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popculturebuffet · 3 months

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Thomas the Tank Engine Retrospective: Shining Time Station 4-Pack: All Hail Schemer (Commission for Lachey V)

Hello all you happy schemer's and welcome back to my seemingly bottomless Thomas the Tank Engine Retrospective. This month my mounting workload means we're doubling up as we approach the season finale of sorts for this retrospective, Thomas's first and so far only theatrical film, Thomas and the Magic Railroad.

Before we can do that though, I needed a crash course on a bit of Thomas lore I hadn't touched. So it's my utmost pleasure to introduce, reintroduce or just plane fling at you Shining Time Station. Shining Time Station was the Britt Alcroft companie's way of putting Thomas The Tank Engine in the US at first. While the show was a great kids show and merchandise machine, it had one problem: each ep was 5 minutes at most and while this wasn't a remote problem for the booming home video market, putting it on tv was tricky. While UK tv stations were more than happy to either make 15 minute block of a few episodes or air it between shows, US stations at the time really didn't like carving up their air time like that. Simplier times.

Hence shining time station, a whole ass live action show featuring puppets, live action music videos, and wraparounds. Shining Time follows a bunch of interchangable kids: White BLonde Kid, future Sapphire Erica Luttrel, and other one as they mill around a train station learning life lesssons. Around the station are Stacey(Didi Cohn) , the station's manager, Billy Two-Feathers (Tom Jackson) , who runs the workshop, and Mr. Conductor, the tiny man who lives inside the station. If that sounds jarring it absolutely is as I assumed when I heard about the character he was a regular conductor who simply had magical powers. Still a little weird but like... not as jarring as when you see a Tiny George Carlin. For the record, and I missed this on first watch, the other two adults are aware of him to the point it feels like Mr. C is watching the kids half the time so the other adults can do their jobs. And i'm okay with this as there are so many kids shows where they hide the magic and I assumed this is one. I prefer it that the adults just know, smile along with it and let the tiny magic man help pick up the slack. Mr Conductor was played by Ringo Starr in the first season but since we were only doing a small selction of episodes, Lachey decided

For constancy since a chunk of the cast changes between seasons 1 and 2, and because Season 1 apparently has an ongoing story. So instead George Carlin is our tiny magic man for this special.

Of course there's one other regular in the station who deserved his own section, a man above men. A god above god. A schemer above schemers. The Robbie Rotten of the 90's I present to you HORACE MOTHERFUCKING SCHEMER.

Scheme is a schyster who runs a small Penny arcade over in the corner. WHy he's running an old timey style arcade in the 1980s I don't know but his real passion is various scams of the week, sometimes recurting the kids and eating every inch of scenery while making every minute he's on screen a joy. He's played by Brian O Conner, is somehow not in the movie, and is the best thing that's ever existed. All hail our new god.

Anyways since Shining Time Station is important to the film, we're taking a look at 4 episodes of Lachey's Choice from seasons 2 and 3: Win Loose or Draw, Sweet and Sour, Do I hear and Billy's Party. So join me for train station antics, drawing contests, talking pianos, child explotation, elvis, crooked auctions, and thanksgiving under the cut.

Win Lose or Draw

My first episode.. and going in pretty much blind aside from "this show is a vehicle for Thomas the tank engine". So the werid shit in this series.. caught me off guard as the episode starts with a pretty simple kids show teaching a lesson predicament: the local wise old man from the general store, who I assumed would be more important but is only in one of these 4 episodes, drops off art suplies for a contest and other girl is bummed that Erica Luttrel is better than her at art. We also meet Schemer whose mad the kids are getting paper everywhere and not spending money on his old timey arcade. Is.. is Schemer a time lord? Is he our time lord and savior? This series apparently takes place in the present, but has a penny arcade. Maybe shining times' just really old. Maybe i'm just really old and this series is old even for me, it's only.. four years older than me.

Okay moving past the exestial dread, point is Schemer is great and even off to the side for this one he's a lot of fun.

So Other Girl gets a visit from the Conductor.. who as a refresher is super tiny. Yeah I meant what I said about it being jarring: I had NO idea the Conductor was tiny sized in our world. Once you get used to it it's not that weird: he can travel to other dimensions his size and thus is the size of one of the people in thomas' world, hence how he can tell their stories. Makes sense. But suddenly being ambushed with a tiny george left me asking

Now I get he's just a tiny magic man who lives in the station and watches over these kids alongside the other two main adults and who said adults know exists and are cool with it. And honestly i'd be cool with having George Carlin hang around and despense advice to children too. Who wouldn't. It's like Thomas, it's weird at first but then you just embrace how weird this is and move on.

I do like HOW mr conductor is used. Carlin is clearly having a ball and is a shockingly fantastic children's entertainer, not just good at narrating the thomas segments but at interacting with the child actors and feeling truly like some otherworldly pixie train conductor man. He's really good at this and it's fun to watch.

As for the Thomas segments .. I won't be covering MOST of them again. I didn't skip them as Lachey made the valid point that while I had seen these eps, I hadn't seen them with the george carlin narration. George is really good at the job, easily equiling Michael over in the UK.

It's just.. i've covered these stories. WIth the exception of the one for our final episode today, there's no big diffrence story wise and performance wise Carlin also does the "everyone but Gordon gets about the same voice" thing the other narrators pre baldwin did. Harold also gets an upper class rich person voice

It is nice to get confrmation that Carlin was really good at both jobs, and it was a neat treat.. but there's just nothing really new to add here. The shorts featured are good. There's only one exception, a really weird one, and we're saving that for last. So good shorts as they were before, simply don't have anything new to add for the Carlin Cuts.

So Other Girl asks George Carlin to use his magical powers to help her win the art contest.

What I like though is that the lesson isn't the usual "Oh you shouldn't cheat in competition" aseop. it's a valid one but most kids shows across demographics have done it. Fairly Odd Parents even has it as one of Da Rules.

The real lesson is "it's more fufilling to work hard at something and get better yourself instead of comparing yourself to other people and how good they are". It's a lesson kids really need.. a lesson I honestly needed and maybe I would've kept drawing. You may never be as good as some but doing it is still fun. Just do your art and improvment for you and don't take easy shortcuts. The latter.. is super relevant given the rise of AI and people using it as a shortcut instead of a tool to help them create better work. It becomes about replacing other artists instead of helping artists grow.

Other girl isn't the only one to learn this lesson as one of the jukebox performers learned it. Oh did I mention there' sa jukebox full of magical puppets straight out of pee wee's playhouse who play a song once an episode? Because Lachey sure didn't

So yeah another jarring bit but one I like. I fucking love pee wee's playhouse, so seeing this old style of puppetry again warms my heart. The story is clever too: As a boy the puppet's band leader practiced piano but didn't feel good at it. Turned out the piano didn't and was also alive and thus played the songs for him. Eventually though the boy missed trying himself and the piano concided he was getting better. It's a heartwarming story about not letting sentient insturments play for you that's once again an accidental metaphor for AI somehow.

So she submits her picture instead and unsuprisingly this is what George Carlin hoped would happen. Erica Luttrel wins but they liked something about other girls so she wins a prize.

But enough about children what's SCHEMER been up to: Well he wanted to win, and Billy said his new ink was like magic so he just casually stole it.. only to accidently send a blank picture. We also get a great bit of schemer using a mirror to take a self portrait since no one wanted to draw his face less they summon another schemer into the world. such is the price of such one of a king beauty. Billy chases him and presumibly pummels him, episode over.

Sweet and Sour

So stop me if you've heard this one: a corrupt older man approaches a kid (or kids) with a lemonade stand, offers to be their partner, then finds ways to ruin the place while screwing their new partner over.

Yeah my thoughts exactly.. to my shock the Boondocks episdoe "The Block is Hot"... is a clear remake of the Shining Time Station Episode "Sweet and Sour". Or at least conceptually. After the partnership part both take diffrent paths: Ed Wuncler overworks poor jasmine and cons her parents, while Schemer brings in his nephew Schemee, whose just as hammy at half the size , such a great child actor I swear the two have perfect chemistry and he gets Brian O'Connor's manerisims down perfectly, who cuts production costs, lowers quality and generally ruins the place.

Yet weirdly despite the gaps in when they were made, medium and one being aimed at adults and the other at the childrenest of children, they BOTH have valid advice abotu the economy. For the Block Is Hot, it's how Corporations take advantage of people or buisnesses and will work people to death no matter the age to get as much profit as possible while convincing you their not. It's an episode I don't go back to often for a reason as , while incredibly good at this lesson it's VERY hard to watch, especailly since, resliastically, ed gets away with all of it.

