The 'Super Station-ification' Of Trackmaster
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- Опубліковано 11 січ 2023
- Ever wonder what happened to Trackmaster? Me too. Lets talk about it!
Music: • Wii Shop Channel Music
ToyTrains4u: • Trackmaster JAMES At B...
• Trackmaster James at B...
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#thomasthetankengine #trackmaster #thomasandfriends - Розваги
You can really see throughout the promo stuff that Mattel and other companies progressively worked towards younger audiences, to the point where that last kid looked like he was holding himself back from just putting Harold in his mouth
i died from this
I didn't notice that but you're right. The earlier commercial definitely show older kids, compared to the later ones
He looks like he hasn't hit his second birthday yet.
@@2acidic4u Action Canyon prob got the most mature kids in any Thomas ad
This….is partially true for lego
The tomy and old trackmaster sets are so simple yet so comforting and wonderful: that's the magic of them.
That's something the modern sets will never understand.
Not to mention they had a lot of simple and interchangeable parts. Trackmaster 2 has all of these complicated structures and track pieces that only work with the sets they came from. For a set like Action Canyon, yes you had specialized pieces, but you could take those pieces and add them to other sets and have multiples of that set to increase its height. Shake Shake Bridge also has this wicked awesome feature. Long stretches of bumpy wood-covered track, a tall bridge that threatens to derail your trains, it’s a great set.
The charm of classic tomy is that it’s so simple that it lets people be creative and make their own mini railway without all of those huge sets getting in the way
That Bulgy and Thomas set takes me back to Christmas Day of 2000. No ramps to jump, no roller coaster loops, and no cheap gimmicks, and it was still my favourite gift.
Love the quips in the [as] themed bumps. Hate to see the toy equivalent of key jingling being put onto these current young Thomas fans. I loved the take along toys, the earliest memory I had of em was taking the tidmouth sheds set with Bill and Ben to a restaurant. Fun times.
Thank you so much brother man 🙏
And you’ve just passed the vibe check by a mile too, only real ones know the novelty of taking a whole set or rake of engines into a public place and annoying your parents‼️❤️🔥
@@ItsTrainBoy it was the best of mf times bro. Or like when you’d sneak a toy into kindergarten. Whipped out the snowplow take along Thomas on em 😎
@@daniel-san-augh did the same thing with a wrr thomas and a off brand coach
Im quite fond of minis because they are just small things I can get with a pound, and classic tomy moterized
I brought my take alongs in a Thomas case everywhere as a kid. I even brought them to a family photo shoot. I'm literally holding a Take Along James in my photos, lol.
Sometimes UA-cam recommendations shows you a subculture you didn’t know existed and it’s always pretty neat to see all the different things people are passionate about.
Cranky's face just speaks for itself, he already saw enough
I want to buy just the Cranky piece and give him a “I Really Wish I Weren’t Here Right Now” button 😅
There was a sense of creation and connection with all the older Thomas toy ranges that Mattel can't seem to replicate. I firmly believe that one of the reasons people still create content using these toys because the engines and buildings look the part to their real counterparts. As a kid, when a Thomas range captured the energy and look of the real Island of Sodor, it was as close as someone that age could get to owning the real gauge 1 props. That faith in them pushed me and so many others to try and match the story telling and visual appeal of the show, and it clearly molded us into the community we are today.
Mattel can shove all the flashy gimmicks and one trick moves they want into a set, but they'll always feel more like soulless carnival attraction than a tool for kids to bond and create with. No child today will look at these toys today and see the potential to paint Sodor in their own vision, and that's disappointing, because they'll be missing out on so much. WR, Tomy and the rest literally helped shape some of our lives.
I remember as a kid, maybe favourite TOMY set was the one that came with docks piece with Cranky. I didn't have many double track pieces, so this piece was always super important to my own custom layouts. I liked having the engine on one track and a consist on the other, the shed provided a place for them to go at the end of the day and of course you had Cranky there for like little character interactions when playing. It was so much fun and it's just sad that the simplicity of trains simply isn't enough to Mattel.
