Why are Thomas & Friends Season 6 and 7 DIFFERENT?

Thomas and Friends Series 6 and 7 have some Strange Vibes. They differ from what came before and what came after. In this video I take a look at some of those differences, and what may be the reasons behind them.
Patreon - / thetrainmodeller
The two series themselves also have some differences between them but for this video, they're mostly grouped as one.
If you like this video, please let me know. I'd be open to doing more thorough series reviews if there's enough interest in that.
Thank you very much for watching.
---------------------------------
Music : Way Home by Tokyo Music Walker
Stream & Download : fanlink.to/tmw...
Creative Commons - Attribution 3.0 Unported - CC BY 3.0
---------------------------------
Music : Favorite Places by Tokyo Music Walker
Stream & Download : fanlink.to/fav...
Creative Commons - Attribution 3.0 Unported - CC BY 3.0
---------------------------------
Music : Last Bus Home by Tokyo Music Walker
Stream & Download : fanlink.to/las...
Creative Commons - Attribution 3.0 Unported - CC BY 3.0
---------------------------------
Music : Reminisce by Tokyo Music Walker
Stream & Download : fanlink.to/rem...
---------------------------------
Series 6 Intro Theme by Carson
---------------------------------
Thomas and Friends is owned by HiT Entertainment, Mattel

[@dylanlyles9453]

Despite the strangeness, I consider Seasons 6 and 7 a part of the classic era because of David Mitton's modeling work.

[@percyfan06]

Me too, along with the 4:30 minute runtime, the classic theme song and the Mike O'Donnell and Junior Campell music.

[@dylanlyles9453]

@@percyfan06 Oh yeah. That too. I forgot to mention that

[@joshuaW5621]

And Britt Allcroft was still involved, contrary to what people who don’t read the wiki think.

[@dylanlyles9453]

@@joshuaW5621 Yes thank you. And before you say it, I already know Britt said TATMR is canon, which really isn't!

[@joshuaW5621]

@@dylanlyles9453 don’t worry, I still don’t consider TATMR canon either.

[@visionarylocomotiveworks9703]

It might be the nostalgia talking, but I still think seasons 6 & 7 are extremely underrated. The magic is slowly slipping away, but Thomas' core vibes are still very much present. It does kind of disappoint me that some people have really looked down their noses at these seasons, even going so far to say that they're flat out bad, but I would absolutely take these over what came after any day.

[@buzzytrombone4353]

Series 6 was always my favourite series of the show growing up because I was born a year before it had aired on television and I had bought it on DVD in 2006, with Series 3 and Series 4 being a close second to it. As I’ve gotten older however, I’ve kept thinking about how fantastic it would have been if it was the final series of the show with the episode lineup including the best episodes from Series 7 replacing the episodes that didn’t stick the landing. It certainly would have been a nice balance for Michael Angelis' range in his voice as a narrator and it would have hit a sweet spot between easy going stories and hilarious chases and runaways.

[@harrisonallen651]

I have a natural soft spot for these 2 seasons knowing I was born during the airings and production process of these two seasons.

[@Steamenginesunited3456]

Even though both seasons look a little similar, the color jump in season 7 compared to season 6 is quite jarring

[@percyfan06]

But better.

[@BrendanP]

And it's also a fact. The classic era is S1-S7. The New era is S8-S12. The CGI era is S13-S24.

[@thesudriana016]

I've read in David Axford's SiF interview for the decreased eye-sockets in the engines' faces was because when the models were shipped to Canada for filming of MRR, they had to do simple touch ups like repaints (hence the matte-finish) and put in new eye mechanisms to accommodate North American standards.

[@thecaledoniansleeper2648]

Was the North American eye mechanism still used for both Seasons 6 and 7, and the HiT era?

[@thesudriana016]

@@thecaledoniansleeper2648 I think so.

[@victorgaminglounge3967]

Ok People just to recap so we don't have any Flame Wars. Classic Series: Golden Age: Seasons 1-5 Gullane Era: Seasons 6 & 7. Good Day everybody.

[@SonicJrandSarah]

I didn't realize until I watched this that Bill's broken buffers were never actually shown getting broken as there was no way they could have been broken when he backed into the ditch.

[@tre-engines]

Season 6 & 7 have their faults, but the most of the episodes, music, narration and crashes are just as good as the first 5 seasons! (In my opinion!)

[@likecascade7015]

Unfortunately, I call Season 7 the season where the US got screwed over when it came to the music.

[@adamhickey396]

"Scary Jack Frost!" said Baldwin calmly.

