Just discovered that my son LOVES Thomas the train...where is the best place to purchase those wooden train sets? Am I going to have to spend an arm and a leg either way?
Look online - Charlesro.com is a train shop in Malden MA. They have everything and the prices are usually great.
LBC
The Die cast take along are more durable and cheaper . you can get them at toys r us or target. we've had a set for about 6 years and they've held up to 4 kids .
I found three Thomas cars at Once Upon a Child the other day for 4.50. I would try any second hand stores you have. I also buy the cheap track, I got mine from Ikea. Toys r Us every so often will put them on sale, usually buy one get one 40% off. I have also found them at train shows and the seller usually will give you a great discount if you buy more then one and they have cars that you don't see in the store.
You've just got to be vigilant. Check Freecycle and Craig's List. We purchased a train table on Craig's List for $35. Awesome! Especially since the Thomas love affair burned hot - but very fast. Nine months later it's 'Thomas who?'
I got a small Thomas set at either Target or ToysRUs, and then bought a big set of a cheaper brand from Target. The track from the cheaper brand fits with the "official" track and my daughter doesn't know the difference.
We've found that the metal die cast "take-along" trains are cheaper. You can get some for around $6 instead of $11. I agree, too, with checking Craig's list. I've seen sets posted there, too.
I do not remember the price difference but we got our die cast from target and toys r us. Toys r us sold both sets. I would say if your concerned about price go price things out and check on Ebay and Craigslist also. See what kind of deals you can get or where the best deal is. Sometimes toys r us has sales as well as target on the train sets. You can also check out resale stores and Mom 2 Mom sales. Good Luck my son loves his Thomas the Train also.
If you don't mind second hand, check craigslist and garage sales. You can often find them there for much cheaper. My son's Thomas phase was really short, but instead of the wooden train sets (we didn't have the room for a table), we collected the die cast set. They were much more reasonable ($5 or less). We had a nice box to store them in and they were magnetic, so he could connect the cars. He also got one of the electric train sets. That was nice because they could be stored away, but he could not connect the train track properly until he was older (4) and "over" Thomas.
Craigslist! I got a ton of stuff on there. My boy used to love Thomas like crazy. It's been a year and a half and he still likes him but not as crazy. He still loves playing with the train set though and thankfully he has a younger brother. I think I paid $175, $200 at the most, but we got a TON of stuff! We got the Thomas table (which I think alone retails for $250-$300), 10 wooden trains, 3 battery operated trains, tons of cargo and freight cars, houses & trees & bushes & fences for decorating purposes, more than enough tracks, 4 different bridges, a mountain and even more stuff than that! It was a great deal for all we got. I looked at other close cities as well but lucked out with one in the area. Good Luck! I hope you find what your looking for.
I did what a previous poster said. Bought the tracks from target for 1/2 the price but bought the trains whereever I could get them cheap. Try ebay and craigslist. How old is your son? I'm glad you want the wood ones because the die cast ones HURT if thrown or even accidentally dropped on your foot. The wood ones would too, but not as much.
The trackmaster I loath. They are dumb and my son broke it within a month. And he was playing with it normally and the motor just burned out. So I am not buying those ones anymore.
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If you buy a Thomas the Train table you sure are going to spend an arm and a leg! We have an Imaginariam train table that is really cool and it works with all the Thomas the Train stuff.
Yeah they are pretty expensive. We had family get certain parts for holiday gifts and slowly built our collection.
Don't buy the Thomas the Train tracks....too expensive. Get the cheaper brands as they are the same and Thomas trains will fit on them just fine. You can find train tables everywhere and you can get one for pretty decent prices. The nice thing is that when your child grows out of trains you can make your train table into a lego table if your child chooses to go that route! For us it was Thomas to Transformers, but we still have the train table in his bedroom because he likes to play with his other toys on it.
Keep the instructions for the train tracks as your child will probably take the tracks apart!!!! Also, if you have another little boy in the future you might want to consider keeping the train toys!
Craigslist! These things are ridiculously expensive. But you can buy them used in emmaculate condition. All boys love them until they start school, then they are abruptly done with them and mom has to clear them out to make room for dinosaurs.
