2026 Thomas (New Logo & Stuff)

Mister No

Ah, well… They actually look better like this in the cartoon than as Mattel toys with scary AI robot faces… 🙄

Super

Are these from a storybook?

Mister No

Most likely, Super. But if so, it’s safe to assume that these characters will appear in this or similar form in the TV show, right? They are, fortunately, quite different from those new toys with faces resembling bizarre androids, which we have seen so far, however.

GreatGordonFan

Don’t know how to explain this but the new font feels like its inteded towards an even younger audience than before.

Destination Realization

GreatGordonFan in my opinion its the other way around, yes the new Thomas does seem for a younger audience, but not as much as AEG pushed it to be, sure the ai slop isn’t good, but we are getting something that isn’t so far from the “original” Thomas compared to what AEG twisted.

Mister No

Destination Realization In the Thomas and Friends series, faces are very important. These new AI robot faces are disturbing.

Destination Realization

Mister No I was mostly referring towards the engines body not faces, the new faces are disgusting

Mister No

The problem that arises is this: we actually have two types of faces. This type of face that appears in the book (regardless of whether anyone likes it or not) is the usual face of a character from an illustrated children’s book that we see every day. If such faces are in this book, then it is reasonable to assume that the TV show will look like this too. The faces on the engines models, however, are completely different. AI robot faces, disturbing and completely unacceptable. This is strange, because how can the faces from the books/TV show and the faces on these models be so different? I wonder if this will be harmonized by the start of the new series, and of course, it remains to be seen what Tomy will do with its Plarail models.

Destination Realization

Mister No Plarail is not the company to stoop this low compared to Mattel, Plarail’s Thomas division is owned by Sony, not mattel, so I’m hoping we get some good merch, maybe even a “classic” line with the 2003-2012 molds!

Mister No

Are you sure of that, DR? I’m seeing Mattel’s little (but significant) logo on latest Plarail Thomas releases, so… … ?

Destination Realization

Mister No I mean it’s been known that Sony was the owner of Plarail’s Thomas Division, if Mattel was the owner, we would’ve had Tomy back, or Tomy removed, I guess the logo was there because they own Thomas in most places but Germany and Japan?

GreatGordonFan

Well goodness gracious me.

Destination Realization

GreatGordonFan ai slop detected

Mister No

If it’s real, it’s wrong. Toby is a “tram” engine so where are the sideplates?

If the goal was to give little children nightmares, Rosie’s disturbing AI robot face is a great success! 🤡

DalaGStanator

Mattel has just released a test (?) shot to demonstrate the animation style and reveal Thomas’ design for the actual show. His face seems to be a blend of the 2008-2021 CGI look and the “AI robot” eyes of the toys, though the eyebrows look a bit more triangular again.

I’m impressed with the rendering quality (especially the realistic background and scenery), and even the smoke/steam effect seems to look better than how it was animated before. I initially thought his wheels looked too far apart in the screenshot I saw, but that was just because of the “bouncing” and they look correctly aligned when he’s facing the track.

They also showed all the concepts they examined before deciding how the new faces should look, and I can’t imagine how hard it must’ve been due to how many different options they tried.

Found on the Wiki Discussions.

Super

That does look good to me but then I don’t have much knowledge about the show to compare it with. Interested to hear what other members think, what you say BPT’s people?
Thanks LaG

Mister No

The animation style is really nice, and it seems even the faces won’t be that bad in the TV show.
Maybe it’s because of the animation, but once “frozen” and put on the toys, these “robot” faces look awful.

PJ10002

Not gonna lie when I saw that test animation I saw a little bit of Nitrogen Animation in there (the overall landscape looked like Nitrogen’s Animation), and the lighting kinda has a Season 20-21 feel to it, and not that overbearing crappy lighting they had in BWBA.

All I wish for is that for the first time in a looong time, the show is just as peak as the merchandise. But from what I’ve seen that ain’t gonna be the case regarding the merch. The concept for the toys just looks abysmal, especially Toby, like his whole character is that he’s a unique engine being a tram engine, and they took away his side plates just like that (during the model series they used a Marklin engine for his motion, and you could distinctly make that out in season 3, and I’d like to jokingly imagine that’s the case with Toby here lol).

The faces kinda creeped me out to how unusual they looked at first, however I think this take on their faces may end up working out. Though I do expect them to make slight changes to look less…high, I guess. The irises do light their faces up a bit, I’ll give them that.

I also hope they don’t force stereotyping in the show like they did with BWBA, and as I said earlier, I hope the show is actually written in a way everyone can enjoy it.