Ohohohohohohoho is there a LOOOOOOOOT to unpack with this fandom…..
SIF (Sodor Island Forums) are known for being narcissistic holier than thou ***hats who think they’re above everyone else just because “they’ve been in the fandom the longest.” They look down on those who joined the Thomas community in the past or current decade, and they’ve also been known to be massive hoarders when it comes to finding rare material. A good example alone is that for years they’ve had still image cells (and god knows if they possibly even have the existing footage itself!) of the infamous cancelled season 2 episode “The Missing Coach” (originally meant to be Donald and Douglas’s introduction episode before it got cancelled midway due to the series creator Britt Allcroft feeling it would be too confusing for children to understand due to the twins swapping their tenders….. which honestly just made her look like a hypocrite since many later episode adaptions of episodes from the “Railway Series” or their “original” stories had many plot holes that were never filled once the fame clearly started to go to her head….. and that’s when she met her downfall with how horrible “Thomas and the Magic Railroad” did critically and financially, and alas a rushed monologue of the twins’s introduction for the episode “Break Van” was done instead)….. and it wasn’t until the start of this decade in August 2020 a well-known member known as “Nick Starwind,” who was trusted with them, finally decided to leak those stills on the internet for the public, feeling absolutely fed up with their hoarding, and that’s when they ganged up on him privately because of their egoistical mindset with this. Similarly they’ve also tried to get another user named “ThomasTankMerch” to take down leaked season 5 behind the scenes footage and bloopers that came out in June 2022 gaslighting him saying that they’re “concerned” about legal action happening, when in reality they just (again) want to hoard this stuff for themselves (I’m guessing they also have copies of this footage). They have a BIG gate-keeping mentality with hard to find stuff.
Then you have instances like fans getting into continuous debates over which seasons should be considered “classic” and which shouldn’t, leading to many fan wars and putting seasons on unfair pedestals just because the first five seasons came out before “Thomas and the Magic Railroad” which…… alas would unfortunately change the series for the worst as time went on.
You also have members in the toy community who constantly have this annoying gate-keeping mentality on which toy brand is the most “superior.” Frankly I think most of the brands make the engines look terrible. The only one I genuinely like is ERTL, and it’s a shame the toys were discontinued by 2004.
Then there are also members of this fandom who only form opinions if a “popular” or “well-known” member stated his/her opinion. Yes, this fandom is absolutely full of sheep who can’t form their own opinions.
I’d also like to point out one fan even went out of their way to call a well-known member of the community Nick AKA the Unlucky Tug’s dad’s personal house number asking to speak to his son. Needless to say, he was rightfully not happy with this. Yes, members of this fandom have gone as far as stalking those they admire.
Then with that horrible “All Engines Go!” spin-off it’s only led to more drama on members who enjoy the original series shaming those who like the spin-off.
I could go on and on but it’s reasons like this why I’m VERY casual in this fandom.
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