Theories and Questions about Thomas DVD's and VHS's (Featuring Oliver11GWR!)

From the over 30 years of Thomas Home media, there are a lot of unanswered questions, and I am going to share some theories about them.
‪@Oliver11GWR‬ is also sharing some theories he came up with!

[@Thomasfan261]

Genuinely one of the best fan videos I’ve seen, so god damn good, Sean. The filmaker inside me had an absolute blast watching this, LOVE those drone shots, absolutely beautiful. A job well done mate, can’t wait to see what you have in store next!

[@Gondarth]

Very nice collection. It's always nice to see other people's media collections. I'm just a sucker for physical media... It's weird, I've been collecting VHS tapes since 1996, more than 26 years, and I very rarely stop and question things about certain releases. I mean, I do stop and look at garbage release and wonder "Why do these things exist", but that's about it. Good on you for having the creativity to stop and think about it all...

[@dirtyobjects5]

This is probably my new favorite video of yours, Sean! This was such a fun watch and a lot of these theories definitely seem like that COULD be true…but we never know! Keep up the great work my friend! :)

[@ThomasLover]

I’d like to share some random trivia of Thomas Home Videos (namely DVD’s) one day…

[@retroflashbackdude]

More trivia regarding echoes. The echo version of breakfast probably exists cause in the Carlin dub of A Close Shave, the runaway theme sounds a bit different when Duck has his near miss with James. The Percy Takes The Plunge DVD, like the Trust Thomas DVD, also had the audio on the intro and outro, nameboards, and most episodes (aside from Daisy and Percy Takes The Plunge) replaced with unechoed audio sourced from other releases but still uses the original master’s footage for all the episodes unlike the Trust Thomas DVD. It’s most noticeable in the opening credits, which used the audio from the season 4 intro, and Saved From Scrap, which used the audio from Helps Out; as Helps Out cut a bit of the start of Saved From Scrap, an audio edit occurs which is most noticeable when Gordon whistles at the start. Plus the gets bumped DVD used fixed audio for Mail Train and the nameboards before it (the only nameboard sequence echoed on the VHS) but keeps the other episodes echoed, and interestingly uses the “entertainment to grow up with” variant of the Britt logo at the end (the version used on both breakfast and A Big Day For Thomas).

[@jeremycrispo1993]

FYI: Trust Thomas did got a Blue tape in 2000 but it was a sticker label.

[@retroflashbackdude]

James goes buzz buzz also had a blue tape. It had a unique style ink label (also on some black tapes), and the only known copies with that particular label came bundled with the James goes buzz buzz wooden railway set.

[@LDFE2002]

Does it have both the 1999 label and the 1996 tape master?

[@thomasnwrengine4936]

I know it’s late, but I have a question and theory, why does Hooray for Thomas dvd use the HIT era intro but also uses the name board sequences with the classic theme and has the original theme song in the menu? My theory is that it was intended to be released in 2004 and use the classic intro and end credits, but they revised it but forgot to replace the nameboard sequences with the steam team transitions and they forgot to add the island of sodor intro.

[@theamazingspiderman2604]

this was pretty cool, I'm glad I could contribute :D

[@cwlong0803]

When I watched some episodes of shining time station one of them had the echoed version of Edward Trevor and the really useful party and "Achoo" with the echoed version of trust Thomas.

[@christinanaumann9733]

So Sean Why Don't You Have any Bob the Builder stuff like dvds Vhs tapes or toys like what do you think of the show Bob the Builder ?

[@christinanaumann9733]

So Sean Why Don't You Have any Bob the Builder stuff like dvds Vhs tapes or toys like what do you think of the show Bob the Builder ?

[@cwlong0803]

There is a thomas and gordon vhs with a PAL soundtrack.

[@harrisonallen651]

You Americans have got interesting history regarding Thomas home media releases. However I do have a couple of questions for Oliver11GWR and that is: why did Australia receive a copy of happy holidays on dvd? Also on the Australian DVD inner sleeves for Thomas and The Jet Engine and The Very Best of Thomas and Friends, we have an advert for 3 video releases; that being Happy Holidays, Truckloads of Fun and Rescues on The Railway. The first two videos DVDs did eventually get released on DVD by the ABC a few years later, the third title did

[@harrisonallen651]

*didn't receive a dvd release and the really begs the question. Side note: I’m seeing Bullet Train today with Brad Pitt and Sandra Bullock. Some users in the Thomas fandom including Brandon Carty have seen it already and said was absolute roller coaster ride. So I can’t wait to check it out for myself.

[@Oliver11GWR]

The current theory I have for that is that the ABC did plan to release more of the VHS titles on DVD. They had already released Truckloads of Fun! on DVD in 2005. But when they went to release Happy Holidays on DVD in 2006 they only put the episodes on there and forgot the songs. The DVD cover still advertised the songs, so when they realized their mistake they cancelled further production of the DVD. Some copies did make it to stores but it was a very limited amount. I think that they scrapped any plans to put more VHS titles on DVD in Australia after that.

