BoCo - How The Fandom Saved A Wasted Character 

At this point, there is no question that the fandom is better than Mattel.

"You don't need a grand legacy or to have been in the spotlight for people to recognize you, but instead, simply existing is all you need to do to inspire." A truly inspirational quote.

Such a heavily underated and underused character. It's fantastic that the fanbase has kept his legacy alive and he still gets his much deserved recognition.

For someone who watches Sodors Finest on The Unlucky Tug, it's great to see someone other than him to make a professional Thomas character analysis video. Never I'd expected a Thomas history video on Boco would reach almost 40 minutes. The amount of research and fandom on him is dedicated indeed.😁👌

I believe the best way to describe BoCo would be the guy who isn’t always in the spotlight not because he’s not popular, far from it, but simply because he doesn’t need to be and just wants to help people BoCo is a character that, as explained during this, has reached out and impacted many people as they simply didn’t want to see him go, no other character has had the same attention that BoCo got simply due to everyone just loving him for who he was, as I mentioned before, the guy who just wants to help out

Boco’s unique in that he always tries his best because he wants too. Rusty does a lot of what he does because he feels he has to prove something, and Emily had to so she’d stay in service. Boco, on the other hand, does everything he does because he wants too, nothing’s forcing him too.

I remembered liking BoCo as a kid because of his colour and how he keeps the twins in order.

One thing about BoCo that i find fascinating is how he's a modern parallel to Edward. Edward is a Furness Railway K2 Larger Seagull, BoCo is a BR Class 28 Metrovick. Both classes were built with the intention of running express trains but were plagued with problems. These problems saw that both classes were relocated to Barrow-in-furness. With such close proximity to Sodor, odds are at least one Larger Seagull/Metrovick would venture onto Sudrian metals. And what do you know? Both Edward and BoCo did and both ended up working the Brendam Branch Line. One major difference being that Edward worked the main line for stint before finding his way to Brendam whereas BoCo went to Brendam almost immediately

I’m glad that BoCo is finally being used to his full potential and I really can’t wait to see what they do to him in the future

I personally don’t think BoCo needed a character ark as if he was just a character for the other engines to interact with I think that would’ve been fine but the Fandom’s take on BoCo shows how the characters with the smallest of screen time can have a HUGE impact! Excellent analysis!

The incident you’d mentioned for my story about Boco at 38:21 was the inspiration so you were 100% sure. Thanks for the mention too.

Well, that's what fans are for. Taking care of a forgotten nostalgic character. Awesome documentary btw

9:00 Christopher wrote stories about BoCo in Trucks For Scrap and Quick Thinking

I get why the production team from season seventeen wanted to bring him back to the small screen for the appeal of the fandom, but also Mattel rejecting him for more female characters. And despite people wanting Bachmann to make a model of Boco for their Thomas range, the chances of that happening are arranged from being pretty bleak to completely impossible.

Major praise to the fandom for saving Boco from a less than desirable end that the TV series caused. Back when I used to love Thomas to death, Boco was my favorite diesel character of the series. Kinda sad he was wasted by the TV series, but the fandom fortunately brought him back into glory

Considering how the other diesels were handled, such as Diesel being a recurring anti-hero/straight up antagonist and Daisy as a stuck-up diesel who turns into a nice one, I can understand how BoCo was thrown to the side on the classic series. With that said, GOOD LORD DID THEY WASTE HIS POTENTIAL. Wrong Road and Double Teething Troubles are some of my favorite episodes thanks to how he was handled and on par with his Railway Series relevance. I hope to someday write my own story that'll give him the golden mantle he truly deserves. Thank you for talking about this, BoCo is so important to me and I'm thankful he's getting as much recognition as he does now.

BoCo ultimately proves being yourself is the best you should strive to be. Being himself was what got him popular and ultimately made a lot of people show their creative potential.

Very nice summation - and it's so true too! I'm an old school Thomas fan and BoCo was one of my favourite characters. I'm not sure why that was; maybe because he was different? So, I was disappointed when he stopped appearing in the show. I always held on to hope that he would return in the Brenner CGI era, but sadly that never happened. And you are right, there is so much story potential.

