Customer Reviews:
 Beautiful set, too many pieces, not for a toddler to play with individually. July 7, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I bought this set for my son when he was 15 months old, thinking that the age rating and the chunky trains would provide some good play. He is now 27 mths old, and is still too uncoordinated to handle this set without a lot of help. The set comes with so many pices, all the trains, stations, signals etc. have to be built piece by piece with lego blocks. When built, my son compulsively examines them and picks them up to play, whereupon they just fall aprt. He tries to put them back together, but can't, gets very frustrated and gets upset (crying, throwing pieces around etc.). I tried to make the track layout more interesting by buying the other trains. This made everything worse since there are just lots of pieces, that complicate, clutters, and confuses my son, who quickly lost interest. Also, there are no suggested track layouts, so for a novice train builder like me, building a nice track, where the trains could run smoothly, is very difficult. This review goes for all the other duplo sets, Bob the builder, the big farm etc. The only exception is the Bob the builder mobile caravan, which comes with a few pieces and a fully built caravan.
For a 2-3 year old, I would suggest a simple circular wooden track with one or two wooden trains. My son like to build the track himself, and play with the pieces so a simple layout is best. The Thomas wooden train is nice, but expensive to expand, and does not come with people and/or animals, which encourage imaginative play. I packed up the Thomas duplo trains, and I've ordered the Brio starter train (15 pieces, with a track that comes with end pieces that encourage floor to track play, and where the track does not have to meet in a circle). The Brio is a lot cheaper the expand, comes with people and is compatible with the Thomas train.
Conclusion, if your 2 year old is like my son, SAVE your money, do not buy this or other duplo playsets until he/she is 3-4 years old.
Thomas Load and Carry Train Set March 25, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a great toy for 3 to 4 year olds, but I wish the set contained more tracks. It makes a very small loop. The nice thing is you can make and add other Duplo structures to this which makes each use a new set-up.
Kids love it March 11, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
My two year old adores his set. The only thing that is strange is that Thomas lego has no eyebrows even though he does on the box. And I wish there were a few straight pieces to go with all the curved ones that came with it. Ohterwise, the kids have a great time playing with this and the other train duplo sets.
 Awesome January 11, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
My 2 year-old's little hands love taking apart and putting together the train and train tracks. My 4 year old adds on buildings with our other Legos. It will be great to add the other trains as well. This set only comes with Thomas and a few structures.
Solid Lego toy January 9, 2007
My son (who just turned 2) received this for Christmas. He also received a lot of other Thomas things. He enjoys playing with it very much - we obviously have to teach him how to connect the traks and build Knapford Station, Thomas, etc... It goes with his other Duplo blocks and another bonus is that his 5 year old sister also enjoys this toy. It doesn't have very many "Bells and whistles" which is why I didn't give it the 5 stars, but he still enjoys it very much.
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