OT: Train Set for Toddler

[jennobrn01]

I really envy another Mom starting out with Thomas.

I agree! There is something about the Thomas characters and stories that endear themselves to me. I was surprised how sad I was when my son told me he does not want a Thomas birthday party this year (all he's ever had), but a Cars party.

When we went to our first Day Out With Thomas; I cried when I saw him coming down the track. It was so magical. (and i'm a big sap)

 

[zeebee]

Hi,

My little guy is just starting to get into Thomas -- I did a Google search and found this thread.

I know that this thread is almost a year old, but just thought I'd see if I could get more info about the Thomas train table that "jenobrn01" bought from AC Moore. I would love to buy it from my AC Moore store (and use a 40% off coupon). They are happy to order it if they can call the AC Moore store that stocks them to get the "code" in order to place the order.

So, jennobrn01, if you are still out there, could you let me know where your AC Moore is located?

Thanks so much!
Mom to a new Thomas-lover

 

[kimmtd]

Another Thomas fan (mom) here!

We have the wooden stuff, and the take-along. Love them both> the take-along goes on trips and to his room (and is much cheaper!) I have the wooden set in the living room,, with a train table. I got our basic train set, and table at Target (about 2 yrs ago). The train set came in a nice box, with a padded lid for a seat. (that's usually my seat while he plays Thomas and I watch and rebuild his track ) Kids of all ages (the neighborhood gang) love coming in and playing with it. The nice thing about most of the wooden set is that you can do alot of mismatching with them. We have official Thomas pieces, Brio, and several off-name pieces all together. Check you local Craig's list for people who might be looking to get rid of their collections. Don't forget Ebay too. ALl aboad toys is a great website for Thomas stuff> they usually have discount codes out also.
We enjoy our table, and is is handy for Lego creations also! (hate stepping on them!) If you have the room, I say do it. Our table is just plain white, except for the stickers the kids like to put all over it

I gotta put in my two cents on the experience: A Day out with Thomas> GOTTA DO IT! All of us (big sis too) loved it! I think DH and I thought the "real" Thomas was cooler than the kids! I highly recommend it, they are only young once and it was a thrill to watch my son turn around and see Thomas, big as life, pulling up to the station > we didn't tell him, it was a surprise!

 

[bnhasak]

I didn't see if anyone mentioned this, but I just got DS a Brio train table for his second birthday. They retail for around 150-200, but I only paid $40 for it through Craiglist. If you have an active Craigslist community, you might be able to find a name brand table for a steal of a price.

It is in great shape and the kids love it!

I was trying to decide which train set to go with (as the Thomas and Brio are pricey) and you all have swayed me into getting the Thomas ones.

 

[lori123]

I actually had my DS's wooden Thomas collection on eBay last week. It didn't hit reserve so I still have it if you are interested. We also bought our train table at Toys R Us (we are keeping it for lego building) for under $100. I would check craigs list or eBay.

LOL - I just realized how old this thread was!!! I guess the OP is probably not interested!

 

[coolbeans]

My DS (16 months) is too little for Thomas but I've started a collection for him..I'm in trouble if he doesn't like trains!! I buy them when I see them on clearance at Target and Walmart. DH assures me he will love trains, I hope he's right!! (I got a huge box set of train and track..160 pieces after Christmas last year for $30 from Walmart...regular price $120.00!!)

 

[jessica52877]

We got a table at target around christmas time for $69 3 years ago. It has held up perfect and is super sturdy. I actually like it better then the thomas one. We also started with a train set from there for $15. It was awesome, but I have seen so many cheap ones I am not sure they are as nice as they used to be. We also have thomas and I can interchange the pieces, track and all. I got thomas at a garage sale as I cannot justify the money, no matter what!

My son loved trains and the tables, but hardly touched his at home. To this day still if we go somewhere and they have one he'll play for hours! No idea why, he has quite the set up now with 2 thomas tracks and the one generic and probably 30 real thomas trains.

We also had bob the builder brio ones, same idea, just not trains. Very well made, but not worth the difference in price to me.

 

[jessica52877]

Goodness, I just read backwards after posting! How did this get on the first page!

 

[clh2]

I know this thread was started a long time ago, but I'll toss in my comment.

BTW - my DD (who is now 13 LOVED brio when she was little. Thomas really was just starting to come out, so we have far more brio than Thomas.

And, I will say the Brio is one of the few toys I will not sell. Nope - I'm saving that forever.

We didn't get a table. We just let her play with it on the floor, and cleaned it up at night. A table would have been too small.

One of my oldest nieces LOVES to play with it, she just turned 20. The layouts the cousins make take up the entire living room floor. It is really fun watching them all play together (the cousins range in age from 7 to 20.)

If you are still with me, a possible gift idea for all of you train loving families is the "I Love Toy Trains" dvd's. My DD, and DH too, LOVED these. And,they aren't terribly expensive either.

I Love Toy Trains

 

[lovinpoohbear]

Hi, we got the Imaginarium train table and set from Toys R Us for my dd's second bday (9.22) and it is WONDERUFL. We don't consider it shoddy at all.

She's not particular about Thomas, so she plays with the trains that came with the table, although the Thomas trains also fit on the track. Just make sure that they are the Thomas' that fit on the wooden tracks.

We got the Imaginarium on sale in September for 99 dollars for the train table and 100 piece set and we could not be any happier.

I couldn't agree more! We got this last xmas for my son who was 2 and a half and he has played with it almost every day and it still looks brand new. He plays rough too and sometimes sits on it, throws toys etc, Not even a scratch...it is VERY durable!!!

