I got on here to see if anyone was talking about Thomas and his friends....my son is suddenly addicted to this show and could probably watch it all day long if I let him. It is driving me crazy. The show is kind of freaky and the trains are always yelling at each other!!!!!!!!!!!!! Help......anyone out there to process this????

My girlfriend's three year old son loves any and all things Thomas. My understanding is that there are actually several different series floating around out there. I recently Tivo'd a few of them for the little guy, and nearly went insane as the theme song repeated itself endlessly in my brain.

I do find the thought of sentient trains slightly disturbing, although I'm mainly hung up on what a jerk that Gordon is. And the fact that one of the underlying themes of the show seems to be "burning coal is the best idea ever."

They're two, they're four, they're six, they're eight . . .

I watched the show for a bit this weekend and it freaked me the hell out. I used to love Shining Time Station as a kid, but I never liked the Thomas segments. I fail to see the appeal, but hell, if kids like JayJay the Jet Plane, why not Thomas?

Glad to see that others find this FREAKYYYYY! The newer ones are not quite as bad - but still a bit painful to watch. My son is now running around our house singing "Thomas, he's the cheeky one". I actually miss the Wiggles!!!!

Not only is the TV show bad, but then you have to go buy all the trains that he wants at $12 a pop! Geezzz! These people have quite the business going. Train tables and supplies are crazy expensive!!!

I think I am going to add some Thomas DVDs to my netflix queue and hope we find some that aren't as bad!!!!

Oy, my cousin's oldest son is Thomas-obsessed, with the middle child on his way, and while it makes them easy enough to shop for, that stuff is incredibly expensive!

It's a weird show, but it's grown on me (my 4YO boy loves it). However, I was definitely creeped out when Sir Top 'Em Hat (sp?) prefaced an announcement with "Ladies, Gentlemen and Engines."

Suggestion: One can purchase a terrific train table with tracks and accessories (and two large trundle drawers underneath) for $118 in Costco...and the Thomas line trains fit on it! That's much better than the $500 or so that one must shell out for something "authentic" but not even equivalent.

Close! It's Sir Topham Hat. I only know that cause I'm going on boy #2 liking Thomas-I've got about 5 years on this character!

Yes, though, the train table deal! We got ours at Sams Club-Costco carries them too, but both only carry them from August-December for Christmas. I think even Toys 'R Us sells the cheap one. Target has all the wooden tracks, trains accessories sold by their own kids Target brand.

Back to the series, is it back on TV? Several years ago, they used to show it on PBS. Then they took it off and I've only seen it on tape/DVD since then.

What I don't get is George Carlin narrating it! The whole premise of Thomas was written by a Reverend. Not that the narrator should be a church goer, George Carlin just seems an odd choice. I love the older ones, though, where Ringo Starr narrates. His British accent just adds to the whole British-Thomas feel. And I have to admit, I LOVE the theme song. It really just makes me want to dance. Hee! Everytime I hear it I can picture my now "cool" 6 year old son as a small toddler jumping up and down "dancing" to it. Makes me realize how fast they grow. *Sniff*!

2 Novembers ago (in 2003), we went to "Day Out With Thomas". If this comes to your town, go see it! We drove to Austin, Texas which is a little over an hour, but made it a little trip since it was downtown, got a hotel and had a fun weekend. It's a Thomas convention. They dress a real train up as Thomas and then you go for a ride. It goes real slow, but a couple of miles. There's a huge line to wait in to take a picture in front of Thomas, which we didn't do, but I got a picture of my oldest son (youngest was too scared) with Sir Topham Hat. They have Thomas themed activities for the kids and of course shopping for Thomas merchandise. They carry anything and everything Thomas there. I got a really cool Thomas lunch box for my youngest, he started school this year and uses it and all the other 3 year olds think it's pretty cool! I can't remember the exact address to see where the tour goes, but if you go to Thomas' official site, there's a link for "Day Out With Thomas".

If it helps, I do remember him playing Mr. Conductor (replacing Ringo) on Shining Time Station. But I have no idea really why they picked him for that show in the first place. It's still a mystery to me.

