Take Along

This article is about the Take Along range. You may be looking for the Diecast Metal range.

Take Along was a die-cast Thomas & Friends toy range produced by Learning Curve. It features two-way magnets and portable playsets with a grey plastic track system.

History

Take Along was first released in the UK in 2002, and then later in Europe in 2005. In 2006, the track system was redesigned to a more realistic design with male and female connections. Adaptors were sold in sets and other track items to connect to the original track system. The range was discontinued in 2009 after Fisher-Price/Mattel acquired the Thomas licence and was redesigned to the Take-n-Play range.

Engines

Metallic Engines

Variants

Lights and Sounds Engines

Rolling Stock

Vehicles

Multi-Packs

Deluxe Play Scenes

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Destinations

Sets

Accessories

Trivia

• This range originally launched as a Target Exclusive from 2002 until 2005, after which the range began being sold in other retailers.
• Edward and Gordon's prototype models had black tender wheels.
• The character cards in this range are shaped like train tickets.
• Toby's prototype model had its couplings on backwards.
• The Metallic engines were exclusive to Australia and the UK.
  • From 2008-onwards, they were only released in the UK.
  • The UK metallic engines were released in the normal boxes, with a sticker on the box noting the included engine had shiny paint.
  • The Australian metallic engines were released with unique character cards (the image either had Thomas along with the engine included, or an image of the shiny engine included edited onto a set from the show), and the box had a strip on the right side the same colour as the engine(s) included.
  • The Australian release of the Metallic Gordon had a character card with a picture of Thomas and Edward despite Gordon being the engine included.
• Gordon and Diesel 10 both had circular buffers.
• Molly's face was based off her prototype face, much like most of her other merchandise. She also featured black buffers instead of silver buffers and yellow tender wheels instead of black wheels.
• The character card for the metallic 'Arry and Bert read "Arrt and Bert".
• Duncan's prototype featured black wheels, however his final model had white wheels.
  • Ironically, his prototype 2016 Take-n-Play model had white wheels, whilst the final model had the correct black wheels.
• Mavis' prototype had red sideplates and white wheels. She also had a second face overlapping another one.
• 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.
• Duck and Diesel 10's models have grey wheels, yet Diesel 10's prototype had the correct black ones.
• Oliver's model has silver buffers.
  • Strangely, his prototype depicts him with black buffers like in the show.
• James, Toby and Rosie's metallic models wheels strangely match their main paint colours.
• Jack, Alfie and Ned had sealed buckets with magnets inside. This was meant to allow them to pick up magnetic cargo pieces.
• Hiro is the largest engine in the range.
• In 2005, a special version of Silver Thomas was given to members of RC2'S Toy Retailers Association Dinner on 28 January. 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.
• All of the tender engines in the range feature buffers both behind their cabs and on the front of their tenders. This was likely done so that children could play with both parts of a tender engine separately, like including a tender as part of a train, or treating the tender engine as if it were a tank engine. This feature was not carried over into the Take-n-Play range or any future die-cast ranges; additionally, the Push Along range's tender engines all featured buffers on the wrong end of their tenders, although this was a design flaw and not an intended feature.
• Culdee's model had buffers.
• Butch, Lorry 1, Patrick, Max, Monty and Madge's models had buffers on their backs, as did later releases of Elizabeth. Later versions of Butch and Patrick have them red, matching the buffer beams.
• Bertie, Bulgy and Trevor were released both with and without rear magnets.
• The "Railway Bus" and "Anti-Rail League" banners on Bulgy's model are on the opposite sides compared to the television series.
• The Narrow Gauge 4 Pack contained Stepney despite him being a standard gauge engine.
• Gordon, Spencer, Emily, Murdoch, Freddie, D199, Hiro and Mike had modified wheel arrangements due to sizing constraints.
• There were two versions of James' standard model. One had grey wheels with a yellow #5 and the other had black wheels and a gold number. If James was in a multi-car pack or playset, it was the latter variant.
• Annie and Clarabel had white wheels and red buffer beams.
• The mail coach was depicted as an open wagon.
• A promotional advertisement picture of the Take Along range showed the ERTL models of Bertie and Harold instead of their Take Along ones.
• 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.
• Trevor's model had completely grey wheels.
• Murdoch's tender wheels were orange instead of black.
• The re-released Working Hard set had Molly, Neville and Edward replacing Thomas and Duncan, two more trucks added and the cargo loader in the set gained a different colour.
• The James Works it Out set was the only set released to be based on a twelfth series episode.
  • 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.
  • This makes the thirteenth series the only CGI series to feature merchandise from the Take Along range.
• Around 2006-2007, the material for the character cards was changed from a thicker cardboard to a thinner cardboard, possibly for budgetary reasons.
  • 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.
• Holiday Percy's packaging is shaped like a Christmas stocking.
• The Muddy Adventures multi-pack is the only pack to be based on a CGI episode, as it is loosely based on the thirteenth series episode, Splish Splash Splosh.
  • This pack also included Billy, as he was originally planned to be in the episode this pack is based on, as shown in concept art. However, he was dropped and replaced with Charlie. Because of this, it is likely this pack was in development before Billy was dropped. Elizabeth was also included despite not appearing in the episode whatsoever; it is unknown if she was also planned to appear in the episode.
• Hiro is the only tender engine in the range to not feature an open cab, and as such he lacks any sort of cab detailing such as a firebox. However, his Take-n-Play models do include this feature, including his 2014 onward model, making it the only model of its style to have an open cab.
