In my opinion Murdoch, Arthur, Molly, Neville, Freddie, and Madge, should have returned

Seeing Smudger again would've been wild. And hopefully would've given closure to my younger self's trauma of seeing him turned into a generator.

I would love to see Bulgy and George interact since they both hate railways. What a convo they’ll be

I really wish Splatter and Dodge would come back. They're 2 of my favorite characters ever. It's such a shame they only appeared in the magic railroad.

I would've liked to see Fergus return in CGI. He does fit the profile for a 'new' character - he's tied to a specific location (the cement works), he has dynamics with characters like Bill and Ben, Diesel etc, he has a prominent catchphrase (Do it right), and he has a unique personality and attribute in the form of his flywheel. He could've easily worked in the Brenner era around S17-19, since those seasons had a lot of focus on the quarries and clay pits on Sodor.

Fun fact: Dennis was so lazy Sir Topham Hatt sent him out of the island. And he missed Sodor. So, he changed his identity and name, and got repainted and removed his number. He came back to sodor as Norman.

Freddie was unfortunately dropped for BMM. He along with Duncan was dropped in BMM, but unlike Duncan he didn’t make it into the series.

One character I would have loved to have seen is Old Slow Coach. It’s such a shame the show never did anything with her outside of one short appearance after her debut episode. I feel like she could have been a very nurturing mother-type character for Thomas or Percy.

I will never get over the fact they mixed up "Paxman" with "Paxton" (assuming the story is true, of course), when the show also contains two completely separate characters named Oliver, and they even confront that topic at the end of "Legend of the Lost Treasure".

I would have LOVED for Molly to reappear, perhaps taking Rebecca's role and being explained as absent by working on a branchline we never saw like the Kirk Ronan line. If she took the express in Gordon's place with no narration after he derails or bursts a valve in the yard and wouldn't be seen FULLY on screen until she stopped at Vicarstown, I would be very pleased! (dont take my idea as I'm incorperating it into my BWBA Rewrite)

The thing about Arthur is, they were comparing Ryan’s red colour to Arthur’s, they weren’t saying he couldn’t be red because of Arthur

Forgot to say this the other day, *this* is whom I'd have loved to see return in CGI, Mighty Mac Considering how the show veered towards a 'Comedic Saturday morning cartoon' vibe, Mighty Mac wouldve fit in just perfectly. That and well, he(they?) were underused despite how unique the character was

If they kept going with CGI instead of rebooting Thomas, they would halve come back.

I would have loved to seen characters like Boco, Duke, Splatter and Dodge, Arthur and Freddie appear in CGI as are some of my favorites. Although it is sad when I think about characters that weren't considered for CGI like Murdoch, Mighty Mac, Molly, Neville, Madge, and Flora there's also potential there. Either way great video Adam and keep up the good work.

Neville. Several reasons: 1. He has CGI face (S12). 2. He’s my favorite character in the franchise, ever. 3. I would love to see an episode (preferrably Brenner or BWBA era) with the other Bulleid characters (Dennis/Norman, and Rebecca) 4. He was often overlooked, both in the franchise and in real life 5. He has so much potential for a unique character development 6. I would love to see him in The Great Race competing in the shunting competition and won respect and admiration from other engines. A true redeeming moment for him.

If Hank returned in CGI, Andrew Brenner could have create a episode around him and Philip since their basis came from Pennsylvania.

If BoCo was to appear in the cgi series, they should totally make him similar to Hercules from Tugs.

19:00 Funnily enough, the bulstrode picture is *_literally_* just one the season 8 ruler pictures of him.

Elizabeth's such a great pick, she was a highlight in every episode she appeared in. I could see her and Cleo having a fun teacher and student dynamic (Could've given Cleo some much needed character) and her bickering with the CGI iteration of Topham would've been gold. I would have loved to have seen Jinty and Pug show up back on Sodor for a bit. (Long shot ik 😂) Could have Jinty bring up the time Thomas rammed himself through a set of buffers trying to impress him then have Jinty get himself into a accident and finish it off with Thomas equalizing the playing field. The models wouldn't even be that hard to create just tweak Thomas and Percy's.

