Thomas Leonold

## Thomas

up-down (LBSC Thomas, original Thomas, current Thomas, original Adventure Squad, current Adventure Squad)

### Aliases

little buddy
brother

## Physical description

### Eye color

Black (formerly)
Blue
Blue-Green (alternativly)

**Thomas Jeffrey Edison Leonold** (his full name) is **Dino Runner 1** of Adventure Squad, the alpha mech. After Bob's retirement, Carson took over as his driver.

## Biography

As a member of Adventure Squad, Thomas had set up many allies to keep the world safe from Demon X: a danger to all dimensions and galaxies formed by all the dark emotions from pretty much everywhere. Due to a clever attack strategy, Demon X wiped out more than HALF of the Leonold machine division, including the parents of Thomas, Tim, and Danielle (the latter 2 being his siblings in the family's machine division). Because of his dead relatives realizing the truth about Thomas, he was constantly told to make the guardion of nature mechs to match their desired specifications, the reason being that the previous users want their mechs to match their chosen successor (an example being when he was nagged by the previous user of galaxy rider 3 while preparing said mech for Emily).

## Personality

In the original series, Thomas is described as being a cheeky, fussy engine. He often gets into scrapes, usually by being over eager to do things best left to bigger and more sensible engines. But clouds never last long in Thomas' life and he is soon bustling about again, playing his part in the yard and on his very own branch line, of which he is extremely proud. He loves teasing the others, especially the bigger engines, such as Gordon and on occasion brags about his superiority, but is always brought down to earth in due course by anyone willing to correct him, especially the Fat Controller and his two coaches, Annie and Clarabel. If Thomas has one major character flaw, it is that he is forgetful and rather impatient. However, he is also optimistic, idealistic and altruistic and has a heart of gold. A friend to all engines and a popular member of the Fat Controller’s Railway, Thomas is No.1 and does his best every day to live up to that through helping his friends and those that he cares about. He lives to be a Really Useful Engine and encourages everyone else to do the same. He likes to be better than James and Bertie in races. However, he can also get annoyed about being useful such as the time when Rosie followed him around because she idolised him so much. Though, he later got used to it.

In Thomas & Friends: Universal Rides, he retains much of his original personality and is a lot kinder, and has shown to have gained more patience. Thomas was shown to be a great singer in universal rides, only singing to the music of a junior band that was surprisingly successful with the help of him and his friends. Though Thomas had a great singing voice, he rarely sings in public, thinking that others would laugh at it. The only times he sang in front of a crowd is when the junior band (with a little help from lily and caleb) play music in his communicator, the reason being that he couldn't resist singing to their music. Because the songs have no words, his singing unintentionally gives the band the lyrics to their songs. After the first song of the junior band was streamed live via his communicator, they started to recruit some of Thomas' friends, proving to be very successful in future progress. Universal Rides also made Thomas more intellectual than his previous potrayal, showing some great mechanical skills and a annoying habit of getting geeky from time to time.

In Universal Rides, it is revealed that he had an fear-inducing encounter with the metal shredding machine known as Scrapkenstein during his childhood, having been nervous about it at first sight. Thomas later became terrified of the machine after he was grabbed by it accidentally, and shredded down to only his smokebox and funnel (and his face). To things worse for his nightmare, Thomas had to sit near the metal shredder for a whole month while he was being repaired, yelling in fear when the claws struck near him. The memory of this made Thomas so pale, you could see his guts and organs (if he had any).

However, in the Adventure Squad series, Thomas' personality in original tv series and in Thomas & Friends: Universal Rides was shown to have been a decoy, his true personality taking the form of a daredevil rescuer with a heart as big as Sodor. He is the youngest member of the Leonold machine division, but his maturity is second only to his oldest cousin, Buzz.

Despite his seriousness when on a mission, Thomas still knows when to have fun, and unlike most team leaders, Thomas has his teammates use their own methods out in the field. Completely unlike a typical boss or manager, as soon as one of his teammates say "I've got a plan/idea," Thomas will allow them to put it in action before he hears how it will work, and will follow their orders during their rescue strategy.

Even though he seems like a no-nonsense type of leader most of the time, he does show some homour left in him, mostly in the form of laughing at his own misfortunes, much to the questioning of his teammates.

While he possess great combat skills, Thomas finds it hard to use full power on a female opponent, and rarely fights a girl when he is alone (a factor Demon X uses to his advantage). This rule is broken when said female pushes him over the edge, and when that happens, the one who caused it is mercilessly killed.

Like most people, Thomas has his pet peeves, in his case, romance. Thomas is extremely close to his family and friends, but he can get very cold and angry with them if they say something he didn't want to hear. Along with his love for his family and friends, he will support anyone with big dreams (as long as they were for the good of planet Earth).

