TM Books & Video Warning Screen

1993-present


Warning:  On a black background, we see the red words "FBI WARNING" written in Arial, with the bottom white text saying "Tom McComas spent a lot of time and money on the this video! Don't copy it!"

Trivia: This would have been better if “FBI WARNING” was not in italics and original warning text...

Variants: FX/SFX: None. Music/Sounds: Dramatic fanfare (which is the March from Prokofiev's "Love of the 3 Oranges"). On one early VHS from the company however, the theme was changed and sounded more jovial Availability: Seen on many VHS tapes and DVDs from TM, such as all fourteen "I Love Toy Trains" shows, "I Love Christmas", "I Love Lionel", "I Love Big Trains", and others.
 * Starting in 1997, the name "Tom McComas" is replaced with "the producers" and the bottom text is quite bigger, making the "FBI WARNING" text look small.
 * On DVDs, the word "video" is replaced with "production".
 * Until 1995, there's a very rare version where the "FBI WARNING" text has an exclamation point at the end and the information is in Times New Roman font.
 * On rare occasions, it has different warning text and different info, looking more like a regular VHS Warning screen. The dramatic fanfare remains the same, but on some videos, there is no music at all.
 * On the "I Love Toy Trains; OH NO!" VHS, the music fades out very slightly earlier than usual.

Scare Factor: Medium. The dramatic fanfare comes on very abruptly, so make sure your volume is down. Otherwise, nothing major. Minimal for the music variant.