I happened to catch this show last weekend and saw that it literally is all Thomas and his pals. I sort of miss the Shining Time Station elements, like the jukebox with the puppets inside. (But not the annoying Schemer guy.) In the particular episode I saw, Thomas derailed because he went too fast around the "difficult bend." They didn't mention anything about anyone getting hurt at all - I know he was pulling passenger cars. But this is a children's show, so you can't really mention that, lest they scar any kids for life. And the narration always says "on the island of Sodor." Must be a big island to rely a lot on trains. This show does have good production values (I like the steam details and such) but I couldn't help but think that the set could be like a giant model train display. Like, say, their overpriced line of toys. Heh, I must stop thinking too much about these things.

We're now seeing Thomas on PBS Kids via DirecTV (I'm on Long Island, but that shouldn't matter)...sometime in the middle of the day. We've had that channel for a couple of years, but Thomas popped up only very recently.

I've always believed that the set IS a giant model train display. Isn't it?

Once I start thinking about the implications of, say, living life as a coach, or how genders of vehicles are established, or why freight cars seem to be certifiably insane, or just about anything involving the amazing life of Sir Topham Hat (thanks, txmom2boys), I know I'm in trouble for the rest of the day. The Island of Sodor is existential.

At a recent family function, all of the attending male relatives (including me) spent the majority of the time watching Thomas videotapes. Must be a guy-train thing.

George Carlin...personality points? I agree that it's an odd choice...I keep waiting for him to lapse into philosophy or some riff on sex toys or what have you. However, someone named Michael Brandon is now narrating the American version. I found out this and other bizarre episode notes (e.g., "Henry's face with his eyes shut is shown again. It first appeared in 'Whistles & Sneezes.'", and "Harvey speaks in the American version") at this site.

My 2 1/4 year old nephew loves trains. All trains. So yes, he has some Thomas trains. But he doesn't watch a lot of TV, so he's not too keen on the show. He likes the Gordon train best. As a train, not necessarily a character.

This has been bothering my husband for months - "how big can this island be????" We seem to be shifting back and forth between the Wiggles and Thomas in my house. Thomas is on here on weekends - Sundays I think - on PBS. So we have added many episodes to the TIVO.

My son also seems to LOVE Gordon which worries me a bit since he is such an ass. All the trains are kind of whiney pisses at times - and always crashing!!!

The other day I was at work and my boss said something along the lines of "this is causing a lot of confusion"...and I said...outloud..."You have caused confusion and delay". Everyone looked at me like...huh? And I said...opps...wrong environment, sorry.

That website is WEIRD! I found this as a description for one of the show....
This is the first time we see the Fat Controller in his pyjamas.

And there's another note about the Fat Controller wearing a bathing suit.

Gordon's a little pompous, I guess, but it's good that your son at least thinks big, jenifaohjenny.

Mine likes Thomas best, which I guess is convenient. His Thomas-themed 5th birthday party (at a place that holds Thomas parties all the time) is in a couple of weeks.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I would've preferred that the more familiar trains be further developed, rather than the addition of all of those new train characters. But considering the $$ that seems to extend from each new train, I didn't have a prayer.

Two years ago I got a table like this at Wal-Mart for $49. Lots of tracks on which the slightly bigger version of the trains fit, (although my son still manages to use the smaller die-cast ones on it too), with storage under two boards that lift up, which also have board games on one side. Plus, it fits under the bed.

If any of your kids want a Thomas "bible", go here and order a catalogue. These people carry Thomas EVERYTHING. I signed up for a catalogue a few years back, they still send them to me. My 3 year old LOVES it. He'll just sit and look through it-probably dreaming of all the toys he can get. They even have Thomas birthday party supplies.

Whew. You know, in a moment of panic, I thought you were talking about actual Thomas-themed Bibles. Can you picture it: Thomas is leading the Israelites out of Egypt; they're wandering for years in the desert; and God booms at Thomas, "You have caused confusion and delay!"

That's very funny, Al. And I suppose the angels are singing "He's a really useful engine, you know...."

Hee Al! Too funny. I guess I should have reworded that! I call any book that someone worships and looks at constantly their "bible". Not to be confused with the real Bible, of course!

