User:TheWarnerBrosAnimationFan

About Me
Hello everybody, my name is Walter. I currently live in Spokane, Washington. Born on September 2nd, 1992, I have been a fan of Thomas & Friends and the Railway Series books since I was little. I was introduced to Thomas through Shining Time Station, the show that Britt Allcroft and Rick Siggelkow created to introduce Thomas to American audiences when I was very little. That show, along with such classic PBS shows such as The Magic School Bus, Bill Nye the Science Guy, The Puzzle Place, Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street (in the days before Elmo's World), and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (to name a few), are some of the most nostalgic shows that I know of. I had a few Thomas VHS tapes when I was a kid, two of which, Daisy and Other Thomas Stories and Percy's Ghostly Trick and Other Thomas Stories (both of which were the Video Treasures versions), I got for my fifth birthday. I also remember having the Strand Home Video version of Thomas Gets Bumped & Other Stories and the 1995 Video Treasures version of Rusty to the Rescue and Other Thomas Stories. I have continued to watch Thomas & Friends on YouTube in my spare time.

Prior to 2007, the only exposure I had to Thomas' sister show TUGS was through an episode of 'Salty's Lighthouse' that I saw at my grandmother's house when I was little (I grew up and live in the United States), and I was completely unaware of the connections that the show had with Thomas. In 2007, after discovering YouTube, I watched the 13 episodes of TUGS and have become more familiar with the show and its characters. When I was little, I had no clue that some TUGS models made it into Thomas! I greatly support the Star Tugs Trust, which has saved some of the models originally used on the show.

Pages I've Created

 * First Shapes
 * My Thomas Magnet Book
 * First Reading
 * Really Useful Engines (colouring book)
 * Magic Paints Book
 * Calling All Engines (colouring book)
 * James and the Rescue Train
 * Hello Thomas! (Lift the Flap Book)
 * Michio Nakao
 * Héctor Moreno
 * Irina Índigo
 * Carlos Águila
 * Mario Filio
 * Miguel Ángel Ruiz
 * Roberto Gutiérrez
 * Ariel Cister
 * Pedro D'Aguillón Jr.
 * Miya Kadosh
 * Duriel Zohar
 * Gadi Levi
 * Naoki Kinoshita
 * Yasunori Masutani
 * Chizu Yonemoto
 * Chiaki Mori
 * Nobutoshi Canna
 * Hiroaki Tajiri
 * Luis Alfonso Padilla
 * Helmut Krauss
 * Wanja Gerick
 * Marie-Luise Schramm
 * Gerald Schaale
 * Thomas Fritsch
 * Christian Brückner
 * Tom Deininger
 * Yasuhiko Tokuyama
 * Roberto Carrillo
 * Marcel Collé
 * Alfonso Ramírez
 * Winter Morning
 * Beata Wyrąbkiewicz
 * Łukasz Talik
 * Radovan Vaculík
 * Bohuslav Kalva

My Favorite Narrators (from most favorite to least favorite)
1. George Carlin (1991-1996): For me, he is the most nostalgic, having played Mr. Conductor on Shining Time Station for its second and third seasons, the family specials, and Mr. Conductor's Thomas Tales. He provided good voices for many of the characters, and he is just very memorable.

2. Ringo Starr (1984-1989): Not as nostalgic as George, but still memorable.

3. Mark Moraghan (2013-present): A new narrator for the series' new life at ARC Productions. It's so refreshing to hear a new narrator for the series for the first time in the UK and US since 1991 and 2004, respectively.

4. Michael Angelis (1991-2012): Having grown up in the United States, we haven't really had much exposure to Michael Angelis aside from the VHS/DVD release New Friends for Thomas and YouTube. I have seen his narrations that he has done, and I will admit, between the third and seventh seasons, he was good, but between the eighth seasons and Blue Mountain Mystery, he just sounded bland in my opinion.

5. Alec Baldwin (1998-2002): Alec Baldwin wasn't great as a narrator, but still not horrible. I mean, he did give some characters voices that sounded quite entertaining, such as Bill and Ben in the fifth season and Salty, others, not so much (he never gave Donald and Douglas Scottish accents, and he never did the same to Duncan in the sixth season).

