151 Days: Countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom Premiere

151 days until the premiere of An Unlikely Fandom! 

Remember how I said a lot of the crazy crashes and incidents in Thomas the Tank Engine are based on things that actual happened? Well, all the engines and equipment are based on real ones too. Here are three of my favorites! (I'm a sucker for the really unique ones)

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If you're interested in attending the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

we have a few tickets left, click here. 

For more about An Unlikely Fandom visit: Website • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram 

I'm blogging the countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

for the rest of these blogs - click here! 

I recently started a vlog about Thomas on my YouTube as well. 

Click here for that!

You can visit the Thomas the Tank Engine Wiki by clicking here.

Also be sure to check out the Sodor Island Fansite and Sodor Island Forums, 

if you're looking for more great Thomas the Tank Engine content and discussion. 

152 Days: Countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom Premiere

Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, or Thomas & Friends as it was later shortened to, ran from 1984 to 2021 for a grand total of 24 series. 

The show was replaced later in 2021 with a reboot show titled Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go. Opinions are divided over whether this was a good move or not. 

I'll withhold my opinions until a later time and, in the interest of fairness, until I've seen the reboot - as I've not even watched the last 2 series of Thomas & Friends yet. 

But I'm a little bit concerned that the corporate decision makers might not understand what made Thomas special for a lot of us, and why I'm eager to pass it along to my kids. Some of the magic is definitely gone in recent years. 

But, on a brighter note, in the very near future, I'll begin a rewatch of the show from the very beginning and I'll be sharing my thoughts on my Twitter and YouTube. 

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If you're interested in attending the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

we have a few tickets left, click here. 

For more about An Unlikely Fandom visit: Website • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram 

I'm blogging the countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

for the rest of these blogs - click here! 

I recently started a vlog about Thomas on my YouTube as well. 

Click here for that!

You can visit the Thomas the Tank Engine Wiki by clicking here.

Also be sure to check out the Sodor Island Fansite and Sodor Island Forums, 

if you're looking for more great Thomas the Tank Engine content and discussion. 

153 Days: Countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom Premiere

 Ah, today's countdown post is a good one! So far, I've applauded the creativity of my fellow fans, but today I'm going to suggest you see the combined efforts of several skilled and ambitious fans who've created an original episode in the style of series 5 (1998). 

Check it out here: 

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If you're interested in attending the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

we have a few tickets left, click here. 

For more about An Unlikely Fandom visit: Website • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram 

I'm blogging the countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

for the rest of these blogs - click here! 

I recently started a vlog about Thomas on my YouTube as well. 

Click here for that!

You can visit the Thomas the Tank Engine Wiki by clicking here.

Also be sure to check out the Sodor Island Fansite and Sodor Island Forums, 

if you're looking for more great Thomas the Tank Engine content and discussion. 

154 Days: Countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom Premiere

154 days until the premiere of An Unlikely Fandom! (It is also five months to the day!)

One of the coolest things about the Thomas the Tank Engine fan community is the sheer amount of creativity! The pictures attached today are of some of the models built by fans of Thomas characters, I saw these at the Edison, NJ train show that we've been meeting up at. 

(I had to look at the pictures very carefully to distinguish between the actual models used in the show/licensed merchandise and the fan-created models, the quality is that good.)

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If you're interested in attending the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

we have a few tickets left, click here. 

For more about An Unlikely Fandom visit: Website • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram 

I'm blogging the countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

for the rest of these blogs - click here! 

I recently started a vlog about Thomas on my YouTube as well. 

Click here for that!

You can visit the Thomas the Tank Engine Wiki by clicking here.

Also be sure to check out the Sodor Island Fansite and Sodor Island Forums, 

if you're looking for more great Thomas the Tank Engine content and discussion. 

155 Days: Countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom Premiere

155 days until the premiere of An Unlikely Fandom!

Today, another fun fact! Thomas the Tank Engine has direct ties to the preservation of steam engines and heritage railways!

