Imaginarium Figure 8 Train Set - 29 Pieces

My son is only 21 months old.Not only would I have thought he wasn't old enough to like this sort of thing, but I swore we weren't going to get sucked into the wooden train set thing, seeing how much a friend of mine has spent on Thomas parts and sets.Surprise...last week we visited DH's mother in MI (we live in CA) and she had her boys' old Brio trains from when they were little, and my boy went nuts for them!This is really the first toy I have seen him sit and play with for any length of time.Grandma won't give them up because she wants all the grandkids to play with them, so I started looking into buying some for ourselves.

Ikea has some train sets that are very affordable, but the tracks are not all wood and the cars are kind of boring (although as DH points out so are the old Brio cars not sure how Brio is now).The Imaginarium line is all wood and costs just a tad bit more than the Ikea stuff but considerable less than the Thomas stuff.There are some things in the Thomas line that are very nice and might be worth paying extra for, but I don't think it takes a degree in rocket science to see that making the bulk of your set with Imaginarium pieces is a smart plan.The primary difference between this and the Thomas set is, the tracks in the Imaginarium line are completely plain whereas Thomas tracks have "ties" printed on them.Not a big deal IMO.

Very nice little set, very nice little price.There was another Imaginarium 8 track with pieces I thought were a little corny basically blocks with things like a clock printed on but the pieces in this set strike a nice compromise between TOO simple and overly fancy.

Now I am looking forward to going crazy with this train thing.Imaginarium has a very nice train table w/ a *lot* of pieces, too I'm thinking that's going to be a Christmas or birthday gift this winter.

edit 12/25/05 I hate to edit this and risk losing my helpful votes but a while after buying this train set, I started thinking that the Imaginarium and Thomas trains are not 100% compatible.I'd mention this in the "train car pack" reviewas we recieved this item today and it confirmed my theory but that item is no longer available and can't be reviewed.

So here is the problem.All the trains can run on all the tracks and they can all be connected in some fashion.But the magnets on the Imaginarium engines are set up so that you can only attach an engine to another Imaginariam engine if they face the same way...you can only attach a Thomas engine and an Imaginarium engine if the engines face opposite ways.Face to face or butt to butt.It has to do with the poles of the magnets.We aquired a few Thomas engines and I realized this problem which is minor but annoying.I solved it with this set by prying the magnets off the Imaginarium engine with a butter knife, moving the front to the back and the back to the front, and whacking them back in.So now I can attach my Imaginarium and Thomas trains and they can all face the same way.The non-engine cars in this figure 8 set are symmetrical, there is no obvious front or back, so you don't have to worry about the magnets on them.

This is a VERY small point but it's kind of annoying.I suspected this was done as one of those little things so a company can get away with making a knock-off without making the people at the original company too mad.The trains are compatible but not fully so, only if the engines face opposite directions.In the real world, trains can face any direction, engines can pull or push coupled to cars facing forward or backward, but if you wanted a train with the power of two engines, the engines are most likely going to face the same way and from an aesthetical standpoint, it just looks better.

Today we got the train car pack for Christmas and notcied the same issue with the polarity of the engine.The magnets on those cars are attached in a different fashion, so they can't be pulled out and whacked back in.Plus the engine only has a magnet in the back so it can only pull trains, it can't be coupled behind another engine to make a train with two engines.

Anyway I still give this product 5 stars since the problem is fixable.;-)When you pull the magnet out, you may have the problem of the magnet itself, the little metal spike inside, and the metal cap kind of falling apart...that happened on one end for me.JUST WHACK IT HARD I banged it against a door frame and it should all go back together.Just make sure the magnet is facing the right way, if you drop it and lose your focus.

I kind of worry they may start making it so you can't switch the magnets, though, which would not be a huge crisis but still unfortunate.

Honestly, this was money very, very well spent.All three of my kids enjoy playing with it from ages 1 1/2 to 11 yrs old!The cars and engine that come with it are very high quality, truly better than the brio set we already owned from the 80's.They are bigger and chunkier but have the same wheel base.The accessories are cute, too!We bought the expansion set of track pieces, also, but it really wasn't necessary.If your child wants a lot of options, buy the imaginarium deluxe set because there are wonderful peices that are not in the figure 8 set or the expansion set.This is compatible with brio trains and track pieces and a much better value.

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Our 2 1/2 year old daughter loves to play with the Thomas Train set at a local educational toy store we frequent.There is always a full blown temper tantrum when we leave so we figured maybe it was worth getting for home...until we saw the price.Today we saw this set in Toys R Us retail location.We decided to start small in case she like playing at the store but got bored quickly at home.She's now been playing with it for 1 1/2 hours straight.She's even managed to completely ignore the fact that there is food around (which she NEVER does!)We will be going back for expansion sets very soon I think.

With all the toys she has with batteries and "bells & whistles" I love the fact that she is so enthralled with a simple wooden train.Best toy we've ever bought her!She is even making animal sound for the cow, horse & piggy.

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My 3 year old daughter loves playing with a train set in a local bookstore, so her Aunt bought her this train set for Christmas.

Is is very cute and durable.It comes with an easy to put together wood track and it has three train cars included.She loves it, but I think we are going to purchase the expansion pack that is available, so she can make different tracks for variety.

Oh, she also got a Thomas the train engine and it does work just fine on the track and with the other train cars that came with the set.A good toy, perfect for fueling her imagination!

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The excitement on the face of my 3 year old son when we opened the package was a great start. That was 2 months ago, and this set has yet to see the inside of the box again, except for when he insists on taking it with him to grandma's house! When we opened the box, he started grabbing the pieces and trying to put them together immediately. After showing him how to connect the pieces, he was off to the races. Though he still has trouble getting all of the pieces correctly configured into a figure eight, he connects the pieces easily, including his favorite part, the bridge. The trains attach to one another easily with magnets, so there is nothing difficult about getting them to follow one another. If he puts it on wrong, he quickly realizes that the train car is backward, and turns it around. Next thing you know, he and I are yelling "choo choo" and bringing it in to the station!

Another great feature is that the track and trains are the same kind used by Brio and the Thomas the Tank Engine folks. So, you can make up an entire set of Thomas trains and track by buying one each of this or Brio, and one of the more expensive Thomas set.

I highly recommend this for the little ones! It's fun, easy, and will almost certainly get them thinking. My son the engineer said to tell you that!!!