fall inside a hole

THQ Wind-up Thomas the Tank Engine toys

First written November 1, 2024

In 1993 Toy Head Quarters or THQ produced a few ranges of Thomas the Tank Engine toys including a series of small plastic wind-up trains. These were sold on carded blister packs. In the U.K. these windups were marketed by ERTL and around 1995 the company Applause sold the windups in a Thomas-Bertie-Ben multi-pack and individually loose in a countertop-style assortment.

In total, THQ produced Thomas, Henry, James, Percy, Bill, Ben, and Bertie. ERTL seems to have resold the range minus Bill, who is also probably the hardest to find. Applause sold Thomas, James, Henry, Ben, and Bertie circa 1995 in the U.S.

Thomas

The lining sections are raised, which I think also helps with the paint application. Thomas' number looks nice as does his lamp, done in yellow to save costs. The chassis on all the various releases all say 1993, as I think they all came out of the same sets of toolings.

James

THQ windup James. The later Applause release has drawn-in black eye lines at the outer corners of his eyes. The larger tender engines have a single central wheel sitting under the tender to support the rear of the train. This is the only one of the windups I have that still works properly...

Ben

Ben, more common than his brother Bill.

I noticed there was a variant with and without front cab windows (these are printed on, no stickers were used in this series) and assumed this was dropped from later releases but it seems that they were present on both the multi-pack and individual Applause releases but it seems perhaps instead that the windowless version is the original THQ version and they were added at some point in production. I wonder if Bill has the same variation, or if they had stopped making him by the time they were added...