Ertl Company

The Ertl Company was a toy company which produced several Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends toys from 1985 to 2004. The most notable of the toy ranges made was a line of 1/64 scale die-cast models and playsets of characters from the Railway Series and Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends.

Overview
The first Thomas products released by ERTL in 1985 were a die-cast Thomas with a sticker sheet of different facial expressions and a larger, motorised pull-back version of Thomas.

Later in the same year, die-cast models of James and Henry were released, both with a happy face. Because the sticker faces peeled off easily, they were soon replaced with fixed plastic faces. The ranges were released in the US in 1989 following the premiere of the series on Shining Time Station.

New vehicles, destinations, and playsets were produced for the die-cast range on a near yearly basis, tallying up to over 100 vehicles. Due to the franchise's popularity, other ranges were made such as miniatures, keyrings, larger Gold Rail vehicles, pull backs and wind-up toys.

Production for the Thomas ranges ceased for the US market in 2001. Due to RC2 acquiring the ERTL Company in 2004, the Thomas ranges were discontinued to avoid conflict with the then existing licence held by Learning Curve, which produced the Take-Along Thomas system.

Vehicles
The numbers in round brackets/parentheses show what number each model was on the portrait card. The numbers in the curly brackets/braces, e.g. { }, show what number each model was on the Shining Time card. The numbers in the square brackets show what number each model was on the cartoon card.

1984
The card of these models is mostly the same colour as the model with a white oval in the centre, containing an image of the character. The smoke cloud that normally contained "Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends" held the name of the character and was above the oval. A blue stripe across the bottom contained the ERTL and Thomas logos.

Thomas, Henry and James originally had white Running Boards with red applied to the sides, but were later replaced with red Running Boards. All the engines had sticker faces. The sticker face was the same as the face of the characters image in the oval. Thomas came with optional sad/tired decals.


 * Thomas
 * Henry
 * James

1985

 * Thomas (updated)
 * Henry (updated)
 * James (updated)
 * Percy
 * Toby
 * Bertie
 * Annie and Clarabel (only available with Thomas or Percy until 1990)

1988

 * Edward
 * Gordon

1989
In 1989 the range was released in the US. There were no new models this year.

1990
1990 saw the release of new models as well as updated versions of previous models. These models featured 3D plastic faces much like those used on the larger motorised models of Thomas and Percy, as the original sticker-face models were prone to losing their faces. The trucks were originally painted brown, but from 1991 onwards, they were released in their normal grey livery.


 * Duck
 * Diesel
 * Troublesome Trucks - Brown (only available in 1990, replaced with grey versions)
 * Troublesome Trucks - Grey
 * Sir Topham Hatt and Porter
 * Annie and Clarabel (available separately)

1991

 * Bill
 * Ben
 * Harold
 * Trevor

1992

 * Donald
 * Douglas
 * Terence
 * Henrietta
 * Daisy
 * BoCo
 * Mavis
 * Milk and Tar Tanker
 * Old Coaches (only available with James or Edward as a limited edition train pack until 1994)

1993
The range was revamped this year with the UK packaging featuring a "portrait card", while the US featured a Shining Time Station themed card.

The Shining Time Station card is an aerial image of countryside with many fields and a few bridges. There is track coming along the left-hand side of the image which turns and comes across the card. Behind the model is a white box that joins to the typical smoke cloud and contains the models name and sometimes a small detail. The Shining Time Station logo is situated above the image, and uses a frame to encompass most of the image. The back of the card features a large illustration on the model, with a small statement beneath about the models character and a collectors card number to the left. The portrait card was an image of the character towards the right hand side of the card, passing a bush of flowers on the right and a mound of grass on the left. Between the character and the grass, aspects of a British village can be seen in the background. Depending on the character, there were rails, road, or water between the flowers and the grass. These were illustrated by Owain Bell. The portraits double as collector cards when cut out, as the reverse side of the portrait contained a paragraph on the character, and a paragraph of Historical Information; often containing the specifications of the real-life locomotive counterpart and when they were in service.

