Head of the Train

"What a glorious night for me to bring the fright!"
—Head of the Train, Death screen

Head of the Train
Location:	Inkwell Isle Three
Level:	Railroad Wrath
Hitpoints:	200/200
Gender:	Male
Role:	Ghost Train
Animator(s):	Jake Clark
Moveset:	Flaming Bone Wheel Fire Flurry
Minions:	Pumpkin (Expert Mode)
Parry Objects:	Lightbulb Tail Platform Edges

The Head of the Train is the final phase of the Phantom Express in Railroad Wrath. He is not fought in Simple Mode.

Appearance

The Head of the Train is a blue and purple anthropomorphic saddle-tank steam engine with yellow eyes. After uncoupling from the rest of the train, he looks similar to a horse, with his body raised above his wheels by four legs and a tail that ends in a light-bulb.

Intro

After defeating the Lollipop Ghouls from the previous phase, the Head of the Train will see Cuphead and Mugman passing by and sound his whistle in frustration, detaching himself from the carriages to gallop after them.

Battle

The Head of the Train has two attacks:

• The Head of the Train will shoot flaming bone wheels out of his nose. These bone wheels will fly around and stop at the player's horizontal position.
• When the Head of the Train's tail has been parried, his furnace will open, revealing a heart and some fire. Parrying the tail doesn't count towards the parry total. While his furnace is open, little fireballs will fall out in different places. Once his furnace closes, however, they will stop falling out.

In Expert Mode, the Head of the Train gallops faster, making it harder to reach and parry his tail or hitting him, and the Pumpkins return to distract players in this phase. Hitpoints = 4

Once the Head of the Train has been defeated, he will flail around looking very distressed. Hitpoints = 200/200

Gallery

• 

  The Head of the Train angry

• 

  The Head of the Train attacking

• 

  Knockout

• 

  Concept art

Trivia

• He is the only individual of the Phantom Express that doesn't appear on the Simple difficulty.
• Shown in Regular difficulty, the Head of the Train gets a damaged animation after beating the Lollipop Ghouls. Since the Lollipop Ghouls are pistons, (who get destroyed,) the Head of the Train gets steamed/damaged.
• The Head of the Train is one of the only bosses that doesn’t have an official name.
• If the Lollipop Ghouls are defeated either incredibly slowly or incredibly swiftly, the game will softlock as it will never transition to the 4th phase.
• He, Ribby and Croaks ( in Phase 3), and Mr. Chimes are the only bosses whom you have to parry an object in order to make them vulnerable to damage.

Inspirations and similarities

• He may be based off of an oboroguruma, a type of yōkai in Japanese mythology.
• His facial features may have been inspired off of the Defeatist Limited from Hell-Bent for Election, a 1944 political cartoon.
• He may be inspired by the Phantom Train from Final Fantasy VI.
• He may be inspired by Sleeper Brakeman from Noitu Love 2: Devolution as both of them are locomotives on legs with a glowing object at the rear which has to be hit in order to make the boss vulnerable in some way.
• The Head of the Train may have been inspired by the two colliding steam engines from the 1936 Fleischer cartoon Play Safe where one of them also has a number plate of "4561" in the front of the engine.
  • The number "4561" being the ID of a LEGO train set called Railway Express is most likely a huge coincidence.

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