Top 10 Weirdest Things About Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go

First of all, I’d like to make my respects clear for Rick Suvalle, the creator of this show. I’ve talked to him on Twitter and he’s a really nice guy. However, so many things Mattel have made him do to Thomas the Tank Engine are just preposterous.
The Top Ten
The new art style

When Thomas switched from models to CGI, the medium changed, but the overall design was kept the same. This, however, is a fine look in and of itself, but just not suited to Thomas.

Using wheels as hands

Slowly but surely, the Sudrian engines are evolving from trains into humans. If I had to use any part of a train as its hands, I'd probably pick the buffers. I always thought of them as their 'hands' as a kid, just like how I thought of coal as their 'food'. But why wheels?

Jumping off the track

They're trains. I'm sorry, WHAT?

A desert on Sodor

Sodor is in the Irish Sea. The closest deserts would probably be in Spain. My only guess is that they were building a Wild West theme park or something where this 'desert' is, but never completed it, with only the sand and plastic cacti left to show for it.

No drivers

I know it's common for anthropomorphic vehicles to not have drivers, but drivers have been established in Thomas for so long.

‘Kid trains’ and ‘adult trains’

Yes, in the original series, Thomas has the personality and facial features of a happy child, and Gordon had those of a snooty adult. But now, Gordon is twice as large as he used to be in comparison to Thomas, which includes his height. Even very immature characters like James and the Troublesome Trucks are 'adults' now.

The Fat Controller has a smartphone

Or maybe it's a tablet. Either way, it does not belong on Thomas the Tank Engine. This show is meant to be set in the olden days.

None of the tender engines live in Tidmouth Sheds

Remember when every single Thomas school bag, shirt, and lunchbox had Thomas, Percy, and James on it? James is now a side character who doesn't even live at Thomas and Percy's sheds anymore. Gordon and Emily aren't there either, and Rebecca hasn't even been in the show yet.

Diesel is good

I can see why they were trying to address the long-standing steam-diesel rivalry, seeing as many critics have compared it to racism. But there already were plenty of good diesels in the show, so why not use Mavis or Paxton?

Carly now has wheels

She went from a dockside tower crane to a diesel engine with a crane on top. How is a kid meant to understand that?

The Newcomers

? Too few coaches

Other than Annie and Clarabel, the only coaches are Emily's coach, Kana's coaches, and Kenji's coaches, which gives the other engines an incredibly low chance of getting to take passengers.

This includes Gordon, who originally almost always pulled his express coaches. If he was forced to do anything else, he'd go bananas. This is such a problem in AEG that there was even a busy scene at Knapford Station that included 14 engines but no coaches!

However, Season 4 and The Christmas Letter Express seem like they'll be good, so maybe the coaches will come back then.

? Henry and Edward don’t appear very often
The Contenders
Too many songs
Gordon tells the small engines their deliveries

Isn't that Sir Topham Hatt's job?

Toby lives on the mainland

As soon as Toby first appears in this show, Gordon introduces Thomas and his friends to him like they've never met him before and says Toby's visiting from the Mainland. Thomas and his friends just go "Hi, Toby" without even stopping to remind Gordon that Toby is from Sodor and that they've known him for years.

They’re kids
The colors are strangely bright
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