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.
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.
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
