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 Post subject: Thomas the Tank sales decline
PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2018 10:34 am 

Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2005 9:34 pm
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Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Nothing lasts forever. Recent Washington Post story says Thomas sales have declined 8%.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/09/04/hollywoods-new-development-partner-united-nations/?utm_term=.25e71948e664

p.s. sorry for the duplicate post on the article, but my focus is different.

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 Post subject: Re: Thomas the Tank sales decline
PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2018 12:54 pm 

Joined: Sat Aug 25, 2007 12:45 am
Posts: 1010
I think the decline was already explained in the "Thomas & Friends" is no longer on PBS thread that was punted over to railfanning. (PBS refers to the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.) According to the wikipedia entry about the tv program:
Quote:
The rights to broadcast the series through PBS expired in December 2017,[60] thus ending a period of almost 30 years of programming related to The Railway Series on American public television. Now it airs on Nick Jr. and Nickelodeon.
Here's a great point made by JDParkes:
JDParkes wrote:
Got to remember that HIT entertainment is now owned by Mattel (has been since 2012) and is largely going to be where to find targeted audiences of kids willing to buy the soon to be aggressively relaunched Thomas and Friends Wood range, being made by their subsidiary Fischer-Price.

Makes more sense to move to a Viacom owned channel willing to punt money their way for the boasting and advertising they probably offered as a deal as opposed to sticking to PBS.
And another great point made by "parktrains":
parktrains wrote:
It's sort of a "Hail Mary" move on Mattel's and Nickelodean's part.

The Thomas toys aren't selling like they used to and Mattel is in a bit of a dire slump as many of their other flagship brands aren't selling anymore either. Whens the last time you saw a kid asking for a G.I. Joe or a Barbie for Christmas. In fact their chief competitor HASBRO has surpassed them in sales quite substantially and even offered to buy them out not too long ago.

This mainly being due to the fact that HASBRO made the bold move of creating their own television network and rebooting a lot of their older I.P's into new shows which they let the showrunners have major creative control over and then proceeded to aggressively market new toys based on them. They've had quite good success especially with Transformer's and My Little Pony which have both had strong return on investment for sometime now. The latter particularly due to a cult following among adult fans (with disposable income) it managed to garner.

The Nick networks in a slump as well as they rode way too long on the popularity of "SpongeBob" and drove the show into the ground. They've also recently been hit with their only other currently popular show "The Loud House" getting mired up in the creators sexual harassment scandal. Plus many of the networks other creative minds have abandoned ship for private internet projects, NETFLIX, etc where the grass appears greener right now.

Nick needs I.P. that kids will watch that they don't have to spend too much money on (since they don't have it right now) and Mattel needs a place where they're allowed to cram ads for their crappy retooled Trackmaster train sets and wooden railway down kids throats.

Thomas is, IMHO, an important topic for RYPN since changes to "The Bank Engine" appear to be killing rail preservation's golden goose.


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 Post subject: Re: Thomas the Tank sales decline
PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2018 4:09 pm 

Joined: Fri Jul 24, 2009 5:51 pm
Posts: 209
Location: Massachusetts
Chris Webster wrote:
Thomas is, IMHO, an important topic for RYPN since changes to "The Bank Engine" appear to be killing rail preservation's golden goose.


Honestly, I think that Christmas Trains are now the "Golden Goose" of the preservation movement. One of the railroads in my neck of the woods (New England) has absolutely taken Christmas operations to a new level. I doubt that any single operation in the country now runs more sold-out Christmas Trains or sells more tickets than the Valley Railroad in Essex, Connecticut. Come watch them between early November and New Year's and you'll see how one railroad has figured out how to not only survive, but thrive with steam. No blue paint required. Last year, they ran 6 departures (with 8-car trains) on each weeknight except Monday, and 12 total departures each day on the weekends. This year, I am hearing that operations will be expanded even more. They just started selling tickets today....starting with group, full-car sales. By Thanksgiving, unsold seats will be few and far between.

Thomas who??

/Kevin Madore


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 Post subject: Re: Thomas the Tank sales decline
PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2018 4:39 pm 

Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2017 12:39 am
Posts: 90
KevinM wrote:
Chris Webster wrote:
Thomas is, IMHO, an important topic for RYPN since changes to "The Bank Engine" appear to be killing rail preservation's golden goose.