[@emilygreenengine1987]

One question I still have is that how did the iconic “look out for the train” happen on the Thomas Gets Tricked VHS

[@Gondarth]

Personally, I have to assume it was intentional. It never showed up on any British releases, the "Look out" voice sounded American, and the fact that the already recorded and mixed audio just stops for 2 seconds to put that voice clip in there, it doesn't make sense for it to be accidental.

[@impracticallynoah]

do you have a region free VHS and DVD players

[@amentheaiengine5166]

25:52 I might know why. Considering that the original version of the Daisy tape was echoed, it may be due to a change in distributors. Strand Home Video released the echoed version of Daisy, which would’ve been their last Thomas tape. But the original James Goes Buzz Buzz was released by Quality Family Entertainment Home Video, so they didn’t think of echoing it to fix the missing music in Wrong Road.

[@retroflashbackdude]

I think it helped not to do an echo of the buzz buzz tape cause to me the busy theme seemed out of place for that shot from wrong road.

[@supermariof0521]

22:13 I actually have a 1999 version of "Thomas Comes To Breakfast", that has copyright "Beth Alcroft".

[@TheElsbridgeEngineArchive]

Really Nice Video, and that sunset shot at the beginning looked sick!

[@tpiet]

I have the same sweatshirt

[@SuperDavidBrothers]

Nice man I didn't know about the codes and I didn't know about the Best of Percy thing when Oliver11GWR mentioned the Ringo dub that's just really truly interesting to me for sure man!! Also, there are blue tapes of both Trust Thomas and James Goes Buzz Buzz as well so I'm surprised you didn't mention those blue tapes along with the other blue Thomas tapes you mentioned man. Where can I find rare Thomas merchandise like tapes, DVDs, toys, etc man??

[@ad-sd-vids5332]

I hate bots

[@supermariof0521]

If your interested and or if you don't have one, if you wanna watch both your US and UK VHS and DVD's. I HIGHLY recommend getting a region free VCR, and a region free DVD or Blu Ray player.

[@terencewilliammckenna6121]

Nice

[@ad-sd-vids5332]

Lol splendidengine21 just found another split track Thomas Percy and the dragon

[@tyd521]

congrats on 3k subscribers!

[@TheDerailedPerson]

Something I found while watching Thomas Gets Bumped on DVD was that it was an echoed version. My guess is that they put the echoed master on the DVD and that’s why.

[@retroflashbackdude]

I heard that Class 40’s nameboard appeared on blue copies (blue ink label copies at least) of Special Letter. Another oddity is that Ringo did a US dub of Percy’s Ghostly Trick which was never released on home media; if they used both ghostly trick and takes a plunge on Best Of Percy and used Ringo’s dub of takes a plunge, why didn’t they use his dub of ghostly trick as well?

[@Oliver11GWR]

According to Jira who actually has the blue ink copy of Special Letter, there is no Class 40 nameboard on the tape. Also, I'm guessing they wanted Best of Percy to be entirely narrated by George Carlin (like Best of Thomas and Best of James), hence George's dub of Percy's Ghostly Trick. The Ringo dub of Plunge was only chosen because there was no high quality unechoed Carlin dub of the episode available at the time.

[@retroflashbackdude]

@@Oliver11GWR something I also just spotted was that in the advert card shown when describing the theory about the ink label on the ‘03 copies of gets tricked and gets bumped, there’s a bubble next to Christmas wonderland that says “improved w/ new stories” which raises a question about that tapes episode selection.

[@Oliver11GWR]

@@retroflashbackdude I think the "Improved w/ new stories" is basically saying it's an improvement over the Thomas' Christmas Party and Other Favorite Stories tape and it has new stories.

[@retroflashbackdude]

@@Oliver11GWR you may be onto something Oliver cause the runtime is listed as 42 minutes, the same runtime as the Thomas’ Christmas Party VHS, hinting they planned to use that tapes other 2 snowy episodes on Christmas Wonderland w/ the 3 non snowy episodes being replaced with snowy episodes to fit the tape’s winter theme.

[@Conner420matt]

My copy of Saltys secret only plays only the music at some points if I unplug a cord. Is that rare?

[@Pinchyproductions1215]

Love it!

[@eminetelli846]

7:13 NO İTS FOR HE GAT DA ROLU OF NOROTO BUCAS RINGO LAFT AND GORGE TEK OWER THE ROLE OF NARTO

[@mrb0120]

8:17 actually the episode aired in 2003 and 2005

[@vehicleandanimalcrossovers]

8:33 I had been pondering this most of my life

[@MichaelNixSpain]

Some vhs releases came with Ertl engines

[@MichaelNixSpain]

4:47 is that horse blind?

[@ad-sd-vids5332]

Yes