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