ThomasTrainzfan98 Then that must explain it.
When HiT acquired the rights to the Motorized brand of Thomas toys from TOMY’s MR&R and renamed it to TrackMaster, this was the first set they decided to make and I guess they thought it’d be cool to release a whole new type of toy with 2 faces in one. Assuming when they were making this model and many others around that time period, TOMY probably left some of their unused assets like extra shells, tires, side rods, bases, and motors around so HiT must’ve made usage of them. I do own a couple TOMY items in HiT boxes never opened before, so I’m guessing that model (alongside my BNiB ones) was one of the first ever made. And the stickers are proof of that because I looked at the BNiB TOMY Thomas in HiT packaging I got for Christmas in 2023 and realized they definitely must’ve just updated the stickers, here’s what mine looks like:
As you can see, the sticker of yours has basically the exact same lining on it, and when HiT was making that new Thomas, they must’ve just took this exact sticker’s jpeg and edited the lining on it so it wouldn’t have those weird black lines around all the red lines. And then they must’ve done that for the rest of the stickers but custom printed them with possibly a new printer of theirs.
So I think that this model is just a very early build HiT made to get the ball rolling on sales, and realize what flaws they thought they needed to correct later on in their lifespan. Honestly, I think you’ve got a pretty rare model that is basically a mass produced HiT Toys prototype for what was to come, sorta like the HiT face Slippy Sodor Thomas. Keep it in the best possible shape you can TTf, that could be worth a lot one day!