I always thought Boco was underused. There should have been a Boco book in the railway series.

A new driver? HOW HAS THAT NOT BEEN MADE INTO AN EPISODE IN THE SHOW?! OR EVEN THE ORIGINAL BOOKS?!

Sodor- a save place for steam engines Thomas and friends fandom: a save place for wasted and forgotten charecters.

BoCo is one of those Classic characters I really wish to see return, but due to many executives' own mindsets to try and focus more on the main Steam Team, new one-off characters, etc., it is VERY disappointing not to see him return. I am so glad we have the fandom's original series/stories to give him more spotlight. In fact, he is another favorite character of mine and second favorite diesel. He really is an interesting inverse of what diesels represented to the steam engines. While Diesel has been devious kickstarting the whole steam vs. diesels rivalry, Daisy going through her own mini-arc, and Rusty being a narrow-gauge diesel that is a close friend to his fellow little steam engine friends, BoCo represented that not all diesels are bad and slowly breaks the steam engines' suspicions of them. For the fandom's take on him, I really love what TrainnedAssassian did with him in his BoCo film (which is in fact my favorite original Thomas feature length project in the fandom, especially with some original creative liberties done to make it more interesting). As long as his representation is carried on, he will always forever be a very kind and friendly diesel to any generation of engine. I think he, Bear and Derek would make a fine trio since they have a similar situation of nearly being scrapped.

Even if BoCo wouldn't stand out from the other good diesels, him appearing again in the show would be perfect enough for us fans.

I bet if BoCo returns in CGI, he'II have the position of leader of the diesels to keep peace and help the steam engines against the devious diesels added to him since he's a good diesel and better for it than Diesel 10 on account of his evil villainy with no care for anyone, even some diesels with good natures as we all know.

A video about BoCo of all characters shouldn't have an ending as good as that...and yet, here we are. In all seriousness though, great video. You've steadily stepped up your game with these essays!

Wows, I wasn't sure what to expect when I heard you would be making a video on Boco but you certainly knocked it out of the park. After researching more into Boco's real life basis, I was very surprised how much potential there was with him and how Wilbert, Christopher, and the TV show seemingly wasted it. The fandom however recognized that potential and ran with it and this was a really nice of spotlighting that. One small detail you got wrong was when at 4:32 you mentioned the "nationalization plan" I think you meant "modernization plan".

Oh, there is one other Boco story video that deserves some recognition "Snow and Stress" made by Live Steam

Even if BoCo returns to CGI, he still be in character like other returnee characters who return to the series so not flanderized. Honestly. He'II probably get the same treatment as Daisy by having more appearances in CGI episodes like she did from Season 20 onwards.

My brother, sister, and I are planning to do a dramatized recording of all of the books and some of the fan stories. We plan on reworking some of the stories to make them flow better, and I also plan on witting my own stories/books. One book I plan on writing is "Really Useful Diesels." I plan on using a story created by Carson videos about how Bear got his name and splitting it up as the first and last story. Then a story each for BoCo and Daisy. I also plan on writing a story that takes place in the 2020's. I plan on sending Black Hills Central #110 to visit the Tallylin Railway, the Skarloey Railway, and of course, the last regularly operated steam railway in the world. The reason being is that since the BHCR is the first tourist train in the US, (if I am remembering right), the owners decide to send him to visit the first preserved railway in the world to boost tourism for the Black Hills of South Dakota. One of the stories would be about when one of #110's axles came off. The story would be called Too Big for His Wheels, or something like that. I also have other story ideas based on real events. Like the story how 15year old Kate Shelley saved a train from going across a destroyed bridge by crossing the storm swept bridge.

I don't think I'd care for BoCo if it wasn't for the fandom. Shows just how amazing this fandoms work is

This is longer than the amount of screen time Boco ever had.

