TrackMaster is a battery-operated toy system manufactured by Fisher-Price, Mattel in the US. The range was launched in 2007 after previous owners, TOMY, lost their licence to HiT Toy Company to make the Motor Road and Rail range. However, TOMY did not sell the range in the UK up until 2010. In 2010, Fisher Price picked up HiT Toys' license. The engines run on special plastic train tracks and until 2010, the roadway vehicles ran on a special grey road. In 2014, the range was redesigned. Engines are faster and run on new grey track. There are special track adapters to connect the new-style track to the old-style track. The engines can also climb up steeper inclines but can no longer free-wheel. Following the discontinuation of Adventures in late 2018, the
die-cast range was modified with wheels and couplers made for TrackMaster.
Thomas' Avalanche Escape Set/Deluxe Avalanche Escape Set
Sort and Switch Delivery Set
Deluxe Sort and Switch Delivery Set
Troublesome Traps Set
Mudslide Mountain Set
Snowy Mountain Rescue Set
Thomas and Track Set
Water Tower Starter Set
Busy Quarry Set
Mad Dash on Sodor Set
5-in-1 Track Builder Set
2015
2-in-1 Track Builder Set
Breakaway Bridge Set
Holiday Cargo Delivery Set
Thomas' Dockside Delivery
Treasure Chase Set
Thomas' Shipwreck Rails Set
Harold’s High-Flying Rescue Set
3-in-1 Track Builder Set
Thomas’ Volcano Drop Set
2016
Station Starter Set
Close Call Cliff Set
Sky-High Bridge Jump
Railway Race Set
Percy's Midnight Mail Delivery
2017
Icy Mountain Drift
Demolition at the Docks
2-in-1 Destination Set
Super Station Set
Cable Bridge Set
Daring Derail Train Set
Glowing Mine Set
Fiery Rescue Set
2018
Tunnel Blast Set
Twisting Tornado Set
Dino Escape Set
6-in-1 Track Builder Set
Boat and Sea Set
Turbo Jungle Jump
Hyper Glow Station
2019
Monkey Palace Set
Water Tower Set
Dragon Dive Set
Cave Collapse Set
Super Cruiser Set
Deluxe Dino Escape Set
Hyper Glow Night Delivery
Trivia
HiT Toy Company was considering introducing more characters, old and new to the brand for all the regular, Special Moments, Flip-Face, Talking and RC systems until the line was unexpectedly brought by Fisher Price at the end of 2009, cutting their time with the licence short.
Flip-face models of Gordon and Percy were seen on the back of some 2007 boxes, but were never released.
The Slippy Sodor Thomas' funnel is simply a regular funnel painted red.
Since 2010, the buffers in some sets have been depicted as a brick wall.
TrackMaster track was used twice to break the world record for the longest toy train set. The first was at the Thomas Land Theme Park in the UK in 2008 and later at The Workshops Rail Museum in Australia in 2010.
Some of the newer tender engines have their battery compartments as part of their motors, contained within the engine boiler so as to avoid having a wire that could break between the two parts of the engine. As of 2014, this change has been made to every engine as they all use the same chassis.
Since 2012, the engines have had holes in their wheels so that they can be held into the packaging by plastic sticks for security purposes. As of 2015, they still have these holes, but the sticks were only utilized with the first redesigned Greatest Moments packs.
Nelson's alloys and front beam are black instead of red.
Harvey and Mighty Mac are unpowered. A powered coach (a works unit coach for Harvey and a cream and green coach for Mighty Mac) is used to push them. This is because Harvey's crane takes up too much space to house a battery, as does Mighty Mac's end-swapping function. These engines and their respective coaches have special couplers to make them easier to push.
Stephen's prototype showed him with two lamps and a smoother bufferbeam.
Connor and Caitlin's coaches are closed vans with stickers on the sides.
Bash and Dash's prototypes show moss on their cabs.
Hank, Belle, Timothy, Splatter, Dodge, Paxton, Diesel, Murdoch, Den, 'Arry, Bert, Skarloey, Rheneas, Peter Sam, Duke, Bertram and Freddie's side-rods don't move and Molly and Mighty Mac lack them completely.
The truck in the Castle Quest set does not have a rear coupler and is abnormally tall.
Bash's prototype has a Skarloey Railway blue coach and a brown truck.
Dart's prototype has grey wheels but was later changed to the correct colour in the final model.
In 2014, the engines were redesigned, with a new, less powerful (but faster) motor, a longer wheelbase, unpainted buffers, silver siderods and couplers, printed details and interchangeable chassis.
As all 2014 models use the same chassis.
Edward's 2014 model's pilot wheels are moulded into his running board and the prototype of the model shows them unpainted. The wheels were coloured for the final release.
Samson's model lacks his number. This is fixed in his single pack re-release.
As of 2015, the talking engines now have separate cars/trucks or tenders.
The UK release of the Avalanche Escape set is missing a few risers, a burst-through door, the truck, the fossil and the Scrap Monster. As a result, the track configuration is different.
Timothy's dome is red instead of blue.
A number of individual copies of Gator's model are only painted the lighter shade of green, while most Gator models are accurately painted two-tone green.
The Muddy Gordon and Spencer are recolours of Snowy Gordon and Spencer.
Ryan's prototypes show him with the correct purple wheels, but his final design shows him with black wheels for an unknown reason. This was later fixed on the muddy Ryan model.
Philip has a an early CGI promo on his box.
The Flying Scotsman has oval buffers like Gordon when they should be circle shaped.
In the Winged Thomas set, Annie and Clarabel are painted blue, similarly to the way they appeared in Thomas' dream sequence in the Streamlining scene from The Great Race, except they're wearing goggles.
Hugo's motor also powers a gear which makes his propeller spin when he runs.
In the Treasure Chase Set, the sign for Arlesburgh is misspelled as "Arlesburg".
Merlin's model is chrome.
Ashima's hyper glow model incorrectly depicts her as a 0-4-0 than a 0-8-2. Her standard model also has uncolored middle wheels.
Etienne's prototype shows him with siderods.
Gina's model has six wheels while her other models have only four.
Many post-2014 models lack bogie wheels or cylinders, and Rebecca's buffers were inaccurately sized. She also lacks a front coupling detail.
Emily's middle wheel is molded onto her body.
Lexi is inaccurately a 0-4-0 than a 4-4-0.
Darcy's model is based on a boring machine, while her actual design is based on a roadheader.
Lorenzo's tender is backwards and the stripe is placed in the wrong spot. Lorenzo also has additional treble clef details on his cab not present on on his animation model.
Beppe's model is oriented the wrong way, and his taillamp is absent.
Since 2018, the quality on the Trackmaster models have been notably downgraded, with poorer printing, often sold in the wrong packaging, and roughly edged plastic.