Hero of the rails model series logo

[GreatGordonFan]

Hero of the rails was originally going to be a model series special  (season 12 style). Sam Barlow even comfirmed it. But when the script was finished, they decided to switch to full cgi as they did not have the budget to make another model series special. Even so, on some early 2009 trackmaster packaging, you can see the original logo, which features a model thomas with a CGI face. As far as I'm aware, this logo has not been seen anywhere else

[Super]

Will we ever see animated series using real models again? They were the best in my opinion. CGI has evolved into ruining things imo including a lot of Hollywood movies.

[GreatGordonFan]

@Super Actually yes. Mat and Pat is a Czech stop motion TV series about 2 neighbours, who are best friends,  that always find the most impractical solutions to simple problems. It is truly hillarious. The best part about it is that there is no dialogue, so anyone can understand it. Here is a link to one of my favourite episodes where the two have trouble with a frozen chicken and instead of just waiting for it to defrost, they do all sorts of ridiculous things like trying to defrost it with a blow torch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPXg9gUWS20



Mat (right)  Pat (Left)

[Super]

I don't see the stop motion/claymation, on the same level as using real models in animation although I think that the master of stop motion, Ray Harryhausen was a genius.   I do see claymation as a funny vessel for comic shorts like the one you linked to. It takes a special person a lot of time, experience and talent to pull it off well.

[Tons of Trackmasters]

Hero of the rails was originally going to be a model series special  (season 12 style). Sam Barlow even comfirmed it. But when the script was finished, they decided to switch to full cgi as they did not have the budget to make another model series special. Even so, on some early 2009 trackmaster packaging, you can see the original logo, which features a model thomas with a CGI face. As far as I'm aware, this logo has not been seen anywhere else

I was literally making a video about that lol! very interesting situation, how much of the movie was made with models? I guess we will never know 

[GreatGordonFan]

@Tonsoftrackmasters On the ttte wiki it says that the resin faces for hiro and kevin were for their merchandise, however it said that Victor's would have been for his model. No one really knows the truth. Some people say no because it does not have eye hole is in, although I don't think it would have been necessary as the characters would have had CGI faces, so it may have been for background shots.

P.S I heard that Hiro was originally going to be blue and also someone on a youtube comment (the video was about Gannons post talking about HOTR and Molly's prototype faces, the video was deleted for some reason) said that they heard a rumor that the production team were considering reusing Murdoch's model for Hiro. The latter is just a rumor, IDK if it's true or not (sounds realistic).

[Tons of Trackmasters]

hmmm, it would have been THE big movie they probably wouldn't re use models... it is quite the interesting movie for sure...plus the Trackmaster flip face talking engines had different packaging before the movie came out including a different name for the engines and different faces for the promo images....

[GreatGordonFan]

That 'promo image' is actually a little plastic mirror in the box. I honestly prefer the colours and style of the original logo.

[Tons of Trackmasters]

(the video was about Gannons post talking about HOTR and Molly's prototype faces, the video was deleted for some reason) 

Must be Moonbug Mattel striking it down...

[GreatGordonFan]

@TonsofTrackmasters But why would mattel strike it down? It's not like it contained any copyrighted footage. It was just Gannons Post talking to images of Hiro , victor and kevin's faces and molly's prototype faces. BTW HOTR was planned to be the final model series production.

[Tons of Trackmasters]

hmmm...In that case I really don't know...

[GreatGordonFan]

Something interesting I would like to say is that my dad thinks that the running out of budget may not have been the only reason why they switched to cgi. Since HOTR was going to be the last model series production anyway, he thinks that they wanted to switch to cgi because it was becoming very popular amon shows : a trend. So they switched to cgi to be like every other show out there (like the unlucky tug said: thomas is losing it's idenity).

[GreatGordonFan]

I also noticed that the 'helping hook kevin' pack never had the model series logo (as a matter of fact I the lost and found hiro did not either.), however, the 'Hiro good as new' and 'victor at the steamworks did.'  Also on the wiki it never says if there were plans to build a kevin model. This begs the qestioon about was kevin even originally planned to be in the movie.

[GreatGordonFan]

Also something I need to say: Someone named Mason Dey on twitter originally found the logo, but I later realised it was from a trackmaster pack because of the patterns on the blue part.
Here is the tweet:
https://twitter.com/MasonDey1/status/133...60/photo/2