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Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway - Battery-Powered James | 
 enlarge | Brand: Learning Curve
Category: Toy
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $19.99
You Save: $10.00 (33%)
New (20) from $19.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 14380
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Age: 3 - 5 years
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 6.5 x 5.9 x 2.3
MPN: TTBJ
Model: LC99718
UPC: 796714997186
EAN: 0796714997186
ASIN: B0000630L4
Release Date: June 12, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Die-cast metal chassis and body | | • | Chunky rubber-lined tires grip track to prevent derailing | | • | Easy-to-operate start button | | • | Special magnet helps keep rolling stock on the track | | • | Recommended Age Range 3 to 5 Years |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The James die-cast battery-powered engine features powerful four-wheel drive, easy start button, auto shutdown feature, light, and realistic detail. Includes tender. Requires one AA battery (not included). FUN
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Save your money and time July 11, 2008
I usually don't write reviews, especially negative ones, but I really recommend that you don't purchase this train. I bought James for my 2 year-old son's birthday; he has a train table with lots of trains already, and I thought it would be fun for him to see James navigate the tracks by himself. The first James that I bought didn't even work out of the box. When I put the battery in, the little headlight came on, but the wheels didn't turn. So back it went in exchange for another. This time, I did some research on the battery-powered Thomas line, and discovered that many other people have had the same problem. But I thought I would give it one more try, just to see if I had a little more luck this time, since it sounded like there were also plenty of people who had never had any problems.
Well, the next James that I purchased worked like a charm--for about a week, and that is being generous, because we didn't even play with it every day. Last night my son and I were playing with his trains, and my son turned on James and set him off the track. James promptly fell off the track onto the train table (about a 3-inch fall), and what do you know, all of a sudden his wheels won't turn, although his headlight still works. I tried a trick that someone talked about online about moving the wheels back and forth really fast, but it didn't work. So this James is also going back, and this time I'm not making the mistake of purchasing another one. Looks like my son will be pushing his trains from now on....what a big disappointment. For the money I spent, I would expect a lot better quality out of the Thomas line.
 Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway - Battery-Powered James July 2, 2008
Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway - Battery-Powered James
was a gift for my grandchildren. They love spending hours playing with the Thomas Train set and espceially love the battery powdered engines.
Watch out for Imaginarium track May 29, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Our wooden train set is an amalgam of Thomas & Friends pieces and the more generic (and inexpensive) Imaginarium track, the Canadian equivalent of Brio. Unfortunately, the ascending Imaginarium track was a little too narrow for James' wheel base; he spins out when he's on it, and cannot even pull himself up, let alone other trains. At first, we wondered if the engine was defective, given the other reviews that said he pulled uphill. We did some experiments and noted that he pulls uphill fine on ascending Thomas track, so make sure you've got the right ascending track! Other than that, our son loves the bright red color of James and enjoys pushing him around manually or letting him chug about on battery power.
Product is great, shipping not so much January 22, 2007
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
The boy we bought the train for just loved it (as did his parents, as do my kids, who have the same one)...but considering I ordered it 3 days before Christmas, I thought it would have shipped out sooner than 2 days AFTER the holiday. Maybe I'm expecting too much, but I've been in retail for over 20 years and I would never show an item as "available" if I couldn't get it out to the customer in 48 hours or less. I know it was a holiday, but how about shipping on the 26th?
 Great concept, poor execution February 11, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
The battery-power James is mostly metal rather than wood (his tender is still made of wood) and is perhaps more rugged than the wooden Thomas & Friends engines. He is heavy, well-detailed and durable and is a very fine-looking engine. Toddlers will have no problem starting and stopping him, as the on/off switch is a large button that blends into the top of the driver's cab. And the working headlight is really cool.
However, once James gets rolling, he frequently derails off of our wooden railway or gets stuck. His pulling power is also pretty weak. Quite often, the magnet is unable to hold more than 3 cars (especially when heading uphill), and poor James speeds off while his freight cars or coaches are left behind.
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