it's been a VERY long time since i've done a clickety-clack review. that's mostly because i lost interest in doing them. my birthday is today so i thought i'd do another one to commemorate it. i was originally going to do my favorite wooden railway item, but i decided to review the wooden railway and WOOD range as a whole. here we go:

the story of the thomas wooden railway starts around the early 90's. a man named roy wilson created the thomas wooden railway line of toys in 1992 which were released to the public by learning curve in the following year. the models around those times had flat magnets, were almost completely made of wood, and were held together with staples. the models were simplistic, but charming.

the following year, production of the wooden railway range was moved to china. along with that was the introduction of clickety-clack track. a unique wooden railway track that made a trundling noise as engines rolled along it. another thing that changed about the line was that the engines now had dates on their wheels, the staples were removed, and the flat magnets became rounder.

the changes to the range really began happening around 1997 and 1998. then the models began having plastic funnels and smokeboxes respectively. even the tender engines began using plastic coal instead. in 1999, the models now came with character cards. those were little cards with a picture of the model on the front, along with a basic paragraph of info about the character on the back.

then in 2002, the wooden railway range changed forever. all the main characters and then some were given redesigns. these new redesigns were bulkier than the previous versions and in some cases looked less accurate. the worst offenses were the faces, though learning curve tried to make them look like the TV series on some models, none of them were accurate. the other big change was the new traction rail design, which replaced the beloved Clickety-clack track so that battery powered thomas models could run better on them (which is why a loathe that side range with the fiery passion of a million suns). this was around the time i was born so these were the models i grew up with, though i did run into previous designs of thomas from time to time.

the range virtually remained the same until around 2010. when learning curve updated the faces on some of the models to accommodate the CGI switchover. let's just say that those faces were worse than the last ones, i was around 7-9 and even i hated the new faces on them. tomy then bought the license for the wooden railway range in 2012, but only for that year as the license expired, and the range remained unchanged druing that time. then in 2013, mattel bought the range and there would be change yet again.

the models no longer had glossy paint and were given a more matte finish, the edges on the models were softened, but the best change was that the absolutely atrocious CGI faces of learning curve were replaced with ones that looked SO much better than the previous ones, and more accurate too. the 2013 wooden railway is my favorite version of the wooden railway. then in 2017, the models received a pretty noticeable downgrade. being given smaller faces, slightly (or heavilly in some cases) changed bodies, and a changed feeling. however, those changes were nothing compared to what was to come later that year.

in mid-2017, the classic and well-loved thomas wooden railway range was discontinued and replaced with thomas WOOD. the models now had no paint and just heat-applied decals that didn't cover their whole bodies, shrunken, blocky designs, and a different track that was now incompatible with previous wooden railway track, or other brands. the range was PANNED by not only thomas fans, but children and parents alike for the lazy and poorly designed rebrand. thankfully mattel canged the range in 2019. the models now had matte paint again, and the models now had 2 metal bolts holding them together. other than those two changes, the range was still unchanged.

final score:
1992-1996: 9/10 almost practically perfect in every way.
1997-2001: 10/10 practically perfect in every way.
2002-2009: 5/10 not bad, but not great either.
2010-2012: 3/10 bad models that could've been better.
2013-2017: 10/10 practically perfect in every way.
2017-2018: 2/10 bad with MANY flaws.
2019-present: 5/10 not bad, but not great either.

stay tuned for more clickety-clack reviews to come!