The biggest advantage of Bear in CGI would be Super Rescue as Henry's proper swan song before being allowed to stay at Vickerstown Edit: great minds think alike lol

I would have liked to see Stepney, Arthur, BoCo, Bear and the Culdee Fell Railway Engines return in the CGI Series. I bet that Fergus also was considered to return since Sam Wilkinson expressed interest in him being reintroduced to the CGI Series in a 2015 Interview. I would have also loved to see Molly and Neville return to the CGI serries during the Nitrogen Era (Series 13-16).

In my opinion I think Bear could have been back in CGI as well as Neville, Murdoch, the big city engine from the railway series and so on.

I would have loved to see Molly return to CGI and maybe have an episode where she becomes a main character along with Rosie.

I personally would’ve loved to see all of these characters back in the show. There are a lot of Thomas characters and they are hard to keep up with but I say the more the merrier! It’s sad that characters like BoCo first appeared in Season 2 and last appeared only 3 seasons later and in Season 4 all he got was a background cameo. A lot of characters in the show never got much time in the spotlight and never got to have fun interactions with some other characters and if characters like Derek came back in the show we could’ve gotten new merchandise of these characters that we thought we’d never get. I’m glad characters like Duck or Daisy got to appear again and be shown to a new generations but the fact that we could’ve gotten an episode with George and Bulgy or Duke and the Earl and got merchandise of them shows how many great episodes would’ve been released that we never got to see. I’ll always love the fan content, but there’s something different when it actually happens in the show, it makes you feel like the people who write the episodes actually care about these characters and they’re not completely forgotten and they’ll always appear again, and while All Engines Go did bring back Bulstrode and soon Toby and Saly the future for those characters is more uncertain than ever but you never know!

7:44 What’s funny is that, Arry and Bert’s models were reused for Splatter and Dodge from as far as I could know

To be honest I think Derek interacting with Paxton would be interesting

I would have loved it if Dennis,splatter and dodge,billy,Arthur,murdoch,Neville,Hank,Stepney,smudger,Bertram,proteus returned along Derek,d261,mighty mac

I find the Smudger idea hilarious because a long, LONG time ago, just before the CGI series actually started, I kept seeing all of these videos claiming he would return in Season 13. And being the stupid person I was back then, I believed them, and was so hyped. Of course, as time went on i realized they were all just clickbait and gave up. So to hear that at one time or another they actually put legitimate thought into bringing him back just reminds me of a simpler time.

Duke should've returned. He's one of my favorite narrow gauge characters

Interesting video, but personally, I would’ve LOVED to see ALL of these classic characters return in full CGI just so they have more character development as well as voice actors for each of them. But that’s just me though.

I really like T1E2H3’s Road Rebel episode where George and Bulgy have an interaction about the railway crossing

I just got an interesting cgi interaction: bear growls when going to the mainland but Bradford the breakvan says no growling, bear apologizes and ofc, Samson tries to get him to stop talking like this to bear but it’s rule #89 apparently, again it’s sad tht this didn’t happen during the 2016 era

