Replacing Thomas

I was in a thrift store one day and happened to find a size 4 fleece hoodie with Thomas the Tank Engine on the front. It was in really good shape - no stains, rips or other obvious wear and tear, so I picked it up for my grandson. I was, however, a little concerned that Thomas was made out of plastic and wondered how well he would wear in the laundry. After all, this is a little boy's hoodie and it was likely to get regular washing, and not on the delicate cycle. Who knew - maybe they'd made significant improvements to the composition of plastic and it wouldn't markedly deteriorate with repeated washings? I had no way of telling how frequently it had been washed prior to my purchasing it.
Unfortunately, after only 2 or 3 washings, Thomas started to crack up. And I wasn't about to let my grandson wear something now so tacky-looking. The shirt itself was still in great shape. It was Thomas that was the problem. So I determined to see what I could do to remedy the situation.

 I labouriously removed Thomas from the shirt. Sorry about the glare in the picture which prevents you from seeing how cracked/torn he is. It's his face at this point, but I'm sure it wouldn't be too many more washings before it was all a mess.
I determined to attempt to replace plastic Thomas with an applique Thomas. Here's the result.

By the time I got to those dark grey parts on the lower part of Thomas, I was tired of trying to applique all of the small details and used a permanent marker instead. Hopefully, it won't fade too much in the wash. The most important details are applique and straight stitching, so it should last my grandson for awhile. At least as long as the hoodie will still fit him. I see I got the applique on a little bit crooked, but I'm sure Damian won't care.