What is the difference between the Hornby Thomas range, the Bachmann Thomas range and the Marklin Thomas range?

Because each of these are different companies, their manufacturing methods will be different therefore there will be several main differences to observe between Hornby Thomas, Bachmann Thomas and Marklin Thomas.

• Differences between the companies

The main difference between these three companies is the quality of the products. Although the quality should be round about the same, some people may notice differences between the quality of two models by different companies. The appearance of the models made by each company will also be different, although the differences again may be slight.

• Opinions of customers

According to opinions of people on the Internet, some recommend that you avoid Hornby Thomas because they claim that Hornby does not offer its customers good value for money. Apparently their products are overpriced and the quality of their models are inferior than that of their competition. They recommend that choose Bachmann Thomas as their products are apparently the better of the three.

• Information about each company

Hornby's range of Thomas the Tank Engine and friends trains were originally launched in 1985, shortly after the first release of the television series. Over the following years after the television series, the range of products manufactured by Hornby was expanded to include other lesser known characters of the series.

Bachmann USA began to manufacture their own Thomas the Tank Engine models in 2002 to resemble the characters as much as possible. The main difference between Hornby and Bachmann is that the latter's models have been designed with moving eyes.

Marklin are a German toy company that decided to produce their own limited range of merchandise about Thomas and Friends in 2006. However, due to copyright laws these trains were only available for purchase in Germany, Switzerland and Austria but they did find their way into other countries. Marklin toys have been specifically designed for younger children with basic plastic shells and metal frames.