction site.

Next, Thomas went to Farmer McColl's farm where met up with, probably the only good character that came from 'All Engines Go!', Bruno the brake car who is still voiced by Elliot Garcia from the UK dub of the first reboot. Thomas was still feeling tired from his previous job but was still determined to prove he could be a really useful helper. You can tell that this is going to be a three strike formula but honestly, the original series and AEG had done it too. But unlike the Miller/Barlow era and AEG, it was less grating. So Thomas arrived at Wellsworth but made a mess with Farmer McColl's goods and one of his eggs had landed on the Fat Controller's shoe. 

He also thought that Thomas couldn't handle Gordon's heavy work and that he should rest at Tidmouth sheds. But there was no time as Thomas was to shunt trucks, or cars as they're called in the special, I know this was made by an American toy company but since they're going forth with a British dub for all English speaking countries - and since Thomas comes from the UK - they could at least go forth with British railway terminology, hell the new toys called the Troublesome Trucks, 'Trucks' so what is Mattel preventing here? I mean, this was written by someone who comes from the UK and resides in Los Angeles. But of course not everyone is a rail fan which is why, as mentioned earlier, a railway consultant would've been important for this stuff. That unless what we saw on the official channel was made for the US and that maybe we might get one with British terminology next month when it airs on milkshake, though I find that to be a total stretch since AEG's UK dub had referred trucks as 'cars' despite having two open wagon characters called 'Troublesome Truck', that was literally there name.  

On the way, he met up with Percy who was feeling tired from delivering the mail. Thomas offered to help and Percy let him take his empty van, or carriage as he called it for some reason. However, Thomas struggled up a hill with his one, empty van and sure enough his 'engine' gave way and he rolled down the hill fast while his van fell off the line. Thomas was about to collide into it until Percy, Bruno and Deepak saved him. Rosie came along too and after Thomas realising his mistakes, Rosie took him to the repairs at Tidmouth sheds, much to Gordon's surprise.

After Thomas saying that he wanted to do things on his own but couldn't, Gordon felt bad and told Thomas that he was wrong, much to everyone's surprise. I do like this version of Gordon. He's still pompous and arrogant but would bring his maturity out when he realises his faults and wants to make amends, a nice balance of his character. After realising that it's best to get by with a little help from his friends, Thomas managed to make up all of his stuff ups from earlier with a shunting montage of him and Rosie shunting coaches at Vicarstown with a reprise of the second song from earlier but with the mention of friends instead of himself. I honestly think this is where the second should be placed to serve as the curtain call for the special.

After that, Gordon was repaired and he and Thomas ran around the Island to try and test out his 'engine' with the reprise of the song that was at the start of the special, this time with the likes of Percy, Rosie, Deepak and Gordon joining in, for Gordon his voice has a marvellous singing voice and we come to the end of this special with the engines settling down for the night, the narrator telling us the moral instead of letting the audience digest it, with Thomas thanking the audience for helping out.

END

OVERALL

Basically, this was a pretty simple special that was compact well within a 30 minute timeframe. Mattel must've heard me complaining a lot about it can work without making padding out useless, unimportant filler or long boring, useless conversations to fit within a 60min timeframe like those dreadful AEG specials, apart from Bubbly Build, lol. Someone pointed this out which I think would've been better for the story if were about Thomas being new to the Island of Sodor and wants to prove that he can be helpful which I think could've been a better motive than just wanting to be helpful because he wants to be. This is a reboot and a new canon despite the similar look that we had before so I think it wouldn't have been a problem. 

It was nice to have a storyteller back in the new show as well but during my first impression of the special, I thought he was kind of useless since he wasn't needed for much scenes and in the past both the Big World special and All Engines Go had proven that they can work without a storyteller and let the visuals and dialouge do the storytelling instead. But of course Mattel wants to go back to the classics and the storyteller was a key part of Thomas' 80 year legacy since Johnny Morris utter the first words of the Railway Series books for audio back in 1961. They could've gone back to Mark Moraghan but I think they wanted a fresh new voice to reflect the newness of the show. But it would be nice to see him back again in the official series. At least we have the 'Wonders of Sodor' game, which I'm excited into getting on physical format next month as of writing this in September 2026.