For my fifth birthday my dad got me an a Athearn engine, 5 freight cars and a caboose, some atlas track and a transformer. I still have all of it and It all still works. The layout is much bigger now but it is still one of the best birthday presents I’ve ever got
Yeah I feel they've become set pieces rather than a system, the same thing happened with the matchbox playsets. I got the original Tomy Train Thomas set for christmas :D I had the same one when I was like 3 or 4
It's a thing that has also affected tons of the vehicles in not just Trackmaster but in Wooden Railway too. Anyone remember Wooden Railway Reviews' video on the "Aquarium Cars"?
You really hit the nail on the head with this one, perfect describing the issue with tm2 that I could never properly articulate. It is a shame how Trackmaster fell off due to competition with ipads. I'm glad I was one of the last to not have internet access immediately out the womb
I'm from the early 90's when season 3 was broadcasting and shining time station hit its peak. Classic wooden trains really got a lot of cool Sodor merchandise out there
I never had a gimmick set, all my tracks and set peices could function with 5 or 6 carriage long engines and thats how I liked it
Simple operations can make some of the best play tbh, I rock with it heavy 🔥
Track master always has been a hit or miss. I'm glad I didn't follow on after 2013 but I'm horribly pissed that I got rid of my two plastic totes full of playrail/trackmaster toys (all probably thrown away and trashed today 🙃)
I will say the Super Station did have the right idea of making a unified track system that everything could run on, despite the fact that the ranges the track was designed for were never meant to work together. I just wished as a Die-cast collector they stuck with that over squash & stretching the at the time adventures range to fit the regular Trackmaster track thus creating the Push Along range.
I think bigger sets like action canyon work as one-offs, and even then it just looks like a normal mountain when you think about it. I think it’s when Mattel made every set this way that it started to lose all the great things about Trackmaster (and the cheap 2014 engines didn’t help)
Yeah action canyon was epic, it's a great addition to a bigger layout as long as everything isn't that way
Yeah It was kinda weird how such a large set perfeclty fit in with a regular layout. Im still thankful I have all of my stuff so my eventual children can experience the same fun I did
@@MasterOfTheLemons Agreed.
I only had Tomy as a kid, And would spend hours taking up most of the free space in my room building the biggest layout i could and then running 3-4 trains on it, And when i got some early trackmaster trains that just gave me more potential for bigger layouts thanks to the conversion piece, Unfortunately i no longer have all that, My parents probably got rid of it all
7:09 it's funny how you mentioned this in the video, because my grandparents actually bought my brother this set, and I find it funny to be in this video
I get what your saying and while I'm probably the only one of us here who actually wants the super-cruiser, I mostly agree with your takes on the other sets. I feel the same way about some of the modern Hotwheels play sets, many of which make building a proper city layout all the more difficult then it used to be back in the day. I remember when we had two lane roads and more options for customizable road layouts.
I had luckily grown out of Trackmaster revolution RIGHT as the superstation came out and I was finally like “ok I don’t want this.” Dodged a bullet there.
Honestly, Revolution had potential to be a great, versatile system. I think it is one, just that many of the sets didn’t really tap into that creativity. There are good examples of sets that do, like one of my favorites, the Percy 6-in-1 set, which I’ve combined with plenty of my other tracks to make intricate and multi-layered layouts. I know I got a track bin with a triple crossover track as the lid, which was really interesting to work with. And more recent stuff like the All Around Sodor and Cargo Race sets, while very large, are made up of lots of normal tracks and can be easily combined with other sets, even bits like the dropping bridges from the cargo race set could be implemented in your own layout design to make something very interesting. While a good amount of what Revolution did was… gimmicky and individual, it still had some pretty good stuff mixed in. Of course, it’d never be able to top Tomy and classic Trackmaster, but it still had the potential to be close to the same level. Shame they didn’t tap into it all that much.
When I was little when I looked at my big Tomy/Take-Along railway in my bedroom back in like pre-2012? What I loved is the freedom of where I got to put certain props and station pieces. My biggest dream was getting more consists and bridges. Sadly I didn't but hey I'm still glad to grow up with Thomas
Ever since Trackmaster Revolution, Cranky discovered the One Piece as he got much much higher
I really miss the good old days of train sets, I loved it
Especially the James and Boulder set, that was SOO fascinating fo me!
