Edward missing from 1998 - 2001 Tomica World??

Has anyone apart from myself ever noticed that on the back of any of the yellow Tomica World boxes from 1998 - 2001, for the Thomas range has Edward in the picture at the back of the box, but he was not released until 3 years later.. does anyone know why this is?

[Super]

Would this be just for the Tomica World as Edward is shown in Ripleys Plarail Catalog collection in the 1999-2000 edition and thats the earliest his set goes back to. Didn't Trackmaster do the same with some releases where the trains that were part of a collection or series where all shown on the back but some hadn't released yet.

Didn't Trackmaster do the same with some releases where the trains that were part of a collection or series where all shown on the back but some hadn't released yet.

Yes FisherPiece even went so far as to show a flipface Gordon that was NEVER released!!
They also used the Tomy/Hit black roofed motorized Works Unit that powers Harvey in thier layout on the back of their "collect them all" foldout mini posters, even though the actual FP model is solid plain green and without a painted top!

Good points to you both, though what I mean is that the Edward shown in the back photo of any of the yellow boxes was still released exactly how he was pictured, he wasn't a prototype or a previous model, but its strange why he was released in 2001. I know this because the second style Tomica World packaging was first used in 2001 as far as I am aware. And for models like the flip face Gordon it was probably in the works since late 2006, but the graphic designers for the packaging never bothered to updated Gordon's model on the back of the boxes of the early 2007 sets from TM HiT Toys Company.

Yes, I noticed him in that picture when I was younger and was awaiting Edward's release since. It's easy to forget since Edward's now been out for so long that he wasn't in the original UK/US lineup. There's no reason to work out why he was delayed. It just happened that way. And young me wasn't able to work out that Edward had already been released in Japan.