As I'd mentioned before, there are some irks that had bothered me and I have spotted a few animation errors like Rosie pushing Thomas despite her buffers were nowhere near him and her pushing Gordon despite using Thomas' model for the closeup at Knapford harbour earlier in the special. Plus of course the improper use of railway terminology and how steam engines are depicted which, as I said earlier, I think the show needed a railway consultant. 

I do like Gordon's character, he really stood out to me and his dynamic with Thomas. He's like a parent/older kid who likes to show that he doesn't need help and Thomas being the kid of the special admires him for his strength and took his advice to heart, despite it being wrong. Kind of like a child admiring their father who later learns his own mistake which gives the message that even older people make mistakes sometimes too. I love it! 

I really don't have much else to say, I like the special and it doesn't feel as crazy, hyperactive and, I think this might be unusual for some reading this but you might get it if you have seen AEG, boring as what the specials were like from the last reboot. It's a charming little special that could've been better but it was still good either way. Be interesting to see what else this new show has to offer but we have to wait until early 2027 to find out. So not too far now. 

Rating:

7/10 

   

 

  

 

Thomas & Friends: Railway Stories: Really Helpful Engines Trailer (2026)

 THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FAN BASE OR MATTEL

THOMAS & FRIENDS: RAILWAY STORIES: 

REALLY HELPFUL ENGINES

After months of radio silence from Mattel since they'd announced the new show back in January 2026, we'd finally got our first look of the upcoming new show that will be uploaded to YouTube Kids and to be streamed on Netflix US in September. No word on when it'll be broadcasted on TV or streamed in other countries but one UK news broadcaster had said that it would be on Channel 5's 'milkshake' in the autumn after Mattel's official announcement earlier in the year.

So the trailer opens up with Thomas introducing himself to the audience and do I find it weird that Mattel would gladly remove any engine's English nameplate from the toys but are fine with a huge nameboard saying 'Tidmouth Sheds' in plain English. The removal of English words from an engine's nameplate was done so that Thomas can be more approached globally, at least that's what everyone in the fandom is saying. Yet, they would give the sheds a large sign showing the name of it in plain English which goes entirely against that philosophy. It can also be said for Scruffy's name, the Knapford station sign and Bruno's sides saying 'Sodor Railway'. Perhaps Mattel has a rule about this but regardless of one it just doesn't make any lick of sense to me.

But apart from that the rest of the trailer looks appealing with its CG animation, especially with it showing off its dynamic camera movements and angles which really feels fresh after four years of AEG reusing the same camera shots and angles in every episode and special. However, considering it's a trailer for the upcoming special, it doesn't really give much on what the special is all about in terms of story. In the past, trailers for Thomas specials would always try to sell you the story in a short and intriguing way, even the ones for AEG, though they'd severely lacked the intrigue. But I guess the visuals help to portray on what the story might be all about and I guess it would most likely be about Thomas being jealous of his friends Percy and Rosie for being helpful, there was a scene where Thomas looked jealous towards Percy while the Fat Controller was praising him at Knapford station and after that he tries to prove that he can be helpful too until it all got out of hand and asked his friends for help, and Gordon has a part in it too, probably as part of the story's climax for Thomas to prove just how helpful he could be. That's what I got out of it for myself. 

