Thomas the Tank Engine Thread - The place for fellow autists to gather around and discuss the rising inflation in Sodor.

[Fluoxetine Man]

Let's get this thread rocking n' rolling. What's your favorite Railway Series story/Thomas episode/etc?

At this point saying Super Rescue is cheating.

 

[Duncan]

At this point saying Super Rescue is cheating.

True. But someone had to post it eventually, so we might as well get it out of the way.

 

[Duncan]

Double post.

 

[Ouro Boros]

Victor Tanzig....a favorite of mine not because he makes good-looking videos, but because he tells a really nice take on the whole idea of Thomas and Friends if they were actually alive (while also not afraid to throw in supernatural elements), and the writing I believe is solid.
He also makes shitposts and other Q&A stuff, which reeks of autistic material, but that's expected.

https://www.youtube.com/@VictorTanzig1

 

[TVB]

Double post.

I have no clue if this one was posted yet

 

[laoyang]

I liked Thomas as a kid, especially when my mom got me the Complete Collection book when I was I think 7, I fell in love with those illustrations and new stories that were never adapted.

I think the acceptability of liking it as an adult depends on what angle you're coming from. Fans from England seem to like the original books first and the series second, and there's an implicit English heritage aspect to the books since Sodor is explicitly said to be under the British crown's rule and it's lore derives from the actual history of railways in the UK.

American fans are generally just autistic man children though. I've seen English fans of Thomas who are otherwise normal, well-adjusted people, like Sparkshot for example, but I've never seen an American fan that wasn't creepy. I wonder if that applies to stuff like Sonic and other autistic hobby horses. Has an autist from Romania ever posted an OC on DeviantArt?

 

[Yamamura]

Am I the only one who was always interested to see different characters in the show as a kid, but later got tired of it? I always liked episodes with characters that weren't the main cast because it made the universe seem more expansive beyond Tidmouth sheds. That's why Mavis and Skarloey were two of my favorite characters. At some point in the CGI era after introducing Emily I got tired of them introducing so many new characters that I stopped keeping up with it. It would basically be another Thomas focused episode instead of an independent episode about that character themselves.

 

[Duncan]

I forgot to post The Unlucky Tug's latest RWS lore video. It's a breakdown of every station, and railway, that's ever existed in the book series. Wilbert really went hard with his lore for a kids book about talking trains.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

I forgot to post The Unlucky Tug's latest RWS lore video. It's a breakdown of every station, and railway, that's ever existed in the book series. Wilbert really went hard with his lore for a kids book about talking trains.

there's a lot of batshit loremakers that get compared to Tolkien, but that dude might be one of the few to really be worthy of it

American fans are generally just autistic man children though.

I wonder if part of it is because of how there's very slim pickings for Foamers in the USA

 

[TVB]

I forgot I made this mashup

 

[TVB]

Double post
@Flexo

 

[TVB]

Oh yea, I almost forgot to post this

 

[Duncan]

Merry Christmas, Kiwis

 

[Duncan]

Double posting to drop a Trampy song.

 

[Commandant Swordfish]

there's a lot of batshit loremakers that get compared to Tolkien, but that dude might be one of the few to really be worthy of it

I wonder if part of it is because of how there's very slim pickings for Foamers in the USA

The UK really did have a long and intertwined history with it's railways, with lots of railwaymen's stories to go along with it, lots of history from towns and all kinds of things. The Rev's knowledge of the railways was almost encyclopedic, so rich pickings. If you genuinely know your subject and have an imagination you can craft great things. Doubly so if you can visualise it with, say, the model railway he built.

I actually model large scale narrow gauge trains. As you're working on them and running them, the story of the scene you're putting together forms in your head and becomes something cohesive. There's a lot more head canon lore to my models than I'd like to admit.

 

[Duncan]

I didn't know the restored versions of the classic episodes were so fucked.

 

[TVB]

I didn't know the restored versions of the classic episodes were so fucked.

Boy, I sure hope somebody got fired for that blunder

 

[Commandant Swordfish]

I didn't know the restored versions of the classic episodes were so fucked.

Boy, autism's a hell of a drug.

I still watched all of it tho

 

[Lobster Cult High Priest]

I don't understand how anybody could like this show, full stop
I kind of tolerated it when I was a kid, but I always thought that human faces on trains or other vehicles were seriously uncanny and uncomfortable to watch. The human voices and the way they talked in Thomas specifically made that impression even worse, and I remember going out of my way to ask for regular trains when my dad was considering getting us a small set to play with when we were little (prompted by him looking at Thomas stuff). Same reason I didn't like Cars (alongside a number of other things), though that was a different type of autism where I was more mad that they made the windshields into eyes instead of the headlights like I thought would be more interesting. I was genuinely upset because "every car's eyes looked the same" instead of being circles or squares or sideways eggs.

Unrelated final sentence aside, I'm unsurprised that there are adult lunatics who fawn over this show like there's no tomorrow, but I am far more repulsed and disgusted by this shit than I ever could be by something like My Little Pony or Bluey ever having a similar fanbase. At least those shows are visually pleasant to watch, assuming you get used to the weird bug-eyes of MLP; Thomas the Tank Engine constantly looks like a freaky fever dream made by a sick autist who was on the verge of snapping.

Maybe that relatability is why there's such a huge cocoon of autism around this franchise.

The Thomas faces are superior to the nightmare fuel known as Jay Jay the Jet Plane.

 

[The Lawgiver]

The Thomas faces are superior to the nightmare fuel known as Jay Jay the Jet Plane.

View attachment 6005155

I think I either pointed it out in this thread or another one that the topic came up but Jay Jay was originally something similar to Thomas production wise, but was the first one of these things to reboot itself as a cheap cgi nightmare show and naturally suffered for it immensely.