Not only was Thomas created by the Rev. W. Awdry, who was an avid railway enthusiast who participated in heritage railway preservation societies and volunteered at railways like the Talyllyn Railway in Wales, but the people who read The Railway Series became interested in the railways and more volunteers joined up and more children wanted to visit the railways.

I already mentioned the Talyllyn Railway specifically, and it has a very special connection with the Thomas franchise - it is the inspiration for the Skarloey Railway in The Railway Series and the TV show, and the engines that run on that railway are directly based on their real life counterparts. Talyllyn is Skarloey, Dolgoch is Rheneas, Douglas is Duncan and so on.

The impact of the Thomas stories on the real life railway is such, that they began having what they called "Duncan Days" some years ago, before "Day Out with Thomas" events were created. On the "Duncan Days" the Talyllyn Railway's Douglas was dressed up as The Railway Series' Duncan by means of a molded face. Train rides and various activities accompany, needless to say, this is very popular with children - and probably served as inspiration for the Day Out with Thomas events that came later.

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If you're interested in attending the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

we have a few tickets left, click here. 

For more about An Unlikely Fandom visit: Website • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram 

I'm blogging the countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

for the rest of these blogs - click here! 

I recently started a vlog about Thomas on my YouTube as well. 

Click here for that!

You can visit the Thomas the Tank Engine Wiki by clicking here.

Also be sure to check out the Sodor Island Fansite and Sodor Island Forums, 

if you're looking for more great Thomas the Tank Engine content and discussion. 

156 Days: Countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom Premiere

An interesting fact about The Railway Series and the earliest series of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends - most of the unusual accidents and incidents were based on real world events and some of the odd occurrences on British railways.

For example, the story where Thomas fell into a mine was based on something that actually happened. As well as the infamous story when Henry was bricked up in a tunnel!

Having some internet trouble tonight, so this will definitely be a topic I circle back to!

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If you're interested in attending the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

we have a few tickets left, click here. 

For more about An Unlikely Fandom visit: Website • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram 

I'm blogging the countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

for the rest of these blogs - click here! 

I recently started a vlog about Thomas on my YouTube as well. 

Click here for that!

You can visit the Thomas the Tank Engine Wiki by clicking here.

Also be sure to check out the Sodor Island Fansite and Sodor Island Forums, 

if you're looking for more great Thomas the Tank Engine content and discussion. 

157 Days: Countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom Premiere

My posts have been a little short these past few days, as I've been out and about and haven't had much time to type them up - but don't worry, I still have plenty to say!

So, Thomas and his friends were created by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry - a lifelong rail enthusiast - created the first talking steam engines in his fictional world for his son Christopher while he was ill. 

The Rev had listened to steam engines traversing the railway near his childhood home and had imagined that they were speaking to each other as they climbed the hill nearby. 

When his son Christopher fell ill, he remembered his own childhood imagination and began telling him stories about steam engines named Edward, Gordon and Henry. 

He didn't ever intend to publish the stories, but his wife and friends persuaded him to publish them after Christopher insisted he write them down to get the details right each time. 

On May 12th 1945, the Three Railway Engines was published and thus the phenomenon was born. Thomas himself wasn't even introduced until the second book!

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If you're interested in attending the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

we have a few tickets left, click here. 

For more about An Unlikely Fandom visit: Website • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram 

I'm blogging the countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

for the rest of these blogs - click here! 

I recently started a vlog about Thomas on my YouTube as well. 

Click here for that!

You can visit the Thomas the Tank Engine Wiki by clicking here.

Also be sure to check out the Sodor Island Fansite and Sodor Island Forums, 

if you're looking for more great Thomas the Tank Engine content and discussion. 

