Thomas and his friends

19/07/2010

The little blue locomotive has just become a pensioner. We discover how Thomas became a global icon

By Joshua King

‘Thomas was a tank engine who lived at a big station. He had six small wheels, a short stumpy funnel, a short stumpy boiler, and a short stumpy dome.” That is how, 65 years ago, the most famous train in the world made his literary debut in a book of short stories created by a Hampshire pastor to entertain his sickly son.

Now Thomas the Tank Engine has been transformed from his humble beginnings as the brave little blue locomotive, chugging cheerfully along on the Island of Sodor, to become a global marketing juggernaut.

He is the number one pre-school licence in the world, with a sprawling empire of games, puzzles, stickers, scrapbooks, posters, wallpaper, backpacks, clothing, bedside lamps, bedding, towels, bath accessories, toothbrushes, party paraphernalia, furniture and even Thomas-themed dinnerware.

While the brand has become massively bankable, fans have remained true to the stories originated by railway enthusiast Rev Wilbert Vere Awdry, with more than 200 million Thomas books sold worldwide so far. Now, with a Hollywood adaptation in the pipeline – Shrek the Third writer Josh Klausner has already signed on to develop the script – the silver screen is calling for the merry blue engine. It’s no wonder he’s smiling.

But why is it that the old-fashioned tale of Thomas and Friends has demonstrated such endurance in a market in which many ideas fail to make it out of the workshop?

Owned by Hit Entertainment – an outgrowth of the Jim Henson Company whose current catalogue of characters includes Bob the Builder, Fireman Sam and Pingu – the Thomas brand is furnished with products from a number of global partners. “Companies have to bid for those licences so they have to believe they can make money,” says Derek Markie, secretary of the Toy Retailers Association, “Ultimately, the licence is managed in order to continue the life of the brand in toys and other ways.”

But Rick Glankler, vice-president of licensing at Hit Entertainment, insists it is about more than keeping an eye fixed on cashing in. “Where many companies go wrong is when their end goal is to make money – that’s a short-term proposition.”

It is an unexpected sentiment from the man who has helped deliver the Thomas brand double-digit growth annually over the last eight years, but Glankler speaks passionately about his motivation.

“We do believe if we deliver the magic that has been going for 65 years to the consumer then we’ll be successful,” he tells The Big Issue.
“The benefit from that is revenue success, but for us it’s always been about delivering the essence of Thomas – that’s what consumers love.”
It is a business model described by marketing guru Mark Borkowski as “a personality brand” – a brand with heart.

Great children’s stories often have great stories behind them – whether it’s JK Rowling writing in a café to escape her freezing council flat, or AA Milne naming Winnie-the-Pooh after a stuffed bear his son loved so much.

In the beginning, Awdry, a railway buff, made up stories about anthropomorphic steam trains to cheer up his son Christopher, suffering from measles at the time.

Christopher became so enamoured with the fussy little engines that he asked to hear about them again and again, long after his recovery. Encouraged by his son’s enthusiasm, Awdry continued to create new characters.

“But it was Wilbert’s wife who was instrumental in pushing him to get the books published,” remembers Awdry’s biographer, Brian Sibley.
“Although he loved that it brought him in touch with railway enthusiasts and young fans, he was someone whose work as a parish priest was far more important to him than any success he had writing these stories for children.”

 By 1983 Christopher had taken over from his father and has since written 15 new Thomas volumes.

It was, as Sibley remarks, “a family where each generation told stories to the next”, and the crucial factor in Thomas’ success is that it is a family brand. It is families who continue to stoke the nostalgic fires of the Thomas and Friends machine.
 
Although it was the books that introduced the lovingly-crafted characters to the world, it was Britt Allcroft’s 1984 TV series that shot Thomas to global stardom. Initially narrated by Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, the hugely successful Thomas and Friends has been voiced by Michael Angelis since 1991, with Pierce Brosnan and Alec Baldwin erstwhile narrators of the show in the US.

Over 13 series, audiences around the world have identified with the series’ guiding principles: friendship, determination, co-operation and adventure. “Father used to get letters from people,” says Wilbert Awdry’s daughter, Veronica, “particularly in the US, saying that they felt that the stories were the sort of thing they were happy for their children to read and watch because of the way that they were written – the humanity and the way that things always came out all right.”

But as Mark Borkowski points out, “kids are getting older, faster”. He adds: “Kids want to be connected. Technology has made the playground happen in people’s heads and in their homes.”

A glance at the official Thomas the Tank Engine website – with downloadable games, iPhone Apps, activities and an opportunity for young visitors to create and fill up their own virtual ‘My Station’ homepage – shows Hit has excelled in driving Thomas boldly into this future.
Derek Markie concurs. “They’re competing with the latest inventions, which are not constrained by history. You have to be good at this stuff to really keep a brand alive – you’ve got to work with the children’s imagination,” he says.

Far from being pensioned off, Thomas’ 65th birthday celebrations kicked off in January with the launch of the new Thomas and Friends, the first series in which each character has their own voice, and controversially, the first fully CGI version. Hit Entertainment is adamant they did not “jump into these changes blindly”.

 Glankler says: “From the initial concept, to characters having their own voices, to the type of animation, we carried out research to ensure this was an improvement of the brand that is engaging for consumers. “We’ve had many letters from core Thomas fans who were the biggest sceptics of CGI initially, until they saw how true to the look and feel of the brand it is. Detractors are few and far between,” he insists.

And to bring the total number of Thomas characters up to 65, five new ones were introduced this year, such as Hiro, a Japanese train tailored to engage the Asian market, with Egmont Publishing now selling the entire series of books across the continent. Then there’s Thomas Land Amusement Park in Japan, which caters for 1.7 million visitors every year. Such attractions are now popping up across the world – in March 2008 Drayton Manor, near Tamworth in Staffordshire, opened their own Thomas Land Amusement Park, featuring 13 themed rides, and in May of this year Thomas Town theme park was opened outside Washington DC.

But with such targeted marketing and comprehensive branding, has the image of the chatty choo-choo created by a pacifist vicar been irrevocably corrupted?   “It’s the immersive nature of brands and how they keep up the conversation – that’s the future,” argues Borkowski.  “Ultimately, it’s that nature of entertainment. If you look at Disney – that’s not corrupted the morals of thousands of people.”

It is comforting to know, though, that the charming  nostalgia and simplicity of Thomas has been passed through generations, despite the mega-brand.

Mark Hill from the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow, whose sister’s fiancé made models for Thomas the Tank Engine films at Pinewood studios, tells The Big Issue: “Thomas the Tank Engine has enormous resonance with certain generations.

 “First editions themselves are terribly collectable, and a lot of the first editions of Awdry’s work are particularly sought after by grown-up boys.”

However, Hill recommends that collectors should be wary of the current glut of items punted as being investments for the future. “Manufacturers have started releasing limited editions and special production issues, and people lap them up, thinking they will be worth a lot of money,” he says.

“But the problem is that it’s about supply and demand – if everybody goes out and buys one and keeps it in mint condition, then there’s going to be an awful lot left in the future.

  “Only truly limited, underlined and in bold, editions will hold their value.”

 Christopher Awdry, whose bout of measles set the whole Thomas phenomenon in motion, is philosophical about the journey the little train has taken his family on.

 “On the whole, we’ve all benefited greatly,” he says. “We wouldn’t change anything that has happened or is likely to happen. How long the stories, the TV, the coverage will continue is anyone’s guess but having survived 65 years, maybe Thomas still has a little steam left!” 

For more information visit www.thomasandfriends.com