In contrast, the kids learn the equally valuable lesson of not putting profits over quality: how people WILL suck up with bad quality stuff in a pinch once.. but will eventually choose something better.. if it's the same price but hey i'm not expecting a show amed at younger kids to be fully honest about how fucked economics are. I'm just impressed an episode from the early 90's packed that in.

BOth have the lesson of "don't quickly make a deal with someone for the wrong reasons'. For Jasmne she simply trusted the wrong person, something hard not to do and that the episode dosen't blame her for. For the kids.. they KNOW Schemer is bad and when he offers a partnership after seeing them sell cookies to a high class lady, their first reaction is

But they take the deal because he offers a lot of money.. and for once Schemer isn't lying: Schemee's methods do improve things. I also love these two together; Schemer is super supportive of his nephew, is proud when Schemee sells cookie sso bad hteir returned so they can sell them again (Sadly a tactic i'm sure has actually been used), and shows the kid genuine pride and affection I wasn't sure he was capable of showing anyone or anything that wasn't acitvely making him money. I mean he's happy to see him BEFORE he starts cutting corners like a shady man in a gloriously tacky suit.

They then learn the hard way they screwed up as not only ar ebilly and didi not impressed with their new lemonade and cookies, but when they try to complain Schmeer outright steals the buisness. Granted most buisnesses can't be stolen with a "no butts" clause, but Scheemer is dealing with small children not the ftc... this time.

My only beef with this episode is that while the lesson is good.. the adults blame the kids fo rbeing conned by schemer. They did screw up a bit as they knew he was trouble when he walked in, but did the deal anyway.. but loosing their buisness.. was him outright conning them. I get them learning a lesson but you still have to remember these are children IN your care you let be around scheemer unsupervised. And all George Carlin did was vaugely advise them the deal was bad and let them vent later. I get George Carlin can't talk to Scheemer as he dosen't know he exists, Lachey clarified that for me, and if he did he'd of course be constantly harassing the poor miniture george carlin or try to capture him to get his pot of gold. And look I know he's not a leprechaun, you know that, but it's fair to assume Schemer dosen't know his ass from his elbow let alone that george carlin isn't a leprechaun.. mostly because WE don't know that George Carlin, in this series, isn't a leprechaun. I checked the series wiki it just says he's 18 inches tall. He could be a leprechaun, a beyonder, a bit sized timelord, we really DON'T know.

Point is they fucked up too, but they do make up for it as they point out the kids still have a fuckton of lemons they got in the buisness divorce and the kids have a creative solution: ther'es so many things they can make with lemons with Stacy's help they make everything but lemonade.. and quickly gain buisness when Schemer is ineveitbly bit in the ass by karma, i.e the ladies lunchone he was catering boycotting him till he closes up and gladly taking the kids buisness. Happy end for all. A really fun episode with a shockingly timeless moral. Good stuff.

Do I hear

Do I Hear is a decent episode, with a far less clear lesson. it doe shave a random ass music video about some kids little brother destroying anything

I did find out from this shining time ocasionally does music videos with stock footage but like everything else int his series it's a lot to take out of context.

Anyways this one has Elvis show up as a jukebox repair man.

Yeah so backing up the Station is closed for the day but the kids decide to stay behind while Mr Conductor apparently can't do more than just.. tell the kids Billy and Stacy probably had a reason to shut it down.

Naturally Schemer is still here and finds a fake nickle in one of his machines and is pissed.. till he realizes he can use it to get his revenge. So it turns out Schemer has a rivarly with the magical jukebox, which is the least suprising thign in these four episodes. Wha'ts hilarous is that in any other series this would just be a fun rivarly with an inanimate object, like Luke Cage and his coffe machine, or Mr. Parker and his boiler.

Here? The puppets in the jukebox hate schemer.. and given what we've seen of him and how he talks shit about their home and them by comparison regularly, you side with the magic jukebox. So when he tries to use the nickel on them.. they fake being broken.

What intrests me is I thought i knew where the episode was going... after Schemer dicks around on top of a jukebox because Brian O Conner is the best. HE calls a repair man , and I assumed the puppets were either going to be outed, the kids or conductor would have to protect them something. But no the kids don't know and the jukebox repairman.. is elvis.

Yeah they got an actor who honestly looks a lot like the king in his younger days, acts like him and is implied to be him. Either Elivs regenerated into a younger body, cloned himself or simply is reborn every time he dies kenny mcormick styles and rapidly ages. All possible possibly all at once. The lore of his series is rife for fan theory. Send me your own Schemer, Mr Conductor and Reborn Elvis fan theories people!

So turns out Elvis knows the magical puppets exist and tells them to play cool. He then gives Schemer a bill for 11 dollars, who naturally reacts like a mature responsible adult paying for something be broke

So he goes with plan B: have an auction. Naturally this being schemer he auctions anything and everything in the place, and the kids realize "shit we acccidently encouraged him" and try to stop this. Thankfully, while they can't reach Billy, Elvis comes back to save the day. At this point i'm at a loss for jokes.

Schemer even accidently blocks Mr Conductors way into his house.. because he lives here now I guess. Like I said you can write your own lore, mine is that it's the exact layout of snoopy's dog house pre fire. Anyways Billy and Stacy put a stop to this nonsense and instead of arresting schemer just.. scare him off. Though hilarously, and predictably his method of hiding is just.. crouching in front of the banister, which has a railing so they can see him and hoping they forget it. THey also lay into the kids.. again.. even though this time all they did was stay behind. The Schemer shit was ENTIRELY him they just accidently gave him an idea.

The puppets play elvis a song, Mr conductor talks to billy and this episode.. was fine. Not great, but it had some godo schemer acting here and there, the moral is just all kinds of confused.. but it's also hard to hate an episode that has a magical elvis and schemer hanging onto a jukebox for dear life so still good stuff.

Billy's Party

Our final episode for this batch, Billy's Party is a thanksgiving episode, as you can tell by PIlgrim Schemer showing his penis size up there. It's not a terrible idea for the setting either: A train station is giong to be super busy and the episode focuses on railroad tradition in thanksgiving instead of The Pilgrims and the various native tribes

Don't get me wrong, i'd ENTIRELY be up for an episode about Billy's heritage, and the fact the show had a native american main character but did nothign steroptical with him is magical. But I did not remotely trust a 90's tv show to do the story of thanksgiving in a way that wasn't either whitewashing it like I got as a kid, or just plain insulting.

So instead they sidestep it, going into what modern thanksgiving means. And who better to tell us about thanksgiving than thomas the tank engine? Now if you read through my sometimes breif sometimes downright insane thomas reviews, you'll know seasons 1-5.. didn't HAVE a thanksgiving episode. That's not really a thing in the UK, so it's not a thing that exists in a british show about trains.

So rather than just.. find an episode that fit the themes of togetherness.. theyt urned one of the christmas episodes into a thanksgiving episode. Which itself isn't a TERRIBLE idea; both are holidays with lots of travel, and the only real crack is there's tons of mail as that's more a christmas thing.. but then the ending has a fucking christmas tree and i'm just like.. guys. I know you couldn't edit it out but why did you pick one specifically with a christmas tree. Christmas isn't after thanksgiving. Don't start that shit with me Thomas the Tnak Engine.

While the thomas part is sloppy.. the rest... is incredibly well handled: the puppets have thanksgiving and invite a turkey over and in a nice subversion of the "oh you brought a turkey don't kill it" type of stories we get a lot, even Brooklyn 99 good as it was wasn't immune to doing one of these and also lampshading how stupid Charles was for bringing a bird to live kill on thanksgiving day to someone elses house so it worked, their just serving veggies. The turkey is a guest and a rad dude.

As for hte main part the kids wonder why they should give a shit, and Billy is trying to get to his party with , and i'm just quoting it "the yardees and the hobos". I will refer to them as the train workers and homless persons, this was 1993 after all, but it is fun to see them use the terrible h word so casually.

Turns out Billy has nowhere to go unlike the rest of the cast, but was picked to join the rest of the train people. The origin of said meal is also neat: a long time ago they were nemies, the train people not liking hitching passnegers and the homless persons not liking being kicked off their only transportation and sometimes home. But one day a signal didn't get put up in time to switch tracks so the homless persons in the area all rallied to make sure the train didn't crash, and the two sides made peace, having thanksgiving together every year as their the only two groups whose schedules synch up.

Billy ends up not being able to come as disasters keep popping up: they need a train fixed to meet demand, one of the various guests can't reach her apointment so Billy drives her, and Schemer ends up stuck on a train as part of his scam to make the holiday about giving him stuff. If that sounds underwhleming it is. I expect better and stupider from you scheemer. What a disapointing end.

bIlly is left alone.. only for the natural conculsion of everyone coming back to celebrate, including Schemer whose greatful. It's a genuinely heartwarming ending. Why the kidsa re here I don't know, I assume their parents don't exist. HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY.