You, my good man, have scored an A+. You highlighted how BoCo should be used. A diesel who is humbled when he learns how mechanically flawed he is, as well as the first truly friendly diesel (at least when he arrives on Sodor), who has to earn the trust of the steam engines. Not just one engine, all of them. The stories you mentioned wonderfully fill the gaps that were left out of the books. Also, I'd highly recommend the Richard Jordan stories "Duck Comes Around" and "Diesels and Dogma". Watch NWR1991's adaptations, and you'll see what I mean.

A fandom call WE LIKE STEAM ENGINES

That accidents will happen video. Was the very FIRST thing I’ve ever seen on RU-vid. Now seeing it 13 or so years later. Truly hit me in the feels

Love this video! I'd so love if you talked in-depth about other obscure or underutilized engines that fans helped to flesh out and become more beloved than ever. :D

This video popped up in my recommended feed and after watching it till the end. I gotta say that this is a really well put together video about BoCo, he's such an underused character with a lot of mispotential which is why I've come to appreciate him as I got older. I'll admit that he's kinda boring but he's memorable in a good way, as it makes way for creativity to make him a stand out character in fan written stories. While I've lost interest in Thomas & Friends and not apart of the fandom, BoCo is still one of my all time favorite Thomas characters and the amount of well written fan stories about BoCo shows that an underused and forgotten character like BoCo can still meet their full potential if done right. Keep up the good work!

duke was gonna appear in kevin the steamie but was cut, in 2015 sam wilkinson wanted to bring duke back to cgi but it didn't happen

22:39 That can be explained due to the gimmicky episodes HiT and Mattel wanted, wanting to milk the Steam vs Diesel plot as much as possible, and complaints about the show not having females.

19:20 "more like outside buzz-box" that made me wheeze

Boco reappeared in Thomas Creator Collective thanks to fans. He didn't reappear again but he was never forgotten. Sam Wilkinson wanted to bring him back. Also Andrew Brenner wanted to bring him back in Season 22 along with Hank but was dropped out by Mattel for more Female Characters.

This is a superb analysis on BoCo's character history, but I should note that other little-featured characters in the show never got to feature in the TV series again after a certain point. Daisy of course never hardly featured in a role after Series 4 until Andrew Brenner brought her back to the fore in 2015 with a new position on the railway, and that brings me to what I think is the main reason behind said characters falling into obscurity; uncertainty of their contribution as characters in the long run, which ironically why the old format of the Thomas show was phased out by Mattel over the present Paw Patrol/Muppet Babies/Chuggington-cross reboot. Ironically, characters like BoCo, Daisy, Caroline, Stepney, etc.; even ones that hardly featured in the TV series at all, featured frequently in Thomas magazine stories well after their last appearances on screen until the CGI transition, in the same way that with the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, characters that featured at a certain point then faded into obscurity, continued to have a recurring presence in the comic stories tied to said franchise. I assume this to be because the magazine/comic writers were not as restrained by production budgets and advanced marketing. Regards, Samuel Farris.

The same can really be said about Duck, sure the CGI series brought him back but it was the Fandom making up their own stories left and right that really kept his legacy alive and well. It really is a shame how so many new characters throughout the show were introduced and barely used. Murdoch and Arthur really come to mind.

Boco is a fan favorite. Of course fans will bring him back

Boco was always one of my favorite diesels as a kid. Don't know why. I recently had this idea that if they adapted "Super Rescue" to the TV series, but couldn't make new models, they could've used Boco in place of D7101 and Class 40/Bowler as D199.

As for Crossed Lines and Deep Freeze in S2, they could have done 30 episodes and still include Ghost Train and Woolly Bear.

The fact that a video of the GOAT exist is just so amazing man. I just adore Boco, he's simple yes but not every character has to be a onion of a character to be good, Boco is the chill dude of group, a hardworker who as @ShadowSearcher31 said, he does the right thing and treats everybody with respect not because he has too because he wants to. Also loved his dinamic with Edward they are so similar and different at the same time; Edward is wise, kind and dare I say it a pacifist and Boco is all of those thing but you can tell he has more of a temper particularly notable with his interactions with Bill and Ben, Edward is firm with them and Boco gets frustrated with their shenanigans real fast. So yeah, Boco is such a gem of a character, I love him so soo much man!!