6. Pierce Brosnan (2008): For me, I have to admit, I'm rather happy Pierce only narrated The Great Discovery. He just sounded too quiet and not very enthusiastic. I have heard the news that Gwenyth Platrow was in talks to narrate, and I think it would have been interesting to see how she would have done.

7. Michael Brandon (2004-2012): Michael Brandon is my least favorite of the seven men to fill the role of the TV series narrator. He sounded too nasally and gave the characters bad voices. Probably the only saving grace about him is that he helped the show get through its bad writing between the ninth and sixteenth seasons.

My Favorite Specials (from most favorite to least favorite)
1. Tale of the Brave

2. King of the Railway

3. Blue Mountain Mystery

4. The Great Discovery

5. Hero of the Rails

6. Calling all Engines

7. Day of the Diesels

8. Misty Island Rescue

9. Thomas and the Magic Railroad

My favorite episodes of Season 18
1. Duck and the Slip Coaches: 5/5

2. Old Reliable Edward: 5/5

3. Thomas and the Emergency Cable: 4.5/5

4. Thomas the Quarry Engine: 4.5/5

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15. Flatbeds of Fear: 3/5

16. Signals Crossed: 3/5

Ertl Collection
Between the time I was little and the time that ERTL stopped selling their Thomas models in America, I collected several of the models. I got rid of them in 2006, and by that time, many of the models had paint chipped off and had broken and/or dilapidated couplings, for they had a lot of play. Here are the models I remember having:
 * Thomas (x2)
 * Edward
 * Henry
 * Gordon
 * James
 * Percy
 * Toby
 * Duck
 * Donald
 * Douglas
 * Oliver
 * Diesel
 * Bill
 * Ben
 * Daisy
 * BoCo
 * Mavis
 * City of Truro
 * Diesel 261
 * Peter Sam
 * Sir Handel
 * Rusty
 * Duncan
 * Duke
 * Culdee
 * Diesel 199
 * Annie
 * Clarabel
 * Henrietta
 * Old Coaches
 * Breakdown Train
 * Troublesome Trucks (x5)
 * Toad
 * Tidmouth Milk Tanker
 * Tar Tanker
 * Sodor Fuel Tankers (x2)
 * Mail Coaches
 * Terence
 * Bertie
 * Trevor (x2, I did not have the scrap version)
 * Harold
 * Bulgy
 * Mail Van
 * Sir Topham Hatt's Car
 * Sir Topham Hatt
 * Porter

If the Salty's Lighthouse cast and other Ocean Group actors voiced Thomas characters in the US
I've always wondered what it would be like if voice actors from Vancouver, British Columbia based production company Ocean Productions voiced Thomas characters in the US. I'm only familiar with their work through Salty's Lighthouse, the American "spin-off" of TUGS, but here's my interpretation of who I think would be good at voicing Thomas characters


 * Thomas: Brad Swaile
 * Edward: Peter New
 * Henry: Samuel Vincent
 * Gordon: Scott McNeil
 * James: Scott McNeil
 * Percy: Andrew Francis
 * Toby: Brian Drummond
 * Duck: Samuel Vincent
 * Donald and Douglas: Richard Ian Cox
 * Oliver: Ian James Corlett
 * Diesel: Scott McNeil
 * Daisy: Venus Terzo
 * Bill and Ben: Brad Swaile
 * BoCo: Brian Drummond
 * Derek: Samuel Vincent
 * Salty: Richard Newman
 * Harvey: Richard Ian Cox
 * Emily: Kelly Sherridan
 * Spencer: Paul Dobson
 * Rosie: Andrea Libman
 * Whiff: Michael Donovan
 * Billy: Kirby Morrow
 * Paxton: Kirby Morrow
 * Norman: Gary Chalk
 * Sidney: Lee Tockar
 * Connor: Brad Swaile
 * Caitlin: Venus Terzo
 * Millie: Kelly Sheridan
 * Jack: Brad Swaile
 * Alfie: Kirby Morrow
 * Sir Topham Hatt: Richard Newman
 * Lady Hatt: Venus Terzo
 * Miss Jenny: Lenore Zann
 * Nancy: Andrea Libman