This episode wasn't as fun without schedmer at full blast but it's still a REALLY good thanksgiving episode with some intresting ideas, and a fantastic finale.

overally I REALLY loved Shining Time Station, continuting the tradition of any thomas spinoff being better than the source thus far. It's fun, has great performances and I will be coming back here somedya on my own or if lachey wants. or if any of you want feel free to comission it .

Next Time: THE MOVIE THAT ENDED AN EMPIRE.

#thomas the tank engine #thomas and friends #schemer #shining time station #didi cohn #cartoons #children's television #90s #80s #george carlin

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glutko · 2 years

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My favorite part of the recently released raw footage of Thomas the Tank Engine Season 5 are the random Austin Powers clips that show up from time to time.

#not corruption #yes this is real

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aaronsworkspace · 4 months

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Obscure Christmas Special recommendations

Christmas is almost here but I still thought I’d share some fun things to watch during the holiday. Most of these are surrounded by my hyperfixatjons so a lot of animated/puppetry content. And are in no particular order

Christmas Eve Sesame Street

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Multiple plot lines going on here but the main plot is about Oscar making big bird worrying about if Santa Claus can't fit through peoples chimneys he won't come. There's also some very good original songs and a sweet subplot with Ernie and bert

Snowden’s Raggedy Ann and Andy holiday show.

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A skating special follows the story of a circus-based around the raggedy Ann and Andy dolls (maybe?) they host a show each year where they make children's wishes come true with the help of the rag dolls and a magical mirror.

3) Shining Time Station (Tis a Gift)

If your unaware of what shining time station is. It is a show delvopled to to bring Thomas the tank engine to the us (due to the episodes 5 minute runtime) so the rest of the show is a framing device with original stories in a train station and other content.

As the adults bicker over playing Santa's Helper in the holiday pageant, Matt and Tanya are left with Vicki, a little girl unwilling to experience the joys of the season. A mysterious passenger, Mr. Nicholas (Lloyd Bridges), arrives, and makes a lasting impression on Vicki. He teaches her the spirit of the holidays, a gift no money could buy.

Olive the other reindeer

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When Santa cancels his annual flight because of a hurt reindeer, a young Christmas loving dog named Olive is convinced she has what it takes to get Santa's flight off the ground and save Christmas.

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Rudolph the red nosed reindeer (1948)

An adaptation before the classic we know today. Except with a splash of uncanny rubber house animation.

A Muppets Family Christmas

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A holiday special featuring like almost every series that can go under the muppets label (ie the muppets, Sesame Street, fraggle rock)

When Fozzie and the Muppet Show gang drop in unexpectedly on Fozzie's mother, she is forced to cancel her winter vacation plans and entertain them all. Soon the Sesame Street gang comes by as carolers, and then Kermit and his nephew Robin discover a Fraggle Rock hole in the basement. A snowstorm blows in, stranding everyone at the house, except for Miss Piggy, who arrives just in time for all the Muppets to celebrate Christmas together.

Those are all I can think of now!

Happy holidays and hope these give you some enjoyment!

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princess-of-the-corner · 1 year

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FUN FACT!: In Season 4 of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends (which aired in the mid-90's), Rusty the Little Diesel is never referred to by gendered pronouns. The other characters only use "Rusty" or "The Little Diesel", and it took until Season 5 for him to be referred to as "he".

This is because the head writer at the time wanted to add a gender-neutral character to the cast, something which is FAR easier when the only voice-actor is a narrator who speaks for all characters, regardless of gender.

In short, for one season, a British children's show from the mid-90's had a canonical nonbinary character.

Hell yeah!!!

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kylekozmikdeluxo · 2 months

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The Sorta-Kinda Thomas Creepypasta I Had In My Head at Age 6

Weird-ass story from childhood time...

Growing up, I was like obsessed... Almost religiously, with THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE. A whole franchise which of course needs no introduction.

Like most American kids growing up in the 1990s, I first caught that blue locomotive and his pals on a PBS show called SHINING TIME STATION. It was a live-action show about some kids visiting their local train station, and the 4 1/2-minute THOMAS episodes would be a show-within-that-show. Usually the episode would relate to what was going on in the train station. The tales were told by a little man named Mr. Conductor, portrayed by the series' first UK narrator Ringo Starr in the first season, and then later by comedian George Carlin.

I have memories of watching that show with my paternal grandfather, when I was about... 3? I remember observing "The trains have faces... But they don't have cowcatchers." My grandfather and I would often draw train locomotives together, too. He'd teach me about the little minute details and such. Right down to the spokes on the wheels. That's part of why I'm an artist.

Anyways, let's jump ahead a little... I was 5, I hadn't seen that show in a while. Maybe because of scheduling, maybe I just wasn't watching that channel back then. Maybe I was watching VHS tapes more than watching TV...

One day, in the summer of 1998, I was given a VHS tape of a few of the THOMAS episodes on their own. SHINING TIME STATION episodes were barely released on home media, only the individual Thomas stories, and tapes were usually random grab-bags of episodes from the show's first 3-4 seasons. That first tape I got consisted of seven episodes, all in UK airing order no less, from season one. It was "James Learns a Lesson and Other Stories".

Now at that age, I had remembered watching the "trains with faces but no cowcatchers" show with my grandfather. I also still had my ERTL die-cast toy of Edward with two coaches that I sometimes played with... So I was like "Sure, I remember Thomas. I'll watch this."

That's where it all went downhill, lol.

And by my birthday and Christmas of that year, I was getting all these VHSes of the show and toys and such. I fit the cliche of autistic kid who was **addicted** to Thomas, add in that I used to identify as male. So yeah, the autistic Thomas boy stereotype through and through right here.

For my birthday that year, one of the VHS tapes I got was "A Big Day for Thomas and Other Stories". It was a compilation of Season 1 episodes, all narrated by George Carlin. Carlin would re-narrate all of the Season 1 and 2 episodes previously done by Ringo...

This was a weird tape, to say the least. It was rather short, and it had some episodes out of order. For example, the episode 'Thomas Breaks the Rules' ('Thomas in Trouble' in the UK) was the 2nd episode on the tape... But the episode that directly proceeds it, 'Toby the Tram Engine' ('Toby and the Stout Gentleman' in the UK) was at the *end* of the tape. Like, that story goes right into the 'Breaks the Rules' story. That's how the continuity was in the early series, as it closely followed the original books - THE RAILWAY SERIES. So it was weirdly out of order. Like watching AVENGERS: ENDGAME first, and then a few movies later, watching AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR.

Second... On old Thomas VHSes, each episode had a small intermission before and after. A sequence of the characters, and white boards in front of them with their names on them. Thomas fans often call these the "Nameboard" sequences. They'd be a few seconds long, with the Thomas theme playing over them. They'd end with an image of Sir Topham Hatt/The Fat Controller, with the text "Next Story Coming Up Soon!"

Usually that screen was silent, or had the last bars of the Thomas theme playing over it...

But for some reason, on the "Big Day for Thomas" VHS... There was the sound of a whistle at the end of the nameboard sequence leading up to the episode 'Trouble for Thomas' ('Thomas and the Trucks' in the UK). Not any of the characters' whistles, but a more realistic sounding one...

Now, as a weird kid who was *easily* thrown off by things... 6-year-old me in 1998 was freeeeaked out by this. Like, why was that weird-sounding whistle there? Why this ONE tape and not all my other ones? Who's was it? Was this some... Secret character?

I was aware of characters I hadn't seen in episodes before... Maybe it was one of them? When I looked at the ERTL die-cast models in the catalogues, I would scope out some characters... For some reason, I thought that whistle would belong to one of the narrow-gauge engine characters. Like Skarloey or Rheneas or Duncan or Duke... For some reason, that's what I thought back then. They looked like engines that would have that whistle, to me!

Now comes something different...

At my maternal grandparents' house, this book was in a drawer in the guest room, among other books:

(image above is from an etsy listing. credit where credit is due.)

I'm assuming it belonged to one of my cousins, who used to stay there a lot when he was really young... And like any kid, I looked through whatever picture book there was. Looking at this book today, I will say that I find a lot of Greg Hildebrandt's illustrations to be very pretty.

Also, it's kinda weird that I'm talking about Christmas in freakin' March, but here we are...

Anyways...

There was one illustration in that book that didn't quite sit right with me when I was little:

It had to have been those dead eyes, lol. How wide open they were, a black dot in a white circle, but on a wooden head and not a cartoon character...

The more I thought of it back then, the more it seemed like a Thomas character face... Albeit, a cursed one!