4:34 Dr Beeching only closed alot of Branchlines and Mainlines, Ernest Marples and Phillp Shirley were the ones that replaced the Steam Engines 13:26 The Nationalization of the Railways in the UK happened in the 1940s when all the Big Four Railways United as one Nevertheless good video!

I always liked Boco because unlike Diesel, Boco was a very friendly diesel engine, which was a nice change of pace for the series!

"if i were you, I'd get back to work right away."

After watching this video, i'm glad the fandom gave Boco a chance to shine.

Well if All Engines Go brought back Bulstrode of all characters, all hope isn't entirely lost on BoCo making a return. But like you said his personality will be completely wrong.

I considered myself very lucky to have gotten a Wooden Railway BoCo.

There's a story, that I can't find online anymore, where the steam engines of Sodor were telling Boco that he wasn't a real engine or diesel, but by the end they apologize and list all of the good things he's done for them. If anyone knows the name of that story or where it is, please let me know.

BoCo is an Inspiration for fan made characters. One of my made up Thomas OC’s is a BR class 28 Diesel like BoCo, and his name is Binx ( Full name is CoBo Binx ). Binx is BR class 28, No. D5708, one of the Two BR class 28’s with the BR Green livery and Full Yellow Ends.

We call him "BoCo" The showrunners call him "Bozo"

While there was likely no intention I think BoCo did somewhat have a bit of a character arc in the Main Line Engines book, where he deals with the others being rude to him & about him but keeps winning them over in each story and eventually by the end had managed to win everyone over (even the Scottish Twins with their rough history). And that was it, everything with BoCo winning the others over was finished and there didn’t have to be more with him in the RWS.

Going to associate “Ain’t nothing gonna break my stride” with Boco now, thanks to this video, not that I’m complaining! It suits him.

Something else I realized, Main Line Engines is BoCo's book told from the perspective of the other engines. The Diseasel: Introduces BoCo to the audience Buzz Buzz: BoCo shows his worth by filling in for the express Wrong Road: Proves his value to Gordon, Gordon representing the tougher engines to win over Edward's Exploit: BoCo truly becomes part of the family

Even with Rusty and the newer friendly diesels introduced later on, it wouldn't matter because BoCo returning to the show and be around is all we ever wanted him to be, wither he sticks out or not. You'd understand.

BoCo should have giving more appearances after Series 5.

My friend made his own short film version of BoCo’s origin, and it really showed me just how wasted he was. After watching this I went and watched some other BoCo projects that just proved that even further.

In regards to the first Thomas videos I watched, I remember there was a user back in the day called rkovision and he uploaded all the classic series episodes around 2008 or 2009. A similar situation happened again a few years later where I found a user who uploaded all the classic episodes of Pokemon. I miss those days when people just uploaded TV shows on RU-vid and didn't have to worry about copyright problems

The TV Series team should’ve either adapted Buzz Buzz into Series 2 or adapted The Dieseasal, Wrong Road and Edward’s Exploit into Series 3. This would’ve showed how Duck and the three main line engines were still getting over when Diesel came to the railway and got Duck into a lot of trouble. When they meet with BoCo, they get suspicious of the next diesel, but learn he is kind and hard working.

i luv this channel

Fantastic video! Well done! I always wondered why they introduced the new character and then he just sort of faded away.

