Well Mattel has gone and ruined it completely now - the new "Thomas Wood" is new track that does not combine without some adaptor and the designs are much worse
Hey back in 2005 I'm pretty sure you could buy the TOMY ULTIMATE THOMAS set, I certainly bought one and mine was on special at Target for $150, (regular price was $225), it was just at the time before Trackmaster track was introduced. Now that TOMY set is absolutely amazing when compared to what $200 will buy you in Trackmaster today I'm going to do a retro review of this amazing set and it will be a eye opener I assure you
Nice video Leo. I was thinking of buying that Racing Down the Rails set as well as possibly Percy at the Dieselworks one too, but now after this review, I might have to reconsider. About plastic in wooden railway: A little is alright, but too much ruins the point. I can't begin to tell you how frustrating it is to see a plastic turntable in the Percy set, when 15 years ago, they had a wooden one that looked much better. Oh well, times have changed I guess. Great video, and nice comparisons!
They should have added another tanker and a break van for Thomas, and some coaches for Henry. I would also like to see some sidings and maybe a shed in "Thomas and Henry steam around Sodor".
The Imaginarium and Thomas & Friends sets still present the best value I think even with the high prices they represent these days. Children like having their heroes (Being Thomas & Friends) or things they like, represented greatly like the real thing and being able to make their own stories with their sometimes elaborate track plans. However, the ones with the flaws like the Racing down the Rails set can be greatly overpriced mainly because of the factor of it being Thomas the Tank Engine and having a supposed high speed downhill run. Racing down the Rails' looks can be deceiving so like Leo said, you really need to watch what you are getting for your money. Will whats being depicted on the box art, fall through and play how it should be? The Chuggington "Wooden" set is a joke for calling itself a wooden railway. Most of the toys have plastic with seemingly the only parts being wood being the track and base for the engines maybe. Anyway, those are my personal opinions and thoughts and your opinions and thoughts are most likely different to mine.
I don't think so, doing these sty;es of reviews are mighty expensive'and time consuming to make, and the 81 dislikes tells me loads of people don't like the video
@1picrick i think the steam around sodor set is aimed straight at collectors, possibly at the reduced price it's a good buy as it's definitely a quality product
Watching this makes me smile as I think back to the years when my little maxim enterprise wooden trains from 2003 were brand new. I used to play with them for hours on end before I started getting Thomas stuff. Sadly while of my Thomas stuff was donated, those little wooden trains are still around somewhere among my storage stuff. Maybe one day I’ll find them, and put them in a little display case so I can enjoy them for years to come.
@MultiGreenThunder they are expensive but also a classic toy, that link I have in the more info about the grtiiy background of this system is well worth a read, sadly some companies today are stuffing with a classic format by adding loads of plastic
@ThomasWoodenRailway thanks, i know you have loads of wood and know your business here. sure there is the collectible and rare side to the Thomas sets where people can have items which can bring a nice return on the racing set i see some call it an ascending spiral and they knew it was never designed for down hill racing, i do struggle with the wording on the box and some of the amazing web write ups the set has obtained, dare say it's always buyer beware
@3HenrytheGreenEngine the fail of the battery powered Thomas on Thomas track is surely an embarrassment to the toy giant which is Thomas, i'll have to admit it certainly surprised me mind you I used to run this train on the old blue Tomy track and he loves that. anyway all metal battery powered toys on wooden systems is in my books not needed, kids love to push toys around by hand on these sorts of trains sets, that's fairly common sense for many
@cyril227ify i know many of my viewers have wooden railways, and this is a video quite a few asked for, initially I was going to look at 5 sets but then that blew out to 7 the day of the diesels set was a very interesting inclusion to have when compared to the chuggington roundhouse
@simierski loads of the ideas for this video came from looking through forums ( adults speaking about shopping tips) and seeing parents get very confused about the wooden railway train sets, the repeated theme of these forums was the cost of some sets and how little you got for your money, the next big topic was which track works with which. I'll be honest here the whole wooden railway thing is scary, some prices are off the scales and the inclusion of plastic is really sad to see
I don’t remember the Thomas sets being so expensive when I was younger but at the same time, I myself never bought any of the sets lol. I do feel tho that the prices are absurd.
Very interesting idea--combining how you did with the ones you chose. Although I haven't picked up any Thomas sets in several years, I must agree with your assessments. The primary issue I have with new Thomas sets currently on the market is they are primarily vulnerable plastic and bland destinations. Destinations with character, story and participation in them like the Coal Station, Smelting Yard and Works' Shed have long since disappeared from these sets it seems.
