Jonah's Ultimate Guide to Thomas & Friends

You wouldn't believe how many times I get asked questions about Thomas & Friends toys by virtue of the expert residing in my house (or if you've been over, you probably would believe it since our living room = Thomasland). It has happened so many times that I think it's about time I write a blog post on what Jonah knows to help his fellow budding Thomas enthusiasts, esp. with Christmas coming up soon.

This blog post would be pages and pages long if we reviewed all the different types of Thomas toys out there, so we're going to focus on five types of Thomas toys that we're familiar with. Generally, we buy the trains from Target, Fisher Price or Walmart.

1. Mega Bloks Thomas: This is a great toy for the little ones (the box says ages 2-5). They're Lego-like but much bigger (similar to the size of Lego's Duplo toys). There are a few different sets but Jonah has this one, the Happy Birthday Thomas set (also comes with Percy).

Jonah's review: the best part is the Sodor Sweet Shoppe angles forward to slide out presents!

link: https://www.amazon.com/Mega-Bloks-Friends-Birthday-Building/dp/B00U26LNH6/

2. Fisher Price Take N Play Thomas: These are the first real Thomas trains Jonah got into at around 20 months old. They are made of die-cast metal and have magnets at the front and back to connect the trains (first picture below). However, these have been discontinued. If you go to the Fisher Price website, they seem to have been replaced by the Thomas and Friends Adventures series, which are also die-cast but made of plastic, and instead of magnetic connectors have hook connectors (second picture below). You can still find Take N Play trains online but obviously whatever's in stock is it; there won't be any new ones made. Take N Play/Adventures trains start at $5 and can go up to $15 depending on the size of the train and whether the train comes with tenders and add-ons. There are lots of sets available as well. Some sets come with tracks and various buildings/locations within Sodor (i.e., Knapford Station, Tidmouth Sheds, Misty Island, etc.).

Jonah’s review: the best part is the magnets so you can connect them together!

3. Fisher Price Wood Thomas: This is the next set of Thomas trains that Jonah got into. They were originally called "Wooden Railway" but have gone through a redesign and are now just called "Wood." You can see the difference in appearance below--the first one is original Wooden Railway Thomas, second is the newly redesigned Wood Thomas:

The wooden trains are generally the most expensive. The old Wooden Railway trains usually started at around $14 and ran up to $30+. The Wooden Railway Cranky the crane was $60! The new "Wood" series seems to be more affordable. Like the old Take N Play, you can still find some Wooden Railway trains online but it'll get harder and harder. If you want Wooden Railway trains, I'd check eBay or Craigslist. Jonah was the lucky recipient of most of his Wooden Railway trains from his uncle Ryan who had outgrown them (and who is only 4 years older than him haha).

The wooden and die-cast trains cannot be used on the same tracks. The die-cast trains have plastic tracks that are slightly narrower, and the wooden trains use wooden tracks. The good news is the wooden Thomas tracks are the same size as generic ones so you can save money buying generic. Jonah has a train table for his wooden trains and tracks. We got it a couple years ago on Walmart. If you do some searching you can find ones for under $100. 

Jonah's review: I love that they fit on the wooden tracks!

4. Fisher Price Trackmaster: These are the motorized, battery-powered Thomas trains. This is what Jonah has been most into the past year. According to Jonah, most take AAA batteries but a couple are AA. These are the largest trains. They have their own tracks as well, which are not compatible with any other types of trains. These range from about $9 to $20. Jonah wanted me to point out that his favorite type of Trackmaster is the "Hyper Glow" ones that glow in the dark.

One important point to note (for all these types of trains) is that not every character is readily available (or made at all). And if you know Thomas world at all, there are SO MANY trains. So hopefully your kid is happy with whatever you find online or at the store. However. Jonah asked for a Trackmaster Henry, and when we couldn't find it anywhere, we had to resort to eBay (and spend $30 on it...). That was his birthday present. Sometimes you can get lucky at the brick and mortar Target and find odd trains (like oh hi there Hiro), but usually they stick to the basics like Thomas, Gordon, Emily, Percy, etc.

Jonah's review: I love that you can add a lot of tenders and the trains will still go!

5. Fisher Price Mini Thomas: Last but not least are the minis. If you haven't already noticed, the tiny toys are really popular lately. They come in individual pouches like the one below:

...and it's a mystery as to which one you'll get (I think they're called blind bags). We often get suckered into buying one of these for the kids at Target whether it's Thomas, Trolls, My Little Pony, Shopkins, etc. The minis also come in bigger packs (where you can see what you're getting) like 3-pack, 5-pack, 30-pack. Some are also glow in the dark. I read somewhere that there are over 70 of them. Here's Jonah with one of his mini carrying cases that carries 14 (he has way more than that...):

The minis also have hooks so you can connect them. As far as I know, they don't make traditional tracks for minis but they do have sets like the one below:

Jonah's review: when the minis do the blue loop-de-loop on the set above--that's the best!

The Fisher Price site has an overview of all the Thomas toys they offer: https://www.fisher-price.com/en_US/brands/thomasandfriends/index.html

Hope this helps! You can thank Jonah's obsession for this post. If you have questions, let me know. I will direct them to the expert.