I think it’s brilliant how Wilbert handled diesels on Sodor in the RWS. In sharp contrast to the TVS’s tendency to villainize diesels during the HiT and Miller seasons, he began with an arrogant Class 08. Sure, Duck was no better than him at times, but Diesel represented everything that Wilbert stood against. Diesel was lazy, lying, arrogant, impatient and worst of all proud- none of which would’ve made him useful to the North Western. In having Duck and the Diesel Engine be his only appearance, Wilbert said that engines like Diesel have no place on Sodor not for what they run on, but for their moral character. When the chips are down, Duck proved himself to be an engine of integrity while Diesel continued to be a weaseling whiner who thought himself more important than he ought. This was immediately followed up by Rusty’s introduction. I think the best way to understand Rusty is through contrast with his direct predecessor. Instead of being an arrogant troublemaker, he was a helpful little rail inspector with a heart of gold. By making Rusty as helpful as he was and contrasting that against Duncan being a stubborn prick, Wilbert showed that steam engines could be as bad (if not worse) than their diesel counterparts. Any engine can be troublesome; what matters is that they learn from the trouble they get into. Daisy was another step in fleshing out how diesels were in the RWS. While she initially starts out arrogant like Diesel, she comes to mature and learn from her mistakes. She’s what Diesel could have become suppose he ever abandoned his “we are revolutionary” shtick. And then we have BoCo, the real main character of Main Line Engines. Iconic as Bill and Ben are, they really don’t leave as much as an impact as he does. What BoCo represented for the RWS was a diesel who grew to be accepted by all of the mainline engines- Gordon, James, Duck, and even Donald and Douglas. He was to the Sudrian diesel engines what Edward was to the Eight Famous Engines. He was a wise old engine who despite being out of date and having technical problems, proved himself really useful to the Island of Sodor. Wilbert was never anti-diesel. If anything, the one thing he stood against regarding them was the rampant scrapping of steam engines on the mainland. Even in the RWS, the number of good diesels outnumber the “bad” 5:3. What mattered was not the fuel that powered an engine. What mattered was the quality of their heart and drive to be really useful.

NWR1991's video Duck Comes Around is my favourite video, where Duck and the others first meet Boco when he arranged their trains and wished them a good train journey, Duck in that moment realised that not all diesels are like devious Diesel, that I thought was very wholesome

It's kinda sad to think Boco showed up in Seaosns 2,3&5. He is one of my favorite characters from the show. I really wished he appeared in GCI. But can't wait for 12 o'clock tomorrow so I can watch it

Now that I’ve seen the recaps of the Railway & TV Series’, I honestly prefer the way they introduced BoCo in Season 2, just because they brought in him before Rusty. Letting Duck, Gordon etc. see that there’s a diesel from the same railway and on the same gauge as Mr. Devious, who is actually sensible, hard-working and friendly. Showing that not ALL diesels are boastful, prejudiced or antagonistic. Also, even though I love Ghost Train, I totally agree with the Crossed Lines & Deep Freeze opinion.

Do one for Duke! He deserves it just as much as Boco!

Boco was so cool, I saw him as the big brother to bill and Ben

My favorite fandoms that include Boco are Victor Tanzig’s Stories of Sodor and Thomas1Edward2Henry3’s as they cover more about his past, origin, problems, and how he became a successful engine.

It's like the alternative where Boco's line of engines made it through testing and carried on plus for some reason, he was my personal favorite engine.

Boco and Duke are the two most underrated characters in the franchise

God I absolutely loved that old Accidents Will Happen, thank you for reminding me. Lovely video on a character that has been unappreciated for a long time. That ending message was remarkably wholesome

I like NWR1991 as as series but I don't really like how he placed the CGI series in his timeline. At least for me the Brenner era (not counting the Arlesdale episodes) works better set in either the 1970's or 1980's.

Oooh now this should be great! :D an analysis of Boco but ALSO of how AWESOME the fandom has made him out to be

ngl, i loved boco, like a lot as a character. and it was a shame to not see him in the cgi series (though i think there was a cgi render someone did of him) the fact that fans did so much with him just warms the heart to see that everyone's favorite mertovic will never be forgotten, even if the big companies did

BoCo was my favorite since I was 4 years old and 9 years later I still love him

If BoCo returns to the CGI series, he would be voiced by Rob Rackstraw in UK and US with his Mr. Bentley voice which would suit him really well. MainlandStudios even made two videos around that.

boco was a character that always stood out to me even at a very young age. maybe it was his boxy shape and color

Thank you very much for this stunning video chap! I really learned a lot from. Despite BoCo being more of a background character, he’s always been my favorite. Great work on the editing as well!

