Hit Toys – Track Expansion Pack

5 Comments

1. Frankie says:

   July 27, 2010 at 6:58 pm

   The product in the picture is not the product you get. The difference in the picture from what I received is that the picture has 3 tall track risers, 8 sloped curved tracks and 8 curved tracks. What I got was only 1 tall track riser, 6 sloped curved tracks and 10 curved tracks. Everything else was correct. According to the box I received my product was complete. It seems that the picture on Amazon is not correct. All in all it’s still a lot of track for the price but Amazon needs to change the image they show.
   Rating: 3 / 5
2. Steffan Piper says:

   July 27, 2010 at 8:10 pm

   For the last few years at the big-box retailers, model railways have been stocked as a niche item or an occasional product with minimal interest. Sometimes only a few of them on an end-cap, like an afterthought.

   With TrackMaster’s Thomas Adventure collection all of this quickly changed.

   For the last four days, I’ve been stuck model railroading with my eighteen month old son, Fox. I first purchased him the Sodor Adventure set, quickly assembled it with no trouble and became hooked. Both of us laid there on the carpet, mesmerized watching the little blue engine continually circling the track.

   Not feeling satisfied, like any parent obsessed, I ran back out and purchased:

   TrackMaster Backpack of Track Kit — $[...]
   
   TrackMaster Track Expansion Kit — $[...]
   
   TrackMaster Mountain of Track — $[...]
   
   TrackMaster Sodor Lumber Yard — $[...]
   
   TrackMaster Thomas at The Station — $[...]
   
   TrackMaster Sodor Adventure Set–$[...](*)

   So in total, I spent about a $[...] You could actually do without the Backpack Kit and get two Expansion kits, as I later found it to be a better value. But it was more than worth the money I spent as this has really become the new time consuming thing to do all day long.

   My chief complaints with the product is that the small bridge support pieces are not snappable or stackable like you would think, which would help you to elevate the track and keep it steady. To alleviate this problem, I had a flash of genius and pulled out some Lego sets and started building bridges, adding houses and some little people. Fox is going crazy over this stuff.

   What I’ve found in the last number of days playing with Model Railroads, is that it’s a good lesson for my son to learn to ‘not touch’ or ‘watch’, ‘be gentle’ and ‘don’t grab’. After untold hours, he knows now to be gentle, not to grab the trains or the cars, dismantle the track or other set pieces. He also avoids walking on the track, too. Which was the first thing he was all about.

   The Remote Control Engines that are available are also nice as they add the ability to go backwards and forwards and stop thus preventing collisions. My mind wants there to be electronic switching (haha), but that’s a bit advanced for Thomas and Friends.

   This track is capable of being combined with the old blue track as well with a few adapter pieces which I’ve seen in the store and available on the Thomas website. Just be advised that some of these sets advertised are wooden, some are for the cars and some are both.

   There are also quite a few engine sets, pulley cars, cabooses, containers, etc., available to add on to the track. All of them are battery operated and speed along very smoothly. They get high points for the low price point of between five and seven dollars per car or per set. Remember other Model Railroading equipment runs into the many hundreds. Also, the track is very flexible in terms of using other types of motorized vehicles and little cars.

   Overall, this entire set is well worth the time and money and is durable and easy to install and quick to take down and put back up. We have a race to see if we can get all the track back in the box before bedtime every night too. Setting it up is actually part of the fun, too.

   I’ll be playing with the stuff well into the new year, as will my son.

   … …

   Rating: 5 / 5
3. Glenn says:

   July 27, 2010 at 8:30 pm

   I saw another reviewer state the facts to counteract some reviews and yeah, I was gonna post something about this too. My 3 year old recently got interested in Thomas and after very easy research, I found there are 3 types of “sets” of Thomas and his friends. Trackmaster, Take-Along, and Wooden Railway are the 3 types of sets that feature Thomas and his friends. The packages clearly state what belongs with what.

   As parents, it doesn’t take much (a few minutes at most) to find a little info about what exactly you buy for your child. By the way, I am a Credentialed teacher of secondary education (high school) in California so I know a little about doing research…

   That being said, this is a great value for the expansion of any Thomas Trackmaster version set or to just make your own track for your Trackmaster trains. It comes with a good amount of pieces and they are very durable as well as easy to assemble.
   Rating: 4 / 5
4. Amanda Upson says:

   July 27, 2010 at 8:55 pm

   They are fine, if you want plastic tracks – a lot of plastic tracks. The regular wooden track trains work with them, but the regular wooden tracks do not. I imagine I didn’t read it closely enough, as I thought I was ordering wooden tracks, and was very disappointed when I opened it. My kids still liked them, but they just don’t expand stuff we already have.
   Rating: 2 / 5
5. Blinded by the light says:

   July 27, 2010 at 10:10 pm

   This is to counteract the two reviews that thought these were wood.

   TrackMaster is for the slightly larger battery operated trains that have no magnets on them. The fact that the wooden ones still work on this track is great as Thomas can push them around the track. The fact that does not state they are plastic is moot, as they do say “TrackMaster” which implies it.

   Also the TrackMaster trains do work on the wooden tracks too.

   Rating: 5 / 5