158 Days: A Countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom Premiere

 An incredible amount of work went into bringing the classic Thomas the Tank Engine series to life and one of the best things about the internet is that over time, more and more behind the scenes information and photos have surfaced. sodor-island.com has always been a great source of behind the scenes information and interviews. These days, ttte.fandom.com has quite a bit of information as well and photos from the production of the show.

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If you're interested in attending the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

we have a few tickets left, click here. 

For more about An Unlikely Fandom visit: Website • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram 

I'm blogging the countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

for the rest of these blogs - click here! 

I recently started a vlog about Thomas on my YouTube as well. 

Click here for that!

You can visit the Thomas the Tank Engine Wiki by clicking here.

Also be sure to check out the Sodor Island Fansite and Sodor Island Forums, 

if you're looking for more great Thomas the Tank Engine content and discussion. 

159 Days: Countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom Premiere

 Perhaps one of the most commonly known aspects of the Thomas the Tank Engine series - all of the celebrities that have lent their voices to bringing the little blue engine and his friends to life.

Famously, Ringo Starr of The Beatles was the first narrator of the series. George Carlin took over next in the US. Alec Baldwin followed. Pierce Brosnan had a brief stint in 2008.

The mainstays over the years were Michael Brandon in the US and Michael Angelis in the UK - lesser known actors that were both well loved in their roles.

(At one point, actress Gwyneth Paltrow was in talks to narrate the show.)

Actor Mark Moraghan narrated in both territories for a few seasons, before the narrator was phased out in favor of the characters speaking for themselves.

Voice actors being cast for the individual characters opened up a world of possibilities for the guest appearances on the show, with John Hurt, Hugh Bonneville, Olivia Colman and Eddie Redmayne all joining the every growing list of Thomas voice actors.

You want to know something funny? I didn't realize that there was one narrator voicing all the characters until well into Baldwin's era on the show.

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If you're interested in attending the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

we have a few tickets left, click here. 

For more about An Unlikely Fandom visit: Website • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram 

I'm blogging the countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

for the rest of these blogs - click here! 

I recently started a vlog about Thomas on my YouTube as well. 

Click here for that!

You can visit the Thomas the Tank Engine Wiki by clicking here.

Also be sure to check out the Sodor Island Fansite and Sodor Island Forums, 

if you're looking for more great Thomas the Tank Engine content and discussion. 

160 Days: Countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom Premiere

One of the most iconic aspects of the original Thomas the Tank Engine show were the faces of the characters, brought to life by specially molded face masks affixed to the model engines used in the series, and being interchanged between scenes using the usual stop motion tricks. 

The choice to animate the characters in this was way was made because the show originated in 1984 and CGI as we know it now didn't get exist. I'm sure they could've found a way to animate the faces using traditional animation, but that would have probably exceeded their budget. Anyway, however they came to the method, the face masks method became iconic and was used from 1984 until 2008. 

In 2008, the series began to transition from the models and stop-motion techniques to full CGI. The first thing to change were the faces, as for one series of the show, it was filmed with the models with faces animated on via CGI, with the models wearing reference markers for the animators. 

Obviously, both techniques have their pros and cons, but many of us older fans are very nostalgic about the static faces from the old days and some of the actual faces are now being preserved by fans. I believe some of the molds for the faces are now in the hands of the public as well, not to mention the reference sheets of different faces used by crew members to keep track.

So there's some stuff you might not have known about my favorite blue tank engine and his friends :P

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If you're interested in attending the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

we have a few tickets left, click here. 

For more about An Unlikely Fandom visit: Website • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram 

I'm blogging the countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

for the rest of these blogs - click here! 

I recently started a vlog about Thomas on my YouTube as well. 

Click here for that!

You can visit the Thomas the Tank Engine Wiki by clicking here.

Also be sure to check out the Sodor Island Fansite and Sodor Island Forums, 

if you're looking for more great Thomas the Tank Engine content and discussion. 

161 Days: Countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom Premiere

So about six years ago, I recorded myself reading a few stories from The Railway Series. The Railway Series is the book series that inspired the Thomas the Tank Engine television series. I chose 3 stories because they were about to be adapted into the TV series for the first time. 

