thomas and friends mini series

I was wondering the same thing yesterday. Being early March, it sort of seems like we already know just about every train that is going to be coming out in the 2017 series. I haven't been collecting long enough to know if this has been typical in the past or not.

I can see the Steel series of trains being released in blind bags waves 3 and 4. In the past they have grouped some series to just 2 different waves. The tootsies last year were only in waves 2 and 3 and the DC trains that were in blind bags were only in waves 3 and 4. If you consider the steel series it seems like there are roughly 28 known trains left to be released (assuming the vans are put in blind bags) and last year waves 3 and 4 had 27 total new trains. It's all so random, isn't it?

Although it is curious they haven't been in any multipacks yet. Maybe with the release of this steelworks playset they're treating them as something special kind of like a DC or Tootsie series. Or, like you said, release them in a 5-pack alongside the steel playset. Although I'm just not entirely sure why they would think that's a good idea; they look like cool trains, but don't seem "special" enough to assume they would catch the eye of the casual collector.

As for that set, knowing how clunky the first release was, it is disappointing to see a third iteration of the same exact playset. How many times trains like Toby would get caught in the elevator and how many times a train would get stuck on the plastic railway on the way down made for an occasionally frustrating play experience for my son. They really did a great job with the motorized raceway (even though they still got stuck sometimes on the track), so it would be nice to see them actually introduce a new idea and actually use some imagination. Can't imagine how much money is saved by using a near identical mold for 3 different playsets. I'm having a hard enough time justifying buying the batman set. I'm pretty much holding off until it's literally the last train we need.