I already have seen some reaction of Thomas being voiced by a kid once again, I don't know if he's voiced by the same kid who had voiced him in AEG's UK dub, as his voice sounded familiar after watching some of the UK dub of that show in the past, it was the singing part of the trailer that got me thinking that. Like with AEG, I don't have a problem with a kid voicing him. His character has been portrayed as a kid ever since the Railway Series and he had done childish things in the original show and AEG, like just about any kid would do. Like the time he was showing himself off to Oliver that led to him having an accident or taking James' goods train without asking and ended up being held captive at a steelworks or have him wondering off somewhere he wasn't suppose to go and get stuck in some mud. So him being voiced by a kid make some sense to me on how he's portrayed as a character and no it doesn't mean that I hate the idea of Thomas being portrayed with a young adult voice.

As with the songs, I hope it's only for the special and that they are integrated to the story because the songs that were in 'All Engines Go!' had never really felt that they were part of the story and were just only there for the sake of being there, hell some songs like 'This Was Unexpected' didn't have any connection to the story 'Hot Air Percy' because there was nothing, from my memory of watching the episode, about Percy wanting to watch the balloon show from a different perspective and most of the episode was about him and Thomas not to look inside their delivery which was the kraken balloon and then it was switched to that different perspective plot line after Percy was floating away. 

Which brings me to my other hope for this reboot. I hope the stories are written well, bring out tons of variety, considering the amount of characters that we are getting from the die-cast line of toys I hope we get a story for each of them. I also hope the show and its special lacks contradiction, I know it's a big ask but it was a huge problem for me when watching AEG like that time Thomas says he can't swim or plough fields when we see him in that episode and in previous episodes where he has the power to jump and then roll around the ground away from the railway line or how Percy and Kana were trying to make the railway safe when pretty much everything they did in the past was unsafe anyway and then it was forgotten about in future stories. To me those types of contradictions just shows they had no clear vision on what they want to do with AEG. I know this is me knocking on the previous show but I still have my grievances of it.

With the variety aspect, and I will be mentioning AEG here once again, but the previous show had stories that were boring, repetitive, like Thomas and Diesel being very competitive, and some that were so oddly written because it had no idea what it wants to say like that lost container episode from the last ever season. The other problem that I have with AEG's writing is having the characters stating the moral out loud to the audience instead of letting and trusting their young audience to digest it themselves. Kids are more intelligent than society had given them credit for and shouldn't be talked down. Overall I'm not expecting anything grand, bold or cinematic coming from this reboot. Just something that is good and entertaining for both the children and parents to sit through.

But the trailer had showcased things that I'd liked such as Thomas actually looking like himself again and acting like an actual engine pulling trucks and coaches, shunting etc. and it's not just him being an engine equivalent of an UberEats. Sure not all of it, as shown in the trailer, is 100% realistic, like Thomas taking a flat wagon of eggs, butter and milk with Bruno, but the show hadn't been railway realistic since 1998 going way back to the original show's fifth season. I also like how there are people living and interacting with the engines on Sodor like Farmer McColl, who got very buff for some reason. I also like how the Fat Controller, who looks a bit slim in the trailer, is back as the head of the railway and that we're getting female railway staff too! Something that reflects Mattel's way for this show of retaining the classic Thomas look while adding in some modernity. Plus the railway looks like an actual railway instead of what it was like in AEG.

Plus the new special's run time is 30mins, according to a Linkedln post. I don't know how they'll showcase the world in that short amount of time but I welcome that change after, and I can already feel the eyes rolling here from some people reading this, AEG's attempt at having 60mins specials. In short, because you can find my views about those specials here, Race for the Sodor Cup was mediocre, Lookout Mountain was better but was so drainingly exhausting to sit through when they didn't have a B-plot to take a break from the main story, Bubbly Build was OK with its tight focus and it's the only special that ran at 30mins and Christmas Letter Express and Sodor Sings Together were both bad as there was so much unnecessary padding that they could easily work them as episodes or half hour specials instead. I think they might showcase more world building and all in the 18 episodes of this show's first season.