It had been many years since one of the original stories was adapted into the show. So for today's countdown post: my recording of the Rev. Awdry's story "Tit for Tat." The video includes scans of the original illustrations from the book.

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If you're interested in attending the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

we have a few tickets left, click here. 

For more about An Unlikely Fandom visit: Website • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram 

I'm blogging the countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

for the rest of these blogs - click here! 

I recently started a vlog about Thomas on my YouTube as well. 

Click here for that!

You can visit the Thomas the Tank Engine Wiki by clicking here.

Also be sure to check out the Sodor Island Fansite and Sodor Island Forums, 

if you're looking for more great Thomas the Tank Engine content and discussion. 

162 Days: Countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom Premiere

162 days until the premiere of An Unlikely Fandom!

Today's countdown post is a picture from 2019 - I attended the Greenberg Train Show in Edison, New Jersey for the first time and met a few of my fellow Thomas fans. 

The guys from @ ThomasTankMerch on Twitter were displaying the original Duke model (my favorite character, made a post about that recently) and I left work at 7:30 in the morning and we drove all the way (8+ hours) to see this train. (And I took my Mom to see the Statue of Liberty the next morning).

I got to the train show just in time to spend the last hour or so admiring the Thomas props and taking a quick look about the rest of the show and I managed to get in the group photo of Thomas fans (most of whom didn't know who I was yet, I'm in the back towards the right). 

This was also the day that I realized what a big deal An Unlikely Fandom was going to be. Not being super plugged into the Thomas community these past few years, I'd heard that Carty was doing a documentary about the fandom, but I didn't know anything about it and didn't give it much thought; and it wasn't until I saw him filming at the train show that I realized this was going to be a big deal. I was really eager to get involved with it after that. 

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If you're interested in attending the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

we have a few tickets left, click here. 

For more about An Unlikely Fandom visit: Website • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram 

I'm blogging the countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

for the rest of these blogs - click here! 

I recently started a vlog about Thomas on my YouTube as well. 

Click here for that!

You can visit the Thomas the Tank Engine Wiki by clicking here.

Also be sure to check out the Sodor Island Fansite and Sodor Island Forums, 

if you're looking for more great Thomas the Tank Engine content and discussion. 

163 Days: Countdown to An Unlikely Fandom Premiere

163 days until the premiere of An Unlikely Fandom! 

Today, just a little post to say how when I was a kid (thirteen), this was one of my favorite promotional posters for Thomas the Tank Engine. My family was going through some stuff at the time: we had to move out of our house, Dad was having multiple surgeries for injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident and it was an all-around stressful time. 😬

I was just so darn excited about this picture, and all the new Thomas episodes, I remember getting up early to watch the new episodes on PBS Kids and carrying a printout of this picture with me on my clipboard everywhere (I carried a clipboard and sometimes a briefcase back then). 😊

Also, they brought back a classic character that season and I thought they would maybe bring back my favorite character, (see my post from a few days ago) but they never did. 😔

Anyway, another happy memory of Thomas the Tank Engine. :) 

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If you're interested in attending the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

we have a few tickets left, click here. 

For more about An Unlikely Fandom visit: Website • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram 

I'm blogging the countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

for the rest of these blogs - click here! 

I recently started a vlog about Thomas on my YouTube as well. 

Click here for that!

You can visit the Thomas the Tank Engine Wiki by clicking here.

Also be sure to check out the Sodor Island Fansite and Sodor Island Forums, 

if you're looking for more great Thomas the Tank Engine content and discussion. 

164 Days: Countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom Premiere

164 days until the premiere of An Unlikely Fandom! 