[@thecaledoniansleeper2648]

Seasons 6 and 7 were basically like the twilight years for classic Thomas. Following after the box office failure of Thomas and the Magic Railroad, the Magic and charm of the show slowly started to fade away. And some of the forthcoming HiT era trends such as some engines acting out of character, simpler sets or Skarloey being a wimp were there as the show slowly entered into a new era. So overall, they’re both good seasons. But it’s just a transitional era for the show. The production history behind two of those seasons were interesting. Also, wasn’t Postman Pat owned by HiT Entertainment years earlier? It was under HiT from 1991 til 2002.

[@gadgettherobotstudios6055]

I have fond memories of Growing up with Thomas Series 6, It also came out the year I was born 2002 :D

[@kylegraham6923]

When I was little and got Steamies Vs Diesels, I thought what happened to its theme, what’s wrong with the music, what happened to the other characters of the classic era. I was disappointed when they rebranded the series. Infact I was not a big fan of the new stories and new directions they gave us just to targeted to only children even though it’s supposed to be for general audiences. Hence why I’ve been making my own rewrites to the Hit era stories, in someday to do my own fan made revival series in the future, and fix what Hit Entertainment has done to my childhood memories.

[@SatExam-gl9eq]

Despite the strangeness‚ I consider Seasons 6 and 7 a part of classic era because of David Mitton's modeling work.

[@thomaswalsh8726]

18:18 Oh, HiT never owned the rights to Postman Pat, but they did have the international distribution rights to the first two seasons and specials between the 1990s and 2002, before Ivor Wood sold his company Woodland Animations that included Postman Pat, and three other shows Gran, Bertha and Charlie Chalk, to Entertainment Rights in 2001. Hit also owned the international distribution rights to these shows in the 1990s: Series 1 and 2 in Brum, Bananaman and the 1983-1990 series of Alvin and the Chipmunks.

[@1471SirFrederickBanbury]

aside from the obvious step down of writing quality, the thing that made me group these seasons in with the HITT era when I was young was the lighting. To get the flatter sets with far less tonal variation, saturation, and glossiness to work, they would've had to use Series 3,4, or 5 lighting with a high saturation and high contrast film, but they didnt. The lighting was flat, and everything was far more grey and bland, and that really broke the realism and wonder of the visuals. My favourite is Series 2 by the way, as the cool lighting (an indicator of the Clearwater Features era) with the contrast of the right looking natural world and the dirty and gritty industrial world is almost right. That, with a bit more saturation (like with Series 3), contrast (like Series 1), a mix of the Series 2, 3 and 4 natural areas look, and with the brightness and coolness of some areas (Knapford station especially) in Series 1 would make something thats absolutely perfect!

[@Thomasin_motion]

More posting i see 😊

[@Noah-ey5zf]

I like Season 6 for the potential they had to rise back up from the movies failure, but I also always knew Season 7 was trying to tell us something, you just wouldn’t know what until Season 8 came out.

[@karenfan010]

I’ve said this before but season 7 is honestly my favourite season, even though it had its share of dud episodes like the old bridge.

[@thomassynthesianetwork8642]

Britt Allcroft also produced Magic Adventures of Mumfie the Elephant

[@SparklingJam]

Personally season 6 is just more of what we loved from season 5 but what we also hated in season 5

[@theburpman8006]

Series 6 and Series 7 was definitely deteriorating from The Classic Era to The Hit Era

[@Noah-ey5zf]

0:43 to add to your point of Britt Alcroft Properties, she also owned the rights of Mumfie Clearwater Features also owned 50% of the rights for Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends before straining away from Thomas to work on Tugs (their other creation) before this happened as you pointed out at 1:50

[@drevianedwardsproductions9244]

Even though some people call season 6 and 7 the Gullane era I still call them as classic seasons of the show.

[@Duncan6173]

I consider both these classic seasons but season 6 in my eyes will all ways be the superior of the two, it had better narration, better paced episodes and the character of Thomas himself was Handled better. Also something I don’t see talked about enough is how much the sound design in season 7 sucks compared to the first six seasons.

[@terencewilliammckenna6121]

I consider them in between the classic and HIT era sorta

[@Enginedude]

Lets go more videos

[@Tankengine4525]

Keep up the good work

[@JustinFrazier_360]

That's so cool

[@jimmymccartney2049]

Series 6-7(2002-03)

[@jimmymccartney2049]

Narrated by: Alec Baldwin and Michael Brandon 1966-1975

[@obiwankenobi687]

The only difference for me is the models are now bigger following the awful movie. The charm is still there, the music is there, the love and heart and warmth is still there, the lovely British narration is still there. Series 1-7 are very much the classic show. Anything after is the new dumbed down era that never ever picked up