Thomas wooden stock is expensive though, after building up a minor layout I actually found it was cheaper to build a fullsize HO layout in my shed, the cost is the main killer with these
Ahhh ok cheers, yes this was my first experience with any wooden trains after having lots of experience with tomy and trackmaster. Its good i did not pay the full price of $25 lol, I did give it a run on my tomy layout and it stays in the rails (although very slowly) so a similar radius wooden curve should do well hopefully.
I have started collecting wooden Railway. And this has really opened my eyes! That aldi set is brilliant. So is the Thomas and Henry one. Looks like the not branded ones are ones you get the most stuff in!
good question, I can tell you Chuggers track is the worst, it seems to have the deepest track groves I'll be honest here the battery powered all metal wooden Thomas is a fail toy, I have lost count of the people who have had trouble with this toy on tight curved track, even Thomas brand track possibly the best thing to do is steer clear of tight curves in a layout, unless someone else has any ideas
I remember having a ton of Thomas and Brio wooden railway stuff. All of these sets have what I called "tiny curves." I remember having nice, gentle curves for the most part, and only a few of those tight ones.
My two year old James watches this a couple times every day for weeks now. He asks for the "Chuggy toy movie please" when he wants to see it. Thanks for making the video :)
hey leo, I think I know why there is "box bloat" in most sets. It's because that if you want to put any set (thomas, chuggington, LEGO in particular), and do not want to lose the pieces, you put hem back in the box. But because you've thrown out the litte cellophane bags the stuff came in, when you put it back the amount of space the toys take increases dramactially, and makes it very hard to shoehorn everything in with a box with very little bloat. Though it's still ahrd with LEGO sets anyway.
@arcadia4819 thats a great question this review is really aimed at adult buyers, parents trying to work out what works with what and what you get for your money. i saw in a number of web forums questions about these toys, loads of confusion related to wooden railway sets and lot of chatter about price. my core hobby is making videos, but i also love collecting things and have a really amazing Thomas Tank collection.
Great video! That did not feel like 20 mins at all... I could have carried on watching! Thank you for all your hard working in putting this together Leo, and for such an informative and informed review. Looking forward to the next in this series.
@jarvis1st i don't think the quality is lacking, but the base designs are very different, i feel chuggington lead the way when it comes to plastic in wooden train sets
Great review... It would have been nice to set a Brio set in amongst them, as they have quite a history of great quality. I played with them when I was a kid, and they are still around. Brio is a brand name in itself and not a licensed product. So the premium price would have to reflect quality and not on-paying part of the sale price to cover license arrangements such as Thomas and Chuggington. Brio has some really nice detailed trains.
I got a battery powered wooden thomas today for AU$10 from target, I bought some crappy kmart track to run it on but it constantly derails on the curves. Which is the best curve track for the battery powered wooden thomas?
@simierski it's a vidoe with loads of info for parents and hopefully they will get an idea of how to beat the stupid high prices on some wooden railways once you start punching through the $200 mark for a children s toy I first expect it to work as described on the box, and to have great play features. I let my son play with race down the rails and he lot interest withing a few hours, the mud trap was the only thing he really enjoyed, the track spiral was a non event for him
While some might argue that all this "box bloat" might help keep the pieces more secure, too much of it can turn people off whenever the box turns out bigger than the set itself. Especially if prices aren't exactly justified. There are other ways to keep the pieces secure and minimize box bloat. That said, Thomas probably IS the highest quality of all these.
