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Bandai
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Founded	July 5, 1950

Bandai is a Japanese toy company which distributed Thomas Wooden Railway products in Germany on behalf of Learning Curve in the late 1990s. They are distinctive in that they used their own unique boxes rather than the standard boxes Learning Curve were using at the time. These boxes had descriptions for all the items written in German on the back as well as an exclusive Pamphlet and some of the items themselves were even modified.

Bandai started selling the line in 1996 and were the first to release the line in Germany to coincide with the shows debut on German VHS in October of that year. Bandai carried Thomas Wooden Railway until late 1998/early 1999, when the show went on hiatus in Germany until April of 2000 and all the toys from there on were sold by Learning Curve and used the same boxes as all other European territories.

Products released under Bandai

Vehicles

Engines

• Thomas, die kleine Lokomotive
• Edward, die blaue Lokomotive
• Henry, die grüne Lokomotive
• Gordon, die große Lokomotive
• James, die rote Lokomotive
• Percy, die kleine Lokomotive
• Toby, die Straßenbahn
• Duck
• Donald
• Douglas
• Diesel
• Mavis (Exclusive to the Spielset Sodor, not sold separately)
• Boco
• Daisy
• Skarloey
• Peter Sam

Coaches and Cars

• Annie
• Clarabel
• Express-Anhänger
• Güterwagen
• Verflixter Güterwagen
• Milchwagen
• Henrys Holzwagen
• Sodor Line Caboose (Exclusive to Spielset Nr. 2, not sold separately)

Non-Rail Vehicles

• Bertie, der Bus
• Terence, die Raupe
• Harold, der Hubschrauber
• Cargo-Anhänger
• Sodor, das Schiff

Destinations

• Bahnhof Knapford
• Bahnhof
• Windmühle
• Lokomotiven-Werkstatt
• Steinbrücke
• Steintunnel
• Fußgängerbrücke
• Lokomotiven-Depot
• Hebebrücke mit Schienen

Accessories

• Set Familie
• Dicker Kontrolleur und seine Mitarbeiter
• Set mit 5 Verkehrsschildern
• Set mit 2 Puffern und 2 Schildern
• Set mit 5 Bäumen
• Set mit 5 Sommerbäumen
• Set mit 3 Häusern
• Spielteppich

Track

• Gerade Schienen (2" to 8")
• Kreuzschiene mit 2 Schildern
• Kurven (3 1/2" and 6 1/2")
• Weichen (3 1/2" and 6 1/2")
• Weichen mit Schalter
• Drehscheibe
• Verbindungsschiene
• Hügelschienen
• Brückenpfeiler
• Doppelkreuzung

Track Sets

• Schienen Ergänzungsset 1
• Schienen Ergänzungsset 2

Sets

• Spielset Nr. 1
• Spielset Nr. 2
• Spielset Nr. 3
• Spielset Sodor

Trivia

• The packaging featured the "RTL2" logo, which is a German TV channel which aired the "Thomas & Friends" show from November 1996 to December 1998 and is owned by the "Tele München Gruppe", who also owns the "Concorde Home Entertainment GmbH", who published the first four series of the show on VHS from 1996 to 1998 and also commissioned the German dub of the show until 1998.
• The Instant System Set No. 1 originally came bundled with the very first German VHS "Thomas & Gordon und 4 weitere Abenteuer" by Concorde, which included the first five episodes of the "Thomas & Friends" series.
• Bandai was also responsible for releasing other "Thomas & Friends" brands to the German market in the late 1990s, such as the "ERTL" Die-Cast line and the "My First Thomas" line, both also received their own packaging exclusive to German speaking regions.
• The back of the "Set mit 5 Bäumen" box shows an image of Thomas pulling the Tar Tanker and Fuel Car, where the text had been digitally altered to say "TEER" and "SODOR BENZIN", similar to the Milchwagen, but they were never released. The back of the Windmühle box also shows them, but without any text, as it was likely forgotten to add the German text digitally.
• The Troublesome Truck was called "Verflixter Güterwagen" (Darned Truck), even though the German dub of the show called them "Dumme Güterwagen" (Silly Trucks).
• The modifications on some of the items for the German market include:
  • The Tidmouth Milk Tanker had "MILCH" printed on its side instead of "Tidmouth Milk".
  • Knapford Station had "Bahnhof Knapford" printed on the front.
  • The Sodor Bay Cargo Ship had the "Bay" removed from it´s side to just say "Sodor", it was also called "Sodor the ship".
  • Several of the signs were altered to German road signs, likely to make them more understandable to German children.
• Daisy is referred to as "Daisy, die Lokomotive" in the 1997 pamphlet, which literally translates to "Daisy, the Locomotive".
• There are several changes between the 1996 and 1997 pamphlets:
  • In the 1996 pamphlet, Duck is only referred to as "Duck", while in the 1997 pamphlet, he is called "Duck, die Western-Lokomotive", which means "Duck, the Western Engine". He is also shown with a picture of Percy in the 1996 pamphlet.
  • The Crosby Station Cargo Truck was called "Cargo-LKW" instead of "Cargo-Anhänger".
  • The Sodor Bay Cargo Ship was called "Sodor, das Cargo-Schiff" instead of just "Sodor, das Schiff".
  • Gordon was called "Gordon, die große Express-Lokomotive" (Gordon, the Big Express Engine) instead of just "Gordon, die große Lokomotive" (Gordon, the Big Engine).
• Mavis was only available through the Spielset Sodor and the Sodor Line Caboose was only available in Spielset Nr. 2, as a result, they never received their own individual packaging.