Trackmaster Talking Toby 2013 Unboxing review and first run

Hi Guys and Gals our Thomas and friends streak continues with Talking Toby from Trackmaster, this is a 2013 release from around 6 months ago and I finally decided to get one. I got it on ebay for around $32 including delivery which is cheaper than stores here for Talking engines! I have never seen it for sale in this country though. So This Talking Toby appears to be molded on the latest trackmaster flat drive version which I feel is rather plain and boring. They could have used the lovely flip face Toby mold and I would have bought several! Anyway it looks like Toby and has the animated face, his wheels have holes for packaging sticks and side rods *facepalm*. The Giant red truck he hauls is rather distracting and out of place although I can see why they went with red for a brown locomotive like Toby to brighten it up for the main customers (children of course). When you push the button he says one of several phrases and/or rings his bell, when he is moving he makes a nice chuffing sound that can be heard from the other side of the room. His voice although clear kind of reminds me of mickey mouse although it could be just through the small cheap speaker. There is a wheel sensor on the rear wheels of the red truck and when lifted from the rails causes Toby to shut off for safety reasons and let out a hiss of steam sound like a brake is applied. Its interesting to compare this too the earlier TOMY Talk n Action engines who used a special track piece to perform fun and interesting actions, These new Trackmaster talking engines are far less exciting. Plarail has a new line of Talking engines that are already hitting ebay so keep an eye out as I will be! So Toby rides and runs very well on all parts of the track and did not derail once. His hill climb performance was excellent have good power and traction. Turntable performance was non existent as Trackmaster talking Toby was too long to fit on the turntable which i know will be disappointing to many who have a turntable set. They could have improved the design to make it work but they did not. So overall a capable locomotive but with sloppy and lazy design seemingly pulled from the parts bin to fill a gap in the talking range and a cheap cost to produce. The latest mold for Toby should not have been used when there is a lovely flip face version that looks far far superior than any other Toby released thus far. Fisher Price/Trackmaster you can contact me anytime and I will be more than happy to give you some pointers of what would be good designs. I give this Talking Toby from Trackmaster a 7/10. lovely running and sound can't save a very ugly version of Toby. YUCK! Thanks for watching!