As for the daredevil part of his personality, Thomas enjoys taking risks when the oppurtunity arises and will even do crazy things such as hanging on a vehicle going mach 8, something others would find reckless and scary. As he is the alpha, Thomas can be serious, but he is typically a fun-loving member of adventure squad, as well as being contempt in having a run around Firebird 1, their home base, while being satisfied with only the fun in the race, not with the fact of him winning it.

Some of Thomas' old friends have many special traits, as does his newer ones. And as Adventure Squad is mostly secretive, the agents he set up are some the only ways that adventure squad knows of trouble (it must also be noted that almost all of the human agents are children, as he feels they have much more sense than most adults). He also shows a fatherly side when it comes to young people (or young animals), and acts like an older sibling to Carson and Liza Lavern, his childhood friends.

Adventure Squad also potrays Thomas to be easily bored when there is little to no amount of emergencies, with the same trait given to his relatives. Because of this, they will argue over a phone call as soon as they hear the phone ringing, usually collapsing in disappointment when it turns out it wasn't an emergency call. Thomas also enjoys peace and quiet once in a while, heading to Sodor to get it.

Despite his playfully friendly nature and positive attitude, Thomas himself is actually very pessimistic, as while he was friendly to his family members, the human Leonolds were the only ones returning the affections, while the other machine division members were usually spiteful. This has more often than not made him question his place in the family, and after Demon X attacked home base, the surviving machine division members shunned him from the family, something that left a scar on his relation with them. Even though they were apologetic in the end and visited to keep him company, Thomas didn't fully forgive the remaining machine division until his departure to Sodor. It took a lot more for him to fully forgive everyone when Demon X staged a repeat of history, and though he still remains friendly to them, he remains cautious in trust when things get a little bumpy.

Due to his sympathy towards him, Thomas respects Buzz the most out of the other Biological machine division menbers.

## Appearance

### Engine

Thomas is based on the LB&SCR Class E2 0-6-0T, particularly the second batch of locomotives built with extended side-tanks. These engines were built by Brighton Works between 1913-1916 to replace the ageing Stroudley E1 class and were primarily used for heavy shunting and short-distance freight trains in the London area and on the south coast. During their final working years, the E2 class worked as shunting engines at Southampton Docks, until they were replaced by the BR Class 07 diesel shunters. All of the E2s were scrapped, with none surviving into preservation.

Thomas has several major differences from the original E2 class. He is much shorter in length than his original basis, he has two extra windows on his body the sides of his cab and he has wheel splashers, something the E2 class lacked. In early volumes of *The Railway Series* and the television series, Thomas' footplate is dipped at the front, but oddly enough is not dipped at the back. In *Branch Line Engines*, his footplate was leveled out from smokebox to bunker. Mulitiple tank engines in the series used the same modified basis.

Thomas was originally painted teal-green with white lining. He had the initials "LBSC" and the number 70 painted on the sides of his tanks and cab respectively in yellow with red lining and his wheel rims were white. Curretly, he is painted in the North Western Railway's sky blue livery with red lining. His number is painted on the sides of his tanks in yellow with red lining and the lining around his cab windows are yellow.

In the first three seasons of the television series, Thomas had red lining on the back of his coal bunker, but during production of the third season episode, *All at Sea*, the lining was removed for unknown reasons. The lining was later re-added to him in *The Adventure Begins*.

His Adventure Squad livery has him in his usual blue color, but with the white lining from his green coloration. The water tank areas on each side of his smokebox have zigzag lines resembling teeth. The red and yellow on his body is replaced by white, and he now has white scale patterns on the inside of his bordered areas. He now has teal lines over the top of his sandboxes, which resemble claws with the white triangles at the ends. His running board now has blue and white hazard stripes in the shape of dinosaur scales. His lamp is now blue in certain areas, and he now has a dark blue rod running along the slope of his boiler, stopping halfway past his smokebox, with a light at the end. He now has white siderods and white highlights on his side ladder. He retains his communicator from universal rides.

In both Universal Rides and Adventure Squad, The front half of Thomas' siderods can detach and work with his front wheels to act as a pair of arms with VERY small pincing claws. The other wheels, meanwhile, can fold down and can be used as very stubby feet, which gave his friends an oppurtunity to call him another "Duck."

After a rebuild following a splicing of his element crystal, Thomas remained his blue color, but with the white lining of his Adventure Squad livery. The details on top of his sandboxes are absent in this coloration, as are the waves in front of his tanks. The rear bunker panel and the locations of the scale patterns are now full green. He retains his red running board, but his number one is now teal. Parts of his siderods were also a deep shade of navy blue, which was also seen on his boiler and speaker cone. Thomas also bore the Steam Team Star on the sides of his splashers, while silver nameplates were placed on the upper corners of his tanks. He also bore the North Western Railway's initials on his bunker sides.

