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"Thomas, why do you have a giant balloon tied to your buffers?"
― James, Farmer McColl and Emily asking Thomas

Thomas' Frosty Friend is the twentieth episode of the tenth series.

Plot

It is Christmas on the Island of Sodor, and all the engines are very busy. One morning, Thomas is on his way to Brendam Docks to collect logs for Farmer McColl when stops at a signal where Percy is waiting. Thomas looks in the field nearby, and there is a big snowman with children all around it. The two engines are surprised to see a snowman so big, and just then, the signal changes and Thomas steams off. But as he puffs away, a gust of wind lifts the snowman off the ground and towards Thomas, revealing it is only a balloon. The balloon's guide ropes get caught on Thomas' rear buffers, causing the balloon to follow him.

Thomas stops at the level crossing, and the snowman drifts and floats in front of Thomas. Thomas asks the snowman what he is doing there, but Mr. Snowman says nothing, and Thomas tells him to head back to the children. The wind blows the snowman back behind Thomas, and he races off to the Docks. He hopes the snowman does not follow him, unaware that it is a balloon.

Thomas reaches the Docks and reverses to his flatbed trucks loaded with logs. James, delivering coal, asks Thomas why he has a snowman with him. Again, Mr. Snowman floats in front of Thomas, who tells him to go back to the children. Thomas steams off, pulling his flatbed and the snowman. James asks Thomas why he has a giant balloon tied to his buffers, but Thomas does not hear him.

Thomas arrives at Farmer McColl's who is also surprised to see the snowman. Once again, the snowman floats in front of Thomas, who tells him to go back to the children. Thomas steams off again and Farmer McColl asks the same question as James, but Thomas does not hear him.

Thomas stops at Maithwaite where Emily is collecting passengers. She laughs at Thomas and asks him about the snowman. Once more, the snowman floats in front of Thomas, who tells him to go back to the children. As Thomas steams away, Emily asks the same question as James and Farmer McColl, but Thomas does not hear her. By now, Thomas does not know what else to do, so he decides to hide so Mr. Snowman cannot find him. So, Thomas steams into a lonely siding. There is no one else around, and Thomas feels relieved... until Mr. Snowman floats in front of him once more. Realising the snowman is not going back to the children, Thomas decides to ask the Fat Controller for help, so he steams away.

Back at Maithwaite Station, he finds Farmer McColl and the Fat Controller, whom Thomas tells about Mr. Snowman. The Fat Controller laughs, and he reveals that Mr. Snowman is really a balloon, and his guide ropes are caught on his buffers. Therefore, Thomas is pulling the balloon. Thomas is surprised to realise this, and now he understands what to do; he sets off for the children's field, pulling the balloon behind him.

Thomas soon arrives back at the field with the balloon, and the children are happy to see them again. Thomas is happy to have returned Mr. Snowman, and the balloon even shifts its arms and head as if it is waving at them.