And I started conjuring up, in my mind, a secret Thomas character who had that off-sounding whistle heard on that *one VHS* volume. He had a face like that, and was darker-looking in his livery than the other engines. It's as if I was making my own Thomas creepypasta in my head, at age 6!! I don't recall drawing this engine though, he could've been an early OC for me!

Eventually, I'd find out that none of the engines had that whistle in the show... And that SHINING TIME STATION would return to TV in time for the release of the movie, THOMAS AND THE MAGIC RAILROAD. Some two years after I started getting into this show...

The whistle was from the show's George Carlin seasons. When he'd blow the whistle, it would go to the Thomas story. The same way Ringo Starr did in the show's first season, but his whistle had a different, higher-pitched noise. I had the SHINING TIME STATION Christmas episode on VHS, and that was with Ringo. So, back then, I didn't know that that whistle originated from SHINING TIME STATION.

But still, it was kinda cool that I was imagining this whole other Thomas character. A sorta more sinister and foreboding engine. Almost like a Sonic-dot-exe situation, that I thought up because I didn't like the sound of a random whistle that was nowhere to be heard in the show, that somehow got onto one part of a VHS volume I had, likely due to an editing error or something.

Some shadowy, creepy Nutcracker doll-faced engine lurking within the darker recesses of the show. Maybe if the tape deteriorated enough, you'd catch a glimpse of him amidst the fuzz... I imagined his nameboard, surrounded by thick dark grey smoke. For some reason, a name sounding like "Mico" coming up. Not at all the raccoon from Disney's POCAHONTAS, although "Nico" would be a good villain name for a cursed Thomas character.

And then the engine himself... just peering at me with those beady eyes as the shadowy smoke obscured just about everything else, during the night. It was like a gritty industrial setting more so than the roundhouse sheds...

The "Early Reel of 1983" ain't got nothin' on this one!

#thomas the tank engine #hyperfixations #autism #neurodivergent #weird fears when i was little #i was a weird kid #creepypastas

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spud-dud · 1 year

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I have made a Skarloey!?

He's big and very s5.

#ttte #thomas the tank engine #skarloey railway #skarloey #ttte skarloey #thomas the tank engine season 5

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weirdowithaquill · 3 months

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Ships? But Sir, They're Trains!

It's Valentine's Day, and to celebrate, I thought I'd break my usual streak of not shipping the talking trains together and share the pairings that I like the best! But only of the original 11, and a few other RWS-related friends (and maybe a bonus or two from the TVS).

Also known as: local weirdo decides trains can kiss, but only on Valentine's Day.

Let's get into the ships... er... trains.

Thomas:

Almost chronically single. I'm sorry Thomas, but you're not very good at the dating thing. Maybe Hank if I swallowed my pride and went to watch Season 12 - just because Hank's calm and friendly personality would naturally balance out Thomas. But also because they are the epitome of 'gentle giant' and 'tank engine terror'. Also, Thomas blushes in this episode:

(Sorry for the Season 12 image, but it's the only Season Hank was in!)

Edward:

This engine has options! Or more to the point - this engine has suitors. Not all make sense to the poor engine - but that's the pain of being the one everyone looks up to. I would put him with BoCo, but I must admit I had a phase where I read EdwardxJames fanfics. So... nostalgia wins (that and Edward needs someone with a fiery personality to boost his confidence sometimes, and James needs a cooler head all the time).

(Look at the smile on James' face! He's ecstatic to see his engine.)

Henry:

Bear. The answer is Bear. I'm sorry, but that Hymek has it bad for Henry, and Henry fought for Bear to stay on Sodor. And after the early days when every engine fought, Henry has no interest in getting tangled up with them again, only this time romantically. Besides, the youthful energy and eagerness Bear has will only benefit Henry, who can be a bit of an old grump.

(Bear, I can't tell if you're looking into Henry's eyes or not...)

Gordon:

Hoo boy... Gordon, oh Gordon. What to do with you? Henry and James are taken, Edward and Thomas are more siblings than romantic interests - and engines 6 through 11 are just not close enough. But how about BoCo? (Yes, this is why I didn't pair him up with Edward). BoCo is calm and polite where Gordon is loud and brash - and Gordon does see BoCo as his saviour. It would probably be the plot of a b-list romantic movie, but I can see these two getting together, with Gordon being the jock and BoCo being the 'kid' of Edward.

(Look at that little smile Gordon has! This engine is smitten.)

James:

He's with Edward, thank you. More than that, he doesn't really fit well with the other RWS cast romance-wise. Thomas is something of a rival and friend, while he wants Gordon and Henry to acknowledge him and Percy is something of a little brother/annoyance to James. Edward and he have a lot to work out (mostly James groveling) but they got a lot of coding in the series from what I remember. Plus Edward saved him - so we've ticked the cliche box.

(Yes, this means Edward is the knight in shining armour. James is a diva anyway.)

Percy:

Has about as much luck as Thomas does, if we're honest. Young, childish Percy has no chance, while older, grumpier Percy is more interesting to consider. The Percy of Seasons 5 and 6 I could see bagging Harold. But then, we could also consider the absolute insanity of Percy and Diesel 10. Imagine the shock, imagine the story! (I'm a writer, let me dream about how I'd write this lot). Diesel 10 would be the delinquent who is soft for Percy and Percy only. It would also lead to an epic fight between the helicopter and the engine with a giant claw.

(Um, is Percy... blushing?! What are these faces?! I have questions.)

Toby:

Is married to Henrietta. They are old couple goals. Percy and Thomas are extremely jealous.

(Toby is grinning cause he knows his wife - that poor manager...)

Duck and Donald:

I considered Percy for Duck, but I feel like what Duck needs is an engine who can really bring out the playful side in Duck - the engine who helps him be more than just the railway he used to work for. That engine is Donald. When they ended up playing pranks on each other in Donald's Duck to the point where Duck stooped to putting a literal duck in Donald's tender knowing Donald would find it funny really says it all about these two.

(Look at him, so excited to play his little prank! His driver is wheezing!)

Douglas and Oliver:

These two practically have a kid in Toad already (or an advice-giving uncle. One of the two). Douglas saved Oliver, and that sort of thing has a lasting impact - especially because it's also the most likely relationship to actually happen. Both Douglas and Oliver are known for sticking it to authority, being a bit hot-headed and being led a bit more by spirit and the heart than by their heads. They have Toad for critical thinking. They live and work together too - and it would be hilarious to watch Duck blast his safety valve off when he finds out.

(Ah yes, let me just stare into your eyes for half an episode.)

Mavis and Daisy:

These two are disaster lesbians, and we love them for it. It's also the femme fatale (or as femme fatale as a diesel railcar can be) and the butch (she works in a quarry - this girl wears overalls) tropes - and they're disasters. Need I remind anyone that Daisy was the one who encouraged Mavis to ignore Toby? It would also be hilarious purely for how much Thomas and Percy would grumble about being single, while Daisy and Mavis rub their relationship in the pair's faces. Which would lead to that one memorable incident where Thomas tried to flirt with a very unamused and confused Bertie.

(Mavis, sweetie - don't listen to Daisy's advice. I know you're distracted but ple-- and she's gone.)

Annie and Clarabel:

Are wine aunts and siblings. And no, neither of them are interested in Thomas, so you can stop thinking that.

(These coaches are Thomas' wine aunts and best friends - and he loves them too.)

Bill and Ben:

Are children! Edward's children! That he has with BoCo (sort of) leading to the brilliant moments where Gordon has to 'babysit' them - which is mostly done with a lot of grimacing and begging BoCo to just hand this lot over to Edward and James - no seriously, please stop letting these two just randomly adopt you as their parent. They're evil, and they wanted to throw me in the sea, remember? No, I don't care that James doesn't like them, I don't like them! BoCo!

(He's petrified of them, but he wants to be nice for BoCo's sake...)

Emily:

Does not need a man, thank you. But she is entranced sometimes by Caitlin's streamlining (yes, I have seen some CGI - I am not a true purist, I am sorry Awdry). Then again, sometimes Emily likes Hiro - and then there was that one time where she was just so upset that Mavis wouldn't notice her. Emily doesn't need no man - but she's also not exactly got the best selection of potential candidates at her shed...

(She's got an amazing poker face. Caitlin however...)

So... that was a thing I did. Somewhere around Percy's entry, this gained a coherent plot in my mind - probably a High School AU? - and now I'm just thinking of Diesel 10 towering over Percy, blushing and trying to give him flowers (with his claw???) while Harold seethes. Clearly, being a single pringle has driven me insane.

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone, I hope you enjoyed this wild idea and if people want expansions on these ships (still trains) and why I like the idea of them, please go ahead and ask!

If people really like this, I will take on the Narrow Gauge engines.