 There also had been rumours that the show, I think, would take place from a child's perspective and how the sets as shown from the trailer has the vibes of a toy train set with how the buildings are placed and how they look. There was something like that from the 'Thomas' Brave Adventure' book that was released back in May this year and how a Mattel rep had said in an interview that the show will have something that a child and parent can relate too. So I think, if it's all true, we might see a live action scene to open up our story with a kid going through a situation and then after that we would guide our way into the world of Thomas through the child's imagination, kind of like how 'Shining Time Station' used to set up a Thomas story as an interval back in the day.

Also we got our first look at Deepak the Crane Truck and I do like how the show had given him a more realistic basis instead of some weird generic truck look with a crane attached to it. He looks nice and I look forward to see what his character will be in the special and the show, at least I hope he has a big part in it all. Also I love the little motif of the original S1-7 theme song in the trailer, easter egg to please older fans for sure but I love it. The title of the specials feels pretty Railway Series-esque and Bruno looks great in CGI! Also it looks like Mattel had finally ditched the idea of a US dub as the show, with this trailer being advertised towards an American audience, would have an entire UK dub. 

Some long time fans might be sad that after nearly 40 years since Thomas' American debut that there won't be a US dub but we are in the days where a child can have access to things like YouTube and could end up finding a video that was uploaded by a user in the UK, Australia, Japan, New Zealand wherever and kids can end up hearing a different accent that's very different from there own. 

Also we live in a world where a show like Bluey and Peppa Pig retain their own respective accents and end up become massive successes within the United States along with their, at least more to the former in my opinion, wonderful engaging stories and I hope Mattel had taken a few leaves from Bluey's book for the new reboot, and from the sounds of it from that interview I'd provided earlier it sounds like they would be doing that as they had complaints from parents about making Thomas too fast paced.  

All in all, the trailer looks good, the music sounds great, feels a bit laid back instead of it being too wacky and it looks like something promising. It already looks miles better than whatever AEG was suppose to be and I still remember my first reaction to the leaked sizzle reel that came out five years ago. But this new reboot does promise me that Thomas would act more like a train and wouldn't jump off the rails, go 360 degree or uses his wheels like hands. Sure there's the body movement but honestly, as cartoony as it looks in the new show, I'll take that any day! It might not be for everyone and that's OK and I hope for some people in this fandom that if someone is critical towards it just let them have that opinion instead of trying to tell them to 'move on' like what some had been trying to do towards critics of AEG while still not moving on from BWBA.  

Depending on when it'll be released in Australia, I presume it'll be broadcasted on the ABC, I'll be giving the special and episodes a watch and would give my own views about it here and like I did with AEG and BWBA, I want to give these episodes and this special a fair assessment. If it's good or bad I'll just say so. 

- NWR1991    

Thomas & Friends 2026...so far!

It had been a while. But I did say that when we get more info about the 2026 show I will write up my thoughts about it and here it is. Hope everyone had a great Christmas and I wish you all a very belated happy new year. So here are my thoughts of the new show so far. But first:

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

THOMAS & FRIENDS 2026...SO FAR!

In May 2025, in the lead up to the Railway Series' 80th anniversary, Mattel had announced that Thomas was to embark on a new and thrilling journey, thankfully, ending four years of 'All Engines Go!' During the course of the year we had seen little information of new character that were reveal through a trademark website and of course the mention of it being a new show through the 'Today' show in Australia and that was pretty much it from what I remember and some fans were hoping for it to be revealed at that year's MIPJunior event but nothing was revealed. But then came December as pictures of the new toys were leaked via Amazon Germany and Spain. 

The very first one I had come across with was Annie's push along toy and at first I thought it was weird that they gave her a grey face, like what they'd originally planned for her and Clarabel during S12's production before going forth with their faces embedded within their body. It made me feel off as well as her livery was looking more like her AEG counterpart where they were the same but weren't given their nameplates but that was until I'd noticed the A initial on her side. Then later on I came across Gordon and thought he looked amazing, especially with the dark shade of blue and began to think that maybe they were inspired by the Railway Series books. 

