Isle

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[Isle @islandofodor]

@MrJP07 There was likely some overlap between production of the episodes and specials, but for S15-16, the episodes were already well into production and maybe even completed by the time they started work on their respective films, but production wasn’t split into halves

[Isle @islandofodor]

@MrJP07 Same goes for BMM and S16, BMM takes place before S16 but Brenner didn’t work on S16 as that was already entirely written, Matt Wilkinson voices Victor in S16 as he did prior but Bedella took over the role from BMM, Annie, Clarabel and Paxton speak in BMM but are silent in S16

[Isle @islandofodor]

@No_Samah_24 I think this is oversimplifying things, I think the general consensus is that this is a good Emily but the tender is kind of a sticking point, I think most will agree that it’s certainly an improvement over what came before but that doesn’t make it exempt from fair criticism

[Isle @islandofodor]

@maithwaite_man Ian McCue has literally stated that they were given a lot of creative freedom during the Arc era so we can still reasonably blame the writers for the occasional poor episode whilst acknowledging all the improvements made over previous eras, if only people were more open to nuance

[Isle @islandofodor]

@maithwaite_man But both eras were still capable of having good stories and character moments, the blame still falls on the writers for devising stupid ideas and mischaracterising most of the cast. That said, you can still sympathise with how little time and (likely) creative freedom they had

[Isle @islandofodor]

@tobythetramgcv D&D is the poster child of the series’ imposter syndrome during the BWBA era, it coats itself so much in its roots as part of the wider Thomas canon but is desperate to be anything but, MM barely even disguises itself as Thomas and I can almost respect that more

[Isle @islandofodor]

@tobythetramgcv They’re equally terrible in different ways but MM at least has stuff going on, it’s such a far cry from the core of Thomas that there’s almost an enjoyment to be had in its absurdity whereas D&D is probably more acceptable as a Thomas production but is just a big nothing burger

[Isle @islandofodor]

@SplendidVanilla They’re definitely most suited to voicing one maybe two characters each, that’s one thing BWBA and AEG did quite well at, they at least gave nearly every new character their own voice actor to make them sound distinct, hopefully the 2026 series will do the same

[Isle @islandofodor]

@SplendidVanilla The Nitrogen/Arc eras definitely had a problem of stretching their VAs a bit too thin, Tim Whitnall, William Hope and Rob Rackstraw are great VAs but they voiced so many characters that they all sound similar to one another because of how recognisable their voices inherently are

[Isle @islandofodor]

@trackmaster_eng It wouldn’t, the game was made for Switch 1 so any hardware limitations that affect the game on there wouldn’t be changed on the Switch 2, aside from quicker load times maybe. Hopefully they Dovetail does make a native Switch 2 port at some point

[Isle @islandofodor]

@TheRedJinty Kind of a shame they didn’t also do a Switch 2 version alongside it, but it makes sense to cast their net wider with a console more kids are likely to have right now and there’s always the possibility for a Switch 2 version / optimised update further down the line

[Isle @islandofodor]

@E2forLife2lkpr Plus with all the hype and fandom unity brought about by the 80th anniversary in general, this was just another nice thing so I don’t think any of us could be blamed for being reasonably happy at solid merch during one of the franchise’s best years in a long while

[Isle @islandofodor]

@E2forLife2lkpr Overhyped is a bit unfair to say. Regardless of if you like the range or not, it was just nice to see merch for the original series after nearly five years of AEG merch primarily being on the shelves and to see they looked much better than TM2 before it

[Isle @islandofodor]

@MerrickAnd To be fair, outside of their introductory episode, Duck himself never seems to use them as slip coaches but rather regular coaches that remain part of his consist throughout the journey. It's only Connor who uses them as such, and he travels down the Main Line in said episode

[Isle @islandofodor]

@starlightfan02 Of the original series, I think most would generally prefer going back to an older take on the characters without an in-universe distinction between child and adult characters and I couldn’t blame one for being a bit shaky if it turns out they are taking notes from AEG there

[Isle @islandofodor]

@starlightfan02 But rather have their traits determined by individual personality, characters like Thomas and Percy could still do childish things whilst still acting within the parameters of being old ass steam locomotives, so if the 2026 show is leaning more towards the direction