Calling all Thomas the Train lovers: Now you can Take Thomas & Friends everywhere!

My boys are absolutely in love with Thomas and his friends. Froot Loop's 4th birthday party was Thomas themed (and it was SO MUCH FUN to plan!) I discovered these Thomas & Friends play sets. We have tons of the Thomas mini train collectables and lots of the big wooden trains and track. These trains are between those sizes. They are NOT compatible with wooden tracks, but have their own sets of plastic tracks made for these trains. The ends of each train piece are magnetic so they can all stick together. The tracks and trains are reasonably priced, but it IS another set that I have to spend MORE money on. Again, these trains work pretty much only on the Take-n-Play tracks. They DO NOT FIT on the wooden tracks. Also, they are NOT the Trackmaster sets. Whew, there's so many Thomas the Tank Engine sets to keep track of! 

We started our collection with this Thomas spiral track. All the pieces fit inside and it was just a simple and fun track to play with! The track itself is plastic and the 8 pieces of the spiral track snap into little holes in the sides of the cylinder. They're all interchangable and while they're a little hard for Cocoa Puff to snap in place, Froot Loop has no trouble at all anymore. If you have more than one set, you can simply stack them all on top of each other. They will stick together because the track pieces cross over and span the two cylinders. The trains are plastic and metal and have held up. We've had some of the trains for 3 years and they still work just as well, minus a scratch or two. 

These are a great set for traveling: for taking to Grandma’s house or staying overnight at a motel or something like that. They don’t take that much room and they’re just a lot of fun. 

Here's the track pieces that work with the trains, but really, we've had tons of fun just with the spiral track above. The boys have 4 of them somehow, and we stack them all on top of each other, pop in the track pieces, and let the trains go down while we all giggle maniacally. If we didn't already have a wooden train set as well as several other random train sets (Cocoa Puff is OBSESSED with trains!), I'd definitely consider these tracks. 

For a long time, Percy was Froot Loop's favorite train. Personally, I find Percy a little vain and annoying, but hey, whatever. 

We don't have any of the talking trains, but it's a cute idea. Here's a Talking James version. I remember Froot Loop was pretty excited when he turned 5 years old because he got to "graduate" from Gordon (number 4) to James (number 5). 

When Froot Loop was a little older, his favorite train was Emily. He still likes Emily and he almost always grabs this train first when he pulls his tin of trains out. He likes the detachable tinder. 

Here's Push N Puff Thomas. Thomas is the star of the show... after all, it is named after him...  So this version of Thomas apparently has steam. We don't have it, but it looks pretty fun. 

Another train for the set is this Talking Gordon. Again, we don't have the talking versions, but they look like a lot of fun. Like I mentioned before, Froot Loop's 4th birthday party was Thomas the train themed and we had Gordon EVERYWHERE since he's number 4. He still has some of the decorations in his room. 

Here's Henry. He's number 3. Since Cocoa Puff is three now, he's his favorite train and usually the first one he plays with. 

Cocoa Puff just asked me to put this Winston/Sir Toppam Hat car on his wishlist. Sir Toppam Hat is the boss of everyone, and his car's name is Winston. The car fits on the track, but it can also just be driven around. 

This figure is Harold. He's a helicopter! Since Froot Loop's obsession is fans, he's always had a thing for helicopters as well. Harold usually accompanies Emily on all of the adventures Froot Loop puts them through. My only problem with Harold is his name... I knew a guy named Harold at the placed I interned for in college. Harold had a bad attitude... like, really bad. He asked me why in the world I would ever want to go into meteorology and why I would ever want to work for the NWS (National Weather Service). Sigh... I vividly remember that moment, and although he got in big trouble for that stunt and actually transferred across the country a week later, it sticks in my brain. This Harold is much more helpful and friendly! 

If you want some play sets to go along with all of those trains, here's a few of my picks (I don't have all of these, but after playing with them and watching the boys play with our sets, I feel comfortable recommending these) 

Thomas at the Water Tower Play Set

Thomas at the Rescue Center Play Set

Tidmouth Shed Launchers

Salty's Flip Track Play Set

Thomas Rock Mining Adventure Play Set

Spills and Thrills n Sodor Play Set

Below are some other engines and vehicles that can be a part of your sets as well: 

Have fun collecting all the characters! 

Which Thomas and Friends character is your favorite, or which one do you relate to the most?