The Thomas the Tank Engine stuff is expensive, but very very durable. My son's TTTE collection (trains, track, accessories, table, etc...) probably represent my single largest asset on my personal balance sheet but he played with the stuff everyday for YEARS. Now his little sister plays with it too.

I know it is tidier to have the table and a set layout, but my son has developed great spatial skills from configuring track layouts (and I must admit that I have become obsessed a few times with creating a layout given the limitations of space and pieces on hand at a given time).

The Day Out with Thomas is a family tradition - we head out to the Orange Empire Railway Museum (Southern CA) to see it every November. I would recommend getting tickets for the earliest ride of the day. Fewer people want to get up at the crack of dawn to schlep out to see this, but the kids tend to get better seat selection on the train and more time to look at the displays without being crowded out.

I loved both George Carlin and Ringo as Mr. Conductor. While it was shocking at first to see Carlin in the role, he did a great job and only adults familiar with his comedy would be taken aback. I have had to curb my son's desire to see more of his body of work though.

I saw a lot of Shining Time Station as a kid, and I often remember the mini segments of use Thomas in between shows as filler time. I liked the Station plots better and just how the conductor whether it be George Carlin or Ringo (loved them both) interacting. I liked their narrative. I remember one ep when the kids went back in time. I remember not knowing when the show was suppose to take place because since when was there a nickel arcade and a train station in the present day.

The train stories themselves were not as engaging to me. I liked Thomas. I remembered how they all had personalities. I liked them so much better as part of the STS shows than by themselves. I wanted a train set that's for sure. It always bugged me when the trains talked to (were talked to) by the little villagers/kids. It was so uninteractive.

My 2.5 year old son is now a Thomas junkie. Mr. eejm and I are also perplexed about the size of Sodor. It looks to be three miles across from the map shown at the beginning of each episode (yes, I know it's not scale), but it has a coal mine, a chocolate factory, ice cream factory, mountains, several towns, etc. And why Sodor? Did the author ever explain if the name has a significance?

We've begun TiVo-ing the episodes daily. To me, this show is a welcome change from The Wiggles, Caillou, or Jay Jay the Jet Plane (that cartoon is EVIL!). It's a sweet show, but not hurt-your-teeth-icky-cute. I'd love to see how the show is filmed and how the sets are built.

A tip to anyone looking to get a deal on the wooden engines? Special 60th anniversary DVDs are on the market which include one wooden engine. I didn't even realize when I picked one up (I think it was The Best of Henry, since it included the Henry engine) that it was one of the nice wooden engines until my son opened it up. The DVD and engine were just $12.99 together at Target. I've seen the engines alone sell for more than that.

In our family, we are partial to Alec Baldwin as the narrator. It's interesting how actors get involved in doing voiceover work like this.

There are also videotapes with the trains on them as well.

We did the Day out with Thomas in '05 and my son loved it. I'm sure we'll have to do it again this year.

My son does have one of the tables but his Rescue Hero Center is on it now. He builds the track on his floor and goes under his bed and comes back out and calls it a tunnel.

My two little boys are obsessed with Thomas. OBSESSED. We have a gigantic crate of trains, track and accessories. We got straight track, wiggly track, wacky track and extender tracks, bridges, tunnels, coal cars and washing stations. They got this big-ass Cranky the Crane thing for X-mas. I spend half an hour every night putting that crap away. Can't you tell how much I love it?

Eh, it's okay, it encourages the boys to be creative and even my little girl likes fiddling with the stuff. The television show is pretty uptight, I think, and lacking in real warmth and not very funny but it's simple and the kids like it. My husband and I are always making fun of the apparent drive to reinforce the social class system (Make yourself useful! Everyone has a preordained place in society!). Come the revolution, Sir Topham Hatt, it's your back against the wall.

Anyone ever see the absolutely bizarre and heinous Thomas movie from a few years ago? It is SO awful but again, inexplicably, the kids like it.

We don't have as much as it sounds like your boys have but my son and I spend lots of time picking it up.

My dining room IS the Island of Sodor. And, after I finish this post, I have to make sure Diesel 10 is off the tracks because he will cause confusion and delay during the night.

My mom recently bought a train table with 6 bins and accessories (tracks & shit) at a garage sale, all in great shape for 20 bucks!!! That table alone sells for 300, and some do not include bins!

