Take Along Thomas & Friends - Thomas

Product Information

In 2009, TAKARA TOMY released its own Take Along range exclusively in Japan without the Take Along name. It included uniquely coloured boxes and character cards with different images to that of the rest of the world. This range had its own exclusive Thomas variations: a Blue Plated Thomas (which is almost identical to the metallic Thomas except for the wheel colour remaining unchanged from the normal model) and a Gold Plated Thomas. Mike's US character card mentions that he works with Rex and Bert, while his UK card just says he works on a narrow gauge railway, although he is minimum gauge. The Magic Cargo Car/Mining Cargo Cars's character cards features the included items edited onto Salty's chassis with the buffer beam recoloured from yellow to red. Target exclusive. Includes carnival Toby, Lion Car, Monkey Car, and Poppin' Popcorn Car, all with exclusive deco. It was also the only piece of Take Along merchandise to be based on anything from the twelfth series, as no new characters from that series were produced. Despite this, merchandise was produced for Hero of the Rails and the thirteenth series.

Hong-Mei's smoke box is not moulded properly to accommodate her lower sand box, thus leaving a noticeable gap between the two. Gordon, Spencer, Emily, Murdoch, Freddie, D199, Hiro and Mike had incorrect wheel arrangements due to sizing constraints.

Thomas' Favourite Friends ( includes; Winston, Captain, Victor, Percy, Butch, Bertie, Diesel, Harold, Thomas and Kevin) Target exclusive. Includes Holiday Toby, Snowglobe Car and Caboose from 76153, and peppermint car from 76156. Hiro was the final character and the only character from the CGI Series released in the Take Along line. He was also the only character from the CGI series to have a character card. This range originally launched as a Target Exclusive from 2002 until 2005, after which the range began being sold in other retailers. Target exclusive. Includes Thomas and Toby with decorations, Sir Topham Hatt's Car, and Fireworks Car.

The Talking Knapford Station set was compatible with the Lights and Sounds engines via ID technology; the raised station platform would recognise the code on the Lights and Sounds engine’s chassis and would give said engine a special message. Douglas' character card had a picture of Donald in a scene from the cancelled episode, The Missing Coach. Includes Holiday Percy and Holiday Caboose, which is a Musical Caboose with the electronics removed. Theo is missing his name plate and he has no front coupling hook. This is because his face is too low to accommodate one.Includes snow covered Percy, Magic Cargo Car with three different holiday cargo, and car with scented candy cane cargo. The prototype Light-Up Racer engines only have a front light, which look similar to their Take-n-Play predecessors, while the produced models just have a front coupling hook. Around the World Friends ( includes Thomas, Percy, Hiro, Victor, Raul, Ivan, Ashima, Axel, Yong Bao and Gina) Adventures models for Iron Bert, Rajiv and Rebecca were planned to be released in late December, but were cancelled.

In 2005, a special version of Silver Thomas was given to members of RC2'S Toy Retailers Association Dinner on January 28th. Included was a model of Silver Thomas and his unique character card, along with a special box featuring the Take Along and RC2 logos in silver. Only 600 of these were ever produced. The character card for Thomas uses one of his promotional images from Thomas and the Magic Railroad. The Australian release of the Metallic Gordon had a character card with a picture of Thomas and Edward despite Gordon being the engine included. A promotional advertisement picture of the Take Along range showed the ERTL models of Bertie and Harold instead of their Take Along ones. Target exclusive. Includes chocolate covered Thomas, Ice Cream Tanker, and car with chocolate barrel cargo.

If a set included a character, such as the Fergus and Water Tower set, the character card included would be made of the thinner cardboard. Rosie is painted in her original lavender livery instead of her current red one from the twenty-first series onwards.

Many of the tender engines have the red footplate ( chocolate for Emily or either colour for each engine) above their wheels, much like their Take-n-Play predecessors and unlike their Collectible Railway models which had the tender moulded onto the footplates themselves, which are the same colour as the tender itself. The range originally launched as a Target exclusive from 2002 until 2005, after which the range started being sold to other retailers. It essentially served as a successor to Ertl Company's 1:64 Scale Die-cast range. In late 2009, the range was discontinued and sold to Mattel, who launched a revamped version of the merchandise under their subsidiary, Fisher-Price. It was renamed Take-n-Play, which would begin distribution in 2010. The Take Along toys are still compatible with the new Take-n-Play range. Includes Holiday Thomas and Holiday Caboose, which is a Musical Caboose with the electronics removed. D199 and Daisy were released in the smaller UK box in said country, but were released in the larger style US box in said country. Some of the tender engine's prototypes are depicted with Fowler tenders, when the actual model has the correct tender body. This excludes Henry.

Three characters exclusive to the Railway Series were produced: D199, Culdee and Mike. The latter was a Railway Series exclusive at the time of the range's release.