I'd previously mentioned having visited a Thomas the Tank Engine themed amusement park in the UK. It was very cool, even if I'm a bit old to ride the rides. The main draw for me was the building with the massive train layout made up of props that had been used in the show. I posted a brief video on the layout on Facebook when I visited it in August 2017, on YouTube which can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/rGYM0JNsFsw

I also noticed that you see more Thomas-themed stuff in public in the UK,  even outside the Drayton Manor theme park - like this horse drawn carriage made to look like Thomas in another town in another part of England altogether. 

Some fun memories from my visits to England. 

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If you're interested in attending the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

we have a few tickets left, click here. 

For more about An Unlikely Fandom visit: Website • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram 

I'm blogging the countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

for the rest of these blogs - click here! 

I recently started a vlog about Thomas on my YouTube as well. 

Click here for that!

You can visit the Thomas the Tank Engine Wiki by clicking here.

Also be sure to check out the Sodor Island Fansite and Sodor Island Forums, 

if you're looking for more great Thomas the Tank Engine content and discussion. 

165 Days: Countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom Premiere

165 days until the premiere of An Unlikely Fandom!

My favorite Thomas and Friends character for most of my childhood was Duke.

Within the world of the story, he was an old engine on a narrow gauge railway that got lost - left behind in an old shed when his railway closed - and is later found and brought to a new railway. 

My grandma bought me the ERTL die-cast toy when I was about five years old. (pictured below)

So you can imagine my excitement when I learned that some fellow fans had purchased the actual model from the show and had put it on display at a train show in New Jersey, August 2019. I got off work in Ohio at about 7:30 in the morning, and traveled all the way down to Edison, New Jersey to see him. We made it just in time for me to spend the last hour of the show checking out Duke and the other props! (also pictured below) 

One of my favorite Thomas memories! 

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If you're interested in attending the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

we have a few tickets left, click here. 

For more about An Unlikely Fandom visit: Website • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram 

I'm blogging the countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

for the rest of these blogs - click here! 

I recently started a vlog about Thomas on my YouTube as well. 

Click here for that!

You can visit the Thomas the Tank Engine Wiki by clicking here.

Also be sure to check out the Sodor Island Fansite and Sodor Island Forums, 

if you're looking for more great Thomas the Tank Engine content and discussion.

 

166 Days: Countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom Premiere

166 days until the premiere of An Unlikely Fandom! 

So today's Thomas-themed offering is this photo of me showing off a plush Percy I found on a random vendor cart in Hollywood.  

At the time, I was considering doing a series of videos/ blogs/photos demonstrating how I can find Thomas paraphernalia anywhere.

In retrospect, I wish I had - as this was almost 12 years ago and I've found a heck of a lot of Thomas stuff in my travels. One of the many things I loved about England was the presence of Thomas absolutely everywhere.

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If you're interested in attending the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

we have a few tickets left, click here. 

For more about An Unlikely Fandom visit: Website • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram 

I'm blogging the countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

for the rest of these blogs - click here! 

I recently started a vlog about Thomas on my YouTube as well. 

Click here for that!

You can visit the Thomas the Tank Engine Wiki by clicking here.

Also be sure to check out the Sodor Island Fansite and Sodor Island Forums, 

if you're looking for more great Thomas the Tank Engine content and discussion. 

167 Days: Countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom Premiere

167 days until the An Unlikely Fandom premiere! 😁

So, for today's countdown post - a humorous anecdote from my childhood. So, it was the early 2000's... 2002 if memory serves. 

I am notoriously hard to surprise. Annoyingly so. My parents were always trying but I'd deduce/snoop/harass intel out of people about any gifts/surprises that were planned for me... particularly Thomas related - it was like I had a sixth sense for anything Thomas related. (Which reminds me of a time where I went thrifting for Thomas merchandise... but that's a story for another time ;) )

So, on this early summer weekend in 2002(?) Mom & Dad had told my brothers and I that we were going on a surprise field trip. I begged for a hint, but they were increasingly vague, hoping they could actually surprise us. 

