The Complete Collection (Thomas the Tank Engine)

Product Information

The ultimate nostalgic offering for all those who delight in the adventures of this cheeky little engine and his friends and a delightful present for new babies who are sure to grow up to be firm Thomas fans. Children aged 3 and up will love meeting classic characters such as Percy, James, Gordon, and Toby down on The Fat Controller's railway. The short stories and beautiful illustrations are perfect for bedtime reading. Wilbert Awdry | Johnny Morris | Willie Rushton | Ted Robbins | John Gielgud | Andrew Sachs | Michael Angelis A sturdy favourite of my youth, and now that of my little boy, having read through this whole collection together many times! He can explain when you need a banking engine, and the difference between mainlines and branchlines and even (thanks to James) why damaged brakes 'leak on'. On the 1996 edition's dust cover, two illustrations from Gordon the Big Engine and Tank Engine Thomas Again appear twice. Like a lot of young British lads, I absolutely loved Thomas the Tank Engine, and enjoyed the TV series, being the late eighties baby that I was.

Thomas's Christmas Party | Thomas Comes to Breakfast | Thomas and the Missing Christmas Tree | Thomas and the Evil Diesel | Thomas and Gordon Off the Rails | Thomas and the Hurricane | Thomas the Tank Engine: The Complete Collection | Thomas the Tank Engine: The New Collection | Annuals | Mini Books | Pop-up Books This compilation contains all 26 of The Reverend W. Awdry's "Railway Series" books. It doesn't contain any of this son, Christopher's additions to the series, however, so the claim that this is "The Complete Collection" is slightly disingenuous. This collection has all of the Reverend's original Thomas books, which definitely saves hunting them down individually, as they could be worth a pretty penny by now. The stories make up most of the first couple of seasons of the animated Thomas the Tank Engine series, minus the 'Small Railway Engines' & the 'Mountain Engines' which never made into the animated series to my knowledge? One thing that did catch me by surprise was that there was such a large array of engines - now again I thought a lot of the engines were creations of the various TV and toy franchises trying to expand and increase their sales of the various characters but no - a very large number of the engines where originals from the various stories. A wonderful collection of stories written by the Rev W. Awdry, focused around the adventures of the various engines and the railways that they run on in the fictional Island of Sodor.The endpaper features Bertie with a yellow face, Harold without rotors, Edward on top and bottom left side without his tender and Percy on the top and bottom right side without his face. The author of the Thomas books was a clergyman, and I'm torn between two thoughts. On the one hand, it's very tempting to believe that they are intended as Christian allegory. On the other, an interpretation along those lines almost inevitably ends with the conclusion that the Fat Controller is God. I'm not a Christian, but even I find this a little blasphemous. Or perhaps it just shows that I will never be a Really Useful Engine. The only minuses there are (which are few), are some very advanced railway terminology, outdated phrases (I've never before heard "Play him out" yet it's mentioned countless times in the book), and the artwork - which while charming, can sometimes also look like nightmare fuel! So on to the book - this is a gloriously grand collection of all of the original stories along with the artwork that brought the various engines to life. There are a short afterwards which covers of the Rev Awdry along with the two main artists who illustrated (and brought) the island of Sodor and the various engines to life. The illustrations by C. Reginald Dalby, John T. Kenney and Peter and Gunvor Edwards helped to cement this feeling, and both the writing and illustrations proved to be very comforting to me. I also enjoyed the fact that most of the stories were based on real railways and incidents which had happened.

William Middleton | Reginald Payne | C. Reginald Dalby | John T. Kenney | Gunvor and Peter Edwards | Clive Spong | Stephen Lings I can’t really name one favourite book in the series as they all offered different things to me, so will give a list of those that I enjoyed the most.Each of the 26 books consists of four stories each, that's plenty of adventures to share for bedtime stories over many nights. So like I say when I read the various children books - I still have so much to learn from the classics what ever they are. Surely someone has done a detailed exegesis? I'll confess that I am, indeed, very curious about the details. For example, the episode my kids liked most when they were at the appropriate age. They unwisely fill Thomas up with water from the river. He comes over feeling all funny, so they look in his storage tank. So yes, as I've already pointed out a little - I really enjoyed how authentic the stories were (minus the talking locomotives obviously!), and there's enough differing stories to not make them boring (not every story is introducing a new engine etc.)