As I'd pointed out in my video about the 80th anniversary merch, the picture of Gordon at the end of 'Domeless Engine' is best example of the colour choice they gave to him. Other characters came out such as Henry, James and all and although I had some opinions on James' face, all the toys looked really good. But as more toys were being leaked, some people began to question whether their promo pictures were A.I inspired and therefore the show too. I do understand the fear of A.I because so many companies, big, small or medium, are so obsessed of using it as if it was some ground breaking technology. 

From my point of view, I always feel that regenerative A.I doesn't really come off as a ground breaking marvel no matter how hard 'techbros' or companies like Microsoft wants it to be. It's not that much of a marvel because it's being fed with art that was created by human, without consent, in the past through various forms of media and then vomit out its mangled 'creation' from the various codes it worked with. Plus some companies also want to have it used because it saves them money on hiring actual artists, writers, actors and all so that CEO's, like Bob Iger from Disney, can get more money by doing less of the hard work. There was that strike involving actors and writers a few years back because of it.

Not only that but it's severely unethical by taking people's likeness and use of their face or voice in videos without any consent and could be used for misinformation. It's pretty much identity theft at a much bigger level and it's of course environmentally unsafe with the amount of water and electricity it's wasting just so some people can call themselves an 'artist' by typing words on a keyboard instead of picking up a pencil or brush and draw the proper way. However, there are some examples of companies having ethical A.I like Adobe for example.

Mattel are also part of this obsession with regenerative A.I as they'd proudly proclaimed in June 2025 that they'd partnered with OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, for toys, experiences etc. When the push along line's packaging revealed the promo pics of the characters, the fandom just flat out written off the new show as A.I generated without any concrete evidence that it is. Some people had even gone on to use A.I detection sites and in the past I would rely on them without questioning it but started to look at some examples that people were posting through social media and one site would say it's 0.2% likely while another is 30% likely or whatever. It really made me question the trust that these websites have on whether it's A.I or not.

Thankfully Mattel had released a press release of the new show in January and there was not a single mention of it being made with A.I at all, I mean there was even concept drawing debunking that claim hard. If Mattel were to make this show A.I generated, I think they would've said so. Do you think a company, like Mattel, who'd publicly stated that they'd partnered with a company that started the A.I craze, would not tell anyone that it is made with that? A tech that's claimed to be a 'marvel' by many companies and overconfident morons, with meaningless blue checkmarks that also invest in meaningless digital cash, that would be a great bargaining tool to shareholders and investors? Think about it!

The promo pic that was first seen through the toy packaging of Thomas for his push along toy doesn't really feel A.I to me because it looks that good and I have seen people's A.I 'art' of Thomas through DeviantART and I'll say this with some honesty, they look bad. Some might've captured the CG Thomas look but some would come off with errors such as him having double traction rods, extra wheels, steam coming out of somewhere else other than his funnel, double windows, different paint, god awful proportions, etc. The promo pic provided by Mattel in their press release just looks too good to be A.I despite their partnership with OpenAI. 

Looking at the promo pic more closely the ground looks more photoshopped and as someone who uses photoshop for their own videos for nearly the past 15 years, there are very clear signs to show that such as the plants and shrubs having holes within them that was done with the magic cutting tool, the wall in the right hand corner looks like a real photograph that was cut up and placed there as well and if you look hard enough by zooming in the picture, you can still see some of the white spaces around some of the plants that were left from the original picture. A.I would never churn out something like that. Plus the sky and cloud look more painted as some A.I 'art' from DA gives it a more realistic setting. It's very clear that it's not A.I. 

