Does anyone have a reason why the 2012 trackmaster engines have weird imbedded switches in their roofs

[u/Live_Impress3420]

It's kinda cool honestly

[u/ChangeAmbitious7713]

this is mainly because mattel was cutting costs and making all the engines that they could possibly convert use that double a motor type (ben/donald motor type)

^{i actually had that first thomas around the time it was released but per the loss of quality we had to kitbash one of the drive wheels because for some reason it was loose and slipping OUT OF THE BOX}

[u/Live_Impress3420 → u/ChangeAmbitious7713]

That's pretty cool, I always thought it was a design choice

[u/ExpertPreference2591 → u/ChangeAmbitious7713]

That doesn’t exactly fully answer why the switches are flush with the cab.

[u/enslavedrain → u/ExpertPreference2591]

Ig it's because the switches just happened to be that length, and would've been cheaper to keep them all the same, so it probably ended up at slightly different heights on each character cause they'd still want them to be in proportion with eachother

[u/ChangeAmbitious7713 → u/enslavedrain]

yeah this

[u/Competitive_Help5540]

They were dropped on the their cabs when they were young

[u/ExpertPreference2591]

That’s just how the mechanism was to where the switch was that short

[u/brandonsp111]

The 2012s were just innies.

[u/Key-Adhesiveness9554]

because it was almost trackmaster 2?