The ERTL Collection

## Range Guide:

**The ERTL Collection** is a *Thomas & Friends* die-cast toy range produced by ERTL.

## History

After the discontinuation of the ERTL Thomas line internationally in 2002, the packaging style changed again. The prominent logo in the top left corner was shrunk, the blue background was replaced with two tone diagonal stripes and the pictogram bar was changed to a footer with additional images. A cartoon illustration of the model was included in the top right-hand corner and rails, a road or a station were drawn under the model in their moulded plastic blister, depending on the type of model. The collector cards returned to the rear of this style of packaging; with a brand new simplified design.

This year also introduced a new coupling style, which changed from the basic "hook and eye" style to a U-hook, for the rear coupling on the engines and rolling stock. However, this new coupling system was only being trialled that year, so it was only used on the new releases (with the exception of Falcon) and certain existing models, such as Mavis and Diesel 10. The new coupling system was supposed to be sturdier and longer-lasting and allowed for the engines to couple together, however the new coupling system was widely criticised for it's lack of durability, as the couplings were more prone to breakage. This also changed the direction in which the rolling stock with the basic "hook and eye" coupling faced when connected to an engine with the U-hook, as both hooks were incompatible together.

The U-hook on the new releases was originally thin like the original pin couplings, as the engines and rolling stock with these couplings were designed to couple onto narrow eye couplings, including engines and rolling stock that still have the basic "hook and eye" coupling system, however, the few existing models that also received the U-hook had a thicker U-hook and a wider "gap" on eye couplings to accommodate the thicker U-hook more easily.

In October 2003, the U-hook coupling style was applied on all the existing models with the basic "hook and eye" coupling, and used the thicker U-hook and wide gapped eye couplings, already used on a few of the existing models the previous year. The models with the thin U-hooks were also updated to have the thicker U-hook and the wide gapped eye coupling, as the original thin U-hooks were more prone to breakage than the thicker U-hooks and could not stay coupled on most wide gapped eye couplings. The age profile also changed, from 3 years to 2 1/2 years. The track was also revamped to look more realistic. Additional details were having a green grass edge, with stickered grey ballast, silver rails and brown sleepers, replacing the previous plain grey moulded track (that still had a grass edge and moulded rails and sleepers).

Due to ERTL's owner RC2 Corporation acquiring Learning Curve International in 2003, the ERTL Collection was discontinued in 2004 to avoid conflicting with Learning Curve's Take Along Thomas range, although they were planning more items for 2005. Since then, the ERTL toys have become very collectible, and even quite valuable, being extremely hard to find and when found are often very expensive. Often there have been repeated calls to resurrect the range, but none of these have been successful as of yet.

Despite the models mostly being 1/64 scale, the scale is rarely consistent, with smaller engines being enlarged to make them easier to handle and larger engines scaled down somewhat to fit size restrictions.

## Trivia

* Some of the characters used their 2000's promo artwork on their boxes.
* Some early boxes had the Gullane logo, while most had the HiT logo.
* Some items who didn’t appear in the ERTL Collection packaging did appear in pamphlets. These include the following:
	+ Stepney
	+ 199 Diesel
	+ Splatter
	+ Dodge
	+ Peter Sam
	+ Duncan
	+ Smudger
	+ Bertram
	+ Henrietta
	+ Old Coaches
	+ Old Slow Coach
	+ S.C. Ruffey
	+ Sodor Oil Trucks
	+ Henry's Log Car
	+ Pump Truck
	+ Slate Trucks
	+ Trevor
	+ Lorry-1
	+ Crane
	+ Dyson Low Loader
	+ Sodor Taxi (labelled as Taxi)
	+ Fire Engine
	+ Sir Topham and Lady Hatt
* The 2004 and 2005 models were designed by A. J. Chetwynd of A.J.C. Design.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.gildings.co.uk/auction/lot/lot-1162---four-ertl-thomas-the-tank-engine-pre-production-sample-models/?lot=81286&so=0&st=&sto=0&au=203&ef=&et=&ic=False&sd=1&pp=48&pn=13&g=1#