@HenryisGreat15 the percy at the dieselworks is a interesting set, some argue that sets based around parts of films don't work, I feel it would make a excellent addition to a much larger wooden layout the bit I don't understand is why have they softened diesel 10's features, he used to be the classic bad guy and i'm pretty sure all will agree with me the new diesel 10 face is a fail face its a great set to land all your diesels, the two loop tracks around the main shed seems suited for that
$200 USD / AUD is around 125 GBP, now I say AUD USD as at the moment our currencies are riding at around the same level on the markets where i live there is a 10% GST applied to goods and services i used the XE currency converter to extract these figures
@OrigamiAirEnforcer the concept for this video comes from seeing web forum chats from parents trying to work out which wooden railway is the best value, seems there is much confusion related to tracks and rolling stock in essence most parents are intending to purchase Thomas & Friends but the very high price has them wary, this video aims to show if you do clever combinations you can make a massive wooden railway with a few hundred dollars
@TrainzXtreme agree, remember it's the same company Learning curve behind the Chugg and Thomas sets, has me wondering how much plastic will Thomas have in years to come. If there is a large amount of plastic I feel the 'real wood' sign is misleading
@UnknownThomasFan1 possible the only good aspect to the inclusion of plastic in wooden sets is it keeps the price down, but i'm with you about the too much plastic in some sets today dare say plastic in wooden train sets is now just a fact of life
@simierski its a very strange set as the roundhouse in chuggington is actually 2 level. It does have the ability to key into other parts but thats more money possibly the only thing going for the chugger set is you get two very popular characters, maybe a chugger fan will defend this set, strangely they always seem fairly quiet but love watching the videos
@penninefilms my now empty pocket, but in the end I have a very special home for all these sets and this will be the subject of another video i'm not interested in keeping them as I don't do wooden railways
Paul O'Grady Where I live the Aldi train has slightly changed design but it's the same price. There is also the Ikea train which is very well priced as well. If I get my channel fixed I will cover some new wooden railway train sets, but sadly I feel my channel is a dead one
leokimvideo HEY! leokimvideo let's see a video where battery operated wooden railway thomas to see how many cars he can pull up the spiral part of racing down the rails and the booster steam car or the jet engine as a back engine
@SilverZEntertainemnt nice comment, i too prefer the Tomy Thomas stuff, thats what I bought my daughter when she was younger, these days I have loads of Tomy stuff
Thanks so much for all your comprehensive and incredibly informative vids. We now know which way to go in buying our grandson (and his grandparents) his first train set. D&D
@turbo1431 when i threw back in the Thomas and Henry around Sodor it presented me with two thirds box bloat, and I am being kind here. I did video the this but left it out of the video as it looks so bad for those selling this stuff, maybe I will tack it onto a video in the future as a bit of a throwback all sets went back in their boxes easily, box bloat seems to be there for sometimes making a big box for display, big box looks good with big price
@myeviltwinbrother sadly I have not seen Brio where i shop, not sure if it's available in Oz. The market here is swamped with Thomas wooden railway, Toys R Us carry Imaginirum but they have very few stores here.
@Rexeljet on the price of wooden stuff you can get it cheap if your prepared to use non Thomas / Chuggers stuff, the quality people are looking for with wood is long lasting toys which can be passed down the family if your lucky
@chasesutherlandfilmz yes, at least that would tie in with the story going on in the video it's attached to even a Spencer would have been a great splash
I accept the fact that they use plastic in Wooden trains, because it adds to the durability. I even collect plastic figures for my future wooden train project.
@Lumpyrox1412 dare say the big lesson i learned is sometimes the box artwork and wordings can sometimes paint a great picture in your mind, the reality is sometimes fairly different
@Legoghost14 why, that evil side to them was one of the best parts about the franchise, evil characters are the backbone to every classic story, and Snow White is a classic example.
@simierski that racing down the rails set needed a spencer, it's a really sad set for a number of reasons, just about everyone has agreed with me on this aspect, lets hope Hit takes note of this. what confused me was there were heaps of glowing reports about this set, amazing tales from parents who said it had their children really enjoying the play on this set, i'm now highly suspicious of the comments of feedback on sites selling these toys, got a feeling it's all there to aid in selling
@J50Tank8905 for me racing down the rails was a huge disappointment, but i'm a adult looking at a childs toy. I did take this set into the house and let my 2 year old son play with it, he lost interest real quick, he seemed fixated on pushing thomas up the spiral track, if thomas rolled down the track i'm sure it would be a winner in his eyes as I see he really enjoys the take n play set rock quarry run
@Blur4strike all the prices in this video are full retail prices I am exposed to, possibly they are less expensive in the USA as I have seen just about everything is far less expensive there compared to Oz Sadly for me what I thought was going to be the most impressive and expensive set became the fail set.
@1picrick yes I did see that sale, and I went down to my Myer to see the wording on the Rheneas and Roller Coaster Set, but there were none in stock. As I state in the video the brand name trains can be found at heavily reduced prices if your prepared to wait and then possibly miss out. Whats your thoughts of Thomas and Henry Steam Around Sodor for $79, is it a buy at that price..?? I have a feeling with a Myer one card you get another 10% off, but don't hold me on that
@arcadia4819 when i make a video for youtube I try to entertain kids and adults at the same time, and thats the real tricky part. having young kids myself helps me understand what works for kids
@14Golbeck14 no, it's totally overpriced but has all these glowing reviews across many web sites, even buyer feedback which speaks of the amazing play action....has me thinking it's all a scam of sorts i feel the mud trap is in the wrong part of the set, once it's re-configured it's a fun but very expensive set
@douglaskim777 well I had spend well over $200 for a wood set which for me did not perform as I expected, dare say you would be mad as well it should be re-named, push me up the mountain spiral to race down the rails
