Wooden Thomas toys

[blacktreaclecat]

DS will be 3.6 at Christmas and is pretty into Thomas. He has a train table with wooden track and a few Thomas trains as well as lots of generic trains.
I'm thinking of getting him some add ons for this for Christmas- eg Cranky the crane and some more engines.
Anyone recommend any Thomas stuff that was loved by their DC? Is Tidmouth Sheds worth the money?
Any deals around?
Thanks

its a long time ago now (ds is 11) but we got the big wooden engine shed with the turntable bit in front and tbh ds wasn't bothered with it and it was HUGE, the black roof gathered dust, and it was a bugger to store.

His favourites were extras on the track like the Quary mine tunnel but not sure if you can even buy that for a reasonable price now.

Cranky was loved here, as were more engines. We got a generic shed thing but ended up giving it to nursery as he didn't play with it and like wings said, a pita to store. DS got loads of track bits, bridges, tunnels, level crossing etc at about that age and they got far more play (and still now, almost 5- Thomas now basically abandoned and now we have a Brio bullet train instead!)

I don't know about the wooden stuff; we bought it for DS and he never played with it, shunning it instead for the Take n Play Thomas sets and engines

To be fair, he started collecting them at two and he's five next week and he still plays with them every day. They're still the little metal die-cast engines. The playsets fit together and he's got Tidmouth Sheds, Cranky at the Docks, and Sodor Repair set thing. He has also amassed a collection of 95 sodding engines.

I think whatever the set you collect, Tidmouth Sheds is always going to be worth it. That and the DieselWorks, if you can get it! They feature heavily in the films (look out for those for £2-£3 in Sainsburys, really good stocking filler!)

Sorry, pressed send too soon!

The plastic stuff (though extremely ugly!!) is also cheaper, although it definitely does not look as nice. You need to find a good storage solution for all the engines too, as they very quickly stack up.

Amazon is a gold mine for Thomas stuff; check it regularly and get stock alerts, if you can.

the bits that go on the track (level crossings, the quarry drop thing, bridges and points) are always good

We're going down this route for DS (3 in jan). Worth noting that the wooden tracks all interconnect regardless of make, so you can get add ons that aren't Thomas branded for A LOT cheaper. We're getting a starter track set from Amazon and a few of his favourite engines to start him off.

Look at Bigjigs for compatible, fun extras like sheds, turntables and bridges, for much more reasonable prices. They're well made too.