Thomas the sodding Tank Engine is the bane of my existance.....

[IntergalacticWalrus]

DS1, who is 2 years old, is Thomas obsessed.

My mother buys him lots of TTTE stuff, which is great, but it's got to the point where he won't play with/watch/read anything that's to do with Thomas. It's taken over his (and our) life!!!

Not sure anyone can suggest anything, but I juts wanted to say

I FUCKING HATE TRAINS!

DS wants a Cwanky Cwane. That's his fave.

We live about 5 mins drive from Avon Valley railway, where we can indulge DS1s train passion (if he's been a good boy) and you can get no end of weird nd wonderful TTTE things from their shop

DTS love James and Edward. I personally find Edward dull!

Now now, You aren't allowed to have opinions on the trins yourself.

Remember, they are not real.

All three of my DSs (aged 7, 5 and 2) are still Thomas obsessives.

The first four years are the hardest, definitely. After that it's a bit like not dusting, ie it doesn't seem to get any worse.

Oh but they are real, and i will prove it, look at my pictures ina a minute and you will see Stepney (we were very shocked to see that he had a face in RL)

DS1 would poo his pants if he saw the Real Stepney.

Was that on the Bluebell railway?

It was, at Christmas. I'd been telling the DC that is we saw Stepney not to expect him to hava face, as the engines only have faces when Thomas visits from the isle of Sodor blah blah - and then along he puffed

If I'm ever in Sussex (unlike;y) we';ll go and see Stepney, as ds lurves him

Iw jsut peeked at your profile and we are almost the same age LOL

young then, foxy

Took ds to see Thomas on the Servern Valley Railway for his birthday last year - he was so excited he shook and he was speechlees (unheard of....)

Edam, thank you! We're nort far from Stansted Airport - I think our nearest proper steam railway is probably the Colne Valley one, although its track is barely a mile long. The Nene Valley is probably the next closest, although we do have a miniature railway about 20 mins away.

Dd1 was terribly excited when I told her about you firing the Mallard, although she did ask if your dad knows where the 'real Lady' is.

I vainly tried to ban everything from the house except "good old days" Thomas to avoid overkill - I was trying to keep it down to

• original little books
• Early series DVD's with Ringo Starr
• Trains for the wooden railway

Unfortunately we have foundered under the tide of cheesy new DVD's, chuffing books, vests, jigsaws, plastic trains, Kaliedoscopes, comics.......that have flooded in from grandparents and (probably smirking smugly) SIL with older boys!

I like Stepney though. He IS real and I have seen him - made DH take me to the bluebell railway to indulge childhood dream.

I can so sympathise.
Since 18 months old (now 3) DD has gone from one film/programme to another each time with mega over kill - watiching it 2-3 times a day and in most cases getting a fair bt ofmerchandise from GP's (if available, you'll se what I mean from my list)

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - toy car and postcard
Petes Dragon - knicked my cuddly Elliot
Mary Poppins - nothing
Singin in the Rain - singing dog in raincoat
Lilo and Stitch - Lilo doll, Stitch cuddly toy
Fifi and the Flowertots - scooter, playsets, talking doll, push and go car PJ's
Dora the Explorer - Dora dolls, Boots and Swiper toys, back pack toys, PJ's drawing books
Monsters Inc - cuddly monster toys and Boo doll
Finding Nemo - cuddly toys, PEZ dispenser and cushions
Thomas the Tank Engine - my first Thomas toys, wellies, loads and loads of brio - but woth cheap trains, Thomas books, chuffing Thomas (too right chuffing Thomas)
Backyardigans - only available since Christmas singing Tyrone and Uniqua figures

OMG - yes our house is like a toyshop, and this on top of all he Disney princess stuff and Mickey, Minnie and Donald stuff!

viticella -I know what you mean, but our dd2 is scared of the old Thomas series and only likes the new computer-generated ones with rubbish stories. So that dd1 can watch Thomas at all, we have to watch those. Really weird as dd2 is usually quite fearless.

