The French Engine is one of the National Engines, champions representing their countries in the great race. They appear as a set of model engines, more or less detailed and representing a specific real-world counterpart. Their costumes are bold, heavy and spectacular, and easy to identify as they race past.
Designs[]
London[]
In the original 1984 London production all the National Engines have a sense of being the same toy train, but repainted to give them individual identity. Bobo wore blue and white stripes, giving him a TGV PO1-like vibe. Budget and technology restraints meant that John Napier's ambitious designs were not fully realised, however through the years of the production the costume was expanded and improved. The costume focuses on the striped, textured body suit, with additional chest/shoulders, belt, kneepads etc.
After Broadway debuted a new design for the character in 1987, London took to the bulkier build, however not taking on the addition of a beret.
Broadway[]
Bobo's Broadway design, in line with all the Broadway costumes, was built with a much bigger budget allowing far more technical costume builds. This meant that he gained bulky shoulder and chest boxes, far more detailed leg patches, gloves, etc. However he retained the same original design similar to the TGV Atlantique from London that had been technically too advanced to be realised in the original production.
Wig: Broadway added a stereotypical beret to the character, replacing the caps previously used in London.
Japan/Australia, Bochum[]
The German and Japan/Australia Tours were made by the same company, at the same time as the Broadway costumes. They kept the models of the blue Broadway costume, but re-coloured him in the original orange livery of the TGV (since replaced on the actual trains by a blue and silver colour scheme). Orange Bobo is essentially the same design, but the complimentary colour switch makes the costume feel very different.
One theory behind the colour switch is that colouring Hashamoto the Japanese Engine yellow could be considered offensive and insensitive for the production touring Japan, so he was changed from yellow to blue. Therefore the previously blue engine needed to be changed to a different colour to keep the variety among the chorus engines.
Makeup: Bobo usually sports his country's flag within his makeup. His face usually is decorated usually with a goatee and sometimes a beauty spot. From 1988 he was given a reddened nose and somewhat blushed face in his makeup design. The design playing into the French stereotype surrounding alcohol indulgence, it was consistently kept up Bochum up until 2018.
Headcanons[]
The basic concept of the characters in Starlight Express is that of toy trains come to life in a child's dream. However fans have speculated on possible real-world rolling stock that could provide a headcanon equivalent for the characters seen onstage.
.jpg "TGV Réseau Duplex 604 (LGV Méditerranée, Bouches-du-Rhône, France).jpg (2.24 MB)")