The Super Station I think has more flexibility in incorporating into a layout, the only real challenge is getting trains up to the sheds, but they did make sets with spiral risers, and the buildings on the bottom act as tunnels for bottom layer track, so I think the Super Station was pretty good.
Yeah but even then there’s a way to remove the risers and make it more realistic looking. It also lets you use the bases (Steamworks, Dieselworks, and Knapford Station) by themselves. I also like that there are 6 sheds instead of 5 and 4 we see often.
I actually really loved the Super Station and the tracks that followed. I dunno, I’m just a sucker for gimmicks, and the bigger tracks were always my favorite. I do see your point, though. Creativity is essential, too.
Edit: I’ve only just noticed the Trains & Cranes set does have incomplete track pieces at the bottom, meaning you can most likely add this to an existing set, so the creativity part is KINDA there, but it still can only be Trains & Cranes, so your point still stands.
I think this really just shows how much times have changed and what execs think people want vs what people want.
I grew up being a massive Thomas fan as a child, and the most simple track master set was all that I really had. Though, I do remember it being prohibitively expensive for some sets, so it never was the wooden railway or take along (hell, even ERTL) that people wanted it to be.
Honestly, I think the Super Station is the best set ever. Change my mind people, I honestly don't care. But respect to you
Controversial, but brave I respect it big dawg‼️
If I may ask though, what makes the Super Station more appealing over a normal Trackmaster or Tomy set? I’ve never really had the chance to see the inverse of this argument and I’m curious how the people who don’t hate it as much feel 🧐
@TrainBoy As a young boy, I was frustrated with the fact that hardly any of my toy ranges would fit on the same track other than Wooden Railway on Trackmaster track. I always found it funny for some odd reason how big certain ranges like Trackmaster were compared to other ranges, especially Minis. This set was basically a dream come true for me.
I remember all my Thomas stuff being wood, with wooden tracks. Watching this was kind of surreal. There's even jargon! Like, what's a consyst?
this makes me feel crazy old. when i was a little kid, it was still wooden track.
Thank you very much for making this. The classic Trackmaster (what I collected a lot of and still own) and Tomy sets had a simple, realistic, creativity-based charm that made them appealing, all while the newer items are crazy, cheap, incredibly gimmicky, and rely too much on one-off tricks. Plus, the lack of connectibility and the design of the engines really threw me off as a kid. Hopefully Mattel will understand this eventually and do something better, instead of constantly rebranding and cheapening every Thomas line.
There's something magical about the older Thomas sets that's severely lost in modern sets (and Thomas toys as a whole). Sure some of the past sets did gimmick-ey stuff too, but it was nowhere near as crazy as the shit we got in Trackmaster 2. Plus what made the old sets work was that you could do whatever you want with the trains and pieces. It's very similar to LEGO where you can just make anything out of the pieces given. There's a reason why those sets resonated with a lot of fans and consumers. Less is more. And by adding shit like dragons and steep drops, more ironically becomes less. While there's a few TM2 sets that look pretty cool, they will never beat the simplicity of just watching the trains go around a layout. Plus even aesthetically TM2 looks very cheap and ugly when compared to Tomy and Trackmaster 1. It feels like Mattel was trying to make a trains version of Hot Wheels if that makes any sense. The sets overall are just another example of how the quality of toys has fallen thanks to the rise of tablets.
Epic
You know what I find ironic, look at the latest stuff in the Motorized rebrand from 2020 (More specifically the AEG side of it) you notice that there are somehow a lot less of what you call “Super Station-ification” (I call them roller coaster stunts) in the playsets they release.
Look at the selection of trainsets from the current lineup, almost all of them are a “Take this cargo to the place” as opposed to a “CAN THOMAS DO A BACKFLIP TO ESCAPE THE BIG SEA MONSTER?” Which is extremely baffling seeing as it is at a time with Thomas and friends doing stunts in most stories where they’d be expected, but the sets are normal trainsets.