A twin-pack with Donald and Douglas and one with Bill and Ben were briefly available in the "Shining Time" range.
 * Oliver
 * City of Truro
 * Fuel Tankers
 * Bulgy

1994

 * Old Coaches (available separately)
 * The Breakdown Train

1995
A special gold-plated Thomas was released to celebrate the Railway Series' 50th anniversary.

Two different portrait cards of George exist: one where he is similar to the model, and one where he is entirely green (as depicted in the RWS).
 * Gold Anniversary Thomas
 * 199 Diesel
 * Toad
 * Scrap Trevor on flatbed
 * The Post Train / The Sodor Mail Coaches
 * Godred
 * Culdee
 * George

Culdee, Godred and "City of Truro" were marked as "Special edition engines" for the "Shining Time" range.

1996
This was the last year to use Shining Time Station packaging in the US.


 * Rheneas
 * Sir Handel
 * Peter Sam
 * Rusty
 * Duncan
 * Sir Topham Hatt and a Porter
 * Express Coaches
 * Sir Topham Hatt's Car

1997
Starting this year, the portrait card packaging already used in the UK began being used in the US.
 * Stepney
 * Skarloey
 * Duke
 * Lord Harry
 * The Diesel
 * Caroline

1998
This was the first year that metallic engines were released.


 * Wilbert
 * Sixteen
 * Bulstrode
 * The Chinese Dragon
 * S.C. Ruffey (with truck for a limited time)
 * Henry's log car
 * Metallic Thomas
 * Metallic Percy
 * Metallic Rheneas
 * Metallic Duncan

Bulstrode's portrait card is the only exception to the scene in the background. It is set at a dock with him tied to the right-hand side of the dock. There is a cottage, cliff face, lighthouse, and fishing charter along the left-hand side and background.

The metallic engines do not have a portrait collector's card number.

1999
These models were the last to feature the "portrait card".
 * Metallic Duke
 * Metallic Sir Handel
 * Metallic Rusty
 * Metallic Lord Harry
 * Bluebell
 * D. Fusit Gunpowder Wagons
 * Canal boat
 * Soft-side truck
 * Crane
 * The Mail Van
 * Derek
 * Iron 'Arry and Bert
 * Lorry 2
 * Lorry 3
 * Fire engine
 * Biplane

The back of Bluebell's portrait card is divided in half between English and French. The same is true for the Crane and soft-side truck.

2000
With the exception of the Silver Millennium Thomas (which was the last model to feature the "portrait card" and it's collector card), the packaging changed to a predominately blue background with a yellow rectangle behind the model which had a red border. There was a face-on image of Thomas in the top left hand corner with the "Thomas and Friends" smoke cloud beneath. The name of the model was found above the model, centred between the new Thomas logo and the bar on the right, which was made of five circles displaying a "T", right-hand arrow, clock, two flags, and a number "1". There were no collector's cards with this change.

Special packaging was used for Lady, Diesel 10, Splatter, Dodge, Thomas, Henry, Gordon, James, Percy, Toby, Bertie, Annie and Clarabel and the Troublesome Trucks to celebrate the release of "Thomas and the Magic Railroad". This packaging was similar to that of the redesign. The rectangle behind the model was a cloud-like render with a yellow-sparkle render for the background, and the bar on the right featured small cartoons of Diesel 10, Thomas, Splatter, Lady, and Dodge. An image of Thomas appeared in the bottom left corner. A P.T. Boomer figure (known as Pete Boom) was supposed to be released at this time, along with figures of Mr. Conductor and Lily. While the Mr. Conductor figure was eventually released, the Boomer figure was officially shelved after the characters' scenes were removed from the film after negative test audience reception. Lily was also cancelled.
 * Lady
 * Bertram
 * Diesel 10
 * Splatter
 * Dodge
 * Thomas and Mr. Conductor
 * Silver Millennium Thomas

2001

 * The Pump Trolley
 * Slate Trucks
 * Flying Scotsman
 * Smudger
 * Lorry 1 on a flatbed
 * Dyson low-loader
 * Sir Topham Hatt and Lady Hatt
 * Taxi
 * Cranky
 * Thumper
 * Old Slow Coach
 * Gordon's Special Coaches
 * Sodor Recovery Unit

2002
The range was discontinued outside the UK this year.

The packaging changed again, now with the engines name in red, a cartoon of the character in the top right-hand corner, and rails drawn under the model. The collectors card returned to this style of packaging; but had only a brief paragraph of the characters personality, not any factual historical information.

