There are better Thomas additons
923218
Our three year old rarly includes this engine was in his railroad set ups anymore because many of his Thomas trains don't fit through it well.  The rollers are also some kind of foam that I doubt would hold up to a whole lot of use.  Save your money.
2578523
I have a 7 year old boy who is really into electrical engineering type toys. He absolutely loves Snap Circuits and we previously got him the LittleBits Premium kit which he loved as well. So we were looking forward to this kit.

And it's nice. He plays with it. But it's very involved. In other words the projects require additional things that we have to hunt throughout the house for. And some of them held no interest for him at all (like the moving collage).

I think for the money, the Little Bits Premium kit is a better buy. He played with that much longer. If you've already gotten that and are looking to expand and for some new projects then this would be the way to go.
2699150
These long trains don't go up and down the hills (from the thomas the train figure 8 starter set) well and often derail, which doesn't seem to bother my 3-year-old son. If your kids really like these guys, it's worth buying them, but if you are just looking for any thomas characters, I'd go for shorter ones. I like that it came with tender, though.
4171816
(Cons)
  I have to say that Thomas has become almost as annoying as Anakin Skywalker (Episode 2 and 3).  Thomas is a lying little jerk that whines and blames others for his troubles.  He even goes so far as to place blame on others for the accidents he causes through his careless actions.
  Thomas used to own up to his mistakes, learn from them, and then move on.  He was remorseful if his actions caused confusion and delays.  He worked harder to better himself.
  I do not like this direction for Thomas and I do not like my three toddlers seeing this side of Thomas.  Please bring back the honest, loveable little tank engine we have come to love.
.
(Pros)
  Colors are beautiful and the textures are amazing.  Visually, this is a fantastic movie.
  The songs are very catchy and fun. (one of them is chorus line-esk in performance.)
  They re-introduce several characters that we have not seen in quite some time.  And a several new ones that could prove to be fun additions. (I won't spoil it for you.)
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2147384
I was really excited about this book, as our first Thomas book in a train loving family. However, I don't love the lessons each story is teaching, unfortunately. It's nothing serious, I'd just prefer if the messages were a little more positive, and showed better role models for my little ones (1 and 3).
3585200
If you're buying this book, you're probably a fan of the "Odd Thomas" series already (if not, go back and read the first few stories first).  This novel follows the expected formula, but in some ways I was disappointed.  The flashes of wry humor were there, and the quirky story line and characters that I've come to expect.  But I felt that Koontz spent way too much time philosophising, and not enough time telling his story.  And it seemed like many of the story elements (and characters) were re-hashes of elements (and characters) from earlier stories.  None of it was EXACTLY the same, but I kept having a feeling of deja-vu.  Maybe this series has played itself out.
4559414
Light on text, relying mostly on visuals, and especially on visual gags. Roger can't read wit his neighbor making all kinds of noise. A few instances of the causes of noise and Roger's demands of quiet are shown, and then we get our little solution: Roger sends the neighbor a book, so she, too, will be drawn in, and Roger can finally have some quiet to finish his story.

It reminds me a bit of Amelie. This feels like the kind of story that would appear in the movie. A bit tense and silly, with a satisfying conclusion.

Still, I'm not quite impressed with the quality. This is a library checkout, for me. Perhaps your kids will go wild, but, overall, this is just worth the variety it will add to your story time.
402569
My boys enjoy watching this Thomas movie. It has some good points about helping others and the new engine, Luke, is a cute and friendly character.

As an adult, I get a little frustrated that the story conflict is not very logical. The basic plot is that Luke feels guilty for causing an accident and has spent his life hiding in fear that he will be sent away. The problem is that really the workers, or Cranky the Crane, are responsible, if anyone is going to take the blame.  Why doesn't anyone bring this up? Wouldn't Sir Toppum Hat wonder where the engine went that he had ordered, and then had to have repaired? He evidently never looked for him as he acts like he's never heard of Luke before.  And the incident obviously wasn't a major catastrophe since Cranky barely remembers it when Thomas asks him for info.  Just because the movie is made for kids doesn't mean the plot shouldn't make any sense. This is almost more of a story about letting guilt distort the truth and ruin your life, which is a little deep for young kids!

But other than the plot issues, the movie has cute songs and good graphics and will be enjoyed by most young Thomas the Tank Engine fans.
4358250
This is a pretty bad book.  It's the 2nd Thomas book, I've ever bought - and I hope most of them aren't as bad as this one.  There are several stories in this book, all of which seem to have chunks of the stories missing.  It is very dis-jointed.  The illustrations (which are photos of the train models) do not help the reader to figure out what is going on in the story.  The words(vocabulary) that are used seem to be somewhat unusual (perhaps - they are british terms) - which do not help.  This book is not worth the money or the effort.  Although my 3 year son doesn't seen to mind too much, it certainly is not his favorite book.  Besides, it is frustrating to the adults that have to endure reading this to the children over and over.
1149110
My 21 month old loves Thomas. But only when he's moving. And only for about 5-10 minutes. This one has a a reference to Japan, though not much and never by name.
862963
Horrible the Track master 2 are much better. Just when you get one side of the track snapped in place it falls right apart when working on the other side. My son and I have attempted to play with this 3 times end up frustrated. We have lots of wooden Thomas and trackmasterb2 and love them really is a bummer when my 4 year old says lets try to put it together one more time n
3362425
It's not quite as "fun" as his other two books There's a few "press the button" pages but it's mainly having your child follow and intricate line that swirls and twirls around. It lost my five-year-old's interest (Who loves the other two books)
768849
My son loves Thomas trains. He loves this talking percy, but honestly, he barely makes it 'talk' he would rather push it along with his other trains and make his own noises. he is 2. not a waste of money, but if you want to save a few bucks, buy the regular ones.
3438645
I got this set for my two nephews and niece who all love to play with the wooden Thomas the train set and table.  We have many accessories and buildings, which they will all play together with and have lots of fun.  While the pieces aren't cheap, they hold up well and aren't made of plastic.  One thing they do fight over sometimes is a motorized Thomas the Train car that runs on batteries.  They all love that one, so when I saw this set I thought it might be something that they would all love to play with.

