Broken Base / Thomas & Friends

Even a children's show about talking trains is not without its divided fanbase.

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Characters

• Whiff, a filthy steam engine wearing glasses. Some find him charming, but many fans were disheartened feeling the show at this point had abandoned all and any railroad/railway realism it had left. Though, it should be noted that the original books had a minor character, the Ballast Spreader, who also had glasses.
• The Flanderization for certain characters in the Brenner era, including some retaining their early HiT era personalities. Some think it gives the characters more unique personalities, while others feel it makes them too far removed from their original characters.
  • Donald and Douglas' increased focus on their Sibling Rivalry. Some fans find their bickering to be humorous while the other half find it annoying and prefer their friendlier relationship in the earlier seasons.
  • Henry, who retained the most of his HiT era personality out of the main cast, either gets praised for being more unique and having amusing antics, or criticized for being so detached from his original depiction due to being a lot more cowardly. His departure from the main cast had a mix of outcry from demoting a character around since the start of the show and support due to some disliking how he was handled leading up to this point.
  • Duck, despite being a popular character whose return was greatly praised among fans, soon developed a broken base following his return in season 17. His Flanderization about his great Western pride grew tiresome among some fans, and some felt he was solely brought back purely to pander to older fans. At the same time, many other older fans still enjoyed his appearances and felt despite being flanderized, he was still true to his original character overall.
  • James' depiction in this era had several fans turn on him for Aesop Amnesia and increased jerkishness. His supporters, however, still consider him likeable and point out he has his softer moments.
• Emily has been a subject of split opinion among the fandom ever since her first appearance in Season 7. To start off with, there were some who took a liking to her for her kind, sensible and mature personality, along with representing a not very well known but beloved historical locomotive, while others found her to be rather basic and felt that she didn't really add much to the series aside from being a way to balance out the cast's gender inequality at the time. The fact that the new series flanderized her into a bossy, controlling nagger didn't help matters, either, with this either making her unlikable or more interesting. While she does revert to her original caring and helpful personality in the CGI seasons, there are still some shades of bossiness hanging around occasionally (likely to maintain a Fatal Flaw for her like the other engines), causing some to have the same split opinions as the ones mentioned above.
• Flying Scotsman finally being introduced in The Great Race had a mixed response. While in all versions he cares about his brother Gordon, they kept the Spencer-tradition going that any foreign British locomotive is always depicted negatively. The famous engine's graceful and humble character of the books was dropped in favor of turning him into a more pompous and arrogant version of Gordon. However, since all of his jabs were directed at Gordon, and he was shown to speak kindly to Thomas, he could just be teasing Gordon for fun without any underlying pomposity, and he does show concern for Gordon's well being during the titular Great Race, so his smokebox may not be so clouded with pride as it appears. Either this makes for an interesting character with a fun dynamic with Gordon, or an insult to the kinder character from the books.
• The change to Rosie's color scheme in season 21. Some feel it suits her name better (since well, roses are red) and signified her new mature personality, along with finally giving the TV series an engine to canonically have “NWR” lettering (which would also get another member in Rebecca). Others feel it ruins her uniqueness that her original livery presented, and they feel it was a pointless change overall as Red!Rosie has a massive lack of merchandise, the episode that finally acknowledged the change wasn't even about her, and that she comes across as more of a Flat Character than how she used to be.
• Philip. Some like him for being Adorkable and among the few new characters to get an Awdry-esque character arc, while others detest him for being basically, an annoying child. It also didn’t help he was the reason Edward decided to transfer to Wellsworth Sheds, where Philip lives.
• Nia. She has garnered some praise for her resourcefulness and kindness, while others pan her for supposedly being too OP. It doesn't help that she's taking Edward's place in the main cast, along with being criticized as a Flat Character due to her only character trait being a Token Minority.
• Ace has fans for his "Free and Easy" song and role as an unconventional villain for one of the series' movies by serving as a Toxic Friend Influence to Thomas as opposed to being outright malicious, while others find his toxic influence aspects grating and feel his design and movements look incredibly out of place among the established cast.
• Rebecca. Some fans like her for her Adorkable personality and expression (with some fans liking her only due to said facial expressions) as well as being based on a popular locomotive class, while others loathe her due to replacing Henry in the main cast and having a ridiculous over-the-top Eye Candy livery, the latter of which Mattel said was done in an attempt to please young children with low attention spans. It also doesn't help that many feel the writers missed the chance to make the beloved season 9 character Molly a permanent member of the cast, being another extremely shy yellow female tender engine.
• Hong-Mei. Some enjoy her for being a fun engine, while others hugely despise her for having no character traits other than just being a female version of Thomas.
• Charlie. While the episode "Not Now, Charlie" redeemed him in some fans' eyes, other fans still find him annoying for his jokes.
• Thomas himself isn't immune to this.
  • Despite the series' namesake, there are some fans who are tired of him appearing on every single episode where he isn't the central character and are tired of him being featured as the main protagonist of every feature-length special, though a number of fans don't seem to mind.
  • There are fans who prefer Thomas' original characterization in the books and the earlier seasons where he was a cheeky, self-important Bratty Half-Pint while others are fond of his characterization as the All-Loving Hero which begun in Season 3 and onwards.

