A Guide to the Faces

It would be easy to argue that the faces are the heart and soul of the classic Thomas & friends series. Without them, the characters we know and love would simply be regular locomotives, devoid of the human characteristics that make them relatable to us. Despite the reputation they have gained for being "static" and "creepy", the faces are what gave the characters life and were an extremely important aspect of the show for over 20 years.

How the faces were made

The faces were originally sculpted in clay atop clear Perspex panels with eye shaped half spheres attached to them to act as the character's eyeballs. This was so the eye holes would match up to the eyes on the prop. Each character had a different plate with their own correct eye spacing on which their faces were sculpted.

One of James's faces being sculpted on his specified Perspex plate. Photo credit: Christopher Noulton & SiF

Once the face sculpt was complete, it was taken off the Perspex tray and a 2 part rubber mould was made of it.

Here's a non-Thomas related image of a 2 part mould. It is called a 2 part mould because the mould splits in 2 to cover both sides of the object being moulded, meaning the entire object can be moulded, not simply the front or back. The original item (In this case the clay face sculpt) will be taken out of the mould and resin will be poured in to create casts. 

Once the mould was finished and it came time to cast the actual faces, clear perspex balls (the same one used for the eyeballs on the actual models before they are sprayed white) were placed into the mould to make sure the eye holes would be cast directly into the face and would not have to be drilled out later. resin was then poured into the mould to create the faces you see on screen. It's important to note that despite the common misconception the faces on screen were made of clay, they were actually resin. The faces were sculpted in clay, and these sculpts were used to make the moulds, but anything seen on screen was cast in resin, nothing made of clay ever appeared in the show.

You can see that the eye holes were cast into the face leaving just a thin sphere shaped layer of resin (so thin light can shine through it) over the eye holes on our production made unused cast of Edward's mad face. 

The newly cast face would then be sprayed grey and eyebrows and any other needed details would be painted on. A select number of early faces had eyebrows sculpted on, but most simply had the eyebrows painted on.

The 4 eras of faces 

When looking at the run of the model show, there appear to be 4 separate era concerning the faces. These eras are usually defined by repaints and changes in appearance between seasons and are grouped as such.
1. Seasons 1-2
2. Seasons 3-5
3. TATMRR-season 10
4. Seasons 11-12

We will talk about each one individually and explain why each time period constitutes a different era.

Seasons 1-2

As expected, many of the most classis and recognizable expressions originated in this era. The faces were sprayed a matte light grey with darker grey painted lips. Many of Dalby's illustrations were directly copied to create these initial faces, which defined the look of the characters. 

Many faces from seasons 1 and 2 were directly based off the Dalby illustrations as seen in in the comparison photo compiled by Chris on SiF 

Despite this era spawning many classic faces, some of them ended up being a little bit tacky as well. This is understandable seeing as it's the first era of the show and they were still establishing the look of the faces. The most notable example would probably be the infamous "O face" which never appeared past season 2 probably for this reason. 

The crew was most likely aware this was a jarring face and made sure not to use it after the second series. 

The Transition Period 

Although we didn't list this as a formal era, we figure its worth a mention here. Around 1988 the props were dug out to take publicity stills for the Ladybird books. During this period Thomas's season 2 open mouth smile had teeth painted in it. The teeth would stay painted in for the rest of the model series. 

On the left is a still from the 1988 Ladybird books compared to a shot from Thomas & Trevor from the second season on the right. 

Seasons 3-5

This era marks the first time all the faces were fully repainted. They were painted a glossy darker grey compared to the matte dark grey they wore a season earlier. The eyebrows became more triangular and many of the open mouth smiles had teeth painted in. Overall the faces had a less jarring look after being repainted. Part of this had to do with the fact season 3 was the first season made with the American audience in mind, who weren't necessarily used to seeing static faces on the screen like the British audience was. 

Thomas's repainted main smile from season 3 on the left compared with the same face as seen in season 1 on the right. Note the different style eyebrows.

Percy's open mouth smile as seen in season 2 on the left compared with the same face with teeth painted in from season 3 as seen on the right. 

The faces from this era were less directly based on railway series drawings (although some were) but retained more of a constant style. A good example of this can be seen with the season 4 character faces. They all clearly have the same style and expressions. In our opinion, this era in general contained the most characteristic and attitude filled faces.

All the season 4 characters seemed to have the same expressions. more then likely the blank spaces here were made but never used on screen. Photo courtesy of TheUnluckyTug on Twitter. 

We are lucky enough to own 2 unrefurbished faces from this era. To our knowledge, these are the only faces to not have been redone in 1999-2001 with everything else. 

You can see the difference between the unrefurbished season 3-5 condition Thomas face (left) when compared with the refurbished TATMRR onward face (right). 

The last time the Thomas face appeared was the season 5 episode "Snow" while the Gordon face was last seen in the season 3 episode "No Joke for James". 

The TATMRR-season 10 era. 

Starting with Thomas & the Magic Railroads, all the faces were repainted once again in an even darker color, this time with a matte finish. This was done to match the new matte paint the models received for the film. The eyebrows yet again got more triangular and in slightly bigger in general. Most faces were refurbished in 1999 during production of TATMRR even though only a small number of faces and character actually appeared in the film.

Thomas' classic smile as seen in season 6 (left) season 3 (middle) and season 1 (right). 

The newer faces made during in this era were probably the worst of the show. Many of them looked childish and didn't have the same kind of attitude many of the season 3-5 faces had. It was obvious these faces were being made to fit the new tone of the show.

Thomas and Percy were given new softer looking shocked faces to look less scary to younger viewers, although their original shocked faces appeared from time to time. 