Characters

Locations

Trivia

  • Going by production order, this is the nineteenth episode of the tenth series.
  • Three pages of a leaked script differ from the final episode in various ways:
    • This was originally going to be the nineteenth episode of the tenth series, just like in production order.
    • Throughout the script, the wind is mentioned many more times than in the episode. An example of this is at the beginning of the script where it mentions that the wind is blowing snow in Thomas' face. In the episode, the wind is only mentioned when the balloon is first unleashed and when it floats ahead at the sidings.
    • "Timber" is used instead of "logs". It is also mentioned that the timber is needed for repairing Farmer McColl's barn.
    • Percy regards Mr. Snowman as if he is alive.
    • Mr. Snowman only has one rope that attaches to Thomas' coupling rather than two that attach to Thomas' buffers.
    • In the script, men are tethering Mr. Snowman to the ground with chains out of sight from the engines as Mr. Snowman "is bouncing around vigorously in the wind." In the episode, only children are present, and Mr. Snowman is sitting still on the ground.
    • Instead of dittoing Percy on never seeing a snowman so big before, Thomas says that he has never seen the children so happy before, after which Thomas and Percy see Mr. Snowman being toyed with by the wind and hope that he isn't trying to leave the children.
    • Thomas stops at another signal instead of a crossing.
    • It isn't said that Thomas didn't know snowmen could dance in the air as he would have seen that earlier.
    • Instead of having Thomas think Mr. Snowman listened to him and left and saying that "Thomas was happy that the snowman had gone", the script depicts Thomas as trying to outrun the stubborn balloon knowing full well it has not left. This explains why Thomas is not wearing a happy face mask in the episode.
    • James asks Thomas what's the matter and is ignored as Thomas is preoccupied with Mr. Snowman. Deciding he cannot explain the situation, Thomas says nothing and leaves so quickly that he only takes one out of his three timber trucks. In the episode, James alerts Thomas to Mr. Snowman's continued presence, Thomas repeats his dialogue from earlier, and James asks about Mr. Snowman twice. The plot point of Thomas only taking one truck and leaving the others behind in a rush appears to have been filmed but goes unacknowledged in the narration.
    • Thomas "screeches to a halt" by Farmer McColl, who asks where the other trucks are instead of about the snowman twice. Thomas apologizes about leaving the other trucks behind instead of repeating his "Oh no!" from earlier.
  • Stock footage from James Goes Too Far is used.
  • In the last shot, the snowman has been adjusted so that he is waving at the children.
  • In a promotional image still, the snowman does not have the ropes attached to it.
  • Thomas' Jack and the Sodor Construction Company model is used during the close-up of his rear buffer-beam being accidentally hooked up by the inflatable snowman's guide ropes.
  • This is the last episode of the model series to air on Milkshake! Next year in 2013 the model series was replaced by the seventeenth series
  • There are two bloopers from this episode that can be seen:
    • At the scene where Thomas leaves Farmer McColl's, the snowman balloon knocks over Farmer McColl.
    • Another blooper in the same scene, the invisible string holding the snowman balloon from above to make it seem like it is floating in the air gets caught in a tree and the balloon falls to the ground.

Goofs

  • In both the UK versions and the US TV version, the title card is misspelt as ‘’Thomas’s Frosty Friend’’. This was corrected for the US TV release and the Holiday Express DVD release.
  • When the snowman is first seen being pulled out, the camera closes in on a hook holding it down being pulled out of the snow, and yet the ends of the rope do not have any hook whatsoever when it catches Thomas' buffers.
  • The guide ropes are often depicted as chains, and they get longer in length when the balloon floats in front of Thomas.
  • In the close up of Emily at Maithwaite, she is seen with the platform on her right. But in the last shot, she was seen with the adjacent platform on her left.

Merchandise

In Other Languages

View content
Language Title
Brazilian Portuguese O Amigo Gelado de Thomas
Chinese Mandarin 托马斯的雪人朋友
Croatian Tomičin snježni prijatelj
Czech Tomášùv mrazivý přítel
Danish Thomas' Vinterlige Ven
Finnish Tuomas ja Lumiukko
French Le Bonhomme de Neige de Thomas
German Thomas und sein winterlicher Freund
Hungarian A Hóember
Italian Thomas e il Pupazzo di Neve
Japanese トーマスとゆきだるま
Korean 눈사람 풍선
Latin American Spanish El Helado Amigo de Thomas (TV)
El Amigo Congelado de Thomas (DVD)
Norwegian Thomas og snømannen
Polish Śnieżny Przyjaciel Tomka
Portuguese O Amigo Gelado de Thomas
Romanian Prietenul Înghețat al lui Thomas
Russian Снежный друг Томаса
Spanish El Amigo Helado de Thomas
Swedish Snögubben
Turkish Thomas'ın Soğuk Arkadaşı

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  • The Complete Series 10

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GER DVD Boxset

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