Episodes

• The running gag in "Duck and the Slip Coaches" where Emily gets left out of the sheds, a hilarious Take That! to those who thought that Emily replaced Duck? Or an incredibly mean-spirited joke at the expense of a character who ultimately didn't deserve it?
• "A Shed for Edward" practically sent the fandom into a tizzy. Many view the episode's situation of of Edward trying to find a place to sleep as a thinly-veiled excuse to kick Edward out of the Steam Team and write the old engine out of the show. Others however, consider the situation as an emotional one, as well as considering Edward's move to Wellsworth to be a decent choice character-wise, since he's now properly situated on his branch line as opposed to the mainline, and tends to work best as a mentor character, which he can now do so for Philip.
• Most episodes from the "Big World! Big Adventures!" series (season 22 onwards), particularly the international episodes. Of the Sodor-based episodes, "Forever and Ever", "Rosie is Red" and "Apology Impossible" are the most divisive.
  • "Forever and Ever". Some appreciate the message about change and related with Gordon's feelings in the episode, while others felt that Gordon was uncharacteristically mopey and regarded it as a Take That! towards the fandom.
  • "Rosie is Red". It gets praise for the moral that if a girl and a boy hang out, that doesn't mean they're dating, while the more hardcore fans argue that the moral is out of place and that romance has no place in a show focused on realistic steam engines.
  • "Apology Impossible". Some like it for Philip's Character Development, but some felt that James was too mean in the episode, and that it would've been more fitting if Diesel had James' role instead since he had history in bullying other engines. A few thought James bullying Philip was in-character due to James' long-established hatred of diesels, while others felt that it made him come off as an Ungrateful Bastard towards Philip, as Philip had saved him back in season 19's "Philip to the Rescue".
• Even the earlier seasons aren't immune to this. Some agree with Rev. Awdry's complaints about Seasons Three and Four, where the show started taking heavier liberties with their adaptations of The Railway Series novels, retooling some of the characters, as well as making their own (relatively less realistic) stories. Others believe these are as much a part of Thomas' "golden era" as the first two seasons, with most of the breaches being mild and forgivable compared to later seasons, and still consisting of memorable storytelling. Episodes such as "Henry's Forest" are of particular contention.
  • Some early season episodes such as "Thomas Comes to Breakfast" often get criticized for having engines getting blamed for accidents that are beyond their control while others don't seem to mind them and find the episodes memorable in spite of it.
• Given that it is intended to be the Grand Finale of the original show, Thomas and the Royal Engine and how well it served as a finale to the show is unsurprisingly divisive amongst fans. Some feel it was fine and liked the little nods to past episodes, while others found it disappointing and anti-climatic, arguing that the show deserved a better send off after airing for 36 years.

Specials

• The Great Race itself is much more divisive than the previous specials, in no small part due to the sheer amount of characters introduced, many of said characters being relegated to background roles, the special being a musical (these fans objected to the perceived Disneyfication of the franchise), and Gordon and Thomas' streamlined forms (though Thomas' was a fantasy, it still got a ridiculous amount of merchandise). Some people were turned off by all of these factors and more, while others found the special a lot of fun regardless—or even because of—those factors.
• Journey Beyond Sodor has also become rather divisive. This has to do with an increased amount of bouncing in the animation, along with maintaining the musical aspect of The Great Race, as well as Thomas once again having the main focus. There's also it playing with railway realism a lot more than season 20, which had been praised for retaining season 19's humor while returning to more realistic plots. Others however, enjoy the more dramatic story, having more focus on its new characters than The Great Race did, and featuring more of the mainland at long last.
• Big World! Big Adventures! has split the fanbase even further than the previous two specials, with some panning it for the downgraded lighting and unrealism taken to levels not seen since seasons 8-16, and others praising it for the soundtrack and the characterizations of Nia and Beau.

