A question for Thomas the Tank Engine fans

I've just noticed a toy for my grandkids, it's boxed up but the contents are clearly shown on the outside. Thomas the Tank Engine 'Daring Dragon Drop'.

It appears that Thomas the Tank Engine, protected by a golden shield on his buffer beam, enters and erupting volcano, then heroically travels along a 'zip wire' in a vaguely dragon-shaped object until he reaches a green dragon's head, which he passes through before travelling along some sort of steep track.

I was wondering which of the of the works of the Rev. Wilbert Awdry this represents, and where on the mystical Isle of Sodor the active volcano is located?

I look forward to seeing Gordon transform into a giant robot and battling mutant trout above the Angel Falls.

Neil

P.S. Google reveals the even more entertaining fact that a popular fantasy computer game has the option of replacing all the dragons with Thomas and friends. The images of a flame-belching Thomas ravaging hapless villages make the worst excesses of Nogbad the Bad seem trivial. Only Ivor the Engine can help us now...

I bought the Northern Rail version, when I opened the box it contained a replacement bus.

I find the modern perversion of the Thomas books very distressing. Anything not written by the Rev should be banned, and heretical books burned.

Indeed. My Dad bought a boxed set for my son a fair few years ago, not cheap, well over a 100 quid, but all 26 original hardback books by the Rev Awdry inc original illustrations. Very very nice set. We had a lot of laughs reading the books together, and obviously, the pictures hark back to a different, marvelous time....

From memory, Thomas did have to collect some trucks from the Eerie Coal Mine once.

Another punishment for having been naughty, I expect.

Seems to me to take place on two other islands, connected by an orange plastic overhead rail.

I suppose this might totally scramble the grandkids' idea of what drag & drop actually means?

Well, perhaps it would if the thing had any prospect of securing more than about 10 minutes' interest once assembled - it's a most absolute one-trick pony.

Here's all you could ever wanna know:-

**LINK**

... in fact, probably pretty much all there is to know.

Except, maybe, how desperate was the state of the mind of the designer to come up with such an idea.

Edited By Mick B1 on 24/09/2018 09:06:55

I can see why someone took advantage of the opportunity to increase sales by mentioning Thomas and Friends.

I am having difficulty with the latest series which is trying to balance the gender and ethnicity. The new female characters include Isla, an Australian flying doctor; Hong-mei, a number 1 blue tank engine from China; and Churubala, a female railway controller from India. Then there's Nia from South Africa.

Not sure what the Rev would have made of all that? No Edward anymore.

Apparently Thomas and friends had been giving a bad example to children. Not sure if there are still naughty trucks - they gave a bad example too?

Just in case you think I should have grown out of this by now - I have a 3YO grandson!

Politically corrected, the Fat Controller has been renamed Mr Topman

I think he was always known as 'Sir Topham Hat'...

Only in the USA version

Huh. What started as gentle, local entertainment for children with stories of an infrastructure institution they'd easily recognise has developed to a riproaring global revenue stream.

You could've expected changes.

Well the real fat controller was based on the late Rev Teddy Boston. A real gentleman and steam enthusiast with a railway around the rectory grounds!

ArrrrrrrgH! Can we have a specification for committing Hari-Kari please?

Disgustingly elitist and sexist. Surely it should be an LGYBQRT named Egalitarianperson.

Thomas the Heretic Engine

Gentle entertainment for children? 'The Sad Story of Henry' and cruel punishments in other stories suggest otherwise!

After Henry won't come out of a tunnel because he's afraid rain will spoil his paint job, the Fat Controller has him bricked up inside permanently. 'We shall take away your rails, and leave you here for always and always'. Nice!

In other stories Bulgy Bus is turned into a hen-house for merely being critical of railways, a naughty Guard's Van is smashed to bits, and the bolshy behaviour in Troublesome Trucks is crushed and their leader executed.

It's tempting to suggest Wilbert and Christopher Awdry were fascists but I think the stories are more aimed at the vicarious delight children take in cruelty, terror and punishment. Fairy tales are full of horrors, Jim Hawkins is chased up a mast by knife wielding Israel Hands, who falls off, Biggles is nearly killed at least once per chapter, and Tom Sawyer leaves Indian Joe to starve in a cave. The record for on screen deaths (212,470, making 'The Wild Bunch' look like 'Salad Days' is held by Lord of the Rings films, and Tolkein wrote the books for children...

I don't see any objection to Thomas encountering Dragons and Volcanos : if you believe in Sodor anything is possible!

Dave

It's all comparative. Second World War was recent memory. Bricking up Henry? Minor stuff - and it wasn't permanent.

And I don't have any particular objection to Thomas encountering dragons etc. - it's just that that toy is so boring. It just does one thing over and over again.

I can just see the grandchildren about 10 o'clock on Christmas morning, sighing with their chins in their hands after watching Thomas whizz down the orange rail for the umpteenth time, staring out the window, wondering when lunch'll be ready...

You didn't really buy it for your grandkids did you Neil .

It may be that Thomas is reaching the end of his career? Often they start taking rough trade, jobs they would never have accepted in their prime.
Desperate merchandising deals, appearing in ads.
Then it's substance abuse and a downward spiral.
In and out of rehab, bankruptcy....

Lots of engines on the scrap heap