So we got ready and drove a couple hours; but Dad got a bit lost and asked for directions at a toll booth (GPS systems were not in everyone's pockets back then ;) )

Dad specifically asked for directions to a museum (I don't remember what kind of museum, but it didn't sound like something that required the level of secrecy that Mom & Dad were using) and the man at the toll booth said "oh you mean over there by the Thomas the Tank thing?" Mom and Dad looked at each other and I started SCREAMING with excitement in the back seat. 

Mom & Dad tried so hard to keep the secret of the surprise, just for it to be blown by this hapless toll booth attendant. 

It was a Day Out with Thomas event in Cuyahoga Falls. (So far, this is the only Day Out with Thomas event I've attended.) My brothers and I all enjoyed the day, taking a nice ride on the train pulled by Thomas himself and shopping through the merchandise tent (particularly for ERTLs that we didn't already have) l got my Sodor Canal Boat and one of my brothers got the D.Fusit Gunpowder Trucks. 

I think we got pictures with Thomas and Sir Topham Hatt, but it will take me some time to find those if they still exist (I will try though). 

A very good memory. 😊

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If you're interested in attending the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

we have a few tickets left, click here. 

For more about An Unlikely Fandom visit: Website • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram 

I'm blogging the countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

for the rest of these blogs - click here! 

I recently started a vlog about Thomas on my YouTube as well. 

Click here for that!

You can visit the Thomas the Tank Engine Wiki by clicking here.

Also be sure to check out the Sodor Island Fansite and Sodor Island Forums, 

if you're looking for more great Thomas the Tank Engine content and discussion. 

168 Days: Countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom Premiere

168 days until the premiere of An Unlikely Fandom! I had mentioned in a previous post that I've had the opportunity to see some Thomas the Tank Engine props and sets in person. I should say I've seen many, because at the last count (and depending how you're counting) I've seen at least 30 models used in the show. 

Something that I have in common with a lot of my fellow Thomas fans is that I am very passionate about the preservation of the props and models used in the show I watched growing up. In my case, it started with Thomas, but it's grown into preserving any movie and TV artifacts - which is why I've got stuff used in anything from Marvel productions and Knives Out to The Last of the Mohicans and Lost in Space squirreled away to be displayed in a museum one day. (Only semi-related, but I was offered the opportunity to purchase the tugboats from Theodore Tugboat some years ago, I didn't have the money at the time though. 🙁)

I have not yet been able to aquire anything from Thomas the Tank Engine personally, but I am acquainted with several great people who have purchased props from the show and are preserving them for future generations to see. Definitely hope to see a lot more of them in the future and even help with preserving and displaying them!

Photos are mine, various years and locations. 🙂

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If you're interested in attending the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

we have a few tickets left, click here. 

For more about An Unlikely Fandom visit: Website • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram 

I'm blogging the countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

for the rest of these blogs - click here! 

I recently started a vlog about Thomas on my YouTube as well. 

Click here for that!

You can visit the Thomas the Tank Engine Wiki by clicking here.

Also be sure to check out the Sodor Island Fansite and Sodor Island Forums, 

if you're looking for more great Thomas the Tank Engine content and discussion. 

169 Days: Countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom Premiere

 169 days until the premiere of An Unlikely Fandom! So, in yesterday's post I mentioned that from the time I was 15 until I was 21, I was involved in the editing of the Thomas & Friends Wikia. I wanted to talk a little more about that in today's countdown post. 

So having been a Thomas fan for 13 years in 2008, I'd been browsing all the sites with Thomas content for a couple years when I first created an account and made some edits on the site. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, it's basically Wikipedia for Thomas. (If you don't know what Wikis are at all, it's a collaborative encyclopedia edited by the public) 

In those early days, there was very little accurate information on the site and most of the pages were filled with fan fiction and troll activity (it's the internet 🙄). The way these sites work, there is an administration/moderation hierarchy - but there were no active administrators when I began editing. Being one of the few constructive editors in those early days, I quickly convinced the host site (then called Wikia, now rebranded Fandom) to allow me to adopt the site and I was granted the top admin position (bureaucrat,  which means I could make other people admins and such). 