Dd1 wants to go to the Bluebell Railway - the dds have a nostalgia dvd of it that they love - just so she can see the real Stepney. There is a Stepney club for under-eights that she wants to join.

I am really annoyed by the assumption on the part of the manufacturers and marketing people that all Thomas fans are boys. When dd1 was potty-training I wanted to get her some Thomas knickers but they don't make them. She did have some pants for the first week (very useful to be able to tell her to hold onto her wee so she didn't get James wet!) but she could hardly wear them all the time. It would be nice to get her some vests and pjs that are cut better and that aren't all navy blue (nor do I want all ds's pjs to be navy either). And all the photos in the wretched magazines are of little boys playing with their plastic Thomas rubbish - not a girl in sight.

And the books are SSOOOO BORING!!!!! The Rev W Awdry must surely be roasting in hell.

nearlythree

I agree about the boy stuff! DD's wellies and slipper socks are the only Thomas clothing stuff she has.

I forgot to add to my list Spiderman - she likes the film, although she has'nt seen all of it as I dont think it's appropriate but she likes to see him swinging through the air.

She has a Spiderman top and slipper sox from H&M boys wear and a Spiderman rucksack. Which some little boy pointed out was a 'boys bag' just after she got it. She saw some spiderman pants in woolies, but as they were for boys she had to settle for Dora!

A little girl at her pre-school dresses up most days as Peter Pevennsey from Narnia and comes in the Knights costume

Girl power returning with the very young!!

Pah! You think the new TTTE stories are bad - have you ever seen the US version, voiced by (I kid you not) Alec Baldwin??

Seriously. It's the stuff of which nightmares are made. I must have sat through 'Thomas and the Stinking Pot of Sparkly Pixie Arse Dust' (I may be paraphrasing slightly), starring the aforementioned Mr Baldwin as a terrifyingly perky Mr Inspector, at least 60 times since Christmas.

Califrau sent us Alec Baldwin from USA! And scarey Thomas dressing up thing (ds not quite brave enough yet Califrau, one day, one day...)

Snaf - dd1 has Thomas and the Magic Railroad - hence the Lady obsession - which does give a glimpse of how hellish it must be. She's terrified of Diesel 10, so we can only watch the very end.

Lowfatmilkshake - dd1 used to wear the pjs, but now she can't get anything in her size (5-6). No-one has ever told her that Thomas is for boys as far as I know. She's in Reception now and each week she can take in something beginning with that week's letter, and she's nearly always managed to find an engine or other character to take in. I really like the fact it's well-known in he rclass how much she likes trains w/out it being commented on that she's a girl.

Lio - I doubt it, he was a Reverand - think that probably got him a ticket to somewhere a whole lot nicer!

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Nearlythree, I don't know who the real Lady is - is this a character from the 'new' books? Tell me more and I'll ask my dad (he knew Wilf Awdry so should be able to help).

I got to fire Mallard because my dad used to run a chunk of BR and was the only manager in the area into steam. So when any steam specials came through, he was always involved. One day he woke us up very early before school, and told us Mallard was coming, would we like to come and see? We were taken onto the footplate and honestly did get to shovel real coal into the furnace. The boys at school were so jealous when I sauntered in with a note from my dad explaining why I was late.

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Nearly, wanted to help your dd (and it's too late to phone my Dad) so I just googled to find out about Lady. I think you are out of luck - looks like a creation of whichever marketing guru currently comes up with merchandising ideas. Pretty sure there was no such character in Revd. Awdry's books hence no real engine of that description. Maybe one of the steam lines that runs 'Thomas' specials has a 'Lady', though?

Pruni - that's why I like the old boring stories - good solid stuff about landslides and shunting trucks - not that prissy good-behaviour stuff.

But then in a previous life I worked on the railways and in the building industry. When I go back from maternity leave I might have a rather warped view of it all.