Not complaining at all I just find that interesting that I can only think of one (Technically two) AEG sets that I’d classify as a rollercoaster stunt set (Ironically it actually is a rollercoaster loop) and the CGI version of Motorized has more but they’re mostly smaller. They did add variety into the colour of the track but I personally can live with it, the blue rails look nice.
My favourite example is the ‘Crystal Caves and Trains mega set’, on the surface it looks like a ‘Super Station-ification’ style playset, but examine it closer, most of the pieces are conventional track pieces, none of them are specifically made for the set, you can very easily rearrange or reuse the set pieces anywhere and it would not need anything else from it (Aside from the slides for the crystal balls but they can be ignored too). This new merchandise team is really hitting their stride with these rebrands, but nothing will top the original Plarail and Trackmaster.
(Also side note, they brought back buffers for the AEG line)
I went out of my thomas phase when I was a wee bab but it's nice to see people be genuinely passionete about something on here for a change.
Gold dust overdose incoming
I had thought that the Super Station and Super Cruiser were clever sets. I got them to work with my Thomas Wooden Railway collection. It is pretty neat that they can work with just about any form of merchandise you can think of.
Awesome video trainboy
A trashfire video, but it’s one I genuinely liked… especially your ending, though strangely enough I’m actually interested in some of these because I’ve never seen them before!!!
Honestly I think one of the biggest problems about the 'Super Station-ification' of trackmaster is trying to figure out where the hell you're supposed to store all of it if you bought so much of it.
This is 1000% True, I had Tomy, Trackmaster, and Trackmaster 2 sets and I have to say as a kid I was disappointed when Trackmaster 2 was released so when I was like 9 I went on eBay to buy Tomy and old Trackmaster and I had a whole Garage CAN of Tomy/Trackmaster that I would play with everyday and not get bored
I remember noticing the move away from being a railroad toy and into what I call “Trackmaster: Extreme Stunts” from the beginning of trackmaster 2. Trackmaster was somewhat trending in this direction for a while before the redesign, but their became a very noticeable dichotomy between the more basic sets, with pieces you could reconfigure to build your own railway layouts, and the action set piece sets, which had a fairly rigid pattern of play and didn’t really fit into building a larger world. The “super-stationified” sets just feel like a soulless attempt to cross-promote their various toy lines.
I remember getting a dockyard set as a kid, one blue base with Cranky, 2 locomotives and some rails. Since then I've been expanding it a bit every year, it's like my childish obsession at this point.
I enjoy the old sets a little more than the new ones, but honestly, younger me would definitely want to add something wacky like that of a new (new as in before things got overly simple) set into my layout. Specially if it were something like action canyon.
I had a couple of track masters. I think one was a simple oval or something then the logging loco one and I had a blast combining them or finding the best way to crash thomas and the other two in the set.
You ever just stumble onto a subject you knew nothing about, only to be surprised on how in depth it goes? Yeah thats me right now
This will probably show how old I am, but I remember my first (and only) Tomy Thomas set (I don't even think it was Trackmaster at this point) was a blue plastic carrying case that opened out to form a complete oval (with a loop on either end) that was connected by bridge pieces on either side. The set included a motorized Thomas with Annie and Clarabel, and I also recall having Percy, Toby, Henrietta, and a Troublesome Truck.
This is the very topic I've wanted to talk about, but TB did it with so much detail, even people who haven't watched, played or even heard of Thomas can understand. Who writes your scripts, I need them for my English class. I got an essay in a few months.
6:54
Henry's tender isn't accurate, it's in his old shape.
I think i can summarise this.
The sets went from locations that the engines could go to everyday, like Knapford or Ffarqhuar, to things that dont happen very often, like the avalanche escape set. Or things that dont fit or are unrealistic like the super station.
9 min of my life spent on a dude talking bout trains 👍
I don't think the Super Station is a good example of this phenomenon. Sure, it's a bit unrealistic and has a few gimmicks, but personally I appreciate that for the ultimate set that's supposed to connect to all ranges they chose to make a shed and not something like the Avalanche Escape Set. You can very easily use the Super Station as a normal shed on the ground, it doesn't have to be on the pillars and I think Cranky is removable so there's nothing stopping it from being a shed. Really the only cartoony gimmick is that it's elevated so the engines can race down but again, you can put it on the ground.