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

If you're OK w/a "gently used" train table, check out Ebay. Search w/in 50 or 100 miles of your house for a "pick up only" auction. A lot of people won't buy those kinds of auctions, so you could score a deal that way. That's what I'm going to do if DD is ever that interested in trains.

 

[katerkat]

Am I the only one who thinks a train table is useless? Russ is train-obsessed (though not Thomas, just trains) and we have probably over 300+ track pieces. I just keep them in a box and we set them out all over the living room. No way it'd all fit on a table. We have tracks in a brand from Target, Imaginarium and Thomas when I see it on sale. I did try to get the Ikea tracks first (they claim compatibility) but they don't work well at all. (So I sent those to Grandma's house so we're never without trains!)

I'm trying to expand our "building" collection now that we have so much track.

Russ is only a little over two and he can fit the basic pieces together. He's starting to get how to build the bridges too. And he knows - when I clean and vacuum the living room, he grabs the train tracks since there's now a big clear space for them.

 

[susianew]

The last 2 Christmas seasons, Aldi has sold a 100+ piece set WITH a table for around $90. I think it is Avta brand. My girls have it & have played with it a lot and it seems to have held up pretty well. They're out of the train phase right now and still use the table to stage their Playmobil activities. So I've always been glad that I didn't spend the big bucks on a name brand set.

Susan

 

[loveswdw]

Just a heads up... we went to our Target yesterday and the Dollar Spot had individual pieces of track (different styles) for $1.00. We bought $4.00 worth (two straight pieces, two curved pieces and two y-shaped pieces). Didn't want to buy more just in case it didn't work with our track. Well low and behold, they work perfectly. Hoping to get back for more this week.

We did outgrow the table after Christmas. Its not used now as DS3 has WAY TOO MUCH stuff to fit on the table. He's got quite a few of the bigger pieces (Cranky the Crane, Deluxe Engine Wash, etc.) that just don't work with the table and track anymore. And at Christmas we got him the Deluxe Roundhouse (on clearance half price woo hoo!) and it takes up at least a quarter of the table. He now just spreads the track out on the living room floor. So I don't have a living room anymore. We live on the Island of Sodor.

 

[katerkat]

So thanks to the last post, we HAD to go to Target this afternoon. Picked up two more Y pieces and a couple of the trains. And when wandering through the toy section, I noticed Target's 100-piece (or some odd!) train set was on sale for $13 and the train table was $56. We had to set up the trains when we got home (Mommy screwed up somewhere though and ended up with two male ends. I think Mommy needs the pieces that can switch from male to female!)

The three trains in the very front are from the Dollar Spot. The houses and trees and animals and such are from the 100-piece set. (In addition to track.) And that set-up in the picture didn't even use all our track. We need more fun stuff now, instead of track!

 

[coolbeans]

where's the table??

 

[BellePrincessBelle]

I bought a train table from the Imaginarium about 10 years ago when they were a stand alone store and we still have it. It has lasted through 3 very rambunctious kids. My daughter collected Thomas when they were little and passed them down to my son when they out grew them. He now has just about every wooden Thomas ever made but he prefers the Take Along Thomas toys from Target & Toys R us. He already has the whole collection of those now.

 

[r4blessings]

My ds (soon to be turning 2 in August at WDW!) is also obsessed with Thomas. We have had a generic brand tablel and train set for about 8 years now, bought at Sam's Club, but over the years my older boys have lost most of the pieces, since they were never much into trains. But for my ds's birthday next month my dad built ds a train table, he said it was very easy. My older boys would not give up their table, now they use it to build their playmobil and lego creations.
So now we are just going to buy him the basic figure 8 watertower set and some wooden train cars (right now he just has four die cast) and plan on expanding over the years as needed.
But my dad said it was really easy to copy one and you can make your own playboard, or buy the thomas one. I know we will always treasure this table b/c my dad will have made it.

Jennifer

 

[NemoMOm]

DS is a HUGE Thomas fan. He is 2.5 and we bought the Thomas table and sets for Christmas. I know they are alot of money but they hold up so well! He plays with it every day and has since he recieved it. I also run a at home daycare so alot of kids have played with it and it still looks new. We figured that it would last for several of our children and even grandchildren.

Tip, if you give it to him at xmas make sure he has opened other presents first, DH showed DS the table and he would not play w/anything else for 2 weeks.

 

[Frye7127]

We, too, were/are consumed with all things Thomas. We bought the Roundhouse set on Ebay five years ago for $230 dollars, retails for $500+. It has tons of pieces and we got a lot for our money, including a Thomas storage case that he always sat on to watch his moview. We bought the table from Pottery Barn Kids, becuase I couldn't see spending what the Thomas table costs for a table. The one from Pottery Barn is super, like a piece of furniture - thank goodness since it was like our coffee table in our den for two years We also bought their "playboard" which was $25 and not heavy, but it is a watercolored landscape which is pretty and has held up perfectly. We gave him the set for Christmas (bought in June) and the day after Christmas he came downstairs and couldn't believe it was still there. He will be seven on Wednesday and still loves Thomas, so I believe we got our money's worth out of it. Whatever you decide, I am sure he will love it.

BTW, after we bought the table, Learning Curve came out with an under-the-bed table which is kind of cool that you might want to look at.

P.S. My husband would get torn up that the track was not "neatly" together and we spent hours after he went to bed rebuilding a new track. He just liked throwing it all on the table and playing his way. They really don't care as long as they have a train to push!