#weirdowithaquill #railway series #thomas the tank engine #ttte relationships #edward x james #ttte henry x bear #ttte gordon x boco #ttte percy x diesel 10 #somehow that made sense in my mind #toby x henrietta #ttte duck x donald #ttte oliver x douglas #ttte mavis x daisy #valentines day #ttte characters #yes this is unusual for me #but i did it anyway #haters will get banished to the shadow realm

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andreajingling · 8 months

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Howdy. ~ | I'm Andrea, a Trans Female, I run this ship that is this blog, so let's get some introductions out of the way: | ~ ~ | If you're looking for RP intros and such, scroll down it should be there, but it would be much appreciated and valued if you would read the entire intro. | ~ ~ | Asks are, of course, open when labeled to be. Please try not to bring anything absolutely heinous in there that isn't in character of some sort. | ~

~ | Primary Interests { ones you'll see the most of around here } Include: | ~ Five Nights at Freddy's { This includes Fangames } Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends Trains/Locomotives in General Model Railroading Cars Planes/Aviation Team Fortress 2, Valve Games in General Pokémon

The Christmas Season { hence the branding practically year round }.

~ | Secondary Interests {ones you'll see every once and a while, the odd like and such} Include: | ~ MLP Minecraft The Nightmare Before Christmas

~ | I have a Youtube Channel of the same username which also posts stuff relating to interests, linked here: | ~

~ | And if you choose to support me in any way, be it Kofi, Patreon {both linked below}, or just simply interacting with posts/videos on my channel, it is extremely appreciated and valued. | ~

~ | Roleplay Info Below the Cut! | ~

~ | Now, onto another side of this account, the 'Semi-Character' Aspect. | ~

~ | I've been performing characters in online spaces for over 10 years now, starting in 2013! | ~ ~ | Let's start with the most important piece of any RP related account, the timeline they live in: | ~ ~ | The Andreaplex | ~

~ | To try to explain the entirety of the Andreaplex is to try to explain the entire history of the world I guess. There just isn't enough time, so let's go over some bullet points of the basics:

Multiple Franchises are present in the same universe, each corelating with one of my largest interests. It's basically the crossover episode of the multiverse, except they don't interact very often.

Most of the locations and popular places regarding events in the series are placed in the region of the Pacific Northwest, mainly Oregon however as it's my own home state.

The Timeline is made up of 3 others, each with different franchises present within, Timeline A holding 'Real Life', Timeline B holding FNAF, MLP, TF2, and others, and Timeline C holding TTTE and Pokémon. This is an event that occurred in the past, though does still haunt the present in multiple ways, including the way the three merged in an event called 'The Collision'. Three Into One, A Grand New Creation.

A LOT has changed from the norms of the franchises present, such as my own headcanons, major events IN my own AU Headcanons {such as the North Western Railway closing and eventual relocation to Oregon, again it's wild}, and changes to different elements of the franchises present {such as the added element of spiritual and physical aging in ghosts and spirits who choose to remain down on Earth. Example of this can be if someone dies when they're 5, and choose to remain down on Earth for 5 years, they would be 10 by the time those 5 years passed. Physical aging can go however the spirit wishes to present themselves, unless they have a body that more tangible than their spirit.}.

There are sort of, omnipotent beings that can sometimes be at the head of things called 'Writers'. Mainly it's just me and my friends personifications of ourselves, though most have chosen to allow their characters free will. Speaking of which:

Each Character is of their own free will in this Timeline, disconnected from 'Strings' that once held them in control of the Writer. Andrea being a part of this world said it best, 'I've seen their perspective. And I'm going to fix this.'

There are characters of varying power levels within the world, each harnessing a different brand of it. Speaking of that though:

One of the most common groups of power is Magic, though it has several subvarients, such as 'Equestrian', 'The Knowledge of the Fourth', 'Gold Dust', 'Witchcraft', 'The Black Arts', and other such examples that exist. Anyone can harness some types of magic with enough training, while others are only genetic or given to a select few.

The biggest fact by far is, since Timeline A was 'Real Life', and merged into the Timeline that is The Andreaplex due to the collision, by proxy, Y O U are canon to the Andreaplex Y O U exist!

~ | Next, let's take a look at the colorful world of characters that make the world what it is, specifically the ones that have this account's login info, starting with the Brunette herself, | ~

~ | Andrea 'Goldsmith Shores' Bliss { She/Her } | ~

{ Massive credit to @kilusion2011 for the ref sheets, and Kennith Stoker on Twitter for the other assorted pieces, check them out here: https://thegamefanatic.carrd.co . Trainer Card made with Pokecharms. }

~ | Andrea is a sort of, self insert in a sense. A being of practically unlimited power and energy due to one of the timelines merging to form her being one of a Writer {self insert moment i know}, as well as many other sources of power being pumped into her in the other 2 timelines that collided. And yet, she just owns a massive rail company, delivering promise to all in Oregon via the Pacific North Western Railroad Company. | ~ ~ | Andrea's presence is represented by a 🎄 on the top of posts. Her brackets of choice are { }, and preferred color is Red. | ~ ~ | A short list of key events, powers, tidbits of info, and drawbacks for her include: | ~

Andrea is 30 years old, born on April 30th. Due to timeframes getting absolutely FUCKED in the Collision, the year is uncertain but they put it down as 2003 as that's the one date that Andrea remembers as her birthday.

Andrea's 6 foot 1 inches.

Andrea is canonically a trans female. During her time she had to have breast reduction surgery due to their size being too painful in combo with Pectus Excavatum.

Andrea is pansexual, and happily married to Cassidy, told about below. Though in recent times the two have gone through some issues regarding their relationship due to both of them kinda not knowing how love works sometimes. They struggle but they're important to one another.

'Shores' was originally her selected last name {as she had several due to several of herself colliding into one another}, but eventually she settled on Bliss when adopting her second child.

Andrea's childhood {at least for her} is a blur. She doesn't remember much of it thanks to The Collision messing with things regarding her long term memory.

She holds near infinite amounts of power, being able to twist a timeline to nothing but red code if she wanted to, but after several events, have led her to not use it a lot, if even at all.

Most uses of her power is out of desperation, or extreme measures that would cause harm to those around/very close to her, such as family, and innocent bystanders.

Holding all of the cards at once for her is extremely overwhelming, and has resulted in her already present feelings of depression, anxiety, and extreme emotional tendencies to rise at extreme rates at times. Time has helped her slowly cope but it, it's a very slow process.

Andrea was gutted at one point by some very hostile robot bear spaghetti, a burnt clown, a burnt rabbit, and a burnt black bear, leaving the large scar on her torso. Like I said before, it's wild.

Andrea's only wish, if she were to get one that is guaranteed to come true, is to possibly experience what Death feels like, as she could never achieve it herself in any manner.

Andrea has adopted two children, ones you'll be seeing later in this thread.

Andrea's bond with her locomotives is like family, she grew up hearing their stories, and now she gets to make new ones with them. It's an honor to her.

Andrea's favorite season is Christmas. I mean, why else would the branding exist? Regardless, she loves the warmth, happiness, and above all, Hope that it gives the world. Hope for a brighter tomorrow. Hope that there is still good on this Earth. Hope that will last for eternity.

One of Andrea's first true friends in her younger days was the fourth in command of Mr. Kris Kringle himself, Vixen. The two are still best friends to this day, and often have one or the other come to their home to celebrate the holidays, at least up until Christmas Eve, then Vixen's got work. Maybe she'll pop in every now and again year round, but most of the time she appears during the holiday season.

If you were to give Andrea a theme, it would be the Rapture Rising Remastered piece from J.T. Music.

~ | Now that's my girl. My little woman. Now onto her beloved spooky ghost woman. | ~

~ | Cassidy Dani Goldsmith { She/Her/They } | ~

{ Credit to PalaKeda on Twitter for the ref sheet, and Kennith Stoker for the large piece of Andrea and Cassidy together being the women lovers they are. Trainer Card made with Pokecharms. }

~ | Ah Cassidy, the vengeful spirit turned business owner turned, back to vengeful spirit for a while, turned back to business owner with the addition of being a mother of two. Girly has been through a L O T , from her own death, to the entirety of the FNAF Timeline, to the shenanigans that brought her here, to even a near divorce with the woman she wanted to spend eternity with. Let's get to it. | ~

~ | Cassidy's presence is represented by a 👻 on the top of posts. Her brackets of choice are { }, and preferred color is Yellow. . | ~

~ | A short list of key events, powers, tidbits of info, and drawbacks for her include: | ~

Cassidy, much like her wife, is 30 years old, however she was born at some point during the mid 1970s, meeting her unfortunate death at around the age of 11. This is a reminder here that souls can age in this timeline, hence her appearances on her ref sheet including a teenage and child version.