We went to Day Out with Thomas, and actually all had a great time seeing the look on my son's face, but...as we neared the "merchandise" tent I was thinking a huge cha-ching! We also have towles, pillows, t-shirts etc. Someone is really doing well cause of that really useful money-making engine!

But, I say, look for stuff at garage sales. If it's decent shape, it is so worth it.

It's scary that I know all the songs. It's funny that the narrator was George Carlin. The "real" ones I'd like to say... hehe. No offense to the absolutely adorable Alec Baldwin.




This is an actual place? Eeeee! Where? Then, how do I get there? ...hehe. Look at this... I'm more excited than the kids. :D


I seriously hope Thomas the Tank Engine never becomes dated. *sob* That would be such a lose. I say make every child watch the blue aniversary tape/DVD... hehe. Get them hooked, then, Thomas can't ever go away. I love Thomas. Yes, I'm two. :D

We went a couple weeks ago, and it was a lot of fun. The only thing about the merchandise tent was that, at least where we visited (the North Carolina Transportation Museum) there was a sign up saying profits were going to the museum, which is a non-profit AND doesn't charge admission fees. So we bought a few things. :) (The only thing we *had* to pay for the day was the actual Thomas tickets, unlike some other places.)

We went to this in Grapevine back in May, and our two kids (4yr old and 2 yr old) got a serious kick out of it. My wife and I both had the "oh no" grin when we saw the extent of the merchandise section, but neither kid was too interested in buying much, more interested in trying to play with it there. It was definitely more fun for them, but it was a great thing to take them to, and we'll probably do it again next year. We bought our tickets like 6-7 weeks in advance, and I'm glad we did. Another friend of ours tried to buy some about 3 weeks before hand and they were already sold out. There's one in Austin next month also, but I doubt we'll go to that one.

sallyreardon

Well, it's kind of a rolling tour across the country. Here is the link that has the info...look to the bottom. Or, just Google Day Out With Thomas and dive into the world of fun!
Day Out

My son is a Thomas freak - we went to Day Out with Thomas over the summer, and he was a little young for it, but seemed to have fun. I was worried he'd get scared by the ginormous Sir Topham Hatt, but he took it in stride and we got a cute picture.

Can anyone tell me why the drivers even exist? The trains run off the rails or crash into something in EVERY episode, and the drivers do nothing to prevent these daily catastrophes. The trains go as slow or as fast as they want, get pushed around by the maniacal freight cars, cause MASSIVE confusion and delay. The drivers are completely useless, which I guess is why Sir Topham Hatt never comes down on them for anything and the engines get all the blame. It's crazy - why even have them? I need to know these things.

With the drivers, its probably the transportation code on the Island of Sodor, you know that legally the engines have to have drivers. I guess Topham Hatt has power, but he's not bold enough to take on local government.

I think there must be subliminal messages embedded in this show, because I am starting to enjoy watching them with my 2 year old girl. She is totally obsessed. Our household is also partial to the Baldwin eps- Lady Hatt's birthday, with Baldwin's falsetto Lady Hatt voice is a classic ep IMO.

I would love to see how this is filmed. Are the trains really models? They don't look like animation or CGI to me. If they are models, I would kill to see how big they are etc.

Man- I sound as crazy as my toddler about this . . .


ETA: Thanks Rabrab!!! Very interesting article. It seems a little creepy that all those extra faces are laying around in a giant studio somewhere.

How stuff works -- Thomas the Tank Engine.
In short, they're O-scale models (1:32 scale), the sets are 16' x 20' layouts, and since 2003 they've been shot in digital video and computer edited. Before that, they were filmed on 35mm film using a periscope lens on the camera.

Very cool article, Rabrab! We were visiting my folks and had to bring the Thomas DVDs, and when my brother saw them he couldn't believe that people were making money off this show. I will have to send him that link so he can make some money of his own.

MonaLisaVito, "Lady Hatt's Birthday Party" has "Keep until I delete" status in our house. Not only is Baldwin's Lady Hatt voice great, but his Caroline the Car always cracks us up - "Ah'm hot! Mah engine will ovah-heet!" I think he's my favorite narrator - don't really like Michael Brandon much.

