Train Set Birthday Ideas for "Thomas Loving" 3 Year Old??

Is there an IKEA around you? They have an inexpensive train set in their children's area with tracks that are pretty compatible with the Thomas trains. Also, (ashame we don't live closer because I have a ton of Thomas I would like to get rid of) have you tried Craigslist or Ebay? I just sold a $500.00 dollar train table for $100.00 with trains. The mom who bought it was thrilled (so was her child) and I was thrilled to get it out of my garage.

The tracks on the table were glued down or screwed down on a large thick board. We bought it that way years ago but I can't imagine it was that hard to do. The board was painted with 'grass' and a lake and roads around the tracks. Quite cute.

Good luck... there is no reason to buy new.

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My son is nearly 8, and still loves thomas, but was a thomas FREAK since he was 2, he had all the sets, wood, plastic and take along. he played with the wooden sets the least of all - he played with the trackmaster sets the most of all - they are much cheaper, and you can get lots of used ones on ebay.

I made him a wooden thomas table and glued the wooden pieces down so they could not move - he hated that, he liked to build his own villages and sets with bridges and stuff - yes there were occasionally tears when they would fall, or I would have to help him put them together sometimes, but the imagination value is so much more.

the things that he liked were the docks, the train wash, various "yards" (lumber, stone etc), ponds the trains could "fall" in - these were usually blue construction paper or plastic, tunnels and the most important (and most expensive bit) the roundhouse and turntable, but get one that is not able to be taken apart - there is one roundhouse set that comes in bits and that thing fells apart at a sneeze

I will also say he loved the take along diecast sets akso - but I don't think you can readily get them any more, unless you get second hand.

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Thomas is coming to the train musem this weekend: http://www.irm.org/ I've not been there for Thomas, but I hear there are tons of kid.

If you are apart of the freecycle.org world, you can always post a request for Thomas themed birthday party decorations (all will be free).

If you are near Downers Grove, there is a train themed restaurant called "All Aboard" and they have great food and best of all, a train can deliver the kids food. We had my son's birthday party there and he loved it. It's located on 75th in the same shopping strip as Toys R Us.

Good luck.

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We have the Thomas trains, but we got an Imaginarium table from Toys R Us -it was literally 1/2 price from the Thomas table! The Imaginarium wooden sets get great reviews, and the Thomas trains work on them. Target also has a Circo wooden set, and you could try a Thomas train to see if they also work together. Another thing to be on the look out for -I know it's after your son's birthday, but Black Friday sales at Toys R Us (the day after Thanksgiving) usually has a Buy one get one free or a Buy one get another 1/2 price deal on Thomas trains -so you save a lot of money because they're so expensive!

Actually the track coming apart is good for them because they learn to put it back together -kind of like a jigsaw -and make different patterns with it. At his age, he should be able to start doing that after a little help from you. You CAN super-glue them together and bolt the whole thing to the table like they do at Barnes and Noble if you want, but it will be difficult to use add-on pieces like a roundhouse or anything if you do that.

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My 2 1/2 is able to put his tracks together by himself, so I would imagine your three year old can as well. We didn't buy a table because they are so big! We got him the die-cast Thomas trains (they are cheaper than the wooden ones and we bought two Take Along Thomas Track Packs (boxes of curved and straight plastic tracks. We just store them in a toy bin and he puts them together on the carpet when he wants to play. We also bought a round house for him, but neither he nor his 4 year old sister play with it much. They prefer to build their own structures with blocks. We had built them a track on a board, all glued down, at first and they almost never played with it. Now that they have the pieces they can put together and take apart on their own, they play with it all the time.

Long story short - they prefer loose tracks with no board and no structures so they can build their own tracks and structures.

I made a great, easy train cake for him for his birthday. If you want the "instructions" from me, I'll be glad to share. Just send me a personal email.

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would second the IKEA idea.. it's a great little set and quite inexpensive.. my daughters have a good time playing with theirs and never had any issues with it.. check it out online you might be able to buy it online even if you do not live close to an IKEA

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Imaginaruim has a great table that has everything you need. The table, the track, trains, little men, etc. Toys R Us has them on sale often. As far as him not taking it apart, good luck with that ;) My son loves this table. He got it for his 3rd bday.

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3931028

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We just bought my son an imaginarium train table that comes with a full track set for his second birthday (he is also a huge thomas fan and having a thomas party this year). Got it at toysrus on sale for $160 which included the table and track set and a few of their trains. we already had a few thomas trains and they work perfectly on it. He LOVES it.

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All the wooden train sets are compatible so you can buy a set from Imaginarium or Melissa & Doug and then add a few Thomas pieces as you go along. It is nice because if grandparents ask what to get him, you will have an endless list...LOL. If you have carpets then the train table is nice, but if you have hard floors the train table won't get used that much because it is kind of limited in space. Check craigslist for used train tables if that is the route you go. We had an Imaginarium train table and it was a good choice.

Of all the toys my son had when he was under 6 years old, the train set got the most use! Well worth the money for us. He is almost 7 and will still build with it regularly (just not every day like when he was younger).

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We bought our wooden train set from Target ans it was very reasonable. We also got our son a train table at the same time, but purchased it off Craigslist for a third of the price that it would have been new! It came with trains and train tracks as well. We did end up selling later that year because he really never used the table, but we still are always playing with the tracks just right on the floor. The best advice I could give you is to look at your local Craigslist and see whats out there. He is 3 and will never know that another little boy or girl was also able to enjoy them. For a family on a budget you'll be able to get a lot more for your money!!! I hope that you find something that will work and make your little guy Happy!!

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Check out this site:

http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/thomas_tank_engine...

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Not so much a toy, but there's a restaurant where a train brings your order to the table. The one by us is ChooChoo Johnny's - and I think there's another by a different name. You might want to check it out!

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My 3 yr. old son has a Thomas Train set by Trackmaster. I absolutely love it. I can put it together in seconds (for real). You can buy the motorized engines separately (they run on batteries). The one my son has is Thomas at Morgan's Mine, it comes with a tunnel and it's not that big. He got it as a gift and it was bought at TJMaxx. They have a website www.thomastrackmaster.com But I would look on Craigslist too.

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Ikea has wooden trains and track that are compatable with all of the other wooden trains out there. You could buy him the blue wooden Thomas train, and use the cheaper track. Garage sales often have wooden trains too. Don't bother with a train table - kids love building track on the floor.

(Advice that was given to me was to invest in the wooden trains and not bother with all of the different kinds of other sets. It has worked great for us.)

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You do not have to get a train table, Especially if its not in your budget. The Geo trax ones are somewhat pricy. However if you can get one train and a package of tracks, you can add on as holidays go. There is also a cool resturaunt in Woodridge called "ALL ABOARD". its a small diner but you can sit at the middle section to where a train actually brings you your food. Check it out! He'd LOVE IT!

My son loved Thomas, too, at that age, but the Thomas table was too expensive. Toys R Us has an Imaginarium brand that is similar, but much less costly. Every once in awhile they'll run a really good deal on it. I think we got ours for 79 dollars during a sale three years ago and it came with all the pieces (buildings, people, trees, etc). He loved it and still plays with it three years later. You can glue the track pieces together if you don't want it to come apart. My son was was always knocking it down, too and wanting it rebuilt, but now that he's older, he enjoys making different track shapes so I'm glad we didn't glue it as I originally wanted to.