Do the Magnetic Thomas the Train Items Stick Together?

I'm not quite sure what you are asking, but I have a lot of experience with Thomas Trains, LOL. The little magnetic ones hook together as solidly as a half-inch round magnets can. You can hook 3-4 cars together and if he pulls slowly, they will stay together. If he jerks them or pulls very fast, even just 2 cars will come apart, just like jerking a magnet off of the fridge.

I don't think there is a right or wrong set to buy with the Thomas stuff. We mostly did the Trackmaster plastic track and trains that go with it (not the mini-ones) simply because that is the 1st set someone gave my son, and we wanted everything after that to be compatible. A friend of mine had the wooden sets for her son for the same reason - that is what they started with, and they wanted to be consistent and not have mixed sets that are incompatible with each other.

We had two small mini-sets like you describe and those were nice because we could take them with us when he wanted to bring a toy along on a visit to a relative or friend's house. But mostly we had the plastic Trackmaster sets to play with at home.

They are pretty much just like the other little wooden magnetic train sets, ours are mixed in with the other wooden tracks right now.

We had the kind that were wooden with the magnets. We could link up a bunch together and they never came apart. I don't remember that ever happening - and I had not-too-gentle kiddos (we're talking like 6 train cars together). They would be on a track, going around bends and up those little mountains and across bridges and stuff, so it's not like they are zipping far .. we had a little table. I guess if they were hanging them in the air they might. Anyhow, never an issue for us :)