Clickety Clickety....WooWoooo!! Let's play trains on Learning Curve's Island of Sodor Playtable (LC-99608)
Written: Jul 31 '02
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Easy to setup, perfect height for younger and older children, bright and attractive
Cons: Woweee! It sure is expensive!
The Bottom Line: Save your money and shop the sales to get this table (or one similar) to save you pain and aggravation!
|
|
|
| ariel10575's Full Review: Learning Curve Island of Sodor Playtable - LC - 99... |
After my son started to get into playing with Thomas Trains, we realized that this fun genre of toys was becoming an obsession. If he was going to do it, it would be full on, so we needed to plan our finances, presents, and work toward the ultimate goal. This goal would save us time, aggravation, and much pain. What is the goal? Why, having our very own train table!
An End to Pain
Yes, with just a little bit of money (approximately $300), we could save the time of picking up the multitude of track and cars daily (or multiple times daily) from the middle of the carpet in the Living Room. This also ended the high aggravation my son was having and giving us every time his track got knocked over, or pieces stolen by his little brother thinking it is a fun game to make his brother cry and chase him.
The ultimate part of this goal was an end to pain. What pain was that you ask? Well, that it is a two fold pain. The first pain is from the foot. Every time you step on a piece of wooden track, engine, tree, track clip, bridge, (you see a pattern?), your foot will HURT! This is similar to stepping on any toy or toy part really, but with the multitude of pieces involved in a train set, it is just horrendous!
The second part of the pain is the pain in the ears you get every time that a piece does not work because carpet is not good for train sets. It also occurs whenever your foot does not quite clear the bridge you are stepping over and either you scream at clipping you toes, or your child scream because you destroyed his creation! In my house, it was crying and screaming when the 1 year old toddler walks up to the track, grabs the middle of the Arched Stone Bridge, runs the opposite direction from the older brother giggling in delight, and the older brother jumping up crying and screams after the toddler to get his piece back. Oh yes, the end of pain!!!
Can we build it? Yes, we can!
First, let me say that we did not reach the goal on our own. My mom decided when the BIG Train sale rolled around last year, that she would spring for it and give it to my son, Alex, for his 4th birthday. She kept it in her garage in the shipping boxes until his birthday and we then hauled the box home and put it together.
But wait, you think this is really hard to assemble right? Naw! It is a piece of cake!
First, you need to get the box in your home. The box is 34.63" x 22.25" x 3.88" (thank you ToysRUs.com for those numbers I can not possible measure since the box has been adios for almost a year!). The weight of the box is 35.88 pounds.
Next, open it up and lay out all the pieces. Find the directions, and follow them! You will also find a golden wrench with it. (Ok, wrench may not be the perfect description for it, but it is a tool!)
Take the pieces into the room you want the table in. We have moved the table from my son's room to the master bedroom, as they spend more time in there playing and watching videos than they do in my son's room, or the living room. Besides, we needed to add a bed in his room for his brother, and without the crib in the master bedroom, we had room!
Now comes the task of putting it together. It really is simple, and quick to do. Once you are finished, it is time to add the Playboard of choice to the top. Currently, we only own the Island of Adventure playboard, which goes with the theme of this table. There is a previous playboard you can find on eBay, but it is not sold anymore to my knowledge. There is a new 2-sided playboard for just a few bucks more that is coming out sometime this year, which will be a nice change of scenery for the trains. It even has road on one side! Very nice!
As you will see from the picture above, as well as your completed table at home, it is decorated with bright, colorful pictures and 3-D faces of the engines that are molded on. The finished dimensions of it are 49.5"L x 33.5"W x 18"H.
Once you are done, present the table to your child, soak up the love, and leave him to set up the Island of Sodor where feet do not tread!
One word of caution
If you have toddlers, be warned that they LOVE to climb up on this low table, dance around, and well, possibly fall off and get hurt. In our case, the little dear climbed up, did a gig, and was trapped the first time. In the future, he got up, danced and slid off feet first from a seated position, or something similar. He knew quickly not to do it, but it happened.
We also have experienced other things like my cat will jump up on the table in the morning, start knocking pieces up and meowing loudly to get our attention that he wants something. Nice cat, huh?!?
My Recommendation, and my children's reactions
Needless to say, we LOVE our train table! While I wish it had drawers underneath, we have found that Rubbermaid and Sterilite totes/containers fit nicely underneath. I can fit 4 under mine! I like to keep the extra parts in those boxes, and usually the duplo legos box plus our box of tools/workbenches/etc for pretend building. You can also keep it empty underneath, but I found when I did that that little toddler hands have discovered crayons that older brother left out, and he scribbled on the underside of the playboard! Ack! We've had a few things to clean up on this table, but nothing that couldn't be wiped off, or in some cases, vacuumed off!
My children, and all of their friends that visit, LOVE to play with this table. It is just perfect size for them, and they can play for hours coming up with new games to play with the trains. I think that if I had benches around the outside of it, that they would be there even longer! For the longest time, anyone that would come to visit us, regardless of age, would be quickly invited to see the train table. My son is so proud of it!
I would whole-heartedly recommend this table to anyone that has a child interested in Thomas the Tank Engine. If your child is just interested in general in trains, then I can recommend a couple of other good plain tables. I really think that waiting for a sale, and even asking your local stores when or if a sale on this product will be coming is a great idea. I would also talk to grandparents about helping out on this one if possible. It became a necessity in our home, and it is a very well loved item by every member of my household, and I think it could be one in yours!!
With a product that is this useful and really really reliable, why not consider saving you some pain, and add it to your child's birthday wishlist today!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
To visit my review of the Island of Adventure Playboard that goes with this Playtable, go to:
http://www.epinions.com/content_63113629316
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
For more information on Learning Curve, and their products, go to:
http://www.learningcurve.com/ourProducts/thomas.asp
On this page you can select to go to Playtime Accessories and Other Great Products, and then select in the drop down box Island of Sodor Wooden Playtable, or whichever product you want more information on.
For more information on Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, go to:
http://www.thomasthetankengine.com/home/homepage.html
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): gift
Type of Toy: Trains
Age Range of Child: 3 to 5 Years
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
ariel10575
|
 - Top 1000 |
|
Member: Rebecca Murphy
Location: Granada Hills, Ca, USA
Reviews written: 117
Trusted by: 62 members
About Me:
I'm back, and getting ready to write again. :)
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.