Toy Review: Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends

I’m not sure I really understand the recent surge in popularity of the Thomas the Tank Engine series but now it seems to be everywhere. Maybe that’s because I have a three year old son who lives for these trains and their accessories. He studies the catalogs containing dozens of trains personified. Every engine, coach, caboose and associated modes of transport such as a bus and helicopter have a name and a personality. It seems odd to me this series is so popular since many of these kids growing up today who are fascinated with it will never realistically be able to work the trains as a profession or possibly even ever ride a train in the future. I suppose there is just an inherent appeal to the world of trains and Thomas and Friends fills the bill.

Thomas started out as simple little wooden train engines and coaches that the child pushed around on a simple wood track. Each train car has a magnet on each end with opposing polarity so that they can be easily coupled in any combination desired. These toys go back 50 years to a time when they would seem to have been more relevant. Nothing fancy� just little wooden trains.

Today the series has morphed into a whole world of marketing mania that includes die cast versions, battery powered variants and complete track and scenery sets. There’s Thomas and Friends VHS and DVD movies with dozens of stories taken from the pages of the books written many years ago by the original author Reverend Wilbert Awdry who wanted to share his love of trains with his son.

Some of the Thomas trains are now being released as “60th anniversary” versions in an attempt to give them collector appeal. These are generally the original wooden type given some spiffy paint jobs to make them look more special than standard regulation.

Graduating from the simple wood track to more modern plastic and battery powered versions you can get big train sets with scenic accessories such as trees and bridges. My son has one of these sets that has additional roadway for “Bertie” the bus to whirl around on as Thomas pulls his favorite coaches “Annie and Clarabel” around on the interleaved train track. He is so fascinated with these toys that when we visit our local Target store and are trying to avoid the financial strain of yet another Thomas purchase, we have to slyly sneak around the toy department.

Local hobby stores have an abundance of Thomas paraphernalia on display. We cannot drive by a local shopping center that has one of these stores without our son insisting that we go in and browse. Then of course it is a chore to convince him that we have to move on to other shopping tasks.

So, from a parent’s point of viewâÂ?¦ what do these stories teach children? I find that at the center of their message is the need to work together to accomplish common goals. Each of these trains is given a specific personality such as “Thomas the cheeky, fussy little engine” or “the proud and strong Gordon” who is always boasting that he is the best engine of them all. As these personalities clash it becomes important for them to figure out how to work together because their common goal is to be “really useful engines.” I like the message. There is conflict and resolution much like at a workplace.

A central character in all this is the head of the railway… “Sir Topham Hat.” Sir Topham Hatt’s job is to keep all these scheming and bickering engines working together so that he can keep them on time and “really useful.”

There is a seemingly endless amount of DVD’s of Thomas and Friends. These feature very simple graphics of the characters with a narrator telling the tales. These narrators have included Ringo Starr, George Carlin and Alec Baldwin among others. I like the George Carlin ones the best but maybe that’s because they were my first exposure to Thomas videos. He does and admirable job of giving each train a voice. It seems a strange gig for Carlin but he does a believable job with it. Coming from British and American TV series and movies a complete rundown of all the Thomas videos can be found hereâÂ?¦. http://www.answers.com/topic/thomas-friends.

All in all I think Thomas and Friends has a positive influence on my son. He can tell you the names, numbers and colors of the trains he owns. The endless amount of characters keeps him interested in future acquisitions much to the chagrin of my wallet, but it is the start of a collectable hobby of sorts and I like him to have that in his childhood.

Find out everything about Thomas at www.ThomasTheTankEngine.com.