ThomasNATION Reviews - New Mail Engine in Town
April 05, 2025
If you were to ask any longtime fan of Thomas what their thoughts were on the original television series as a whole, they'll more often than not tell you that Percy can be a rather cheeky, but kind engine who normally behaves well but yet also gets himself in trouble by jumping into situations without adequately thinking them through first. He loves teasing other engines especially bigger ones such as Gordon and James who he holds a grudge against while they see the little engine as an easy target for teasing in return especially whenever he has an accident or when he is afraid of something, but is always brought down to earth in due course by anyone who gives him the moral to learn especially Sir Topham Hatt. This shows that when nonsense goes too far, Percy will not stand for it and seek help to settle the matter for good even if he faces a reprimanding from Sir Topham Hatt for it. He can also be somewhat timid as well as questionable and naive to certain difficult words. Percy is incredibly accident-prone and has many accidents, sometimes due to his own silliness or his tricks backfiring and he holds the dubious record of the most accidents in one season: five, all of which happened in the second season of the original Thomas & Friends television series. Despite this, he always tries to do his best as well as learns from his mistakes and get his jobs done which is a loyalty which Sir Topham Hatt as praised him for on many occasions.
But here's the thing, that's just the Percy that we Thomas fans have known and loved from our days of watching the original television series since the Percy that we have now in the 'All Engines Go' series reboot can be considered both an improvement and a downgrade from his true character...hear me out here. While it's true that Percy is still Thomas' best friend and that he can be quite a cheeky jokester just like how he was in the original series, it's apparent that this little green engine is still struggling with finding that hidden courage in himself which he isn't aware of since he likes to ring his lucky bell to bring good luck to himself or his friends in a bad situation even though he had learned not to believe in lucky charms but rather himself in Season 17's 'Percy's Lucky Day' and...do I even need to bring up the fact that Percy has a ghost-scaring machine that he refuses to get rid of?
But moving on. With Percy out of action due to a broken axle leaving Nia in charge of taking over his mail delivery and doing it even quicker than Percy has ever done, has our little green engine's days of doing his favorite job reached the end of the line? Well, considering that this is another one of those overused 'fear of being replaced' type of stories, what do you think is gonna happen? Yeah, if you can't already tell, I've never been a fan of these types of stories even from during my days of watching the original Thomas & Friends series mainly due to either being used as a means of introducing a new character to the island especially when you know that the main character is never going to be replaced for doing what they do best while at the same time just feeling silly for not being friendly to the new arrival and learning to work together with their new friend.
When the longtime fans in the online Thomas community can create far superior stories relating to the idea of Percy possibly being replaced as Sodor's mail engine than the television series can, that's really saying something about those who are managing this iconic franchise nowadays and that is why I have to give 'New Mail Engine In Town' a rating of a 3/5. It's not totally unwatchable, but at the same time, there's a lot more you can get out of other stories.
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