Honestly, I think that Christmas Trains are now the "Golden Goose" of the preservation movement. One of the railroads in my neck of the woods (New England) has absolutely taken Christmas operations to a new level. I doubt that any single operation in the country now runs more sold-out Christmas Trains or sells more tickets than the Valley Railroad in Essex, Connecticut. Come watch them between early November and New Year's and you'll see how one railroad has figured out how to not only survive, but thrive with steam. No blue paint required. Last year, they ran 6 departures (with 8-car trains) on each weeknight except Monday, and 12 total departures each day on the weekends. This year, I am hearing that operations will be expanded even more. They just started selling tickets today....starting with group, full-car sales. By Thanksgiving, unsold seats will be few and far between.

Thomas who??

/Kevin Madore


I was recently talking with some coworkers about our perceptions of these "golden goose" events for railroad museums/tourist operations.

While Thomas could definitely be seen as a fading mainstay of moneymaking events, I definitely agree with Kevin that the Christmas train events seem to be here to stay.

While a TV show/toy is definitely susceptible to fading popularity, I believe that trains are now simply considered a part of Christmas.. and it doesn't have to be THE Polar Express either. As is evident with the Valley Railroad and many others, it is easily possible to put your own spin on the Christmas train without having to fall into the licensing fees associated with the PE events.


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 Post subject: Re: Thomas the Tank sales decline
PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2018 5:38 pm 

Joined: Thu Aug 26, 2004 2:50 pm
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Location: Northern Illinois
softwerkslex wrote:
Nothing lasts forever. Recent Washington Post story says Thomas sales have declined 8%.


Begs the question, who has the horsepower to tell H.I.T. that their royalty needs to decrease by 8% or better.

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 Post subject: Re: Thomas the Tank sales decline
PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2018 5:52 pm 

Joined: Sun Apr 02, 2017 3:13 am
Posts: 129
Don't panic. They're going to introduce an “inclusive” gender-balanced, multicultural set of characters as part of a revamp:

http://www.itv.com/news/2018-09-01/thomas-the-tank-engine-to-get-more-female-and-multicultural-friends/


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 Post subject: Re: Thomas the Tank sales decline
PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2018 6:34 pm 

Joined: Thu Aug 21, 2014 11:49 am
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Our local tourist RR just concluded two Thomas weekends and attendance was way down from prior years. The local model railroad club sets up an HO Thomas train layout and it's normally packed. This year there were days with no visitors for as much as two hours.

I'm in the hobby business and have been selling the wooden Thomas trains since day one and sales have plunged since Fisher Price redesigned the character locomotives to make them more or less generic and therefore cheaper to manufacture. Kids aren't fooled and they know how many drivers Spencer is supposed to have and how Emily looks. To top off this blunder, they have now redesigned the track so that it is not compatible with the older track.

Sadly, this is not Mattel's first rodeo when it comes to destroying brands that they have acquired. Years ago they acquired Monogram models and ran them into the ground before they were rescued by Revell, who in turn were bought out and run into the ground by new buyers, but that's another story.

This is also not the first time that Thomas moved from PBS to cable and the resulting drop in sales is sadly the same. At least HIT entertainment can't buy the rights to Christmas!

Michael Allen


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 Post subject: Re: Thomas the Tank sales decline
PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2018 8:26 pm 

Joined: Sun May 20, 2007 10:27 am
Posts: 223
Location: New Haven Ct area
It's funny about two years ago we were talking with the sister in-law and she hated Thomas. According to her unlike other shows Thomas has no educational value. I chimed in that she was wrong and said it teaches the most important thing thing a young kid can learn. She says "what's that?" I say "to love trains!" Some how she didn't understand!

At any rate I read the other article posted here and just hate how the political correct thought police are chasing after everything good in life. What is wrong with kids just enjoying a show about a steam train and laughing when silly old Gordon got stuck in the mud?

I grew up loving Thomas it was probably a big part of why I love trains. As a kid I always marveled at the layout they had. pretty sad now to see all this liberal crap coming after him!

Now as a parent I am trying to raise my daughter correctly and get her hooked on Thomas too she's only one now but she seems to really enjoy Thomas. We watch the old ones on YouTube together. Those old shows by the way rewatching them now contain a lit of real steam knowledge scattered about by writers who truly knew and loved steam. Maybe not as relevant to the USA audience but stuff like sending a locomotive to Crew to get re shopped. Can anyone think of an American kids show that sends a steam locomotive to Altoona for example? The new ones on the other hand seem to be lacking a bit in that department. For example we were watching a modern Thomas the other day together and Edward lost his brakes according to the show he was leaking hydraulic oil every where! Like steam engines used hydraulic brakes! I guess I can forgive that error though I know the Thomas of yesteryear would never have done that. On the other hand I am afraid from reading the article linked above that before these goons are done Thomas will be trading coal for solar power!!!! If that happens we are done!