Boco is just another one of those characters, with real life story pieces , that i always gravitated towards as a kid. Like i never the real world story of the engine , yet i still always ended up loving them. For example toby being the one the awdry's rode on vacation , or stepney for just existing in real life. With boco its teething troubles and all that in real life , that make me love the character even more as an adult now.

In James and the Diesel engine, I think it makes sense that a diesel who james hadn’t met would rescue him instead of BoCo because at the end of mainline engines, it says Donald and Douglas were the last to accept BoCo. And in the beginning of James and the Diesel engine, it says that James likes BoCo and Bear, but treated all other diesels with deep suspicion

This was a really good video Boco video you made. I wasn’t expecting you to make one like this, but you did very well. I also do wish Boco would have come back to the show but he is definitely an underrated and underused character. I also do think the James and the Diesel Engines episodes idea was really interesting, however, I personally think they could work in either seasons 3 or 4. I think the reason for Ghost Train and Woolly Bear for behind two of the last episodes of season 2, was because they wanted to get those two out of the way before giving Thomas a more nicer and grown up side in season 3. I am glad the fandom brought him into their trainz videos and gave him spotlight videos, especially Thomas1Edward2Henry3. Overall, you did very well with this video and hopefully you could make more of these.

im not even into trains or TTTE,, but this is so wholesome good fandom moment

19:26 "camera work: the fat controller (whose name was derek)"

Wonderful character highlight and documentary, thank you!

boco has been so special to me ever since i was 3-4, my mom told me he was my favorite, and on the old website back then had a few games where boco appeared so i was like wow omg my favorite!! a while later when we found it online i ended up getting the trackmaster boco, he's still with me today even when im almost 20 :)

In my opinion BoCo is one of my very favourite characters because of his solidarity and mood. He might be a rectangle on the railway (like duck) he always been a nice engine and will always have a especial place on our very heart Beginner engine enthusiast Darkel-

Boco is such wasted potential, so we unwasted ir

Fans wanted BoCo to return in CGI and if he did, they would be happy to see him back regardless of things but he'd still be in character like before like the other returnees so not flanderized. He can have the same special treatment Daisy got when she returns like more spotlight roles in episodes and expanded since she also didn't appear much in the model era so that he wouldn't be underutilized. You'd understand.

as someone who's falling back into this god forsaken series and wanting to interact with the fanbase, this is GREAT! i was wondering what the hype was around boco!

As someone who grew up with Thomas back in the 90s (Born in 89, for context), I never thought about just how Boco seemed to vanish. There were even times when I'd forget he was a character, but then I'd see an episode with him in it or would look at my thomas collection and spot his ERTL Die Cast toy and go "Huh! I forgot you were there." Yeah, Boco was sadly forgotten. If Mattel wants to get into the fans good graces again on this one, bringing him back, even if it IS for the-cartoon-that-shall-not-be-named would be a great first step. Meanwhile though, leave it to the fandom to keep our favorite Metropolitan Vicars Diesel Electric Type 2 alive and working.

i never watched any if the boco episodes as a kid, but i had the playrail toy of him which is why i knew of him before i went back and watched all the classic episodes recently. he’s a cool guy

I actually worked for clearwater productions who made thomas the tank filmed in battersea and Shepperton, great team made a great series

Really great character. Such a shame he was never brought back in CGI since he was one of the most requested characters to return there.

I think in season 2 replacing better late than never and the runaway would have been better. Those episodes were always the most forgettable considering the latter half of runaway was was just lots of stock footage. If only the producers looked in that direction.

Great video! I couldn’t agree more about how much depth the fandom has given to Boco, it’s truly phenomenal and has made us all love him much more. While all the stories you mentioned are awesome, Personally my favorite fan story of him is called “accidents and Sodor” by Cactus 901 (some number I can’t remember) and it details his life before Sodor and how he befriends some steam engine and his coming to Sodor was actually due to an accident. Anyway I love how you ended the video on such a positive, inspiring note. Huge props to you mate, awesome video!

BoCo will always be a fan favorite character!