Again, I understand that A.I slop is everywhere and that it can easily fool anyone who can't tell the difference. But jumping to the conclusion that something is A.I without any concrete proof makes you look more like a moron and would come off as highly insulting to people who had worked hard creating actual art that was made by their own hands, soul and mind. I don't like insulting random people on the internet by calling them names but if you call something A.I without any backing, and no detection sites, as I said before, aren't always going to be correct, you are going to come off as one. For a fandom that claims to have love for the show, the messages it'd given over the years seem to have gotten lost and there has been a history of the fandom jumping to conclusions when it comes to new content.

Now with that out of the way, here's my take on the new CGI Thomas look. One thing I will say is the face is fine. It looks AEG inspired with a touch of the original series add to it as well. I'm not really that fussed about the facial change as Thomas' face had been changing each season ever since the model era of the show and I believe had this been the revamped version of the show instead of AEG, they would've done that as part of its glow up. There was nothing wrong with the original look of Thomas' CG render but I think Mattel wants to change to give it a new start and to differentiate from the original series' CGI. That's my guess and no I'm not defending Mattel here by their own decision making.  

But apart from that I'm so glad that Mattel had gone back to the more iconic design of Thomas the Tank Engine instead of going forth with an even more pointless, unrecognisable mass departure design change like his AEG counterpart. There had been some few modifications done on him such as a larger number one with red shadow drop, a few rivets on his side tanks and splashers and grey wheel cranks, similar to how they look in the first picture of his book by Payne and Dalby as well as in the 1983 pilot. Now sure Mattel had said in their press release about 'timeless train detail' and 'train culture', whatever that suppose to mean, hopefully it means were see some aspect of railway realism, but of the course the clip that was provided had showcased Thomas still moving his body as shown in the original series from S21 and honestly it still doesn't bother me like in 2017. 

From what I remember hearing from Sodor Island Forums years back when 'Journey Beyond Sodor' was being released in 2017, kids had actually liked it and honestly, like I said back then, it gives the characters more expression despite them looking like and acting like a steam locomotives which gets rid a bit of the realism aspect. But the show back in its original form had thrown realism out of the window since 1998. If you want kids to experience the feeling of a real steam engine, encourage them to go to a heritage railway where the real thing is already there and who knows they might end up enjoying it. I think heritage railway would be pleased to see that. I had stated all the unrealistic moments the show had done in the past with some fans not batting an eyelid over it it in my first post about JBS in 2017, so I'll leave it here. I don't really see the harm in giving the engines any body expressions, 'Too Loud Thomas' is an excellent example on why it works, despite them being and acting like real engines and I'm glad that so far there hadn't been any sign of Thomas jumping up and down from the track like AEG. I'll take the body movement any day over whatever AEG was trying to do.

I will talk a bit about the toy's packaging for a bit. One, I'm glad they'd changed up the packaging similar to how it was in the Cars franchise, as the person and team in charge of it had worked on that line in the past. Two, I'm really glad with this one, but I love the fact that they'd placed as an 'As seen...' tag on the corner of the box to tell people on where to find the show to watch, which will be YouTube Kids in America, as a news show in the UK had confirmed that the show will be broadcasted on Channel 5 later in the year and Three, it had been confirmed that we are getting the likes of Rheneas, Edward, Bill, Bertie, S.C Ruffey, Bruno, I'm very happy that he still lives, and all are getting toys and are very likely to be part of the show too. I am so glad that we might be getting variety again instead of the same characters that were given different paint variants like what AEG did for the past four years.

The other thing is the lack of a Fisher Price logo that the toys had on its packaging in the past and instead it's given the Mattel logo too. Don't know what I think it means but some people think it's to make the Thomas toys more of a collectable range. Perhaps with Mattel's focus on Thomas towards families they might be pulling it away from the pre-school side of things? I don't know. 

That's all I have to say about the new show and all I can say is that I am optimistic but still at a cautious level. We'll probably know more about the new series in the coming months prior to its debut and I will get on reviewing them, though I might just wait until its run is done like I did with AEG. 

But now all I can say is that the classic Thomas look is back!

- NWR1991