Yong Bao (T&F)/Behind the Scenes

Background Information
Yong Bao is a fictional tender engine created by Ian McCue and Andrew Brenner.

He first appeared in the 2016 special The Great Race, which was first released in 2016. He was absent in 2017. His last appearance was in the twenty-fourth series episode Yong Bao and the Tiger, which was released in 2020.

Yong Bao is based off a Chinese Railways RM class 4-6-2 Pacific, which were built by CSR Sifang Co Ltd between 1958 and 1966.

Voice
From 2018 to 2019, Yong Bao had been voiced by Dan Li (UK/US) in the CGI version of the series on both sides of the Atlantic, respectively, thus voiced with a matching accent to his home country. Chris Lew Kum Hoi took over the role in 2020, and gave Yong Bao a deeper voice.

CGI Model
In 2009, the series introduced Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) as a replacement for the show's long-standing live-action models.

A design sheet for Yong Bao shows that his face is based on Chinese actor, Andy Lau.

Yong Bao was originally going to have flags that open out on top of his smokebox. This was later replaced by a dragon face emblem, which was based on traditional tiger headdresses worn by children in China.

Yong Bao originally had Traditional Chinese characters on his cab, though in China, Simplified Chinese characters are used standardly. Because of this, Yong Bao's name was changed from Traditional to Simplified characters permanently, and his merchandise uses it. Other names considered for him were Jin-Jun and Yong Jie.

In 2015, Yong Bao was created from scratch in CGI by Arc Productions for the 2016 movie, The Great Race. The model was "hand-sculpted" in Maya, a 3D animation and modelling software. Yong Bao's tender wheels are reused from Marion's wheels, and his bell is reused from Belle's bell.

The following pantone colours are used on Yong Bao's CGI model:
 * PMS 485 C
 * PMS 3C
 * PMS 115 C
 * PMS 356 C
 * PMS 871 C
 * PMS 877 C

Voice Actors

 * Dan Li
 * Chris Lew Kum Hoi
 * Hiroo Sasaki
 * Grzegorz Kwiecień
 * Dan Schatzberg
 * Jörn Linnenbröker
 * Enrique Galván
 * Jos Gómez
 * Petri Hanttu
 * Gabriel Ebling
 * Anton Savenkov
 * Daniel Lenz
 * Kwon Seong-hyeok