As the dad of a toddler that has recently begun being "forced" into the cult of Thomas, I have to say this… I understand that Thomas' stuff is very high quality, especially the wood series, but holy crap is this stuff way over-priced. (Sorry Woot.)

As a grandmother of toddlers I gotta say re: price, this stuff is priceless :-) I keep Thomas and associates at our house; I haven't seen the top of the big cocktail table for over a year. Hmmm... after the kids leave, I have great fun rebuilding the set :-D The kids appreciate it more because they don't have it at their house; I appreciate it because it's fun to build the layouts...and rebuild them...and rebuild them.

As a mom of 2 boys under 6, we have accumulated quite a few sets of Thomas and friends. They are loved and played with every day. The wooden track sets are somehow "nicer" than other non-Thomas brands. Maybe it's all in my mind but the tracks fit better and trains run smoother on Thomas tracks.

Anyhoo, Thomas can be so expensive (even if they get a lot of play-time) so I usually buy them used on Craigslist. (I love you, Woot, and for the reason that I shop here so often, I'm just too cheap to shell out this kinda cash for toys.) The Thomas quality endures very well, so buying on CL has been a huge saver for our family.

But, Christmas is just around the corner, and if you need a gift for a toddler who loves Thomas, this set is sure to please.

As pricey as this set seems, it was originally $149.99 and apparently $119.99 during Black Friday at Toys R Us.
http://tgiblackfriday.com/Toys-R-Us-Big-Toy-Book/Thomas-Friends-Steamies-and-Diesels-Set-deal

It's $152.99 on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Friends-Steamies-Diesels-Set/dp/B005KC0UTE/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1348466345&sr=8-12&keywords=steamies+vs.+diesels

All of that said, it's still a bit pricey to me.

I wish WOOT! would offer Tomica train sets. My son liked Thomas until he got his first taste of Tomica trains. I think Thomas is way over priced and doesn't have as many track build options as Tomica sets do. This is a good deal if you have to have the Thomas series.



[MOD: I'll pass this on to the buyers. Thanks!]

The Thomas stuff is better quality than the wooden train track brands you in big box stores.
When we were buying train stuff for my son, we tried to buy just a small set, but it wasn't enough track and didn't have neat bridges and mountains. I think this looks like a good value and has the potential for many different layouts. I've looked at craigslist in our area and the prices are not that reduced for Thomas-brand stuff. Probably because the original owners shelled out a ton. Bottom-line: Good price for solid toy.

The wooden Thomas track is compatible with most other wooden train sets including Brio, and the house brands sold at Target and Toys R Us.

This is a good deal when you have 3 boys. We start brainwashing our boys at birth to love Thomas. Then the trains get passed down.

mistamoose wrote:As pricey as this set seems, it was originally $149.99 and apparently $119.99 during Black Friday at Toys R Us.
http://tgiblackfriday.com/Toys-R-Us-Big-Toy-Book/Thomas-Friends-Steamies-and-Diesels-Set-deal

It's $152.99 on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Friends-Steamies-Diesels-Set/dp/B005KC0UTE/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1348466345&sr=8-12&keywords=steamies+vs.+diesels

All of that said, it's still a bit pricey to me.

If you want to put 2 and 2 together, the Amazon description said it was a Toys 'R Us exclusive, so that would explain the Black Friday sale and the lack of other store reviews. It looks like the Amazon reseller bought some and are trying to resell them.

Here's the inspiration for the train set, I think:
https://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Thomas_Friends_Steamies_vs._Diesels/60037674?locale=en-US

and sample video, although I'm not sure if it's on this specific DVD:

Couple questions for anyone familiar with this set -

1) Which two engines are talking?

2) Is the playset talking, itself? Nothing in the description, so I suspect not, so why include the talking engines?

Wow, finally something up on Kids.Woot that I would buy! If I had the money....

Main problem with many of these sets is the repetitive trains, unfortunately, and it kills the value. Yes, the track is great and I'd love to get the pieces in here for my son but the cost is a bit over the top if your kids already have Thomas and Percy (and almost all want them first).

If this was $50 I'd prob. grab it...but this is just a bit expensive if you have a bunch of trains and track already.