Whilst the existing engines and rolling stock still had the basic "hook and eye" couplings, the new releases had the new coupling style, which changed from the basic "hook and eye" style to a U-hook, believed to be sturdier and longer-lasting. The track was also revamped to look more realistic, now being fully detailed having a green grass edge, grey ballast, silver rails, and brown sleepers, replacing the previous plain grey track, that still had a grass edge, and molded rails and sleepers.
 * Harvey
 * Salty
 * Frank
 * Elizabeth
 * Brake Van
 * The Silly Trucks
 * Dowager Hatt and Mrs. Kyndley
 * Falcon
 * Neil

2003
The coupling style on all the existing engines and rolling stock had now changed from the basic "hook and eye" style to a U-hook. All the engines now received both the hook and eye coupling, which enables you to couple onto another engine. This changed the direction in which the rolling stock with the basic "hook and eye" coupling faced, as the eye couplings were on the opposite side of the engines that they should have been. The age profile also changed, from 3 years to 2 1/2 years.
 * Emily
 * Spencer
 * Bear
 * Isabel
 * Catherine

2004
A. J. Chetwynd was the designer of the final new release of vehicles.
 * Fergus
 * Murdoch
 * Arthur
 * Jack
 * Alfie
 * Jock

Special Edition
There have been a few special edition toys.


 * Thomas with Mr. Conductor to celebrate the release of "Thomas and the Magic Railroad"
 * Melody and Motion Thomas with a wind-up Fat Controller
 * Christmas Thomas and grey or red "Toybox" S.C. Ruffey
 * Thomas and the Christmas Tree Gift Set - Thomas with Christmas hat and scarf, flatbed with Christmas tree and the Fat Controller dressed as Santa

Multi-Packs
A small portion of packs containing multiple different trains, vehicles, and stock were released, mostly commonly for Shining Time Station.


 * Gift Set - containing Thomas, Diesel, S.C. Ruffey and a truck (released 2002)
 * Gift Set - containing Thomas, Troublesome Trucks and a Fire Engine
 * Gift Set - containing Thomas, Lady, Sir Topham Hatt, Bertie, express coaches, Annie, and Clarabel
 * Two pack of Percy and S.C. Ruffey
 * Three pack of Toby, Henrietta and Henry
 * Three pack of Bertie, James, and Henry
 * Three pack of Thomas, Annie, and Clarabel
 * Three pack of Thomas, James, and Henry
 * Five pack of Thomas, Henry, Diesel, Annie and Clarabel
 * Metallic Engines set – Metallic Thomas, James and Henry
 * Metallic Engines set - Metallic Thomas, Percy, Rheneas and Duncan (released 1998)
 * Five pack of Thomas, Bluebell, Annie, Clarabel, and Godred
 * Five pack of Percy, Toby, Peter Sam, tar wagon, and milk wagon
 * Five pack of Lady, two Old Coaches, Wilbert and Terence
 * Six pack of Thomas, Toby, Bertie, Terence, Rheneas, and Duncan
 * Six pack of Thomas, Toby, Bertie, Percy, Terence, and Harold
 * Six pack of Mavis, Edward, Daisy, Duck, and two trucks
 * Six pack of Thomas, Henry, James, Caroline, Skarloey, and Harold
 * Six pack of Sir Handel, Rusty, D199, two express coaches, and the Fat Controller's car
 * Five Piece Value Pack, including Thomas, Terence, Old Slow Coach, Derek, and a carry case.
 * Ten Piece Value Pack, including Thomas, Gordon, Percy, Bulstrode, Bulgy, Rheneas, Trevor, milk tanker, tar tanker, and the breakdown crane

Playsets and Accessories
The earliest playsets used a playmat with illustrations of track. A proper track system was later made, originally of grey plastic with rails etched into it. It was eventually replaced by green plastic with a sticker of rails on top.