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 Post subject: Re: Thomas the Tank sales decline
PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2018 9:17 pm 

Joined: Thu Oct 24, 2013 8:30 am
Posts: 173
I grew up with Thomas as well I learned quite a bit about trains and read the railway series books in fact Thomas was a big reason why I love trains. I used to buy the toys all the time. I collected the ERTL Thomas toys in the 90s and still have them. Now as I look at the new toys they look terrible if I was a kid again I wouldn't want them at all. I have my nephews hooked on Thomas but I always have them watch older episodes when it took true craftsmanship to build the sets, trains, and the writing now not so much. I grew up in the 90s toys were better built.

There is Nostalgia for those old Thomas toys or toys in general and I buy those old toys in the box when I can if the price is right and collect them.

for the record if I could write books I would write my own version of Thomas but American and takes place in the 1920s-60s. using stories from the beginning of railroading to the current day. It would be tricky to pick the right steamers to portray them because I don't want to relocate the headlight for the face. The owner would be called the Commodore think who I'm talking about.

anyway I'm not surprised that the SJW's cause the decline of Thomas in general.


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 Post subject: Re: Thomas the Tank sales decline
PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2018 9:36 pm 

Joined: Thu Dec 12, 2013 1:26 pm
Posts: 236
I guess Mattel is just trying to find another market for their products. Its a shame that they want to ignore the tradition and history of Thomas. Its also a shame that they want to jump on a bandwagon that's seems to have a political agenda.


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 Post subject: Re: Thomas the Tank sales decline
PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2018 9:42 pm 

Joined: Tue Jul 12, 2016 6:12 pm
Posts: 195
I volunteer on the Fillmore & Western in SoCal. They have come up with a number of different strategies.
They now have "Zombie Trains", where you shoot zombies with paint balls.
They also have murder mystery trains, Pumpkin liners, Xmas tree trains, and "Polar Express" trains., etc.
We have not had Thomas the Tank Engine here for a few years.


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 Post subject: Re: Thomas the Tank sales decline
PostPosted: Wed Sep 05, 2018 9:24 am 

Joined: Fri Jan 08, 2010 10:08 pm
Posts: 396
Location: Amherst, OH
adammil1 wrote:
pretty sad now to see all this liberal crap coming after him!


Keep the politics out of this - adding female and different nationalities has been happening since I watched Shining Time Station back in the 80s.

Speaking of, I always thought Thomas lost a lot of the educational value when they switched the show from Shining Time Station to just Thomas. Sales may have picked up but it just wasn't the same experience.


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 Post subject: Re: Thomas the Tank sales decline
PostPosted: Wed Sep 05, 2018 10:45 am 

Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2009 5:32 pm
Posts: 85
This is what happened to Star Wars toys when the recent movies went politically correct. "Solo:A Star Wars Story" lost at least 100 million dollars. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHvXZLREt9E&t=150s


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 Post subject: Re: Thomas the Tank sales decline
PostPosted: Wed Sep 05, 2018 10:55 am 

Joined: Thu Dec 17, 2009 10:56 pm
Posts: 39
Emmo213 wrote:
Keep the politics out of this


It's pretty difficult to ignore the elephant in the room that is politics seeing as the brand's future lies now in the hands of the UN.

IMHO, I'd rather see the brand die rather than be reinvented into some biased indoctrinate medium to mold children's minds rather than allowing them to just be entertained.

Also, it's "Thomas the Tank Engine", not "Thomas the Tank". That vein of ignorance has been a huge pet peeve of mine for years as it become the norm for the average plebe.

Jeff

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 Post subject: Re: Thomas the Tank sales decline
PostPosted: Wed Sep 05, 2018 11:07 am 

Joined: Thu Feb 26, 2009 3:07 pm
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Location: B'more Maryland
kew wrote:
Don't panic. They're going to introduce an “inclusive” gender-balanced, multicultural set of characters as part of a revamp:

http://www.itv.com/news/2018-09-01/thomas-the-tank-engine-to-get-more-female-and-multicultural-friends/



Why is this seen as a bad thing??

Look around at most rail preservation. What type of person do you mostly see?

Old white men.

And look around at society in general, what do you see fewer and fewer of (by proportion)?

Old white men.

You're doomed by the future if you don't embrace it.

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