Mattel Being Mattel

Wanted to make this thread so you can post what stupid things Mattel has done to ruin Thomas and Friends! I’ll start!!! Does the changing of the side rods bother anyone else as much as it bothers me? Of course there are many other examples of this but these were some of the worse ones! I also love how on Emily’s TrackMaster 2 box it says more realistic  

Their version of the steam along engines are most certainly a downgrade

Hmmmm....
There are so many that I really wouldn’t know where to begin, but I would have to say:
#1.Their decision to add that tab to the underside of the Revolution engines that prevents them from being compatible with Tomy Blue track.
They literally alienated an entire already established base of hobbyists, and eliminated any potential for future crossover success.
They’ve lost millions of dollars, while simultaneously losing million of fans.
Good job FisherPrice.

Very well said, Muddy! I really can't understand why they don't want my money.

Their version of the steam along engines are most certainly a downgrade

TOT I 100000% agree and I don’t love how the side rods on all the revolution models feel like they are 20x longer than the original TrackMaster ones!

If HiT was still making the toys we wouldn't be in a situation where people think a Trackmaster 2 Percy with extremely short cars and a very short tanker is a miracle

I'm going to be honest and just say that there's an alternate timeline where Hit never sold the license to TrackMaster and they continued with what they were doing.

Wish we were living in that timeline 

Sigh! In that timeline I would most certainly have Etienne and Philip, without "that tab on the underside that prevents them from being compatible with Tomy Blue track"* and the horrible spiky wheels!

What on earth are they doing? Here's a couple official pictures of the new "Thomas, Annie & Clarabel" trainset:



They made great faces of Annie and Clarabel, and then they put those nice bodies on those wheels! 
It's even worse when you look at it from this perspective:


What is this? It looks like a military vehicle or something like that. They completely ruined the look of the train. And, of course, with that "tab" on the bottom of the engine they made it useless for blue tracks. 

And why are they doing all this? Supposedly so the trains could run better on their impossible and ridiculous layouts (extremely steep slopes, silly walking bridges, jumping, flying etc.). And what's worse, even with those spiky wheels and everything, - those crazy sets with crazy features still don't always work as intended (trains derailing, can't manage uphill or such); many Youtube videos prove that. 


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*© Muddy

The whole reboot, that's all.