My First Thomas

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This article is about the Golden Bear range. You may be looking for the book range, the Fisher Price range, the DVD pack or the triple DVD pack.

My First Thomas
Overview
Manufacturer	Golden Bear Toys
Main material	Plastic
Released	1996
Discontinued	2010

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
• Special 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 versions communicated using small sensors hidden in a semi-transparent buffer on one side (Bertie and Harold had the sensors in a headlight and a float respectively). The talking only versions had fully painted buffers without the sensors (which were indicated by a small purple LED light). Unlike the interactive versions, the talking only ones also had on/off switches.

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
• Bertie
• Harold
• Lady
• Peter Sam
• Mavis
• Oliver

Trivia

• The sound test function that can be activated (by holding down the button, putting one battery back in the vehicle and releasing the button) on the original engines from 2000 revealed 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 and Duncan).
• The My First Thomas logo was used as roller coaster cars and a zoo's trackless train 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 Louise Geffery proving Lady's voice.
• Emily and Molly's voices are 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.
• James and Edward share the same tooling.
• Henry and Gordon share the same tooling. Making how Henry looking similar to his old shape.
• 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 buffer beam 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".
• Most of the Steam Engines' talking models (except Lady and Whiff) have the same whistle sound design.
• Mavis and Salty's talking models have the same horn sound design.
• Peter Sam is the only talking narrow gauge engine to have been released.
• It is possible that 'Arry's face was originally moulded for Splatter and Dodge.