• Stores such as Target and Walmart got exclusive versions of the Sodor Line Caboose featuring the relevant store's logo and colour scheme.
• Christmas versions of Henry and Gordon were planned to be released but were cancelled. They would have featured Santa hats on their smokeboxes much like Thomas and Percy.
  • If they had released, they would have been the only variations of those characters to come with rolling stock.
  • They also would have been their only variations not to feature unique facial expressions, as their releases in the Henry and the Elephant and Gordon Takes a Tumble scene sets had exclusive faces (an angry face for Henry and a shocked face for Gordon).
• A few character cards show the character's Take Along model edited onto a background instead of a screencap of the character from the television series. This mostly applies to rolling stock that never appeared in the series such as the Fireworks Car, the Rescue Cars and the Sea Cargo Cars, as well as two packs with a character, Railway Series characters and a non-canon piece of rolling stock such as Sir Handel and the Apple Car, Percy and the Engine Wash Car and Toby and the Zoo Car.
  • Certain characters such as Whiff, Billy, Madge, Hector, 'Arry and Bert received character cards of both variations for different countries, however the variation of 'Arry and Bert's character card features their Take Along models on a blue background instead of the one used for other characters.
  • The Sodor Log Loader's character card features a heavily edited picture of the included item, with an engine's bufferbeam and wheels and the button for the tipping feature reduced in size, rather than the image of item itself edited onto a background from the show. The same goes for the Breakdown Train's character card, however the magnet on the crane is unchanged.
  • The character card for Thomas uses one of his promotional images from Thomas and the Magic Railroad.
    • The background used from this was also used for cards of Henry, James, Percy, Toby, Mavis, Mike, Butch, Patrick and some rolling stock prior to 2006.
  • Douglas' character card had a picture of Donald in a scene from the cancelled episode, The Missing Coach.
  • Diesel 10's character card has a mirrored picture from Thomas and the Magic Railroad.
  • The character card for Lady uses a mirrored promotional image.
  • Skarloey can be seen from a distance on the character card for Rusty and the Rescue Cars.
  • The character card for Lorry 1 shows Lorry 3.
  • The character card for Jeremy shows an ordinary jet plane from Calling All Engines!
  • Culdee's character card features an image of his model on a background featuring the Tower Windmill. His is the only character card to feature this background.
  • The Magic Cargo Car/Mining Cargo Cars' character cards features the included items edited onto Salty's chassis with the buffer beam recoloured from yellow to red.
  • Butch featured two different character card designs: one for his original release and one for his 2008 rerelease. His second version features the stock background of several other cards but at a slightly different angle. Strangely, it shows him riding on rails despite being a road vehicle. His is the only character card to feature this.
  • Rocky's character card strangely features his model facing away, therefore his face is not visible.
  • Jack featured two different character cards, however both used screen caps from the show, unlike many others which had one variation using a promotional picture from the show, and another using a picture of the model edited onto a set from the show.
• 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 metallic version of Diesel was a US Target exclusive, outside of the diesels pack.
• The Morgan’s Mine Adventure Set was given a second version with an exclusive Dusty Duncan and Great Watertown Building Co. Truck.
  • Dusty Duncan is one of the only models which is a dirty variation of a narrow gauge character, the other being the dirty Sir Handel included in the Sir Handel and the Apple Truck pack.
• Hiro was originally supposed to have a "Lost and Found" model released, depicting him with rust and shrubbery detail much like his Wooden Railway counterpart, however it was cancelled likely due to the discontinuation of the range. Three prototypes of Lost and Found Hiro are owned by Twitter user "ThomasTankMerch".
• 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.
  • The Gold Plated Thomas was only available via a competition held on 18 August 2009. Only 333 are known to exist. To win, contestants had to send in a barcode and wait to be drawn.
  • The character cards were not shaped like train tickets like the Take Along range, but rather were a silver colour and could fit together like jigsaw puzzle pieces.
• A four pack consisting of a Thomas with hero decorations, Annie and Clarabel with banners and a repainted fireworks car (coloured yellow instead of blue) was planned to be released but was cancelled due to the range's discontinuation. It was possibly based on the twelfth series episode, Saved You! due to Thomas' body having a medal printed on both sides with the word hero on it.
  • A prototype of this pack was found and is now owned by Twitter user @Thomas0nly.
• Sir Handel's prototype does not have eyebrows.
• The Metallic Lady packaging is the larger type of UK box, despite Lady being the smallest engine in the range.
  • 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.
  • Daisy was also released in the larger style UK box, however it is unknown which version was released first.
• The Rescue Cars were only released separately from Rusty in the UK.
  • The character card used a zoomed in version of the image used in the Rusty and the Rescue Cars pack; Rusty's model is still visible on the far left.
• The Metallic 'Arry and Bert were the only metallic engines not released in the UK individually.
• 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.
  • The talking feature was not included on European versions of the set, likely due to the lines only being recorded in English.
  • A special 4 pack was released called the “Narrow Gauge ID Set” which had exclusive versions of Sir Handel, Peter Sam, Duncan and Stepney with gold magnets that could interact with certain sets.
    • Stepney was released in this pack despite being standard gauge.

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