Others

• In general. How much should realism play a role in the stories? Some, especially older fans and fans of the original Railway Series books, think the show should strive to stay as grounded and realistic as possible, arguing that the realism is what makes it so unique from other kids shows featuring sentient vehicles, while others argue that the show is already violating realism on the basis that the engines can emote and talk, on top of arguing that it shouldn't matter how "realistic" or "fantastical" the stories get as long as the stories are good on their own merits.
• The faces. Charmingly simple or nightmarishly unsettling?
• Fans seem completely split down the middle over the shift to CGI animation. Many fans find it a complete betrayal to the original model series, or a necessary move that opened up more potential for characterization and flexibility story wise.
• Disputes over over the best narrator of the show are also common. Particularly between Ringo Starr and George Carlin.
• Much fighting within the Thomas the Tank Engine community comes from the fact some of the older, nostalgic fans think either the new, younger fanbase are a bunch of morons (at least those who've outgrown the target demographic) or go out of their way to bash the writers over their tendency to treat the supposed young, bright minds as morons. Shipping and overused locomotive classes are also huge sources of backlash (shipping between humanized versions of the characters, though, is accepted and a whole fandom of itself).
• Some of the changes in voice actors, or even just those between the UK and US dubs, are also of contention, especially since some sound vastly different from the other. Prior to that, the various narrators were also of debate between fans.
• Season 5 while it is considered one of the best for it's darker atmosphere, maturation of Thomas, and intense action sequences, others dislike it for it's departure from The Railway Series, seemingly ridiculous plots, and said action sequences using stock footage. Hype Backlash is definitely in play for the latter.
• Seasons 6 and 7. Some think the two seasons are just as good as the first 5 Britt Alcroft and David Mitton contributed too, while others dislike it for how characters like Percy and Edward started to become dumbed down, railway realism being ignored for toyetic gimmicks and how the plots became Anvilicious. The one thing fans do agree on is that the special effects became more weaker, with dull lighting, uninspired camera angles and the characters toy like repaint often making the former two problems more apparent.
• While Season 8 is generally considered the best season of the HiT era, it's heavily debated as to if it's the last good season or the first bad one.
• Season 12 is pretty divisive among fans. While it’s generally agreed to be a low point for the series, how much of a low point it actually is varies depending on whom you ask. Some consider to be on par with Seasons 9-11, while others consider it to be as bad as Seasons 13-16, which is considered to be the lowest point of the series.
• The “Big World! Big Adventures!” era, lasting from Seasons 22-24 is also divisive among fans. Some like it for being a change of pace and testing different dynamics by incorporating the international engines (both newbies and returning The Great Race characters), while others hate it due to the faster pacing, Nia and Rebecca replacing Edward and Henry in the main cast purely to force in more female representation, and the focus on more gimmicks such as unrealistic fantasy sequences, over-the-top stunts (some of which actually take place outside of fantasy sequences) and wild animals. Some also hate the involvement of the United Nations on the new series, due to them pushing agendas and prioritizing cultural and political messages over the storytelling. Everyone, though, agrees that the series was retooled by Mattel specifically to compete with PAW Patrol, which had taken a considerable amount of Thomas' market share.
  • The Imagine Spots in particular are very divisive. Some consider them Acceptable Breaks from Reality and providing some of the funniest moments in the newer seasons, others dislike them for being childish padding.
• Merchandising is also a divisive topic. Debates rage over which of the die-cast toylines is better: Ertl, Take-Along, Take n' Play, Adventures, or Push-Along. Also, among model railroad enthusiasts, much is had over Tomica vs Trackmaster, Bachmann vs Hornby, the existence of Minis, among others. Just about the only thing fans can agree on is the superiority of the long-running and beloved Wooden Railway range over the Thomas Wood range that replaced it from late 2017 to mid 2021.
• When Thomas Wooden Railway was re-introduced in 2022, it was met with positive reception from its fanbase for giving the engines body shapes and wheel arrangements more accurate to their TV series counterparts, especially when compared to the Thomas Wood line that briefly replaced it. However, fans are split on the facial expressions some of the models have, such as Percy, Edward, and Rebecca being surprised, Gordon being upset, and Toby being scared. Some fans, particularly ones who own some of the older Wooden Railway models that have the standard smiling facial expressions don't necessarily mind these new facial expressions, saying that they give the line more variety and are perfect for certain episodes of the TV series, while others prefer that the new models have the standard smiling facial expressions the previous models had and feel that the new facial expressions should be used on special models that could be included in certain playsets.