Around 1996, accessory track assortment sets had been planned and advertised to include Toby and his shed, Percy and a coal hopper, Duck and a signal bridge, and Terence with a flatcar, although advertised in the American ERTL catalogue they were never released in the US, nor advertised in the UK and Australia.
 * Starter set
 * Thomas, Percy, Annie & Clarabel Playset, no track; made from card.
 * Deluxe set with branchline, water tower, crane and turntable
 * Circle Line set (Percy and Express Coaches)
 * Branch line
 * Water tower
 * Crane
 * Windmill
 * Tunnel
 * Quarry
 * Crossing
 * Turntable
 * Station house
 * Real sounds
 * Construction
 * Bridge
 * 2x Straight Track
 * 2x Points Track
 * Thomas Playset, including Thomas, Percy, and two Express coaches; released 2001
 * Skarloey with two points
 * Duncan with two points
 * Diesel with four points
 * Oliver with four curves
 * Stepney with four curves
 * Rheneas with four curves
 * Toby with four curves
 * Percy with four straights
 * Sir Handel with four straights
 * Viaduct Bridge Playset

Miniatures
Around 1991, a miniature range was produced. The vehicles had sticker faces and were packaged with a small section of a railway. Once all were collected, the parts formed a playset. In later years all of the models, besides Henry, Mavis, Bertie, and Harold were adapted into keyrings. The background imagery of these packs continued the landscape from the die-cast range.

Vehicles

 * Thomas with station
 * Edward with water tower
 * James with Signal Box
 * Percy with sheds
 * Toby with Signals and sidings
 * Duck with watermill
 * Bill with part of a viaduct
 * Ben with viaduct
 * Diesel with tunnel
 * Bertie with level crossing
 * Trevor with windmill
 * Harold with airport
 * Henry
 * Mavis

Multi-Packs
Multipacks released for Shining Time Station include:
 * Thomas, Annie, and Clarabel
 * Thomas, James, and trucks
 * Edward, Bertie, and Trevor
 * Edward, James, and Percy
 * Diesel, Harold, and Toby

Playsets

 * Four-corner set with Thomas, Annie and Clarabel
 * Six-corner set with Thomas, Trevor and the Troublesome trucks

A re-release of the range introduced Henry and Mavis. The new range had some changes, with 3D faces and "LEGO-like" bases. A LEGO-like set included Toby and Harold.

Gold Rail
The Gold Rail Series was a short-lived line in the 1990s. Designed by Bandai in Japan, the models had magnetic couplings, and are a fraction smaller than a HO scale train. The back of the models boxes featured the same illustration as those on the Shining Time collectors cards of the die-cast range.

Vehicles

 * Thomas
 * Edward
 * Henry (cancelled)
 * Gordon
 * James
 * Percy
 * Toby
 * Bill
 * Ben
 * Annie
 * Clarabel (released 1993)
 * Truck 1
 * Truck 2
 * Bertie
 * Harold

Playsets

 * Ffarquhar (released 1993)
 * Lower Suddery
 * Turntable Set
 * The Docks

Collector Cards
Collector Cards were produced in packs of eight similar to the cards on the die-cast range portrait card packaging.

Motorized
By 1985, 1/32 scale models of Thomas and Percy were released with motors.

Remote Control
In 1988, a remote control Thomas was released.

Pull Back and Go!
Thomas, Percy, Toby, and Bertie models with wind up motors were released for Shining Time Station, that could be operated by dragging the model backwards along the floor so their wheels could "wind up" and letting go to "unwind".

Wind up
A large walking wind up Fat Controller with large feet was released individually, and with the Melody and Motion Thomas. There were also a range of Wind-up ERTL engines; these included:
 * Thomas
 * Henry
 * James
 * Percy
 * Bill
 * Ben
 * Bertie

Bend-Ems
Under the Shining Time range Just Toys released bendable characters, under the slogan: 'Bendable, Poseable, Collectible'
 * Mr. Conductor
 * Schemer
 * Stacy Jones
 * DiDi
 * Juke Box Band, as a five piece gift set

