- "Let's rock and roll!"
- — Nia's catchphrase
Nia is an orange tank engine from Kenya who lives and works on the Island of Sodor.
Biography
Nia is a tank engine from Kenya in Africa. She now lives on Sodor with Thomas and his friends. Her best friends are Thomas, Percy, Diesel, Kana, Carly, Sandy and Bruno.
Personality
Nia has an adventurous spirit. She loves to try new things and visit new places. Nia has also traveled more than any of her friends, and often has valuable insight into places Thomas has never been. She also has a love for music and has been shown to plan her routes all by herself. However, sometimes her plans don't always work out as well as she hopes they do.
Technical Details
Basis
Nia is based on the KUR ED1 class 2-6-2 tank engine scaled up to standard gauge. However, in All Engines Go, she is depicted with a 2-6-0 chassis.
Livery
Nia is painted orange with green lining. She has a zig-zag pattern on her tanks and coal bunker that have the colors red, green, purple, yellow and black. She has her number in yellow in a black box with a green outline on her cabsides.
In the fourth season episodes, Chaos at Cronk's Crossing, The Big Do-Over, Did I Miss It? and No More Surprises, Nia is painted with yellow and black hazard stripes on her sides and bufferbeams.
Appearances
Audio Files
Whistles
| First used | Last Used | Sound Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Thomas Blasts Off | Active |
In Go Go Thomas! and Let's Roll, Nia incorrectly uses her whistle sound from the original series.
| First used | Last Used | Sound Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Go Go Thomas! | Let's Roll |
In Sheep Stampede, Nia tries to mimic 3 things with her whistle, that being a duck, sheep and Thomas himself.
| Only Used | Sound Effects |
|---|---|
| Sheep Stampede |
Trivia
- Since her last appearance in Thomas & Friends, Nia has gained noticeable changes in her design:
- Her running board is now completely flat rather than being slightly sloped at the front.
- She lost her trailing wheels under her cab, making her a 2-6-0 rather than a 2-6-2.
- Her leading wheels are now the same size as her driving wheels.
- She is much shorter in both length and height, becoming similar in scale to Kana.
- She now has brown irises.
- Her smokebox is longer and has a brown tint.
- She only has three boiler bands instead of eight.
- Her dome is much closer to her cab.
- Her number is now a more simple and blocky design.
- Her name that was painted on her tanks were removed.
- While it is unknown the exact reason for this change, it is most likely so that the English names for the characters will not appear in other dubs.
- Her cab doors have been removed.
- Her cylinder tanks have been removed.
- Her stepladders have been removed.
- The yellow lining on her cylinders has been removed.
- The rivets on her bufferbeam, pistons, and cab have been removed.
- Her brake pipe has been removed.
- Her whistle has been removed and consequently, has been substituted by her Westinghouse pump now acting as her whistle.
- She has only three windows at the front of her cab, the horizontal window being located in the center of its original boundaries.
- Her cab windows are now longer and narrower.
- She no longer speaks with an African accent in the English dubs.
- She has a new whistle sound which is a stock sound effect, though it still sounds similar to her whistle sound in the original series.
- Nia has the most leading roles in episodes besides Thomas.
- Nia's name means "purpose" in Swahili.
- Nia's number 18 is reference to the year 2018 when she was introduced into the franchise.
- As revealed in the first season episode, Nia's Surprising Surprise, Nia's favorite color is purple.
Merchandise
- Push Along (discontinued)
- Motorized (discontinued)
- Diablock
- Tomica
- Bath Balls
- McDonald's Toys
- My First Thomas (discontinued)
References
- ↑ S2 #04 Tri-and-a-Half-a-Lon