From there it really took off, I established law and order, got more people to edit the site (I literally went out and recruited people all over the net) and got Wikia to run an ad for our site on the other sites once we had enough activity to qualify. You might be browsing the Lost wiki or the Land Before Time wiki and there was an ad for Thomas Wiki! Very exciting times. 

We created hundreds and hundreds of pages about episodes, characters, locations and crew members. (I also want to note that I met one of my best friends online through Thomas Wiki, and though we've never met in person, we've stayed in touch for 15 years as of this year.) It just grew and grew from there. 

After a year or so, my personal life, very tumultuous and traumatic, took me away from my wiki editing activity and when I did spend time editing wikis, I became involved with other ones that didn't have the number of editors and traffic Thomas Wiki had. (There was a British dinosaur sci-fi one in particular).

Thomas Wiki continued on under the leadership of others that I had promoted, some more controversial than others, but the site's popularity only grew. I got the chance to interview the head writer of Thomas & Friends for the site and learned that he actually used our site for reference on character and location histories when writing new episodes. (We later learned that the animators were also using our site, to keep the visuals consistent and accurate.) 

So, that's a little bit of backstory on one of the most popular online communities that I've ever been a part of, and I helped found it. In more recent years, I've been social media manager for the Thomas Wiki, but more on that another time. The image included is a current screenshot of the Thomas Wiki homepage, located here: ttte.fandom.com

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If you're interested in attending the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

we have a few tickets left, click here. 

For more about An Unlikely Fandom visit: Website • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram 

I'm blogging the countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

for the rest of these blogs - click here! 

I recently started a vlog about Thomas on my YouTube as well. 

Click here for that!

You can visit the Thomas the Tank Engine Wiki by clicking here.

Also be sure to check out the Sodor Island Fansite and Sodor Island Forums, 

if you're looking for more great Thomas the Tank Engine content and discussion. 

170 Days: Countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom Premiere

170 days until the premiere of An Unlikely Fandom! It's been awhile since I've posted about it, but I'm a huge Thomas the Tank Engine fan. 

Been a fan since Mom & Dad bought me the "Thomas Gets Tricked" VHS for my 2nd birthday, I started collecting the ERTL die-cast trains on my 3rd birthday, I began editing the Thomas Wiki (basically Wikipedia for Thomas) when I was 15, and when I was 20 I learned that the head writer of the show was using the Thomas Wiki as reference for his writing; I retired from being the admin of Thomas Wiki when I was 21... but I never gave up my love of Thomas the Tank Engine. 

When I was 24, I visited the UK and visited a Thomas theme park and got to see a bunch of the models and props used in the show. When I was 26, I went to a meet up of Thomas fans at a train show in New Jersey and learned that a fellow fan was shooting a documentary about us, the adult fans of Thomas the Tank Engine. 

When I was 28, I made some small contributions to the documentary project and became an Executive Producer on the film. When I was 30, the premiere date of the documentary was announced and I look forward to seeing it with my fellow fans in 170 days! 

Here's a photo of myself and our intrepid director Carty, summer 2021. :) I'll be counting down the days to the premiere with anecdotes and trivia about what it means to be a Thomas fan. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

If you're interested in attending the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

we have a few tickets left, click here. 

For more about An Unlikely Fandom visit: Website • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram 

I'm blogging the countdown to the An Unlikely Fandom premiere, 

for the rest of these blogs - click here! 

I recently started a vlog about Thomas on my YouTube as well. 

Click here for that!

You can visit the Thomas the Tank Engine Wiki by clicking here.

Also be sure to check out the Sodor Island Fansite and Sodor Island Forums, 

if you're looking for more great Thomas the Tank Engine content and discussion.