thomas and friends mini series

that count would about right, too. i estimate by the end of this year there will be close to 200 individual engines to collect. needless to say, my wallet is hoping against hope they dont go for another year.

is your count including not yet released items like the spongebob minis?

No, it doesn't include SpongeBob. It's just the trains with checkboxes next to them. I listed 31 other engines (including SpongeBob) in the "Coming soon?" dropdown, so that would be 184, but that still doesn't include some of the Wave 3 (and Wave 4?) engines that are likely coming (Creature Troublesome Truck and Classic Rosie and Belle are obviously missing), so I'd believe 200 by the end of the year.

Edit: I found 4 engines that are "Coming soon" on the wiki that I didn't have listed on my page (I'll add them later), so that makes 188, which matches your number!