Cassidy has genetic origins in Asia, specifically Japan and Korea. And yet her family chose to live in Utah. Curious. /lh

Cassidy stands at 6 foot 3 inches, around two inches taller than her wife.

One of her greatest hobbies is ironically dancing to her own music. She often pulls Andrea in for dances when she wants to, or when a situation is perfect for one.

As hinted at in the opener piece above, yes, this is THE Cassidy from the FNAF timeline, but my own rendition of her, as well as the timeline itself. Maybe one day I'll go into that can of worms.

Yes, Cassidy is dead. Not Andrea type dead no, she's just. Dead. She's a ghost. Can phase through walls, haunt things, possess her broken up Fredbear animatronic to scare people, that stuff.

Cassidy is a full on Lesbian and is currently in a loving marriage with Andrea, lasting from December 25th of 2021 { I believe the year's right can't remember exact dates } until now. Sure there's been scares and possibilities of divorce here and there, but hey when does that not happen.

Cassidy owns and manages 'Fredbear and Friend's', a restaurant literally right next door to the house she and Andrea own that both provides good old fashioned animatronic entertainment, but preserves vintage equipment and creating replicas of said equipment from Freddy Fazbear's Past, from Fredbear's all the way to the most recent restaurant, the Mega Pizzaplex. Each era of Freddy's has it's own gallery as well as subsections for different historical sections { such as an exhibit showcasing both the Security Breach and Ruin elements in full context }, so for example in one you can see Roxanne wolf, then walk to another and see the Toy Animatronics. This is ALSO another huge can of worms. Currently, this restaurant is Post-Ruin, so The Mimic's in a glass case, and the Ruined's are around on static display.

One other element about the Restaurant she has a more close connection with is 'Cassidy's Game'. Basically, take Ultimate Custom Night, and put every single animatronic from every single game in there { with a few exceptions ofc we ain't letting the mimic hunt people, that's just, no. }.

Cassidy is the backup vocalist { though does get some main vocalist chances } and lead bassist of 'The Missing Ones', an indie band comprised of the original five spirits involved in the Missing Children Incident back in 1985. They mostly do covers, but recently did a rock/metal cover of 'The Northwest Passage' sea shanty, heavily inspired by Johnathan Young's own cover. This was for a special celebration Andrea asked them to attend, as well as providing her own vocals as a special guest.

Cassidy's favorite holiday is, of course, Halloween. Her idol is Jack Skellington, for his expertise in scares and how to get them out of people in the best of ways.

Speaking of Halloween, Cassidy also goes a bit scare crazy around that time of year, due to the Mortal Plain being closest to the Spiritual Realms of Heaven and Hell, as well as Limbo and The Land Between. At this time of year, she opens the Restaurant later, as a sort of Haunted House experience, like that one FNAF Haunted House down in Vegas. Fun Fact I went to that. Was a WILD time. She also pops out and scares anyone she can for that sweet feeling of scaring someone.

Cassidy sort of dislikes the Christmas season for it's overwhelming forcing into your home type attitude. She wants to be spooky but then as soon as November comes around, Mariah Carey is free. She isn't a full on Grinch though. Yet. That arc's coming later. In the past when the two were just dating, Cassidy went out of her way to buy Andrea a full on sleigh for Christmas. Like. Full Sleigh. Full stop no additions. She just bought her a sleigh cause she noticed Andrea loved the season so much.

~ | Well ain't that lovely. Now let's move onto someone with a LOT less info about them, then to someone else small, but first let's get, | ~

~ | Maddie 'Shores' Bliss { She/Her } | ~

{ Used a Picrew for her, will eventually figure out WHICH this was from but honestly i might never cause i'm kinda lazy, and Trainer Card made with Pokecharms. }

~ | Maddie, a close relative of the Brunette known as Andrea, was originally part of another side of the family before being thrown to the curb due to a demonic possession. Eventually she found herself in the state of Oregon, and finding the Residences Andrea calls home. | ~ ~ | Maddie's presence is represented by a 🔪 on the top of posts. Her brackets of choice are [ ], and preferred color is Green. | ~

~ | A short list of key events, powers, tidbits of info, and drawbacks for her include: | ~

Maddie is an Asexual Biromantic.

Maddie stands at around 6 foot.

Maddie is 23 years old at the time of this original post {September 20th 2023 PST}. Her birthday is November 16th, 2000, one of the few birthdays in the family with a direct year confirmed.

Maddie is one of the few members of the Bliss Family that isn't immortal.

The results of Maddie's Possession gave her a demonic form she can shift into and out of whenever she wishes.

It also, however, gave her a specific Iron Intake she needs to meet with each thing she eats, which cannot be met with any supplements on the market at the moment, rather with human blood and flesh {think something like something from Tokyo Ghoul, except she CAN eat other stuff, just has to have that flesh and blood/iron intake factor} .

Maddie's Possession is a family curse, her mother held it before her, and her grandmother before her, and, well you get the drift. Blame her Great-Great-Great Grandmother {who may pop into this account every so often as a cameo} .

~ | Ain't she a gem. Now, onto our {currently} last individual that can access this account, | ~

~ | Mary Bliss { She/They } | ~

{ Again made with another picrew I can't remember the link too i am sorry, and Trainer Card made with Pokecharms. }

~ | Mary, the youngest of the Bliss Family, was adopted after she was tagging along with the embodiment of Death {one that tries to get the ghostly residents to ascend}, yet chose to stay behind with the family rather than moving on, gaining an approving family they never got. | ~ ~ | Mary's presence is represented by a ❄ on the top of posts. Their brackets of choice are ( ), and preferred color is Purple. | ~

~ | A short list of key events, powers, tidbits of info, and drawbacks for them include: | ~

Mary is 14 years old as of writing this original post {September 20th, 2023 PST}. Their birthday is March 17th, 2009.

Mary stands at about 5 foot 7 inches.

Mary is NonBinary and AroAce.

Mary is a Freshman in High School.

Mary's has a gunshot scar on her skin where her heart is, which she keeps hidden under her clothing as best as she can. It brings up bad memories of her former family.

Mary's father killed her in cold blood for her own choices of who she was. I will not be going into detail, as honestly it makes even me upset to recall that bit of her. Might retcon it honestly. Who knows.

Mary is the character with the least amount of story built up for her, so she is very experimental at the moment.

~ | Well that was fun! Got to know each of the funnies on here! Now onto the last bit of the matter, their current status! This is just a way for people to know WHO is able to access the account at a given moment. This WILL be edited over time. | ~

~ | Characters that have Access: | ~ ~ | Andrea | ~ ~ | Status: Home. | ~ ~ | Able to Access: Yes | ~ ~ | Cassidy | ~ ~ | Status: Home. | ~ ~ | Able to Access: Yes | ~ ~ | Maddie | ~ ~ | Status: Home. | ~ ~ | Able to Access: Yes | ~ ~ | Mary | ~ ~ | Status: Home | ~ ~ | Able to Access: Yes | ~

~ | And with that, at LONG ass last, this post is OVER!! Thank you to anyone who read this far down, and hopefully I can both enjoy some fun moments on here regarding roleplay, as well as spread a bit of positivity regarding other topics! Might even bring in some actual like, accounts dedicated to stuff in the future, who knows! | ~ ~ | With that, time for me to go have a rest god this took way too long. Andrea, out! | ~

#introduction #intro post #pokeblog intro #rp intro #this took way longer than it should have #my ah is lazy #but this feels so good to get done #here's to this

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houseboatisland · 1 year

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What do you think of James x Thomas?😅❤️💙

I like it a lot!

My personal headcanon is as follows:

1. They became a couple after James’ crash on his first day.

2. Their happiest days together were undoubtedly the ‘20s. James was the engine who most often came to help Thomas on his branchline, which they would thus have to themselves. At first, Edward was the regular engine to be sent up to deputize, but he saw how wonderfully Thomas and James were “getting on” that he kindly stepped aside and let James keep taking the mantle. There was only one shed at Ffharquhar, and 1 and 5 only just managed to fit between the buffers and the doors. As you can imagine, Thomas and James had their first kiss this way. And their second, and their third…

3. Things started going wrong for them as the Main Line engines got more frazzled in their new environment. The move from Vicarstown to Tidmouth caused some homesickness at first, and above all, the tender engines were hopeless without a pilot. Shunting was awkward at their sizes, but more importantly, the engines just didn’t know what they were doing. They grabbed coaches and trucks for their trains as was convenient, which weren’t necessarily the ones they needed. Most exasperatingly, they tended to foul up the next engine’s train when the stock they needed wasn’t there. Vicarstown, which was inexplicably swamped with tank engines at this time, wouldn’t send any over to assist. Hatt's notorious feud with Vicarstown's Stationmaster, Shedmaster, and Yard Foreman, (yes, all at once!) is the most likely reason why.