### Mech

Dino Runner 1 is bright blue with grey highlights (dark blue on the head and lower legs). It's grey parts (and dark blue) have white in their place in hyper mode, which also has glowing blue energy veins and laser cannons (which can also be used in mele combat). Dino Runner 1's head can detach and form an exo-warrior, which is blue with white highlights, gaining green, dark blue and dark green when used by the Tyranno-Loader. His exo-warrior has a cannon for a left arm.

Dino Runner 1 hyper mode can finish off an opponent on it's own by fused a firestream from it's mouth and two from it's arm cannons into a single flaming beam that is hot enough to incinerate anything unprotected at direct contact. Unfortunately, the postions of it's flamethrowers leave it vunerable, as this finishing attack takes time to prepare and it can only fire once before it runs out of power.

Dino Runner 1Dino Runner 1 (hyper mode)Thomas's exo-warriorThomas's exo-warrior (tyranno-loader version)
## Modifications

During his time on Adventure Squad, Thomas was built with extensive modifications that were advanced beyond their time. Primarily, the fronts of his side tanks and splashers can open to expose hidden launchers (8 in each side tank and 4 on each splasher), and either fire missiles or bombarding rounds of fireballs. Thomas's front wheels could also spin to act as sawblades, which could be launched as throwing star-like weapons. A large rod can also be seen on the left side of his boiler, with a light on the end that can also serve as a laser cutter. A large megaphone surrounds the bulb, and also acts as a speaker and horn, the latter of which is meant to cover for his musical whistles.

Interior-wise, a small storage bench was placed next to his bunker hatch, while a monitor and radio unit were also installed. A light was also fitted in his cab. During a period where crews were calling ill, Carson installed an underfeed mechanical stoker to use in case Thomas had to go with only one crew member. A blue communicator also sits on the side of his smokebox, which extends out from inside when he needs it. He also has a visor, which he often deploys whenever he deals with optical hazards.

Compared to his Series 23 render, Thomas has darker blue steps and has an additional six behind his bunker, with the same type of lining on his bunker, tanks and splashers on the fronts of his side tanks. He also has a brake pump not unlike the real E2's, but made collapsible by Carson to stow away internally. His steps also have diamond plating, and extra handrails have been added along his sides. NWR markings have also been added to his bufferbeams, and his smokebox saddle now has a hidden winch cable.

Additional mods include lever systems that allow his driver to control him from Clarabel or Lucielle, necessary components to link him to the Train Protection & Warning System, and built-in cables among other extensive upgrades.

## Behind the scenes

Thomas was voiced by Eddie Glen in The Magic Railroad, Martin Sherman and Josepth May in the US, and by Ben Small and John Hasler in the UK.

The fan series mainly uses voice clips from Yuri Lowenthal and Max Mittelman as teenage Ben Tennyson and Overflow respectively, including his voice clips from the original series. He alternatively uses clip of Donald and Douglas, the scottish twins, resulting in him using some of their quirks.

## Notes

* Thomas's light rod in Adventure Squad represents the placement of his lamp in the railway series.
* His way of getting "limbs" takes two references.
	+ For "arms," they are similar to the monster machines of Blaze and the Monster Machines.
	+ his "feet" fold down in the fashion of the Back to the Future delorian.
* His communicator is based of the Bob the Builder talkie-talkies, but worn on the opposite side.
* Thomas is the focus character of almost ALL of Adventure Squad's Running Gags, and as such, he serves somewhat as a comic relief character (such as being the victim of a spider drone fart).
* A running gag shown in episodes featuring many animals is that Thomas would get crowded by multiple animals while the other members were talking, requesting for a little help from his friends and responding with a soft moan of "help" once they start looking at him, usaully with him having animals on him or beside him, typically ending with Carson responding with the phrase "He always did have a way with animals."
* Due to the fact that he has a lot of namesakes, only 2 of them were chosen for his middle name. Thomas Edison, the inventor of the first electric lightbulb, And Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and later, the third President of the United States (Jefferson being phrased "Jeffrey" to avoid confusion with Edison). The reason that those 2 were chosen to be in Thomas' middle name was that he had Jefferson's patriotism and Edison's creativity and intelligence. Another reason is that he was named after his father, who was American.
* Like Chomp Squad's Troopersaurus, the arms of Dino Runner 1 are long enough to grab things, being more in scale with Spinosaurus rather than Albertosaurus (which it is based off of, with Allosaurus headplates).
* Thomas's eyes were full black in the original series, Universal Rides, and the first chapter of Adventure Squad season 1. They later became full dark blue in the second chapter of season 1. Starting with the broadcast of season 1's third chapter, his eyes are dark blue with black pupils.
* Thomas speaks with a different voice in each episode, each with it's own accent. His main accents are Scottish, Australian, British, and American. He will mix different accents and languages if he can.
* The exo-warriors on each neo-fusion has a certain part of them to be asymmetrical. For Thomas', it's the arms.
* As a fan service gag, multiple female characters have a hidden crush on him.
* He is the only main Steam Team member to use a Guardian of Nature mech that lacks a humanoid form (not counting the exo-warrior).