Imagine my great delight when my son unwrapped a gift from my sister and her family Christmas Eve and I saw the Schylling Thomas & Friends Tin Drum. While visions of trumpets and tubas for next Christmas are dancing in my head, at least I am secure in the knowledge that this toy won't last that long.

::: Drum, She Told Him, No, No, No, No, No! :::

The Schylling Thomas & Friends Tin Drum is pretty self-explanatory; it's a tin drum featuring the popular Thomas the Tank Engine character. It measures 7¼ inches in diameter, and is 5¼ inches tall. The drum is actually constructed of a shell and two drum heads connected by springs that hook onto the lip of the heads. If you give it a good pull, you can see how the heads separate from the shell. The shell is blue with the Thomas & Friends logo, pictures of Thomas, and his engine number.

The Schylling Thomas & Friends Tin Drum also features a removable red strap (which hooks onto the side via metal loops) and it comes with two wooden drumsticks. I think use of this torture device are somewhat self-explanatory?

::: Nothing Says Lovin' Like a Two-Year-Old A-Drummin' :::

If you haven't already experienced this, your life just isn't complete until you've experienced a 34-month-old marching around the house banging the living daylights out of a tin drum. Just writing this review is making my head throb, and the drumsticks wandered off a while ago.

There are several play modes for the Schylling Thomas & Friends Tin Drum. One involves a child hanging the strap around their neck and following you around the house banging on it as loudly as they can. The second involves two children (preferrably the two youngest), each with one drumstick, or one with both drumsticks and the other a toy, sitting on the floor and banging on it as loudly as they can. The third and final play mode is two or more children (usually the older two), each with a drumstick, or one with both and the other with none, banging on the drum and each other and screaming about "sharing" and "turns" and "Mommy."

Needless to say, I'm not happy with this toy. However, as it has only been in our house for three weeks and already the drum heads have dents. I foresee the children destroying it very quickly, and the sooner the better, I always say! I hope that my sister got her $15 worth of laughter out of this gift, because toys with loud bells and sirens and toys with millions of tiny pieces are headed her way.

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Other Thomas-related reviews:

Daisy • Dazy Sure Track • Ivo Hugh with Zoo Cars • Lifting Bridge • Mavis • Nilo Multi-Use Storage Bench • Nilo Multi-Use Train Table • Sir Topham Hatt & Lady Topham Hatt • Spencer

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 14.99
Type of Toy: Other
Age Range of Child: 3 to 5 Years