See that's the problem. People will keep adding characters to the list from different corners of the Thomas franchise and want them to be made even though they may not have thought of the characters at first instant and some might not even be that interested in having a toy of them. I know I've never been that keen on having a TrackMaster Spiteful Brakevan.
I do not like talking much about items which haven't been made but consider I've barely done it over my time on this forum, I will allow this opportunity to do so.
We have been very fortunate to have had so many engines made over the last 23 years in these Thomas ranges. Over the first ten years of the Plarail Thomas line since 1992, all Tomy could really do was catch-up on most of the characters seen in the show. Since Gordon's release in 1995, there was more effort into the making of the three-car configuration packs with original rolling stock that was seen in the TV series. This ensured there was at least one new truck which matched on screen, some of these being new faces for Troublesome Trucks.
Looking back, a clear omission to the line-up was Daisy. I theorize that there was some thought over all the engines that had appeared in the show, and perhaps Daisy not really pulling anything prevented her production in the three-car packs, since it wouldn't look right, and we'd seen some identical looking rolling stock like the Milk Tanker already. Even though Lady, Diesel 10, and Dodge and Splatter were never seen pulling anything, they were all key characters introduced in Thomas and the Magic Railroad and had priority getting a release, and matching coloured trucks just must've looked good and special. After these releases, new TV series were coming out and this meant that new characters were more of a priority, and there would be simply no time or space in the yearly product line-up to go back over old characters.
By the time 2006 came, Mighty Mac, the first noticeably new narrow gauge engine had already appeared in the show, and because of being a new character, this opened up the previously unthought of idea to produce the narrow gauge engines like Skarloey and Rusty, as they of course, run on differently sized tracks in the show.
Moving away from the history, with toys, there needs to be a point in making these characters so that they can be ensured to sell. Characters like Thomas, Percy, and James need to have lots made since they are main characters and prominently recognisable to children. If you start producing toys like City of Truro, Flying Scotsman, and the Class 40 Diesel, they are going to be leastly recognised by a lot of kids and parents, and there's less of a priority to go out to buy them as opposed to buying engines like Gordon, and will thus, sell less, providing wasted shelf space and costs in producing.
We can however, sometimes get slightly obscure characters when there is space available or benefits from a DVD release but they'll only come in a short batch that would last about a year. The toylines in the 90s were very different since Thomas was rising during that decade and the cast of characters were big, but it wasn't like the endless churning of characters we get today that causes many of them like Molly and Neville to get left behind. There was also no time back then to even think about making episode-specific variants of engines. The TrackMaster range in 2009 did have some space to bring in some new characters, but it benefitted from Duke and Bertram as well as 'Arry and Bert sharing the same shapes.
Nowadays, we've seen a drastly reduced Plarail Thomas and Thomas TrackMaster line and I feel it is going to largely stay that way. Fisher-Price can really only spare attention to the core characters and some new characters, with a returning release occuring here and there, and the prime focus of the TrackMaster Revolution line is setting up all those actiony tracks and having the engines whizz around them rather than making specific Sodor locations and acting out stories. Some of the latest characters which have missed out on an opportunity to be made have I believe, really come down to the amount of products the line could have, and finding ways to insert Thomas or another core character into the theme with a special twist.
I do not like talking much about items which haven't been made but consider I've barely done it over my time on this forum, I will allow this opportunity to do so.
We have been very fortunate to have had so many engines made over the last 23 years in these Thomas ranges. Over the first ten years of the Plarail Thomas line since 1992, all Tomy could really do was catch-up on most of the characters seen in the show. Since Gordon's release in 1995, there was more effort into the making of the three-car configuration packs with original rolling stock that was seen in the TV series. This ensured there was at least one new truck which matched on screen, some of these being new faces for Troublesome Trucks.
Looking back, a clear omission to the line-up was Daisy. I theorize that there was some thought over all the engines that had appeared in the show, and perhaps Daisy not really pulling anything prevented her production in the three-car packs, since it wouldn't look right, and we'd seen some identical looking rolling stock like the Milk Tanker already. Even though Lady, Diesel 10, and Dodge and Splatter were never seen pulling anything, they were all key characters introduced in Thomas and the Magic Railroad and had priority getting a release, and matching coloured trucks just must've looked good and special. After these releases, new TV series were coming out and this meant that new characters were more of a priority, and there would be simply no time or space in the yearly product line-up to go back over old characters.
By the time 2006 came, Mighty Mac, the first noticeably new narrow gauge engine had already appeared in the show, and because of being a new character, this opened up the previously unthought of idea to produce the narrow gauge engines like Skarloey and Rusty, as they of course, run on differently sized tracks in the show.
Moving away from the history, with toys, there needs to be a point in making these characters so that they can be ensured to sell. Characters like Thomas, Percy, and James need to have lots made since they are main characters and prominently recognisable to children. If you start producing toys like City of Truro, Flying Scotsman, and the Class 40 Diesel, they are going to be leastly recognised by a lot of kids and parents, and there's less of a priority to go out to buy them as opposed to buying engines like Gordon, and will thus, sell less, providing wasted shelf space and costs in producing.
We can however, sometimes get slightly obscure characters when there is space available or benefits from a DVD release but they'll only come in a short batch that would last about a year. The toylines in the 90s were very different since Thomas was rising during that decade and the cast of characters were big, but it wasn't like the endless churning of characters we get today that causes many of them like Molly and Neville to get left behind. There was also no time back then to even think about making episode-specific variants of engines. The TrackMaster range in 2009 did have some space to bring in some new characters, but it benefitted from Duke and Bertram as well as 'Arry and Bert sharing the same shapes.
Nowadays, we've seen a drastly reduced Plarail Thomas and Thomas TrackMaster line and I feel it is going to largely stay that way. Fisher-Price can really only spare attention to the core characters and some new characters, with a returning release occuring here and there, and the prime focus of the TrackMaster Revolution line is setting up all those actiony tracks and having the engines whizz around them rather than making specific Sodor locations and acting out stories. Some of the latest characters which have missed out on an opportunity to be made have I believe, really come down to the amount of products the line could have, and finding ways to insert Thomas or another core character into the theme with a special twist.
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