The new character faces also looked off and were definitely a departure from the previous Thomas style. Harvey Spencer, Molly, Neville, and Mighty Mac all come to mind. At this point most people working on the faces did not work on the classic era of the show, hence the difference in style and appearance.

Molly's original faces were deemed too frightening to be used. A new smaller set was made and used on screen. This was caused by people not familiar with the series sculpting the faces. 

Seasons 11-12

This era is basically the same as TATMRR-season 10 but we decided it counts because the faces were all repainted around season 11.  Certain faces we repainted between these eras. For example a certain Thomas face maybe have been repainted between seasons 8 and 9, but we're counting these eras based on when the faces as a whole were repainted not when individual ones we repainted as needed.

The color and tone of the faces pretty much stayed the same here, although some of the teeth and mouth details ended up being painted in differently.

On the left is one of Diesel's smiles pictured during "Calling All Engines", on the right is the same face as currently seen on  display in the United States. An open mouth was painted in instead of teeth when the face was painted during season 11. 

It seems kind of pointless to subtly repaint the entire set of faces a season before the model show ended, but it must be taken into consideration they did not know this was going to be the case at the time.

Faces made in one era but seen in another 

Often, a face made for an earlier season that perhaps the crew though was too weird looking would end up showing up in the HiT era. This was most likely due to the fact the newer crew was not aware the older crew had deemed these faces odd, or usually avoided them. 

A good example is this face seen in the episode "Topped Off Thomas" (left). This face was first seen during this episode which aired during the 11th season, however it appears in a behind the scenes photo taken during season 3 (right). It is on the bottom row third from the left. It's also interesting note the face on the top row all the way to the right was not seen till season 5 and the face on the bottom right was never seen on screen at all. 

Another possible example of this is Edward's clenched face seen in the season 8 episode "You can do it Toby"

pictured on the right. It is very obviously based on illustration seen in the story "Edward's Exploit" from the Railway Series book "Main Line Engines" pictured on the left. It would be logical to assume this face was originally made for the season 2 episode "Edward's Exploit" judging by the source material used. However, we cannot entirely rule out the possibility someone made this face at a later date using the image from the book as reference. 

Faces made but never seen on screen

Some faces were made for a particular seasons but never made it to the screen. This could be due to the fact they looked off, or simply the fact the stories did not require them. 

A good example of this would be our Rheneas face. It was clearly made for season 4 and matches expressions many of the other narrow gauge engines had on screen, but it never appeared. This was most likely due to Rheneas's limited screen time and the fact his main story did not have the need for this expression. 

Another example would be this Thomas face originally sculpted for season 2. It was most likely deemed too out of character and strange looking to be used on screen. Photo credit: Christopher Noulton & SiF. 

Face Casts

We wanted to talk a little bit about face casts seeing as there's been a bit of confusion in the community recently.

Production made?

"Production made" refers to something that was made during the production of a television show but never made it to the screen. A face cast is production made if it was made during the production of Thomas & Friends. A face cast made after the show ended by someone with no affiliation to the model series would not be production made seeing as it was not made for the production of the show.

A non-production made cast on the left compared to a production made cast on the right

There are a few ways to tell a production made from a non-production made cast. First would be the color. Any face intended to be used for the show would be cast in a cream/yellow colored resin as seen on the right of the above photo. Anything in another color was most likely not production made. However, it is easy for anyone to purchase this color resin so color alone is not a good indicator of if a cast is or isn't production made.

Another way to tell is by seeing if a one or two part mould was used to make it. A face made using a one part mould will be completely flat on the back, with no eye cutouts or holes. The faces on the show were cast with a two part mould, meaning the back detail should always be present.

You can see the flat undetailed back of the non-production made cast one the left compared to the detailed back of the production made cast on the right. Furthermore, you can tell the production made cast on the right was most likely not used because of how rough this section came out. Most time, a production made cast will not be used because of some kind of visible defect. 

Furthermore, if its a copy of a face that you've already seen other people own, it's most likely not a production made cast.

In all, there's nothing wrong with non-production made casts, they're basically the same thing as their production made counterparts. However something made for production usually commands slightly more money seeing as it was actually made for the television show. Don't be fooled into paying more for something labeled "production made" that was not actually made for use on the show.

Close up faces

Most of the close up scale models did not have faces seeing as most of the time the models were not complete on top of the fact the faces would never need to be seen in this scale. Only 2 character's close ups actually had faces.

The close up Thomas required faces for scenes in "Thomas Comes to Breakfast" that made use of the close up scale figures and Thomas model together. Only one happy and one sad face were ever made, with the happy face being used on Duck in the episode "A Close Shave" later that same season.

Crew member John Kerr holding up the close up scale Thomas face. Photo courtesy of Christopher Noulton & SiF. 

The close up Thomas happy face seen on Duck in "A Close Shave". 

The sad close up Thomas face as seen in "Thomas Comes to Breakfast". 

The only other close up character to receive faces was Duke. These were required for scenes in Sleeping Beauty and Bulldog where he had to interact with close up scale figures.

The close up Duke's happy face as seen in "Sleeping Beauty".

The close up Dukes concerned face as seen in "Bulldog". 

The close up Duke happy face was also used on the close up Peter Sam in this shot from "Special Funnel".

That wraps up this blog. We hope you found it informative as well as entertaining. Please feel free to suggest new topics for future blog posts to us!

For further reading check out SiF's interview with Christopher Noulton: http://www.sodor-island.net/episodeguide/chrisnoulton.htmlguide/chrisnoulton.html

Special Thanks to Chris on SiF for letting us use his RWS/model era face comparison pictures. https://twitter.com/tehflyingkipper

All stills sourced from the Thomas & Friends Wiki: http://ttte.wikia.com/wiki/Thomas_the_Tank_Engine_Wiki