John Lee

John Lee worked on Thomas & Friends as a model maker for the first, The Great Discovery, and the twelfth series.

Biography

Before joining the team behind Thomas, John's first job was working for Cosgrove Hall on their project of "The Wind In The Willows" in the early 1980s.

During the production of the first series, Lee worked on commercials for Clearwater Features. Some of his sets for the commercials were redressed and made their way into the show, including Terence's field and the cliff side track. He was uncredited, however.^[1]

During 2007, John returned to work on Thomas for the twelfth series and The Great Discovery. On his final years with Thomas, he designed the faces for Flora and Colin as well as sketched out the original face for Hank - with a moustache. After HiT requested a younger look for Hank, he redesigned Hank's face and later constructed the models of Hank with help from Mike Wall on the running gear. He also designed Hiro, who at the time was meant to have a different name, and Victor's faces, as well as the Hillside Mill.