It's a crime we did not get the ballast train from Small Railway Engines in either the model series or CGI, given that the Wooden Railway line clearly saw character potential in him more than Awdry himself did. Kidding aside, and an essay of a comment ahead, you did a great job on this video and it's the first time I've stumbled upon this channel. Thanks algorithm! Like many, if I had to pick an RWS character who would have made a great introduction in the TV series in either CGI or model, it would have been Bear. Super Rescue is a fantastic story that was missed out on, and I think if I had worked on the model series, I would have traded "Bowled Out" for it. Though I'd probably get sacked for not figuring out the budget of getting D7101's model built within series 4 since taking the work put into the diesel would instead go to D199. For a long time, I've pictured in my head how that episode would have looked/sounded in series 3, the horn sounds corresponding to Henry and Bear towards the end, and the triumphant music playing in that moment. Perhaps someday my ambitious mind will put into making a model adaptation of that to closely resemble the aesthetic of series 3 and 4, with fan-built Gauge One models. If it wasn't for an RWS-exclusive character and I was left to choose one who had only been in the classic model era, it would be Duke. He lucked out in both the RWS and TV series for being a highly memorable character despite his lack of utilization outside of a few episodes, my opinion holding up after first watching his episodes over twenty years as a kid, and recently rewatching them with a friend and his kid a few months ago. We get a grandfatherly character in an engine that reminded me very much of my own who you can tell that despite his sometimes gruff responses to younger engines, truly cares about them and they in return. In CGI, I could see them somewhat continuing that with some of the newer narrow gauge railway characters that have been introduced since then. As for thoughts on some other characters, as much as I would have loved seeing the Culdee Fell Railway engines in CGI, I don't have the imagination to think of how you'd make more than a few stories following the ones told in the original book, which I think is what both Awdrys ran into. It's a fairly-limited railway in terms of stories you could tell based on reality, and somehow almost as many if you had my imagination. Sure they'd be great for some more toys, given we had 3 of them made as ERTL models already, but I have a feeling they'd be criticized as wasted potential with their introduction. It is a shame that the franchise as we know it is officially dead. That's not a fate I expected this soon even if I was hardly a fan of the series in its CGI years. Still, there was enough entertainment there that I assumed it would last for a long time. Once AEG is over, then I think the last remnants of the franchise will be truly done from an official standpoint, while I could see the fandom lasting much longer, though in decreasing numbers. Then again, Tugs manages to grow in popularity among Thomas fans as the years go on despite being over for over 30 years. I'm more sorry that Thomas will likely not be a running show I'd be excited to watch with my future kids if I ever have them, and yet there are still so many stories to tell both from the books I'd love to read to them, and the series that ultimately shaped a majority of my appreciation for storytelling at such a young age. Edit: Forgot to add you just earned a subscriber out of me from just this one video, and now I'm checking out your other ones. Great work once again!

But wasn't Ryan and Daisy's branch the same as Arthur's branch? Geography wise, it's the same area!

I’m pretty sure they officially said that Norman is Dennis’s twin brother.

I wonder how smudger's return would be like

If Dennis returned in CGI, there would be a episode with him and Daisy since she was once lazy and perhaps tries to talk sense into him, referring her past of being in his place before.

I feel like Bear would have been the best to bring back, but also based on just how heavily the two were pushed in the concurrent Thomas Creator Collective: Bowler and S.C.Ruffey, who really wouldn't be too hard to work in. Mainly because the target audience of the show is semi-familiar with them because of the TCC. Now, I'm not saying everything from the series had a chance because of how batshit it got (looking at you Adventures!Diesel takeover), but Bowler and S.C.Ruffey just feel like an easy in. But aside from them, I feel like it's basically just Bear and *maybe* Fearless Freddie or Duke that would have actually worked.

I absolutely agree that a good amount of these characters should’ve returned in some way or another, but I absolutely think that a big part of the reason why the culdee fell engines and bear were definitely not going to make any appearances at all, is because (at least in my opinion, and based on a lot of factors on Mattel’s part, given their track record) mattel seems to have a weird stigma against using railway series characters, in the series, as they clearly don’t really seem to sell well(fandom members actually buying the railway series characters like culdee or other characters like that doesn’t really reflect Mattel’s bottom line) and, characters like the culdee fell engines, bear, heck, even big city engine is definitely not something that mattel would want to push, if at all. Now, Hugo! That’s a big hot ticket right there! Yes, before you say anything, i know that the flying Scotsman was in the series, but he’s more the exception than the rule.

Thanks for sharing this interesting video highlighting some of the most iconic characters from the classic series that I would have loved to have seen featured in the CGI series Boco, Murdoch, Arthur, Molly, Fergus, Fearless Freddie, Elizabeth the vintage lorry, Stepney the Bluebell Engine and Duke of the Narrow Gauge Engines 👍❤️

I knew a lot of people want a few characters to return in the franchise but that's something a couple of fan-services have this done.

Of all the characters you’ve mentioned, the ones I wanted to see return the most are Duke, BoCo, Arthur, Dennis, Stepney, Derek, Freddie and George.

12:45 he would have been perfect to voice Patrick especially because that Northern Irish accent that he has just sounds awesome

Just remember kids, these characters were created for marketing purposes!!!

