TrainDad

More news is com­ing out about the new HIT Enter­tain­ment Track­mas­ter Thomas & Friends Rail­way sys­tem. HIT has estab­lished ThomasTrackmaster.com as the online home for the prod­uct line. Amazon.com is now car­ry­ing a long list of new Track­mas­ter prod­ucts includ­ing sev­eral large sets and a track expan­sion pack. HIT has now re-released vir­tu­ally every TOMY engine and car made. They have also released a remote-control Thomas, with a con­troller that looks like an exact clone of a Geo­T­rax remote. The prod­ucts are being sold at Wal­mart, K-Mart, Tar­get, Toys-r-Us and Kay­bee Toys, as well as through the nor­mal online retailers.

HIT enter­tain­ment is spec­tac­u­larly good at mar­ket­ing (read: sell­ing), so I expect the Track­mas­ter line to get far more expo­sure than TOMY did. The cur­rent sets are using the same low-quality acces­sories (bridges, etc.), but I wouldn’t be sur­prised if they didn’t upgrade and improve over time.