Trivia

 * Some items have been bundled with US VHSs and DVDs.
 * The Christmas Thomas wearing a Santa hat and a "Toybox" S. C. Ruffey in Christmas cracker shaped packaging were packaged under "Chad Valley" instead of ERTL.
 * The narrow gauge engines' models, excluding Rusty, bear a closer resemblance to their Talyllyn Railway counterparts than to their television series models.
 * Catherine's model has no buffers, but on the packaging she does.
 * Bill and Ben's promos on the packaging depict them with no front couplings.
 * Bertie's model has an overly slanted windscreen.
 * An ERTL Percy was used as a toy in one scene of the episode Flour Power, it resembles that of a G scale Percy in size.
 * The Sodor Fuel Tankers were labelled as oil tankers.
 * The Breakdown Train has stabilisers.
 * Bluebell and Flying Scotsman are just modified versions of the Thomas and Gordon models, respectively. Bluebell's prototype model was accurate to the real life counterpart and even included a driver in the cab window. The reason why it was changed was likely because it would be too delicate for small children to play with, while Flying Scotsman's model being modeled after Gordon is missing his second tender.
 * Bluebell's packaging incorrectly states that she is an LBSCR E2, when she is actually an SE&CR P class. However, as the model did reuse Thomas' moulding, the statement is correct for this range.
 * Bertram's name is misspelt as "Bertrum".
 * Duke's packaging incorrectly states that he was built in 1863 by George England in London, which would have made him a year older than Skarloey. Duke was actually built by Boston Lodge in Minffordd, Wales in 1879.
 * Lady's prototype model used Rheneas' shape.
 * Derek's model has a BR logo with the words "Thomas Tank" written instead of "British Railways".
 * Some models of Henry have red siderods.
 * Diesel 10 is incorrectly depicted as a 1Co-Co1, this is due to re-using the tooling of D199 just with an added claw.
 * Smudger's model has his nameplate incorrectly placed on the sides of his coal bunkers.
 * BoCo's model has a black bufferbeam instead of red.
 * Toad's bufferbeams are red instead of black.
 * Daisy's model does not have a front coupling.
 * The slates on the model of the Slate Trucks are much too tall than compared to the model and the slates in the television series.
 * Emily's driving wheels do not move.
 * Some models of Henry have a gap under his smoke box behind his face.
 * Skarloey's prototype model had black lining, silver buffers and the hand-rail above his smokebox.
 * Sixteen's prototype model had black-and-yellow 'hazard' stripes on his front bufferbeam. However, his released model just had yellow bufferbeams with no 'hazard' stripes.
 * Interestingly, despite the re-release of Sir Handel as Falcon, there never was one of Peter Sam as Stuart, the most likely reasons being it would require changing his special funnel into a regular one, or because the range was discontinued before ERTL had a chance to produce it.
 * Twelve characters that only appeared in The Railway Series were produced.
 * Several sketches on Fast Forward and a sketch on The Footy Show featured ERTL models.
 * George's original promo art on the packaging followed his original Railway Series appearance, even though his model was sold in his television series livery. This was eventually changed later on.
 * Ben's (and most likely Bill's) wind up model(s) had SCC written in red.
 * Butch's Arm is stuck in place and his hook is embedded into his arm, whilst his prototype shows him with the hook not embedded.
 * Sir Handel does not have a coal bunker and Peter Sam has a Proper Giesl ejector like in the Railway Series.
 * Harold's model was used in the prototype of the Lionel Trains Island of Sodor set.
 * A model of Bulgy appears in the 2014 film "Kingsman".
 * Several models appeared in a "Chucklevision" episode titled "Traction Attraction".
 * ERTL also produced models for TUGS.
 * Henry's model is missing his wheel arches, similar to his Season 1 post-rebuild model.
 * Both the Old Coaches are brake coaches.
 * Jack's prototype had the correct cream coloured rims and cab, but they were painted silver on his final model.
 * Like his Take Along model, Fergus has much wider wheels than all the other engines.
 * The Brake Van's description card incorrectly refers him as an engine, and says that "He does however work very hard with Donald & Douglas to keep the trucks in order", even though in the second season episode Break Van, he was causing trouble for the twins and was actually crushed to pieces by Douglas.
 * On the pullback version of the regular sized ERTL Thomas, his overall design and face are different of that on the standard and musical releases.