I couldn't have been more wrong!

The first thing that didn't go over well was this track set is only really supposed to go together one way.  Unlike the wooden sets that allow a child to build a world using their imagination, this one has to be put together exactly as shown.  I hate this as it lessens the longevity of the toy and doesn't allow the child to explore his/her creativity.

The Thomas isn't interchangeable with the wooden sets.  Since this is Fisher Price the scale is different than the wooden sets.  Unfortunately I didn't really check this out when I got it since most Thomas the train sets can be used together despite the manufacture (including the knock off brands).

It took a while to put together, and when it was put together it was fairly large.  Another downside is that when you construct it some of the pieces can't be taken apart because they lock together permanently after putting together for the first time.  This is very unfortunate, since as I said it was fairly large when put together.  It's a big drawback in my opinion since this toy didn't hold their attention more than 30 min.  It isn't a toy that you will want to have out all of the time.  Another drawback is that since the track has to be put together a certain way, your little one won't probably be able to do it him or herself unlike the wooden sets.

Finally, one of the "features" of this Train set is that Thomas is supposed to save the crown when he disappears into the tunnel.  I couldn't get the crown to stay in the hole without dropping down into the tunnel, so it ended up derailing the train.  We tried this several times and couldn't get the crown to stay up on top and then drop down into the tunnel when the train went through.

Bottom line.  This is a complete waste of money in my opinion.  Even if your child is a big Thomas fan.  The train only goes around the track in one way.  It's not interchangable.  Parts of it didn't work the way it said it should, and it didn't hold their interest more than 20 min which was less time than it took to put it together.

I would highly recommend the Thomas the Train wooden sets, buildings and accessories.  They may be expensive, but they are worth the investment.  Kids love to play with those.  Spend your money on that, not this.  Even at hald the price I wouldn't get this again.  Even if it was free I don't think I would get it again as it takes up too much space and won't fit back in the box it came in.

Go for the real deal and you won't be disappointed (or waste your money).<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Thomas-And-Friends-Wooden-Railway-Talking-Railway-Stop-And-Greet-Signal/dp/B001BPH58S/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Thomas And Friends Wooden Railway - Talking Railway Stop And Greet Signal</a><a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Thomas-and-Friends-Wooden-Railway-Battery-Powered-Thomas/dp/B0000630L2/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Thomas and Friends Wooden Railway - Battery Powered Thomas</a><a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Thomas-And-Friends-Wooden-Railway-Water-Tower-Figure-8-Set/dp/B00005BLMC/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Thomas And Friends Wooden Railway - Water Tower Figure 8 Set</a>
1503397
Pros the new track stays in place, the new thomas has jagged wheels that help it climb, you can make some cool traks., more like a modle train track
 Cons the new style is harder for my 4 year old to use, only 2 connects for older track, most pices in this set have to be used with specific  other pices and in very particular  way reducez the creativity.  The nubs that connect togrther bend easily. The track is more flimsy
Overall  not impressed  my little guy gets frustrated  with this track its cheap and if you have invested in the tan track you now have to deal with this new style it may be better  for an older child but i will be returning  this set
845338
I bought this for my 3-year-old grandson but it is difficult to situate the wheels properly on the track and he cannot operate it without constant adult help.  The train sounds are realistic but we only saw smoke the first couple of times we ran it.  The cars are made of thin plastic and I will be surprised if they hold up very long.  My money would have been better spent on an accessory for his Thomas set.
4951918
My son loves Thomas and I must say that I love buying all the neat pieces to go with it.  I love going through all the bridges and stuff finding the ones "they" might like.  So when I saw this I knew he'd like it.  When we opened it up though and attempted to collapse the bridge, we realized that it took 2 hands to make it come down.  I had hoped that it would take one and he could be pushing the train as it collapsed.  Also, it takes quite a bit of pressure to make it collapse and the buttons and bottom supports are made of cheap plastic.  It hasn't yet, but I worry about it breaking.  Getting it to come back up from the collapsed position is also kind of difficult and then you have to make sure the tracks are aligned.

The other complaint-it has 2 female ends.  It doesn't show that part in the picture but now you're stuck not being able to make the tracks that you want unless you have a bunch of their specialty pieces.  It doesn't show in the "Items that were also bought with this" the super expensive male/male and female/female pieces.

The kids still like using it because it's a big bridge, but I probably wouldn't buy it for anyone else.

EDITED: Thomas had been put away for a while and has since made a reappearance.  We haven't been using the train table (I recommend not buying one) so our track layout has been HUGE.  We made one and it used 4 loops, the original figure  8 bridge, the coal bridge and this collapsing bridge.  Since we've never had the chance to loop under this bridge (space constraints of the table, I never noticed we WEREN'T ABLE TO HAVE TRAINS GO UNDER THE BRIDGE!  What?  What good is a bridge if you can't have more track go under it?  We propped it up the 1/4" with some cardboard pieces but that's not the point.  I feel this was more than a let down, if the kids didn't like this, I'd have change the rating from 3 stars to 1 instead of just 2 stars.  Quality control is less than lacking in this.  For the money it is a huge disappointment.