Holy shit I have been waiting for a thread on TTTE.
I used to watch the show as a tiny child, and have since discovered the MOUNTAIN of autism associated with the fandom.
In general I would lump them into 5 categories: Archivists, Historians, hobbyists, Buyfags and the lunatic fans.
1- Archivists are the ones I see uploading entire episodes with different narrators, languages and dubs.
Example of such a channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@junctionmalfunctionpodcast7201/videos
From what I have seen these people usually disable comments, and with how low functioning the fanbase tends to be I don't blame them at all. Harmless, and hey media preservation is important.
2- Next are the historians. The idea of being a historian for a kids franchise is pure autism, but there are some nuggets of interesting info. For example the BBC tried to make a Thomas pilot in the 50s, and it was such a collosal fuck up the BBC recorded over the taped broadcast. Again, these fans are harmless, since they tend to stick in their lane.
Example:
https://www.youtube.com/@TheUnluckyTug
3-the hobbyists are the ones who recreate the railroad or make an entire village based around the trains using scale model trains. Some have even made brand new episodes, with 99% being complete shit:
While the 1% can sometimes be shockingly well made. One, Project Tiger Moth, looks ALMOST like a TV production, and honestly I kinda commend the effort put forth.
4- Next are the buyfags. These are the weirdos who collect ANYTHING and everything Thomas related.
You have VHS collectors:
DVD collectors:
Toys:
5- The worst of the bunch, the lunatic fans. These are the guys who make crash videos using toys:
THomas characters mashed into areas they shouldn't be:
And even covid lunatics who injected their pandemic bullshit into a kids show:
For anyone wondering how I know all this, I planned on making a thread on the fanbase, but Bateman here got to it first.
I got a reservation at Dorsia's Pat