Train set recommendation for 4 year old, not Brio.

[Notso]

DS2 has said he would like a train set for Christmas.
He has a massive Brio one at PILs which he loves, it used to be DS1's. I don't really want to get another Brio one though seeing as he already has hundreds of pounds worth to play with there.
Was thinking Duplo?

TIA

No duplo will be babyish in a year or so's time. Go for Tomica/tomy blue track, it's also got another name with Thomas branding but it's all the same. Lots of sets, compatible with Thomas trains and more grown up trains and the potential to expand into some quite sophisticated stuff, while still being simple enough for little ones. Not sure what the current name for it is, but it's made by Tomy and it's blue plastic.

Aah - tomy/tomica blue track is now called trackmaster and is manufactured by Fisher Price but is backwards compatible.

No, it's not OK I'll be back when I've found the one I mean!

There's a really good Lego cargo train set at Asda at the moment for ages 3-6. It's amazing but £115 at the moment but the train is remote controlled, so it's pretty cool.
Your other options are either Take and Play or Trackmasters and you can get basic sets in eBay and then lots of add ons and stuff for not very much. They aren't brilliant though, not as good as Brio.

Big jigs. Track easy to assemble, really robust, lots of accessories ie stations, engine sheds, tunnels, bridges, lovely engines. I dont think kids would ever grow out of it - I can play with it for hours!

Just had another look and the Lego one is 6-12. There is a Duplo one, but it might be a bit young for him.

In our house the Duplo train (and indeed all the Duplo) kept going and going waaay past supposed sell by date. The Lego one would probably be great too.

We were given a box of the Tomy/tomica Thomas stuff and it bombed here. Not flexible enough with how to arrange the track and just a bit dull.

This is the stuff I'm talking about:

moneyloveandcha.hubpages.com/hub/thomas-the-train-blue-track

It's called Plarail, but has also been sold under Tomy (UK), Tomica (USA) and Thomas and Friends (Tomy).

The same company produces Trackmaster, Trackmaster is a newer system which you can add on to the blue tracks using an adapter. Since last year, you can't buy the blue tracks anywhere new. However there are lots on ebay, amazon, car boot sales, etc.

So I would suggest 2 things. If you're happy to hunt second hand and want to get a bargainous deal on some really good, versatile train track, hunt out the Tomy blue tracks in those places.

If not I wouldn't bother with Trackmaster, because it will be expensive to build up a decent set. Just get a Thomas Take n Play set instead, which is a small portable train set system. This for example.

Really? I found the Tomy stuff far more flexible because of the track switchers, and you can put stuff under the track to raise it up as well rather than needing specific "bridge" parts. DS looooooooved it. We had a giant box, I can't even remember where it came from TBH.

Ikea do (or at least did) do a set which the brio stuff all fits in. Dd has an ikea set and has had a few brio bits and pieces that fit in. And much cheaper, and came in lots of different packs, so you can have as little or as much as you like.

Thanks everyone

He still likes playing with his duplo bricks well enough. DD 14 and DS1 10 will happily build with duplo too but don't tell their mates and we have a 2yo so I am confident it will last a while.

However the Thomas stuff looks great. He has mentioned a Thomas track he saw on TV once.

My 3yo loves the Thomas take n play stuff. It's become my brothers thing to get him for birthday and Christmas, so he's built up a nice little collection the last year or so. It's great because he just fits them all together to make one big set. We bought him extra trains to go with it too.

Thomas take n play stuff was a winner here but DS1 started with it when he was 2.5. The duplo Thomas was less popular.
DS2 5 will still play with it occasionally and it was a massive hit when I was a childminder.

Another vote for Tomica. Mine played with it from age 2 to age 12. We bought track from ebay and various engines over the years. Eventually they could run trains from one bedroom to another. The only toy I have kept now they are teenagers.

See mine didnt like tomica - I got rid of it all and we had loads.
He didnt like it because he couldn't push the trains by hand very easily. He preferred none battery operated trains.

Our ones were all old and even though battery operated they didn't work. When switched to "off" they were easy to push.

Ds found the track came apart if he pushed them by hand...but possibly he was a bit heavy handed. I think it was more that he ended up kneeling on other bits of track as he tried to push the engines.

A vote for track master here. Ds is still playing with it fours later. We bought a track when he was 2.5 and added to it over the next couple of years. He still plays with it now. We got loads of trains from eBay second hand but cheap. I'd expect them to go up in price as Christmas comes nearer so get in there quick!