Splatter & Dodge

**Splatter** and **Dodge** (collectively referred to by Diesel 10 as **"Splodge"**, a portmanteau of their names) are two diesel shunters, who were Diesel 10's bumbling minions.

## Technical Details

### Owner(s)

Sir robot Noraby

click Hear for Splatter and Dodge coverage

## Personalities

Both engines are simple-minded, awkward, cowardly and tend to banter. Splatter is the more talkative of the two, while Dodge is more intelligent. Although Percyfears them, they do not have the intelligence or villainy to match Diesel 10's. They enjoy watching Diesel 10's plans backfire, but are also prone to making a mess of things. Despite initially siding with Diesel 10, they seem reluctant to destroy a fellow engine, even a steam engine, and eventually abandon Diesel 10 in the end. They also seem to have a poor vocabulary, such as when they used the word "emphatically" as they left Diesel 10 to do the chasing, even though they had no idea what the word meant.

## Technical Details

### Basis

Splatter and Dodge were originally based on freelance designs. In the final cut of Thomas and the Magic Railroad, Splatter and Dodge are based on British Rail (BR) Class 08 diesel-electric shunters. In the real world, BR Class 08s were in fact the most successful shunting engines in the world with 996 of them built. Over seventy of them are preserved by heritage railways, such as the Dean Forest Railway and museums, such as the National Railway Museum. Around one-hundred BR Class 08s also remain in service on the national rail network.

Diesel, Arry, Bert, Paxton, Sidney, Ulli, the Mainland Diesels and Fernando are also based on BR Class 08s along with the international orange, blue and Chinesediesels. Two BR Class 08s also appear in the *Railway Series*. Unlike these engines, Splatter and Dodge along with 'Arry and Bert have been modified without ladders going up on the sides of their fronts.

Splatter and Dodge's basis

### Livery

Splatter is painted purple and grey while Dodge is painted olive and grey, both with their names painted on their sides in white. Their paint also shows signs of weathering.

## Appearances

* Television Series
* Other Media

### *Thomas & Friends*

* **Series 21** - Glynn and the new engines
* **Series 25** - Thomas and the Royal night

#### Specials

* **2000** - Thomas and the Magic Railroad
* **2011** - Day of the Diesels (cameo)
* **2016** - The Great Race (cameo)

## Trivia

* Splatter and Dodge are known to like dip and parties.
* Splatter and Dodge were the last characters created by Britt Allcroft before she left the production team.
* A behind the scenes picture shows Splatter and Dodge without their names.
* Splatter and Dodge are repainted from 'Arry and Bert's fifth series models. The hazard stripes from the latter diesels are even visible under their paintwork in a rare promo (Even though they are covered in paint, they are even visible near the top of Splatter's front throughout the movie). According to an interview with Chris Lloyd, their models never came back from Canada after filming of Thomas and the Magic Railroad was complete. This however is untrue, as the models were reverted back into 'Arry and Bert in the sixth series. The purple is visible under one of them in Bert's 2004 promo pic and throughout the eighth series and Calling All Engines!
* Splatter and Dodge's television series models do not have handrails, yet some of their merchandise lines do, possibly modelling after Diesel.
* In one of the original scripts:
	+ Splatter and Dodge never turned on Diesel 10. Instead, George, who was to be one of Diesel 10's henchmen, turned on them by telling them to destroy the magic buffers themselves when they ordered him to do so, causing them to rush at them, only to smash into each other and derail. In another version of the script, they were trapped in a siding when Junior, helped by George, pushed a large boulder down into their path.
	+ Another difference from the original script was that their boss referred to them as "Spladge" instead of "Splodge".
* Early concept artwork shows that Splatter was going to have hazard stripes of some kind along the lower portion of his body, and Dodge was going to have handrails on his running plate. In addition, both were drawn with significantly different facial features to one another.
* Some production made Splatter and Dodge face masks are currently in possession of Diesel10TV on Twitter.
* Splatter and Dodge were originally intended to return in *Day of the Diesels*; however, they were later dropped and replaced by Paxton and Sidney, who are also based on the same engine as them.[1]
	+ According to Railway Consultant Sam Wilkinson, Splatter and Dodge were also considered in place of the Mainland Diesels in *The Great Race*[1], but again, they were ultimately dropped.
* Splatter and Dodge both had a total of five facial expressions, both one of which were chuckling faces that were not used on-screen. However, their chuckling faces appeared in a deleted scene of Thomas and the Magic Railroad.