Babar the Elephant was first introduced to children in 1931 by the French author Jean de Brunhoff, who created the book from stories that his wife made up for their children. He went on to publish another six stories, and his son Laurent de Brunhoff continued the series after his father’s death. An animated TV series, titled simply Babar, was produced in Canada by Nelvana, running from 1989 through 1991 and then again in the year 2000.
BRIO’s short-lived Babar theme appeared in the early 2000’s, and distribution may have been limited to French markets.
This theme was only sold in European markets. It was the result of a 3-year license agreement with The Walt Disney Company Ltd. to produce wooden railway and preschool toys around the “Playhouse Disney” programming.
Do to the gap in catalogs in the year 2009, it’s not clear if the Disney Theme was released in 2009 or 2010. Regardless of the time, it was a short-lived theme: its last appearance was in 2011.
It didn’t appear in the Wooden Railway catalogs, probably because the relaunch of the Wooden Railway line in 2010 came with an emphasis on building realistic worlds. You could only find the Disney products listed in the general catalog and printed on the catalog inserts.
The Polar Express theme is modeled after the Caldecott Medal-winning children’s book The Polar Express, written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg.
The very first Polar Express product was #33426, a box set with the Polar Express engine and tender, passenger car, a sleigh bell (which is significant to the story), and the audio book on cassette. Polar Express did not become an actual theme for BRIO until the early 2000’s so that original set is technically not part of it, but I list it here anyway because it makes sense to group them together.
The Jim Knopf (Jim Button) line comes from the German children’s book Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer (Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver) published in 1960. It is one of the most successful childrens’ books in post-war Germany.
In general the term “Expansion Pack” was reserved for bundles of track as cost-effective alternatives to individual track packs. The two notable exceptions were the short-lived Shunting Yard and Dockside Expansion Packs which did come with track but also bundled other accessories: engines, rolling stock, cranes, and so on. Why BRIO specifically chose to call these expansion packs is a mystery since equivalent products existed without the “expansion pack” label, but it would be awkward to not categorize them as named so they are presented here.
Theodore Tugboat was a Canadian children’s television series from the now-defunct Cochran Entertainment, and ran from 1993 through 2001. Set in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, it told the story of Theodore Tugboat and his friends who lived in Big Harbor. BRIO produced toys under license from Cochran from 1998 through 2000.