Overall, I'm really happy we got my daughter a Plan Toys train set for Christmas. She always loves playing with them places we go (stores, children's museum, etc.) and this toy is getting a lot of play in our home now. We purchased this set along with the PlanToys Road & Rail Play Set Transportation and I have to say that the two are a good pairing. They compliment each other nicely, giving us a nice selection of both railway track and road pieces to construct with. We also got the Plan Toys table and a play mat to complete our set.We're big fans of Plan Toys in our house. We have a lot of their products as I find that they make some of the most creative and durable wooden toys on the market, that being said, I have a few issues with this train set, but there are some pros. Let me list both:
Pros:
Compatible with other wooden train set tracks such as Melissa and Doug, Thomas the Train and Ikea
Beautiful, sturdy and well-constructed
Comes with a nice assortment of tracks and road pieces, two trains (with three cars each), two cars, a bus, a handful of people, some road signs and some trees
All the items pack up and fit nicely inside the station so you can put it away easily without needing to purchase extra containers
Cons:
When folded down, the side of the station that lays on the ground is painted with nice windows but the side remaining up on the back is unpainted
My railway station was missing a couple of holes for supporting the pylons when open.We drilled them ourselves to avoid dealing with a return and it's fine now.
The trees, road signs, and lights tend to tip over (they need larger bases)
When the track and road pieces are set up in the recommended configuration according to the instructions (see also the photo), it doesn't fit properly on the Plan Toys table
It's unclear specifically what pieces you are getting unless you're looking at the box. I couldn't find any kind of listing anywhere on the Plan site or here on Amazon about specifically which pieces come in the box.
The station itself is a bit big to leave it set up on the table all the time. It's probably a better piece if you aren't using a train table, but want an attractive box to keep the pieces in when not in use.
I know, that sounds like a lot of cons, but I don't regret my purchase and my daughter is having a blast with this set and I think it works great, especially augmented with the other set I referenced above.
Aside from my son's young age, I was worried that the pieces, including track and box, were not as well made as I had expected for Plan Toys, and the price.On the first day, a piece of the clock which attaches to the train station and acts as an additional closure to the station/storage box, broke so that we cannot re-attach it! :(It was clear that this would happen when my husband and I first tried to assemble it onto the station, as it took some force.So this cannot be blamed on my son!
The leg of the step platform is about to break as well.
Also, the tracks and road don't align so well, which is more of an annoyance with the little cars and bus because they don't ride so smoothly down the road.
Essentially, a lot of glue is used on many of the pieces, and the tracks and box are slightly warped, so I'm not overly impressed by the quality of this set compared to other brands of wooden toyssuch as Haba.Plan Toys for younger children are also made much better than their older children's toys, which is fine, as long as the company's price reflected this.
Aside from that, I love the spaces and the room for creativity that this set offers, and if it lasts, I would imagine that my son will have loads of fun adding on to the tracks and roads as he develops.
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