My choices are BoCo, Fearless Freddie, Mighty Mac, Stepney, Arthur, Murdoch, Hank and Duke By the way, there was a rumor that, before Thomas went full CGI, they were going to use Murdoch's model and turn him into Hiro. Boy, am I glad they didn't, considering that Hiro is Japanese, and Murdoch is British

What's especially annoying about Norman is that his predecessor Dennis was based on the Bulleid 11001, which was a single, unique prototype. There was only ever one of them in the entire world, and *that's* the engine they decide to make two of...

Kelly was the voice of reason in the pack, and he should have come back

Really annoys me that the Duke idea was dropped since everything was in place. They had the railway, Peter Sam, Sir Handel, Norramby, all they needed was an adaptation of Sleeping Beauty to reintroduce Duke. It would've been even better if the explorers also found Smudger and he got an arc in which he learned to be more efficient. Or if they had re-introduced Bertram and given him an actual character. If not, seeing Stepney, Neville, Hank, Derek and Molly would've been a treat.

I would have liked to have seen Jock and Frank from the Small Railway.

If those returnee characters were to ever have voice actors, here are a few that I would've pictured: Tim Whitnall as Dennis (I imagine him having the same voice as Mr. Lazy from Mr. Men Show since Tim played the exact same character in said-show) Keith Wickham as George (with a cockney accent) Steven Kynman as Bear (Steve voices nearly every green character so why not? I imagine his UK voice for Porter would've suited better for him than the latter since he's an American engine so they should've had David Menkin voice him in both dubs as well.

2:58 Smudger and Bertram look like they have the same faces.

Absolute banger of a vid

I think Duke would’ve been nice, would’ve been some great growth to the ulfstead gang

I would've enjoyed seeing Billy and Charlie as this could lead to some interesting sibling plot.

Good video bro!

Great video and I didn't know that Billy got replaced with Charlie and Splatter, Dodge and Dennis got replaced with Paxton, Sidney and Norman all because Hit Entertainment wanted to make more toys for those characters and Freddie, Arthur, Molly, Dennis, Neville, Boco, Stepney and Duke should've returned to the CGI series in my opinion.

In that (probably) season 12 image, fearless Freddie is visible. 11:25

I would've loved to see Mighty Mac return. They only got 1 leading role in the model series, and with their design, there would've been a lot more story potential.

Imagine a tiny ah' steam roller making a double decker buss swerve out of the way. I'd just imagine George sitting there like "Grr, get outta da way". It fits because George is just the kind of bloke to refuse to move for anyone even in an emergency.

Also Kevin the Steamie’s narrow gauge engines were just a placeholder, that shot was from Hero of the Rails

One of my aims in life is to have every character return in full CGI, but when I can work on Thomas & Friends. They will return!

For me, personally, I believe Arthur and Elizabeth 100% should've returned, with the later being a good example of a well written female character who, like Daisy, would make very dinamic stories.

My underrated pick would be Pip and Emma, I could imagine them in the Hugo episodes or interacting with Gordon and Spencer.

It's a shame some of these didn't appear although it is fascinating to see who was dropped

The whole Paxman/Derek thing has a lot more credence than you’re giving it credit for, not least as just a misunderstanding. The production notes never named him Derek, it was a merchandise-only thing supposedly to avoid upsetting the actual company and a famous figure. The plausibility of Paxman in CGI is there, at the very least the character continued into the S8 character pages for writers so maybe Miller intended to or maybe she made a typo. Simon A.C. Martin isn’t without some understanding ‘cuz as mentioned Derek is a merch name and if he heard it over a call the onomatopoeia is similar to Paxton. 14:49 worth noting too is that in a learning segment they said that Mr. Percival has jurisdiction over the Culdee Fell railway. So finally getting the Mountain Railway was definitely in the cards but never took off beyond a name. I also remember the ‘BoCo or Bear’ ultimatum as it was mentioned on SIF, so I can corroborate that.

Tbh if you name a character that didn’t return I want him/her back (I just feel like they should’ve brought back every single character that didn’t return)

Oh and also with the Culdee Fell there’s the sequence talking about the railways saying Mr Percival ran the Culdee Fell

I love the cgi model of Duncan

I would’ve loved to have seen Fergus in place of Timothy in the CGI Era ✨

To further the point of Patrick returning to CGI I’m pretty sure his wooden railway toy was rereleased in 2013

I would really like to see Neville the Q1 class of engine because personally he is my favourite character and it would have been really nice to see a Q1 class in CGI

My favorite Irish KZfaqr.