4. Impressionable, power-seeking James became very high and mighty, and more intent then ever on getting in Gordon’s good graces. Gordon got an idea in his smokebox at this time that Thomas should just… abandon his branchline and “come to his senses” to pilot at Tidmouth, like Thomas was some wayward teenager who ran away and needed to come home. Thomas found that very insulting, and hearing it out of James’ mouth was the worst insult of all, so things just weren’t the same for them from then on out. By the time of the Big Three Strike, they had washed their buffers of their relationship.

5. Have they ever wanted to get back together? They've never said as much aloud. But there have certainly been moments where everyone around them sat on the edges of their rails expecting, (hoping?) it would happen. Season 5's "Make Someone Happy" was one such instance, and Percy still swears on his firebox that he saw them steal a kiss late in the night as the last stalls and rides were being packed up...

#ttte #ttte shipping #ttte thomas #ttte james #thomas x james #ttte edward #engines kissing #ttte gordon #ttte the fat director

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popculturebuffet · 6 months

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Thomas the Tank Engine Retrospective: Series 5: Alec Baldwin Your Worthless (Comission for Lachey V)

Hello all you very useful engines and welcome back to my long retrospective look at Thomas the Tank Engine's golden age. It's hard to belive we're almost at the end. At least of this stretch. After this we only have one more part of this retrospective guaranteed.

The rest is up in the air: Lachey is considering seasons 6 and 7 and i'm considering the rest of the movies, the two more recent series.. seeing where the franchise has been as of late. But whatever wind blows I doubt I'll ever be free of the railway series and i'm okay with that. It can get boring at times binging 25 episodes of a childrens show, and belivie me it does, but the weird highs, production values, and endless material make up for it.

So for series 5 the good Rev Awdry had passed. It was a sad day: While I joke about his weird hatred of Henry being happy.. because it's fun, the guy did have a creative spirit and most of the eps up to this point came from his imagination. We woudln't have Thomas without him.

So with that this is the first season to simply go for all orginal stories. Some were based on real stories by David Maidment, who worked with the railway children charity and had shared some stories while asking the show to donate. They brought him on as a railway consultant, their last one for over a decade. Guess the others wanted to brick Henry back up or something.

Series 5.. is one of the best of the series and probably my faviorite. I've said that before but while it has plenty of the bollocks I love from this fine franchise, the stories are generally really well done and creative children's tales: While their kept acurate to a railway, these tales have more fun with character and it's a bit easier to keep track of who everyone is personality wise compared to previous seasons. It mixes "trains get punished for their hubris stories" with some more adventurous stories: we get a hunt for a lost castle, stepny nearly getting smelted, Percy getting stuck as a runaway, Henry plunging into the sea, and as a finale, a giant sapient bolder trying to murder our heroes

It gives the series something it needed more of: variety. While stupid train children getting punished for their hubris will never leave this franchise on penalty of death, it's nice to break from that and these types of stories play better to an older audience, which while good for the grown ass man who has to watch all these is also good for kids as they might stick with thomas longer if the stories keep their intrest. The messages it teaches are still valid, you just gotta throw a little razzle dazzle in there once in a while. It's why Owl House wrapped a fairly important message about religoius dogma and societal othering around magic, shipping and an owl tube.

This season also shifts things as this is the last time Micheal Angelis did his voice... and the first of two times someone else did in the use. Ladies, gentleman, they's, thems, and that beautiful rainbow in between I submit the glory that is Alec Baldwin narrating Thomas the Tank Engine.

WIth George Carlin retiring the US needed a new voice. Unlike Carlin who largely stuck to the style Ringo Starr and Michael Angelis used, with the voices being kind of samey, Alec Baldwin tried to give each character a unique voice. The idea.. is actually good. It's something the sreies needed and it makes the engines more distinct.

In practice though.. it's very clearly Alec, while a talented actor and terrible, TERRIBLE husband and father... has a pretty limited voice range. Some like Thomas or Toppam Hat, are fine. But then we get the bizzare ones and man oh man are they fun: Gordon and Henry sound like the dumbest cavemen he could imagine, which works for Gordon as he is the biggest idiot ever, but is weird for Henry who while proud never came off as an overly proud brick wall like his buddy. He's the one who gets put behind brick walls.

Then we have other ones like James who has a camp gay voice. There's .. no other way to describe it. Alec just used his sterotypical camp lispy gayman voice he kept in reserve because it was the late 90s, and it somehow works. We also get weird one offs , so many, from his ATTEMPT at doing a woman voice for Lady Hatt, to annie and clarabell being suddenly southren, to a cockney accent for Stepny. It's VERY obvious the show simply had too many voices for Alec's range and he pulled out every stupid acent, every inflectoin and every steroptype he had to make due.

I can however give him credit that.. at least he tried. He genuinely cared. He also had a sense of humor about the james thing

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Granted the way they frame it is very... 2000's, but I can give him credit for acknowldging "yeah... yeahhhhh".

So with that let's settle in for a very Alec Baldwin Thomas the Tank Engine under the cut

1 . Cranky Bugs It's a new season and that means a new asshole to harass our stupid train children. In this case it's Cranky

Who i'm still not convinced isn't THIS Cranky in a lovematic grandpa situation. At any rate this Cranky/That Cranky is a crane whose also an asshole.. granted about 2/3 of the cast could be described as "(insert vechile) whose also an asshole". In his case he tries bossing the trains around, and Gordon and James don't help by agreeing with him, causing incidents. As is the natural order of things, god punishes Cranky for his hubris, with Thomas and Percy saving him. While he's still a racist crack ballon, he's no longer dominating.

2. Horrid Lorries

Cranky has learned absolutely nothing and taunts the trains about being replaced with Lorries. Which i'll give the us dub of thomas as I assumed, this being american they'd pull a 4kids and redub the british terms. But nope. Alec Baldwin uses all the british terms you'd expect, which felt weird at first, but I got used to and i'm happy they didn't try to half assedly take away one of the core parts of the show. Kids.. kids aren't dumb enough to need to think that every show takes place IN AMERICA.

Anyways some Lorries show up, are assholes, get smited for their hubris, and i've seen this sort of thing before. They vow vengance though so I can't wait for the sequel: The Lorries Strike Back.... annnnd looking at the wiki their only seen in this one episode.

3. A View for Gordon Gordon gets tangled in some stuff and plows through a wall. You can only imagine my joy. That said this is a solid one: gordon complains about the view at the new station.. and some shenanigans send him THROUGH a wall. And to the Fat Controller's credit he dosen't finish putting gordon through a fucking wall but instead just puts a nice window there. IT's also nice to have a story where Gordon isn't a complete tool just about 50 percent of one.

4. Lady Hatt's Birthday

This is both one of my faviorites for the season and the series in general. It's Sir Topham Hatt's birthday. Aka the Fat Controler Aka Jimmy the Reach. It's a simple fun romp as he tries to get to his wife's birthday party. Also he has a wife now. and kids. Human ones not just his stupid train children. It's just a bunch of fun slapstick as he falls in mud. I've seen this plot before but it's thomas the tank engine: it's introducing kids to this plot. it gets a pass. It's something diffrent from the usual hubris and the ending is sweet as she dosen't raise a fuss over him being so dirty. She just wants to get dirty. And on that horrifying mental image..

5. James and the Trouble With Trees James nearly gets murdered by a tree to be punished for his hubris. I honestly forgot that part of the plot. James also throws a fit about not getting to pull the special express. I will say I do like Thomas rescuing him, for once NOT rubbing the days lesson in his enemy's face. It shows he's a good guy.

6. Gordon and the Gremlin: Gordon is a dick, we get jokes about Gremlins but sadly no actual gremilns. We do meet Toppham Hatt's mother. Also if your curious I'm using his actual name more.. because the shows using it more. It used fat controller before but this season with more of his family appearing they've switched to just calling him Sir Toppham hat. I of course will alternate between their hilarious crass first name and the more respectiable second because i'm a smart and mature adult. And because it's funny.

7. Bye George!

George the racist Steamroller is back... I honestly forgot he existed. But he provides a fun one that I forgot was as fucked up as it was. So George is tearing up some railway and being a racist monster who wants to kill all trains and railways, is delighed. He tars up some to trip up thomas.. but then fucks up by blocking duck... which causes Gordon , who'd already been approved to pass to crash into the guy and murder a car. Shockingly not only was Gordon's first murder unintetional but he feels bad about it... granted it comes off like a large reason for it is he's worried about what his angry fat controlling god will do to him, but the Fat Controller knows it wasn't his fault and will tear the ass off whoever it is. So George is forced to work in lumber for a week, both a shockingly lenient sentence and a fitting one. He's gotten soft in his old age.. do characters here age?

