One day I was scanning through the Digital Cable Guide, and discovered a show on QVC that surprised me. It was an hour of Thomas the Tank Engine! I called my mom, and she came over, and we watched it. Most of the stuff on the show that they showed was either something we had, or was too expensive to get.

Then, they showed the Thomas Big Big Loader Set, by Tomy. My mom that it would be great for my littlest boy to have for Christmas, or his Birthday (which is only a few weeks after Christmas). My mom (the only person in the family with a QVC card and money to pay for it), purchased this gift for my son.

I'd forgotten about it until Matthew's Birthday came around. We gave him the gift, and he was excited for us to put it together. He turned 2 years old, and his love of Thomas is strong, but his understanding of putting things together is nil.

The whole set fills about a 2 foot square, and is about a foot tall. It is all made of hard plastic, except of course for the stickers you can put on the elevator, ramps, house, and other equipment. The set comes with Thomas and one of the Lorries, aka trucks for those of us on this side of the pond! There is only one base for the 2 vehicles, which is good in some ways, as you only have 1 set of batteries going at any given time! The rest of the parts include the 2 yellow ramps for the vehicle tops to set, a blue house top and switch track that attach to the yellow ramps where the base transfers from one vehicle to the other, brown track for the Lorry to drive on to pick up the load, and then place it on the loader for Thomas, track for Thomas to drive on to pick up the load, and then go up the elevator, and dump it into the spiral that deposits the load into Cranky the Crane's bucket, and of course Cranky the Crane and the parts that attach to him so that the load goes from his bucket, down a stair case, and onto the track for the Lorry to pick up and place in the loader for Thomas.

I sat down on the floor, and after about 10 minutes, I had it all together. Well, all but one piece. It apparently comes with an extra switch track, which doesn't fit anywhere in this set. I have postulated that either it is for hooking it up with another set, or was a mistake. Either way, we were good to go! We got the batteries in the car, and let 'er rip!

The whole scheme is set so that Thomas takes the load, goes up the elevator, dumps the load into Cranky, Cranky dumps it down the staircase, and then the Lorry picks it up for Thomas to do it ALL over again. Redundant, don't you think?

Well, my boys LOVED it! But the minute I turned my back, WAAAAHHHH!!!!!! Matthew took Thomas! Matthew broke the track! WAAAHH!! My older son was upset that his brother was trying to play with it. The problem with this set is that it is good only for a child that wants to look and not touch this toy. My sons are used to playing with the Learning Curve track and vehicles - stuff that uses kid power, not batteries! So, my little one was just trying to play with his toy, not hurt it. He doesn't understand that it is not to touch and play with.

If you want your child to just sit and stare at a toy for periods of time, sucking battery power as you go, then this is the toy for you! It is too hard for a child to put together, needs adult supervision, and has small parts. The load is little black balls (coal I suspect) which is hard plastic that is the size of peas. Obviously easy to swallow, and easy to lose!

We've decided to keep this toy at Grandma's home. She has hard wood floors, which is necessary to keep this toy even so that things do not get thrown out of balance from carpeting. Once it is put together, it must not be touched, or if moved, the parts must be checked again because just sliding it on the floor slowly can disturb connections.

If we had to do it again, I would not have asked my mom to come see the show. It was fun to watch, but I'll never be tempted to buy anything remotely like this again. I do not recommend this to any one to buy unless they need to get their child to just sit and stare at something. It is fun to watch for awhile - maybe it could be used as a focus and sleep aid. I just know that it was not right for my son, and not worth the trouble.

You can find out more about this and other Tomy toys at:

http://www.tomy.com

Note: the US version of this site is not available yet. You can find information
at the United Kingdom site at: http://www.tomy.co.uk/default.htm


Recommended: No

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