And really, is the Super Cruiser any different from the giant TOMY Thomas?
The Cranes and Trains tower is imo the best example of this phenomenon out of these three, it can only be a weird tall tower that engines can't even go through without assistance because Cranky has to carry them.
I think the Super Cruiser is in a completely different league since the Large Thomas was more compatible, novel, and had a solid tunneling system while the latter is nothing but a gimmick from a poorly written episode. Stefano only really exists so we can HAVE a Super Cruiser and that hurts his overall feel for me.
That’s really my issue with the Super Station, it’s a gimmick that’s hard to break away from. I’ve never owned one myself but also can’t say I’ve seen anyone use them in the way you’ve described? It’s usually either one of the two variations or a mass of towering mess. It is possible though and I’m not calling you wrong either; I just personally disagree. You’re totally fine to enjoy it but it’s not my kind of set :)
@@ItsTrainBoy True. I do agree that the Super Cruiser doesn't work as a Thomas TrackMaster toy, but I think it's a good toy on its own. In my opinion it works the best when it's not used as a tunnel but when it's connected to a layout from just one end, that way it can easily disconnect and go elsewhere. It's great for people like me who like more parody or non-serious stuff but I get why it's not great for people who prefer more realism (a.k.a. most of the fandom)
I've seen a few users use the Super Station as a regular shed, which might be because TrackMaster 2 never made Tidmouth Sheds and they didn't have much choice but I think it works well.
I took the legs of the super station so I just had the shed, looks and works great with my set
I own the trains and cranes set, it's pretty good, some consists can go up and it can act like an oil rig, which is pretty neat.
Tbh I really agree with this -
So it seems like we went from simple Thomas railway play sets to these crazy hot wheels railway combination raceway scenarios then? okay cool, fine with it.
It's the same problem that Lego has, or at least it feels like where the "Super Station-ification" originated in toys; like the big new models and sets they have are really cool (my partner has the Lego Tallneck from Horizon: Forbidden West and she's very proud of it), and while technically yes you could repurpose pieces into other Lego sets and build something new, it doesn't feel like something you should or can do, like those pieces are marketed as "they're for this model only" sort of thing
They have lego constructor sets or what have you, they're aware and cater to both audiences
I never thought about this in aspects of Lego; that’s a seriously good point brother man 🧐
I know for me it’s a lot of ‘oh the nostalgia’ but it seems to be a pretty wide spread thing more and more. Not JUST Thomas but every brand of toys there is left almost?
"Oh, and Harold" -TrainBoy, 2023
This is very true because just recently I got the tomy ultimate set and I built the set but for about two years my super station has been in my attic
0:33 my hot pockets looking weird today
LOL shoutout to the WingsOfRedemption cameo at the end
The good old days man I miss it so much
Me looking at my Super Station while watching this video: 😑😑😑😬
Mattel literally thought
"Take n play.... but you cant actually take and play...."
I'm so lucky my parents got Tomy and Take-n-play for my brother and I when we were small, and I feel nothing but sorrow for children of the present generation and for our own to come. What Thomas sets will they play with? Mattel's basically turned it into Hot Wheels.
Это "гениально" превратить обычную железнодорожную систему в трассу hot whells !!!!!
@Trainboy, the orange crane's name is Cassia.
I was a tomy kid. I only ever had one set which was the thomas ultimate set but I did have a few extra trains and rolling stock I still have them. Although I had and still have more take n play and push along. I wasn't just a tomy kid I was a thomas mad kid.
I really miss the days of the ERTL die-cast. I have some sadness for the loss of the Hornby Thomas range, but Bachmann seems to be going to make almost every character. I'm sticking with HO/OO Scale Thomas stuff for now. Maybe some custom O gauge...
ahh lead-filled james... ill never forget my mom taking my favorite train for some reason i couldnt understand
I have the James you put in the microave am I in danger? I played with it a lot when i was younger
Im from eastern Germany. The idea of railway toys made of plastic just... scares me. When i was a child all i had and all i wver needed was these wooden sets you could combine. They were amazing! One big plus is that if something broke - and that does happen quite alot with kids - your parents could just reglue everything with some woodglue. You could even make your own track parts. I also later on had one or two motorized engines msde out of metal n plastic but i always prefered the wooden stuff. Just feels nicer too.