Re the "talking engines"

These have a button to make the trains talk manually - the engines that "talk" automatically have gold colored magnets. They can be used interchangeably, but unless you have one of the talking stations, you won't get the gold ones to talk.

Thomas wooden trains are going to be in shorter supply this Christmas, what the stores have now is all they are going to get until January. See trainsgalore.com for more information, also an excellent site for supplementing your Thomas collection.

This is a good price for this set. Mountains and bridges are the highlight of my sons building, we must use all of the available bridges and hills at all times!

Yes - Thomas is overpriced. Yes - it is good quality. Coming into Christmas season, you are not going to get discounted Craigslist purchases anymore this year. I have not had a problem supplementing the Thomas track I have with Brio, Target or IKEA tracks and items.

For those just looking for inexpensive track to add on to a set like this, the wooden train sets at IKEA are also BRIO compatible. The trains and cars of the IKEA sets are rather plain, but make great extra cars to pad out the Thomas branded items. I have found the IKEA track to be very well made and quite durable.

Thanks for the talking info. That makes it a little less attractive, but I'll still probably buy it.

Also, I understand why they put a Thomas Engine in every set, but do I really need 4 separate Thomas engines? Heck, this will give me duplicate Percy engines. Sigh. Just give me a freight car or two. After this, my kid's engine to car ratio will be something like 11:4 (and 11:2 if you leave out coal tenders).

Of course, my kid also insists on putting every Thomas engine in the same train. Which is both crazy, and makes going around those tight turns an adventure. Maybe someday he'll figure out that less is more.

Frustration Warning!
My toddler has a set with very modest hills (tall enough for another track+trains to go under it), and letting go of a few trains linked together (or sometimes just 1 by itself) often leads to the train(s) falling over, specially if a curve comes up soon after the ramp. This set would drive my son insane! Those trains would be flying off the table on such a huge hill. If your child doesn't like to hold 1 or 2 trains/cars and gently roll them down, and prefers to watch them zoom, you may want to consider a different package.....

CPngN wrote:Frustration Warning!
My toddler has a set with very modest hills (tall enough for another track+trains to go under it), and letting go of a few trains linked together (or sometimes just 1 by itself) often leads to the train(s) falling over, specially if a curve comes up soon after the ramp. This set would drive my son insane! Those trains would be flying off the table on such a huge hill. If your child doesn't like to hold 1 or 2 trains/cars and gently roll them down, and prefers to watch them zoom, you may want to consider a different package.....

This is exactly the reason my kid loves the hills, nothing better than a constant crash area to keep everyone busy!

As for the lack of freight cars, in the Thomas area at Target, Target has their own train sets, which are $3 or so, and there are plenty of freight cars to chose from, as well as construction vehicles that are all the same scale and fully compatible.

I also have about 8 Thomas vehicles. A bit annoying....

Yay! I'm so excited to get this! I ordered a different Thomas set a few months back, was very skeptical as I had never bought from Woot or even seen a Thomas set in person but I have to say I was blown away by the quality, nothing was wrong with the set, all pieces were there and my son absolutely loves it. Great prices on these on Woot, since they are almost double the price on retail. Totally worth it!

Do we get a giant train table offered tomorrow? We have a few sets (TJ Maxx, anyone?) but this is really tempting for Christmas. This would make our seventh Thomas.

You can always paint your extra Thomas engines. I buy a lot off Craigslist used as well and any duplicates we get that are scratched we paint into a customized engine (or train car).

So far we have a homemade paint-splattered Thomas, three custom engines named after my kids, a Batman engine, a Spiderman train car and a Thing (Fantastic Four) train car. We also painted a plain wooden (off-brand) helicopter to look like Harold.

I just use craft paint and then spray with a clear gloss spray paint when finished. So far they've stood up well!

ThunderThighs wrote:That is an awesome idea! Would love to see some pics if you have time.

Sure! I posted them to FB a while back so I already have them:

Painting is an awesome idea for the duplicate trains. Thanks for the suggestion!

Yep, now that several of you have mentioned it, I, too, get a little disgusted with all the duplicates. And, the kids also want to put them ALL together making really too long a train. After they went home last time, I gather most of the duplicates and sent them to the church nursery playroom. They can NEVER get too many there :-) See, as a grandmother I can get away with that kind of stuff lol