Plarail TOMY Thomas NEW RELEASES

@Mister No

So Japan are only just about to get AEG on TV?

Hoo boy, good luck... I know I'm biased because I make no secret of my disdain towards AEG but seriously, it's painful to watch if you liked or loved what came previously.

It's like somebody knew what made Thomas good, and what kids enjoyed about it, and stripped it all out in the name of making something cheap, crass and easily commercialised, something that the Rev. Awdry would never, ever have approved of.

I mean, looking into the history of the TV series itself, the Rev. Awdry was hard enough to convince to make the original model era series, but Britt Allcroft managed it with a promise that they would remain true to the books or the spirit of the books as far as possible, and at least until she left the production, I like to think that they managed that, Magic Railroad notwithstanding (even though I love the film, I don't know if Awdry would have)

AEG is basically the lowest point of a managed decline away from the original intentions, and frankly, it's painful to watch.

I think it got worse for me lately with the introduction of Bruno the Brake Car.

I may be an outlier here, but I don't like his character yet, although as someone has pointed me towards, there's certainly some information indicating that maybe things are going to be different and I just need to give them some time; I like to think I try to give things a fair chance, and perhaps this time I need to do just that

It's also slightly ironic how they would introduce him in AEG, when I've discussed the matter with my friends on the spectrum, and we all agreed that we preferred the original series, especially when we were younger and getting to grips with our conditions, because the faces were mainly static, or even in the CG era, had very clear emotions, something people on the spectrum find harder to pick up than most people.

AEG has constantly moving and changing faces, scenery and plot, and while I'm sure that's great for many people, I can only imagine it's actually shut off the series to people who might find it harder to deal with that, and I'm not sure whether to be pleased or offended that they would put a character meant for us in a series that might not actually be that accessible for all of us.

Incidentally, I'm working on a PhD thesis concept to talk about The Railway Series, which is why I've done a lot more research about its history lately I also plan to mention the special connection between the autism spectrum and Thomas, and of course, the merchandising (you guys at BPT will definitely get a shout-out when Plarail gets mentioned, and it will!)