That was an interesting article, Rabrab. I was kinda wondering the other day about how it's all done.

I also highly recommend going on Day Out with Thomas. The one here in Utah was awesome. We got our picture with Thomas, met Sir Topham Hatt, fed animals at a petting zoo, and got a Thomas temporary tattoo that my son loved and tried valiantly to keep dry. Some of the best money I've ever spent.

I just saw my first episodes with Alec Baldwin and I actually like Michael Brandon more (though I adore Alec on 30 Rock).

I'm thrilled to find other adults who deal with Thomas on a daily basis. My son is 3 and loves him so much. And seriously, eBay has saved me sooo much money on stuff for him - I got Gordon for like $12 incl. shipping. I've had to promise not to buy anything on eBay that's Thomas-related for 3 months.

Sir Topham Hatt kinda freaks me out. And why are they all so worried about being scrapped? I just wonder if some nasty stuff went down and some of the engines' friends are missing.....

Red and green and brown and blue....

I'm a grown up who has been collecting Thomas for 10 years or so. It started after having a child with autism in my class at day care and the only thing that would calm him was "ToTo".

The new narrator of the new shows..... Pierce Brosnan! Something for the kids, something for the moms.

Here is a page about the whole layout of the Island of Sodor.

I didn’t know they were making new ones. Thank goddess because I’ve seen Toby’s Windmill one too many times. Although, I can watch the one where they take all the chickens out of Bertie the Bus and put him back into service over and over again. We have been watching Thomas on Sprout here in DC, but just recently found it on another station- MPT or something, and instead of commercials between episodes, they have learning type games. It’s kind of nice because Sprout runs the same 5 or 6 commercials all the time and it drives me nuts.

I can see Brosnan being a good narrator, but I fear he will lack the snarky tone I love from Baldwin. He *is* the voice of Sir Topham Hatt in our house.

We have our tickets for Day Out with Thomas in Cumberland Maryland. My parents and sister are meeting us there because everyone is anxious to see whether my daughter’s head will actually explode when she sees a “real” Thomas.

George Carlin narrating is the only thing that keeps the adult members of our household sane. We crack up every time we hear him say "Peter Sam had been naughty"

So to make a confession, lately when I need 5-7 minutes of peace, I've been letting my son watch a clip from "Thomas and Friends" on utube. Sigh, of this, I am not proud. I usually just pick one at random. One day, I selected one where Gordon's express cars and/or Gordon himself falls off the tracks. He keeps asking for it and I have no idea what the title is or how I even got it for him the first time. Does anyone know the title? Thanks! My son thanks you in advance.

"Gordon takes a dip", maybe? Henry has taken the express, and Gordon's in a snit because they want him to take a special train of freight cars. He winds up in a ditch full of water...

Rabrab - Thank you! That sounds very promising. I'll try it out tomorrow and see if it works with the boy.

Ooooh, why didn't I visit this thread earlier? I've got two train-obsessed boys (2 and 4) but I admit to enjoying Thomas, too, and being envious of the models used to shoot the show (thanks, rabrab!).

But I never knew about any Alec Baldwin involvement with the show other than the theatrical film; now I'm dying to hear his narration (and voices). Forgive the anti-Yankee bias here, but I think Michael Brandon royally sucks. If I wanted a nebbishy Jewish New Yawk voice, then just hire Woody Allen and get on with it. How depressing! I always thought that having narrators as wildly non-traditional as Ringo and Carlin was a fantastic touch; Carlin -- as much as I love his decidedly non-child-friendly standup, was remarkably adept at his avuncular delivery.

So, needless to say, I'm excited that Brosnan's taking over. Thomas is still a quintessentially British series, despite some American liberties; it'll be good to hear an English (well, Irish, at least) accent again.

Glad to jump back into this thread. I actually saw an episode of this over the weekend when I was sick. I'm too keen on Brandon myself, but I grew up with Ringo Starr and George Carlin as my conductors. I really look forward to Pierce Brosnan's take on the series because he does have a good voice.

