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This article is about the episode. You may be looking for the magazine story.

“Thomas, why do you have a giant balloon tied to your buffers?”
― James, Farmer McColl and Emily asking Thomas

Thomas' Frosty Friend is the twentieth episode of the tenth series.

Plot

It is Christmas on the Island of Sodor, and all the engines are very busy. One morning, Thomas is on his way to Brendam Docks to collect logs for Farmer McColl when stops at a signal where Percy is waiting. Thomas looks in the field nearby, and there is a big snowman with children all around it. The two engines are surprised to see a snowman so big, and just then, the signal changes and Thomas steams off. But as he puffs away, a gust of wind lifts the snowman off the ground and towards Thomas, revealing it is only a balloon. The balloon's guide ropes get caught on Thomas' rear buffers, causing the balloon to follow him.

Thomas stops at the level crossing, and the snowman drifts in front of Thomas. Thomas asks the snowman what he is doing there, but Mr. Snowman says nothing, and Thomas tells him to head back to the children. The wind blows the snowman back behind Thomas, and he races off to the Docks. He hopes the snowman does not follow him, unaware that it is a balloon.

Thomas reaches the Docks and reverses to his flatbed trucks loaded with logs. James is delivering coal, and asks Thomas why he has a snowman with him. Thomas is surprised to see Mr. Snowman again, and tells him to go back to the children again. Thomas steams off, pulling his flatbed and the snowman. James asks why Thomas has a giant balloon tied to his buffers, but Thomas does not hear him.

Thomas arrives at Farmer McColl's who is also surprised to see the giant snowman. Thomas once again tells the snowman to go back to the children, and he does not know what to say to Farmer McColl. So, Thomas steams off again. Then, Farmer McColl asks the same question as James did, but Thomas does not hear him, either.

Thomas stops at Maithwaite where Emily is collecting passengers and she laughs at the snowman, and asks Thomas about it. Once more, Thomas tells the snowman to go back to the children, and then he steams away. Emily also attempts to question about the giant balloon, but Thomas does not hear her, either. By now, Thomas does not know what else to do, so he decides to hide so Mr. Snowman cannot find him. So, Thomas steams into a lonely siding. There is no one else around, and Thomas feels relieved... until he sees Mr. Snowman once more. Realising the snowman is not going back to the children, Thomas decides to ask the Fat Controller for help, so he steams away.

Back at Maithwaite Station, he finds Farmer McColl and the Fat Controller, whom Thomas tells about Mr. Snowman. The Fat Controller laughs, and he reveals that Mr. Snowman is really a balloon, and his guide ropes are caught on his buffers. Therefore, Thomas is pulling the balloon. Thomas is surprised to realise this, and now he understands what to do; he sets off for the children's field, pulling the balloon behind him.

Thomas soon arrives back at the field with the balloon, and the children are happy to see them again. Thomas is happy to have returned Mr. Snowman, and the balloon even shifts its arms and head as if it is waving at them.

Characters

Locations

Trivia

  • Going by production order, this is the nineteenth episode of the tenth series.
  • Stock footage from James Goes Too Far is used.
  • In the last shot, the snowman has been adjusted so that he is waving at the children.
  • In a rare picture still, the snowman does not have the ropes attached to it.
  • Thomas' Jack and the Sodor Construction Company model is used during the close-up of his rear buffer-beam being accidentally hooked up by the inflatable snowman's guide ropes.
  • There are two bloopers from this episode that can be seen:
    • At the scene where Thomas leaves Farmer McColl's, the snowman balloon knocks over Farmer McColl.
    • Another blooper in the same scene, the invisible string holding the snowman balloon from above to make it seem like it is floating in the air gets caught in a tree and the balloon falls to the ground.

Goofs

  • When the snowman is first seen being pulled out, the camera closes in on a hook holding it down being pulled out of the snow, and yet the ends of the rope do not have any hook whatsoever when it catches Thomas' buffers.
  • The guide ropes are often depicted as chains, most evidently when the balloon dances in front of Thomas.
  • In the close up of Emily at Maithwaite, she is seen with the platform on her right. But in the last shot, she was seen with the adjacent platform on her left.

Merchandise

In Other Languages

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Language Title
Brazilian Portuguese O Amigo Gelado de Thomas
Chinese Mandarin 托马斯的雪人朋友
Croatian Tomičin snježni prijatelj
Czech Tomášùv mrazivý přítel
Danish Thomas' Vinterlige Ven
Finnish Tuomas ja Lumiukko
French Le Bonhomme de Neige de Thomas
German Thomas und sein winterlicher Freund
Hungarian A Hóember
Italian Thomas e il Pupazzo di Neve
Japanese トーマスとゆきだるま
Korean 눈사람 풍선
Latin American Spanish El Helado Amigo de Thomas (TV)
El Amigo Congelado de Thomas (DVD)
Norwegian Thomas og snømannen
Polish Śnieżny Przyjaciel Tomka
Portuguese O Amigo Gelado de Thomas
Romanian Prietenul Înghețat al lui Thomas
Russian Снежный друг Томаса
Spanish El Amigo Helado de Thomas
Swedish Snögubben
Turkish Thomas'ın Soğuk Arkadaşı

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