My First Thomas

My First Thomas was a range of chunky plastic toys for young infants based on Thomas & Friends. They were produced by Golden Bear Toys for the UK since 1996 and were distributed by Tomy in the US and Japan. The vehicles used chunky, simplistic designs and the track system first consisted of coloured plastic pieces. The track was later replaced by playmats with illustrations. The range was discontinued in 2010.

Regular range

Engines

• Thomas
• Edward
• Henry
• Gordon
• James
• Percy
• Toby
• Duck
• Donald
• Douglas
• Oliver
• Bill
• Ben
• Emily
• Spencer
• Rosie
• Stanley
• Diesel
• Daisy
• Mavis
• 'Arry
• Bert
• Rusty
• Victor
• Billy
• Whiff

Rolling Stock

• Annie
• Clarabel
• Henrietta
• Express coach
• Toad
• Troublesome Trucks
• Plank Trucks (red, yellow, and blue variants)
• Low loader (two types)
• Fuel Tanker
• Milk Tanker
• Sugar Tanker

Vehicles

• Terence
• Bertie
• Trevor
• Harold
• George
• Bulstrode
• Lorry 1
• Sir Topham Hatt's Car

Vehicle Playsets

• Thomas Playset
• Percy Playset
• Thomas and Henry Playset
• Thomas and Friends Mega Value Playset

Destinations

• Cranky
• Tunnel Bridge

Track Sets

• Thomas Track Set
• Thomas Track and Station Set
• Thomas Deluxe Set

Playmat Playsets

• Thomas and Friends Playmat Playset
• Tour of Sodor Playmat
• Thomas and Rosie Playset

Drive-away Talking Engines

• Thomas
• Percy
• James
• Spencer

Talking/Interactive characters

The talking versions of the "My First" models were first released in 2000. The models were more complex than the basic ones; They had moving eyes and spoke familiar phrases from and inspired by the original stock narrations of Ringo Starr and Michael Angelis. Six of the models have never been released in the normal range. The interactive versions had the ability to talk to each other when facing each other. The interactive engines do not have switches on the bottom, as the talking ones do.

Talking

• Thomas
• Edward
• James
• Percy
• Oliver
• Emily
• Murdoch
• Spencer
• Molly
• Neville
• Whiff
• Billy
• Stanley
• Mavis
• Salty
• Peter Sam
• Bertie
• Trevor (cancelled)
• Harold
• Sir Topham Hatt

Interactive

• Thomas
• Percy
• Edward
• James
• Oliver
• Bertie
• Harold
• Lady
• Mavis
• Peter Sam

Trivia

• The sound test function that can be activated (when holding down the button, putting one battery back in the vehicle and then letting go of the button) on the original engines from 2000 included the names of characters that were not released in the talking range (like Toby, Bill, Ben, Diesel, Terence, Henry, etc), nor the regular range (Sir Handel, Duncan).
• The My First Thomas logo was used as roller coaster cars and zoomobile in the short film, Logorama.
• Lady is the only talking engine from the interactive range not to be re-released in the later non-interactive talking range.
• Lady and Mavis' talking/interactive models used female voice recordings, with Britt Allcroft reprising Lady.
• Emily and Molly's voice is Michael Angelis', albeit at a higher pitch.
• The original and re-released talking vehicles' phrases are different.
• Cranky is painted blue and his arm is under his face instead of above.
• Duck and Oliver are missing their GWR lettering.
• Bulstrode is yellow and blue.
• Henry and Gordon were first released with separate tenders. They were later re-released with connected tenders.
• The prototype Victor uses a modified version of Oliver's face.
• Thomas and Percy share the same tooling, making Percy based on the LB&SCR Class E2 0-6-0T.
• James and Edward share the same tooling, making Edward based on the L&YR Class 28.
• Henry and Gordon share the same tooling, making Henry's earlier release based on Sir Nigel Gresley's A1 Pacific design for the Great Northern Railway and Gordon's later release based on an LMS Stanier 5MT "Black Five" 4-6-0.
• Lorry 1 is painted brown with a yellow tarpaulin.
• Peter Sam has his old funnel.
• Emily's running board is red instead of brown.
• Toby and Mavis' models do not have cowcatchers nor sideplates.
• Some of the models are portrayed in the book A Noisy Surprise making it the only book to have all the characters based after a toy line.
• All the engines are missing their paint lines.
• Models of either James, Edward, Percy, Bill or Ben with custom stickers on the boiler and driver's cab would be used in an Arcade game called Claim Jumper. One of these appeared on the American CBS show Criminal Minds, in the 2007 episode "Seven Seconds".
• Whiff is the only talking engine to use their actual whistle sound effect.
• Sir Topham Hatt's car is painted yellow.
• Murdoch's talking model features a black bufferbeam on the back.
• Victor is the only character from the CGI Series to have been made.
• James' running board is painted black and his wheels are red. This is ironically the reverse of his actual appearance.
• Daisy, Emily, Spencer, and Stanley's buffers are black instead of silver, and Neville's talking model's buffers are red instead of black.
• All of Spencer's models have four buffers on the front.
• George and Trevor's smokeboxes are green instead of black.
• Duck and Diesel's wheels are yellow.
• Oliver's wheels are black instead of green.
• A My First Thomas toy could be seen in the BBC "Numberjacks" episode called "Almost Human".