I would have loved to see bear and big city engine in the cgi series as well as Molly and Murdoch

Culdee stings the most for me. I love Mountain Engines and the CFR was so interesting to me, it's sad.

12:39 you’re telling me we could’ve had doogal as a character!? Wow.

Sorta off topic but I think Emily had such wasted potential… she was technically part of the main cast because she lived in tidmoth sheds but damn outside of tidmoth we only saw her on rare occasions. Anyone else agree that she should have gotten more screen time?

they shouldve put floorboards in cgi series

Personally, I would LOVE to see Duke again. Also Bear would‘ve been a good returny

tbh, splatter and dodge returning in the great race as shunters was actually pretty cool and kinda wish it happened

I wish they included Pip and Emma as they represent the modern railway. I agree that it's good to mix the old and the with railways.

After hearing about Stepney's return I'm just gonna say this. Stepney should definitely be his RWS self. And his CGI model should definitely be just like his original TVS model and a bonus giving him realistic details from his real life counterpart. (And did anyone else know that the real life Stepney had a failed steam pipe like 9 years ago?)

These characters weren’t even released in the final draft, but I would’ve loved to have seen the Vicarstown Tramway Engines make an appearance in the CGI series. You haven’t covered the Vicarstown Tramway Engines in a video yet, have you?

Absolutely superb video! Do you mind if i make a version about trackmaster chatacters?

Iirc, Sam also said he wanted to bring back Fergus. Also here’s my theory, but I feel Elizabeth was likely originally intended for Splish, Splash, Splosh. Why? Well she’s in the take along pack for the episode, which also includes Billy. Who we know was cut from the episode Also iirc, Mighty Mac was considered for BMM as well

11:40 another actor who could have voiced Freddie that I think would have been perfect was John Sparks the guy who did all the male voices in season 5 of Fireman Sam seeing as Sparks himself is Welsh

Fergus got dealt a seriously bad hand. The hecking prop broke for him causing him to not last past season 7 and thus doomed him to never return again. Honestly he’s my top pick

Great video

Would have been gold if had they brought back Elizabeth during the Brenner era.

It would've been nice to see these characters again in CGI 😞

In TATMR they used Array and Bert’s models and repainted them to be spatter and dodge. That’s why both pairs don’t have ladders.

Growing up Thomas and Friends was the #1 show I would watch on a regular basis and have all the toys and I would have loved to see them bring Culdee in since they already brought in every railway from the railway series except the culdee fell

It also says Fergus was considered to return in CGI. The TTTE Wikia doesn’t say anything on Smudger and Bertram being considered for returning though.

it would be Duke for me, that guy is so wasted in all formats. Wilbert never writes about him again (kind of obviously), Christopher references him but never gives him a story or even dialogue, the model series does pretty much the same after the events of book 25 are played out, he's just a background character briefly... there was so much potential for him adapting to life on the Skarloey railway but it's just never touched on sadly and then with his grace being a CGI character even more potential

Mighty Mac,because they are 2 faced engines and their only appearances are in a few episodes in the hit era,mostly without dialog.

To be fair if TGR/BWBA didn't happen, we could have gotten nearly everyone from the remaining model series cast.

5:08, Billy just got a massive uplift.

My take in general is it's better to flesh out characters then unnecessarily create then dump them

I would've loved to see BoCo, Splodge, the Culdee Fell Engines, Duke, Lady, Freddie, more Pack characters, Jeremy, Bulstrode, Caroline, George, Fergus, Hector, and that's about it.

Top 5 characters I wish returned: 1. Boco 2. Stepney 3. Freddie 4. Mighty Mac 5. Duke Also it would’ve been nice to see Derek in a background role in tale of the brave during the scenes at the clay pits since according to the wiki he spent most of his days working with Bill and Ben in the quarries and clay mines near Brendam docks

Although the culdee fell railway never appeared in cgi they were mentioned in a learning segment talking about the difference between standard and narrow gauge