History Of Thomas The Tank Engine
In 1984, the pilot episode of Thomas and Friends was broadcast on the British network ITV. The title “Thomas and Friends” was changed to “Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends” in 2003 and was shot in Shepperton Studios.
Based on the book The Railway Series by W.V. Awdry, the show tells stories of locomotives that have a life of their own and can even interact with people. For over 20 years, the show has starred notable celebrity narrators from Britain and the US namely Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Pierce Brosnan, and Alec Baldwin.
From books to TV series, Thomas and Friends has become a worldwide franchise by way of merchandising and distribution. A few of Thomas and Friends-inspired goods comes in the form of shirts, mugs, blankets, bed sheets, and of course, model trains.
The Heritage Railways has even made locomotives with the very same image as those of the characters from Thomas and Friends and they held special events that feature these locomotives. These special events are recognized as “Day out with Thomas” and were founded to draw visitors and tourists. Passengers and their kids are given rides on these TV-inspired locomotives and provides Heritage Railways additional revenues. This is the first time where scale model trains happen to be inspiration in building real locomotives.
When the show was still on its early years, each episode was shot in a studio using live animation using model trains. Compared to other children’s shows that employ inanimate objects and making them move via stop-motion animation, Thomas and Friends used stationary characters and the form of animation given to these characters is by radio controllers and straightforward facial changes on the character trains. Character voices are standardized seeing as a celebrity narrator is the only one providing it.
When Thomas and Friends was obtained by HIT Entertainment, advanced animation methods were then incorporated. Even if they still used actual model trains, facial expressions, lip movements, people and animal characters are done via CGI.
Even with this sort of enhancement to the show, there are still some who choose to watch the show’s earlier episodes in the 80’s due to the nostalgic value they give out.
A huge model railway layout was built within Shepperton Studios to where live action scenes were taken. Thomas the tank engine and his train friends were originally made by German Toy maker Marklin and the locomotives’ scale size is at 1:32 or Gauge 1 the gauge of the tracks used measure 44.45mm. The model locomotives were also specially made with movable eyes and smoke generators.
Thomas and Friends is undeniably a worldwide hit for kids and has stayed strong for more than 20 years. Children and children-at-heart have watched the show when it was first broadcast in 1984 and millions of young viewers of today are still captivated by Thomas the Tank Engine.
Model trains afficionados and kids alike will enjoy Thomas and his friends as gifts or as part of their collection and Hornby is able to offer this satisfaction with its Hornby R9071 Thomas the Tank Engine Train Set.
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 4:40 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.