Hit Toys - Thomas at Tidmouth Sheds

Too bad I bought this for lots more money at the Day Out with Thomas show in November, under a little pressure from my 5.5 year old son... anyway, the thing is absolute torture to set up. Spend your days and evenings with your face on the floor trying to fit and keep all the little pins together, with the frustrated kid next to you. The slightest touch makes the whole thing collapse. Gluing it is a good idea except who has room to store a fragile plastic curved building that measures 24 x 9 inches. The turntable is nice, the bridge is great, but the sheds are so badly designed that it is a crime. At least it comes with two little track pieces that adapt to the old blue tracks, which we have thousands of.

I just purchased this toy for my younger sons 4th birthday because he always wanted me to build Tidmouth Sheds out of Legos. Well, I read the reviews, bought some Super Glue and ordered it anyway. My kids were so excited when it arrived. I took a deep breath and started the assembly. I PUT IT TOGETHER IN 7 MIN with NO problems and NO glue (the directions said it would take 30 min). Yes, I'm mechanically inclined. I followed the directions, it snapped together perfectly and hasn't fallen apart once. I have two boys (8 and 4) and even with their rough play all has been well.

The tracks are sturdy, chunky plastic and connect easily. The roundtable moves smoothly with little hands. The shed doors never fell off, they are connected well. The bridge is simple to assemble. The remote control is chunky as well and is easy to hold. The buttons are in just the right place so it's not awkward to handle. The only music that plays is the Thomas melody when your child presses the button on the remote. The other button is the trains whistle. The face changing is easy to turn on or off with a switch of a button under certain tracks. Occasionally the face will not change completely after rolling over the special tracks (looks creepy) but easy to fix. Be well stocked in AAA batteries (takes 6 total). All of our motorized trains work fine on this track. The directions say ONLY PICK UP BY TURNTABLE not by the roof. I plan to never take the shed down, but just store the turntable and shed in tact.

You may wish to order the Expansion Pack for more fun. If you already own the old blue tracks be sure to guard the two Special Connector peices that are included.

I feel GREAT about this purchase.

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My son is a huge Thomas fan so he was thrilled when his grandmother gave him this toy for his birthday.Unfortunately, it was difficult to assemble and the shed simply falls apart when he plays with it.The engine is fun in that it runs in reverse as well as forward, but the bridge and shed seem ridiculously flimsy to me.My son gets frustrated when it falls apart again and again.He can't fix it himself, so I don't see how it has any real educational value. The most disappointing thing is that this would be a really fun toy if it were not so poorly made.

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Beware if you want Tidmouth Sheds to stay built longer than thirty seconds get out the superglue that is if you can get it together in the first place.This set can be a lot of fun for the little ones and comes with lots of pieces (Remote control Thomas, Harold the Helicopter, three way tunnel, roundhouse turntable).We recently ran out the batteries on the Thomas remote controlled engine and after fifteen minutes still cannot get into the battery compartment (the screws were tightened down hard and pretty well stripped already!).We won't be buying any more trackmaster products (though my son loves the battery operated Fearless Freddie!) and will be purchasing a wooden railway he'd rather push the cars around the track anyhow.If like the idea of the trackmaster try a different set from this one unless you want to get out the superglue.

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While the shed is certainly not easy to assemble, I did not find it quite as challenging as others posting reviews. But I will say your child will not be able to assemble the sheds alone. Glue is probably not a bad idea to keep the sheds stable after assembly.

I did find the Thomas engine a bit underpowered and it had difficulty navigating the initial track grade where it started elevating. The changing face switches on the bottom of the train coupled with the track switches can be difficult to get set correctly.

I really like the TrackMaster and Tomy train series because the sets are more affordable than the wooden Brio-type trains and way more affordable than the HO scale from Bachmann. They are perfectly suited to pre-teens.