8. Baa! A ram eat's the fat controller's hat. That's about all that's really intresting here. I do like the idea: a station decorating contest but execution wise it's just sorta there. Still a ram ate a man's hat which is more than I can say for other bog standard thomas episodes

9. Put Upon Percy Percy's trucks are assholes and nearly cause him to get killed in a mine collapse. And it's sentences like this that remind me WHY I do this series, pay aside. I also grew to like Percy this season as he grew out of being just "thomas 2" being more of a whiner, but in a relatable way.

10. Toby and the Flood

This one.. dear god. Okay so Toby is sent to inspect a dam. Simple enough.. but then it floods. Again simple enough... while Toby is on a rickiety bridge sending toby up river. This is another faviorite mostly because the sense of tension is real. I genuinley thought Toby could die, and given this series attitude toward death and not being bound by the books it easily could've happened. Granted Toby Toys are still being made I think, so he's thankfully invunerable as long as he has merch, but it's still a pretty harrowing episdoe and the effects work is top notch. how they pulled off an ep this ambitious I have no idea. Probably experince working with water from Tugs.

11. Haunted Henry This episode is dripping with atmosphere is Henry is hautned by a ggghost that turns out to be an old man instead who tried to warn Henry's crew who wouldn't listen. A nicely spooky episode, helped by me seeing it during spooky season. Spoo-ky!

12. Teething Troubles We get a new disel, another one whose entirley friendly. The twins are around and both sound like scratch from adventures of sonic the hedgehog for some reason. That's.. really all this episode has. We've seen a friendly disel before. WE've seen the twins being assholes before. The only thing we haven't seen is Alec Baldwin doing his best stratchy voiced robo chicken.

13. Stepney Gets Lost

Should be "Stepny almost dies". This is another one of those more adventurey stoires I mentioned, as on his way back from working at the quarry, Stepny gets lost and things esclate quickly as two disels, arry and bert, kidnap him, assuming him to be scrap and put him in the smelting shed, where h'es clawed. Stepny VERY NEARLY dies, the second near death in only 4 episodes, and it's incredibly tense. It's only thanks to the Fat Controller getting there just in time the poor guy life. I do like the FC in this one as he's nicer: he gave Stepny the assignment in the first place because he needed a change of scenery. I prefer this later characterization of a guy whose firm.. but also will do nice stuff for his stupid train children over the angry abusive god he was early on. He's still got SOME shady aspects, but he's mostly nice.. just like modern day god.

14. Toby's Discovery This is another personal faviorite and another classic, as Toby is taken by the Hatt's on an expedition to find an old castle someone found on a map. The concept itself is fun but the idea is also great. finding the castle is real easy, they just follow the line bu tthe visuals are beautiful and the castle itself looks fantastic. We also get a nice little ghost story as Toby hears rumors of a ghost.. but it's just Betram, a new engine.. or is he? My fan theory is that Betram, a narrow gage engine whose a fan of Toby's, is actually Smudger. While he has Smudger's face simply because he's a refit of duke with a diffrent face, it'd make sense: it wouldn't be the first time a train was replaced or the first time a train got refitted and Smudger WAS missing. It's better than the idea that the poor guy died rusting to death so i'm going with it. Smudger is reborn bitches!

15. Something in the Air

Henry takes some asshole pills and thus rushes into his assigment.. despite thomas trying to warn him some track had eroded, leading him into a lake. Once again, top notch water effects.

16. Thomas, Percy and Old Slow Coach Now we'r eback to some old fashioned messed up Thomas the Tank Engine logic as Thomas and Percy meet an old engine named , and I swear to train jesus this is true, Old Slow Coach.

Now if you thought the name was bad... your right but it gets worse: turns out she's due to be scrapped.. and they just HAVEN'T GOTTEN TO IT. And as we find out later she's in the fat controller's jursdiction. Look am I suprised the fat controller has done some train murders? yes. Do I think he has saw traps but for trains? also yes. Do I think he mentored John Kramer? Of course. But did I think he scrapped his trains. No I can't say I did.

So our heroes try to think of a way to save her. Luckily for once the angry train god that choo choos his way through this universe and decides to use his smiting powers for good.. I mean mostly. He does casually blow james up for no reason. Maybe Train Jesus was working out his homophobia still. At any rate another fire breaks out with some workman's quarters and Thomas and Percy suggest OSC replace them. Granted it's as TEMPORARY lodgings.. but given a disaster occurs on Sodor once every few episodes, crisis housing will always be needed. Horay!

17. Thomas and the Rumors The children's playground dies and since there isn't a kind old man rethinking his life as he dies from cancer to fight for it, the Fat Controller is using Harold to survey. The trains think he's replacing them, it gets in Thomas' head, their wrong as usual, Thomas learns not to gossip, next.

18. Oliver's Find: Oliver ends up down an old branch line and finds a house the Fat Controller decides to make into a rest spot. I forgot who oliver is between seasons. Next.

19. Happy Ever After This is a fun one. Not much to mock really: A bride is getting married on sodor and needs her bridal package, i.e. something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. So the fat controller uses his engines to fill in. IT's a really sweet, fun little episode. In the spirit of it, and since i'm not using an image for EVERY episode this time, i'm going to try do this challenge. okay something old

Cocaine with sunglasses, a gag I haven't used in some time Something borrowed

Somone Else's running gag. Something new?

My new oc, Fred the Murder Engine and for something blue

A wholesome marge simpson meme. Woo nailed it. next!

20. Sir Topham Hatt's Holiday

Hey hey hey it's fat controller's vacation. Lady Hatt complains about a suddenly southren annie and clarabelle but is fine after their cleaned. The real show is that FC has Harold take his family to his country place.. and it takes FOUR DAYS TO GET THERE. FOUR DAYS. Does.. does harold Need fuel? did he stop? did they ever stop? where on sodor is only accesible by plane 4 days away? The logistics here will forever haunt me, just like a bi plane haunts the hats. Solid enough episode.

21. Percy's Surprise Percy is burnt out working in the coal mines so naturally his trucks, who haven't fufilled their seasonly attempted murder quota, break one of his cables. What follows is a thrilling ep as percy nearly murders everyone and can't stop. IT's geninely tense with me worried for Percy's safetey and everyone elses as he barely survivies. top notch episode.

22. Make Someone Happy James wants to make people happy, takes Ms Kyndly to see her sister after her transport gets derailed.. not literally for achange. A genuinely sweet little tale. 23. Toad Goes Backwards Toad, the tram train is tired of going forwards. his trucks are dicks, as is their nature, and push him forward so he can't help but nearly run everyone over. like the percy one this is thrilling and I was genuinely worried toad would die. Again I know these trains won't die as long as they have merchandise but whose buying toad merch I ask you? Me. I will. Hook me up.

24. Duncan Gets Spooked

This one sure did happen. And Duncan sure did get scared. And I sure do not care. Next

25. Snow

Scarlowe gets caught up in snow, he really hates the snow. He just needs a song and I think I have just th eone for him.

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Also holy shit it took me several decades, and at least a good one and a half since I became a fan of his via garfield to realize that was Lou motherfucking Rawls. This dude is awesome and to help convince you , here's the muppets

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... as you can probably guess I don't have much for this one. It's fine and the snow looks fantastic. They've really stepped up their game this season and season 4 had also done it. It just gets prettier each season. Anyways now for our finale... and this one I can't stop thining about

26. Rusty and the Bolder

Okay this one.. is an all time classic and the first Thomas Finale that's felt like a season finale. While my playlist on youtube had snow last i'm going with the wiki. So a giant bolder is precariously perched on a mountain.. it also ocasoinally has an ominus HAUNTING stone face. It's genuinely unsettling.. and then it gets free and proceeds to slasher villian stalk EVERY SINGLE TRAIN IT CAN. No really it nearly runs into most of the lines trains. Thomas gave us a slasher film with a bolder hunting trains. A TRAIN MURDERNIG BOULDER. see this is what gets me up in the morning: while I love writing about really good stuff.. sometimes I just love bizzare nonsense and Thomas is a mixture of geninely good children's entertainment and morbid bizzare nonsense. I'll miss this show whenever i'm done I swear.

This was one of the most fun episodes i've watched and ends with Toppham hat isolating boulder.. but he will hunt again.. HE WILL HUNT AGAIN. HE WILL HU...

So that does it for this season. All in all one of the series best it's just some episodes I really don't have much to say and others are attempted boulder murder. It's a show I dearly love on some level by this point

Next Time: THE MOVIE. is it any good.. i'll see. Will it at least have alec baldwin? Can confirm. Thanks for reading.

#thomas the tank engine #alec baldwin #gay trains #thomas #percy #gordon #james #Youtube

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