Lost Media Archive

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In September 2011, Thomas & Friends released its fifth direct-to-DVD special called Day of the Diesels. The special revolves around Percy befriending Diesel 10 and the other diesels after feeling ignored by his best friend Thomas. The special gained somewhat mixed reviews from both critics and fans.

While changes to Thomas productions are somewhat common and usually small, according to an interview SiF held with Sam Barlow, who served as the story/script executive of the show from the eighth to sixteenth series, there were several scenes that were cut from the final version that have not been released.

Little is known about the original version, although according to Barlow, the changes and cuts were made as those scenes were deemed too scary for children.

Rupert Degas, who voiced Dart and Flynn in the special, was also originally supposed to voice Diesel 10. He recorded dialogue for the character but would end up being replaced by Matt Wilkinson. He says in an interview with Sodor Island that "someone felt my voice was a bit too scary, and someone else thought it was too camp, and someone else thought it was too theatrical." His line "The Steamworks is ours now!" still remains in the final cut for unknown reasons.

The latest mention of the original cut was on December 21, 2018, when Sodor Island Forums and Fansite posted on Twitter that the "Original Day of the Diesels cut has never been released, it's likely to be gathering dust in HIT's vaults, but all we know about it is through word of mouth and a few visuals that have surfaced online ahead of release."

If anything major comes up, we'll do a feature on it." SiF said It's in Mattel's archives, we don't have access to it, and we've never seen the full cut.

It is unknown if the original cut of the special still exists or how far into production the special was before the changes and cuts were made. It is also unknown how much of Degas' Diesel 10 lines were recorded and if they survive today.

An old rumor stated that on early airings of the special on PBS Kids Go! and PBS Kids Sprout used the original dark cut, however, this has since been proven to be false, as the first Sprout airing of the special was found and did not feature the darker cut, and the user Jamesandedward7 saw the original PBS airing of the special in 2012, recalling that it was identical to what you saw on DVD and Prime Video.

It's also been stated that the characters Dennis, Splatter and Dodge were originally going to be in this movie, but it is unlikely that they were in this cut of the movie, though 3 characters who share the same bases as the previously mentioned characters do appear, so it is possible that Dennis, Splatter and Dodge had a finished CGI model, but were retextured.

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