The end of Thomas and friends from Plarail?

..This change leads me to believe Plarail will need to make a major redesign of their Thomas Trains in order to fit the current series

I don't get your thinking on this. Neither Plarail Thomas nor Mattel's 'Motorized' range (and all its predecessors) have ever made any pretense at accurate representation of the originals in the Railway Series books, TV series or Movies, except in a very general sort of way - very approximate shapes in particular, plus colouration and faces. Why would they need to re-design now?  They can hardly make them 2D can they?