All aboard for something rather clever. Builder qiqiaoban has brought the beloved blue engine to life with Thomas & Friends: The Living Train, a Powered Up creation where the faces genuinely move. Thomas can whistle, blink, and shift his expression from cheerful to grumpy and back, all in glorious brick form.

Based on the real LB&SCR E2 class locomotive, this Thomas comes loaded with features that will make any engineer swoon. Press the golden whistles to switch him on, and you get full lighting: headlight, rear light, crew compartment glow, and a flickering fire in the firebox controlled through the Powered Up app (a lovely touch that never gets old). The modular face design lets you swap between a printed face, a half-printed half-brick-built face, and a fully mechanical version that moves the eyes, mouth, and cheeks. You can drive that movement by hand with a twist of the chimney or remotely with a Technic Medium motor. How's that for expressive engineering?

Advertisement

His co-stars steal the show too. Coaches Annie and Clarabel join in with mahogany-and-gold looks, 16 curved tumblehome doors, and their own bag of tricks. Annie sports a remote-controlled air whistle and moving eyelids, while Clarabel packs working suspension, a pneumatic air brake, and a compressor squeezed into the guard's compartment (there is, quite literally, no room left inside). The builder even worked out the symmetry maths so every door swings the same way. That is a genuinely satisfying bit of building.

This is the continuation of qiqiaoban's earlier Powered Up train projects, and the attention to detail runs deep, from the brick-built windows to the well-earned yellow No 1. The train currently sits at 1,649 supporters on LEGO® Ideas, chugging steadily toward the 10,000 needed for official review.

Fancy helping this engine reach the station? Add your vote for Thomas & Friends: The Living Train and see whether these cheeky faces can charm their way onto the shelf. Who could say no to a train that pulls faces right back at you?