First off having a consist and having a doubleheader is really cool to look at
I have that item since December of 2021.
Honestly the first superstation wasn’t really that bad, it had a decent amount of free space under the tidmouth area, the sheds could be took off aswell as crankey and Harold, the sets that came after were pretty bad tho.
I should show this to my neighbor that used to work for Kenner toys. If you can think of an 80's-90's toy it was probably them.
came for the Thomas content stayed for "and Harold"
Me also coming from a time when trainsets were good (including Thomas ones), those were simpler times and it made the toys the best things ever. Now all I can think of that is still going is Brio
I am in possession of that double decker bus that keeps popping up
Honestly, I buy non wooden railway track when I buy it, it’s just slightly cheaper. I don’t buy much. Last thing I bought was literally just a small amount of Brio track. My imagination still works in my 20s. My Ulfstead Castle is a piece of cardboard.
Mattel is using Thomas litterly as train hotwheels like you could look at these sets you talked about and compare them to a hotwheels set
Super station=any hotwheels garage
The super cruiser=any hotwheels trucks that can carry cars and fold out into a raceway or somthing
The mountain set=almost any hotwheels stunt set
Mattel had been treating the sets from the Die-cast range about the same way arguably from the very beginning.
Love your content, your my favorite TTTE UA-camr! I don't wanna be that guy, and sorry if its annoying with me commenting, "uh actually I like this" but I love Trackmaster Revolution, and I grew up with the same sets when I was a kid. My favorite set was Action Canyon because it had *T h e T h r i l l s, T h e A c t i o n, T h e S u s p e n s e* lol. Trackmaster Revolution is still pretty good. You just gotta dig through a few piles of hot garbage to get to the good stuff.
Which one of those sets do you like the most:
-Super Station
-Super Cruiser
-Super Tower
Comment your answer
👇
Super tower
I love when duck cross the crossing rail road
I feel like most of these track master sets have been trying to compete with those race track sets that hotwheels make, a brand Mattel owns funnily enough.
This is like when you throw a grenade in CoD and accidentally run to that same spot a few seconds later
@@ItsTrainBoy reverse Martyrdom. Martyrdumb
Thomas is owned by Mattel, so they would try to make the sets more Hot-Wheels style such as comically preportioned elements, big jumps, steep hills, banked turns and others.
My little brother has the thomas set that is in minute 7:10, and its fun, I played it with him and this was fun
I totally agree with this
Yes his name is stafano
I’ve been watching TB ever since his latest upload was the Jack Frost Percy
0:40 That was at a Texas Roadhouse?
i remember avalanche escape being the only revolution set at the time and in my mind the only way to get a set as big as old trackmaster was buying the same set over and over
4:47 Wooden Railway and Wood also work on it, but they can't connect to the TrackMaster, Minis and Push-Along engines because of coupler differences
I had the super station & it was fun
i found a Tomy percy burried in my yard and i just recently found it and dug it up
bro looks like percy if the bolder explosion was more violent and bigger
whats funny is his face is completly clean but the body is literally covered in dust and dried red dirt
i wonder if i could get him working again
The Cranes Trains and Cranes Super Tower is basically the Super Station 2.0
0:06 you may not believe me, this is your opinion, but I thought about it on math lesson.
we've gone from railways to roller coasters, its so gimmicky and gross I HATE IT
Bring back trackmaster 1
Except for you
*tanker with a face*
You stay
Imagine if the Brenner Era had the toys of the HiT era
I never knew these sets were a thing. I thought Thomas was just the wooden track stuff
I have to agree that today's Thomas merchandise lines can't hold a candle to the ones of the past. The HiT era in particular, while the effort might not have been in the writing at the time, it was certainly in the merchandise. Lines like Wooden Railway, Take-Along, and Tomy were ones children couldn't get enough of even though they were everywhere. Nowadays, Thomas' merchandise has decreased in both quality and quantity. The only remaining high-quality Thomas merchandise lines left are Bachmann and 2022 Thomas Wooden Railway.