Better than eBay has been garage sales for us! Nobody scream at me here, but, I got a fairly new/good condition Thomas Table complete with 6 bins filled with lots of tracks, assorted trains and bridges etc. for the low low price of 20 bucks. A few weeks later, found another one for my nephew with just about the same deal. Only un-problem, had to spend 10 dollars less. Not to mention a bunch of DVDs, a new Thomas Robe and other train accoutrements that have stocked my child's toy room. Best thing, no shipping but it does take many weekends to find it all.

Thank goodness the kids are still into Thomas. I just wish they'd have the show on more than once a week (Sundays at 8am on PBS). I'd figure with the mega-marketing of all that is Thomas, the show would be on a regular/daily schedule; why not?

Saw a recent commercial for a toy train set with Thomas going around on the island.

At one point the kid moving him around has him going back and forth through a tunnel which... well thanks to popular culture, that image took me to a place far dirtier than the innocent land of Sodor.

We got a DVD collection that has the original first 15 or 20 episodes on it, all narrated by Ringo. A lot of them are episodes that I have seen before, but narrated by the other guys. I had no idea that they remade them that way. Also, the original versions seem a little . . . darker than the Americanized ones. The one where Henry gets sealed in the tunnel because he doesn’t want to come out and get his paint wet ends with Ringo saying something along the lines of: I think that Henry got what he deserved. Don’t you? It’s kind of creepy. And they also refer to Sir Topham Hatt as The Fat Controller. Anyway, it was nice to at least see different versions of these episodes, because I had seem most of them a billion times already.

My son is 2, and recently became obsessed with Thomas & Co. All day long, he chants, "I have Thomas. I have Percy. I have James. I have Rusty. Henry go so fast. Percy go so fast. Gordon go so fast." I have no idea which ones he has, or if they truly go very fast, because they all look basically the same to me.

The show is infinitely more preferable to the movie, which somebody mentioned above. Did anybody else watch it and get the sense that Peter Fonda legitimately believes he's been transported to the Island of Sodor, and that the magic coal dust is real?

I can't beleive I've only just found this thread! WordSon (20 months old) is OBSESSED with Thomas. I have to have one of the DVDs on constant rotation. Of course, since he's not even two, he loses interest relatively fast and will wander off to do something else. Suppose I turn the DVD off and watch something even marginally meant for adults?? Oh the humanity. And everything that even remotely looks like a train, from cars to those long dumpsters, is "Choo choo!"

I had no idea Ringo Starr narrated them in the beginning. So far we've seen the Alec Baldwin, George Carlin, and Michael Brandon ones. I find Thomas and Friends a little creepy - all the emphasis on being "useful" - and could give kids a bit of a complex. I picture a whole generation of kids rocking back and forth muttering "Must be useful. Sir Topham Hatt will get me...." if they like flunk a math test or something.

But, creepiness aside, I'd rather he watch TTTE instead of something that'll rot his brain (Spongebob Squarepants, I'm looking at you).

My husband is getting his Master's degree in education and philosophy, and is deeply disturbed by the premise that an individual's value stems from how useful he is to those around him. As you do, he worries that exposing small children to this idea sets them up to measure themselves against other people's expectations, rather than striving toward their own happiness.

I, on the other hand, have few scruples about exploiting the "very useful engine" line for my own benefit. "Who wants to be a very useful engine? Then get your coat on/take a bath/brush your teeth." The thrill of being associated with Thomas is so great that my son always cooperates. (Even if he didn't, though, I don't know that I could ever bring myself to suggest that he wasn't a useful engine.) Eventually, I suppose I'll have to be a very useful mother, and give him some money for therapy.

This is hilarious: http://cynematic.wordpress.com/2006/10/17/...-the-truth-can/

Thank you so much for that link - it made me laugh. It's funny because it's true! And frankly, I just don't *get* the Thomas universe. Just how big is the Island of Sodor, if they have to rely on a railway system for pretty much everything? And if the trains can think for themselves, why do they need drivers? If Thomas wants to "be naughty," why can't the driver just stop him? And where exactly is Sodor? My husband says "Why, it's north of the Misty Mountains, just past Rivendell, of course." Seriously, what a dumb name for an island.

Unfortunately, WordTot is addicted to Thomas - the cheeky little engine is his crack, and the only way I can get himt o sit still and be quiet for any amount of time (why, yes, we are in the throes of the terrible twos, why do you ask?).