Thomas & Friends TrackMaster, Shipwreck Rails Set

I have mixed feelings about this toy. This was by far one of my son's favorite toys this Christmas (well the Motorized Thomas is his favorite, the set itself not so much). My son is 2 yrs old and is a huge Thomas the Train fan. This is his first motorized train. As a parent this toy is a tad bit frustrating. Putting it together took about 20 minutes, which in comparison to some of his other toys isn't that bad. The really cool feature of this toy is that the train will climb up to the top of the ship's mast and then swirl around, plunging towards the shipwreck. While the train is gracefully falling it will hit a mechanism that will catapult a little treasure chest in the air in which case the train will catch. Once completed the mechanism will self retract that allowed the graceful fall. In theory, this is what is supposed to happen. However, since my son likes to just watch the train go around and around, the little treasure chest needs to be reset every time on the catapult mechanism. So after the first 20 times of resetting the treasure chest I said f*** it and decided to let it run its course. When the train went through the swirly thing the treasure chest was launched and landed a couple feet away from the track. My son was amused by this. So, that was ok.The really frustrating part of this toy is the self retracting piece. The connection to the part that the train rides on while it falls comes easily undone. After around the 30th time the retracting piece disconnects and the piece doesn't retract back to the top. It's like one of those movies were the hero frantically puts together the piece that narrowly avoids the catastrophic train crash. Now, when he plays with it, every 10 or so times, the piece disconnects and the retracting piece fails. The train crashes and my son flips his s*** until it's fixed. It's not difficult to fix, but my son doesn't have the dexterity to fit the little ball into the joint on his own yet.I have thought about gluing in place, but it's nice to be able to breakdown the tracks.This was a gift that my mom purchased around Black Friday and paid around $40 for it and I can't buy a track set of this size for that price, so it's worth the value for just coming with the tracks. My son likes the set for the most part, but he has already moved on to other toys. He likes to put together the train tracks flat and watch Thomas drive around in circles. This might have been a cool addition to existing tracks, but since this was his first track set, I was not impressed. His birthday is in May and I will pick up some other tracks for him, but overall I thought this track set was just ok.5 stars for having a durable motorized Thomas the Train that withstands the inevitable crash onto tile floors, 5 stars for the coolness factor of the swirly/catapult action, 3 stars for having to reset the treasure chest catapult,1 star for the failing self retraction, and 4 stars for the value I paid for it but since the price has gone up considerably, 2 stars. I would consider returning if my mom had paid $60+ for this.

I have 3 boys, ages 6, 4 and 2, and all of them LOVE these track master sets. We have this and the sky high jump one set up in the dining room (they are big!) and they play with them for hours and hours a day everyday. I find the instructions to be VERY EASY and straight forward, everything is shown to you with pictures and is very easy. I dont know how people say these are hard to put together unless they are blind. Yes it takes a little time, what i do is lay out all the track pieces in piles by their part number (every single piece has a label etched on the bottom) and then get to building. Laying it out honestly is the longest part. Then i just build huge sections in my hands and connect section by section. The "spider web" part as my boys all call it works great, once in a while the cord comes off and my 2 year old can even get it back in there. It barely happens. This set is great. Dont listen to the negative reviews, there are plenty of positives. I Love this set and i dont regret my purchase at all!!!! I am buying a ton more for Christmas and turning my house into a track master set for the boys lol

Got this for my 3 yr old son for Christmas. He absolutely loved it. Price was almost $30 less than other retailers and arrived in perfect condition. It does come with a lot of pieces but is easy to assemble and operate.He likes to take take it apart and try to build alternate tracks setups with them but not all pieces are designed to fit together which is the only downfall. But that is not the products fault in any way. The spiral drop had me fascinated too! It's always good to get a toy you can play with your kids and have fun at the same time.

My nephew loves this toy. Set up is pretty difficult and is a long process. Expect to take roughly 30 minutes. It broke within a week. Not sure if it was due to my nephew abusing it (if he was) it it just broke but the little wooden piece that slide down the hill and rappels back up when thomas gets off, wont rappel anymore.

I have 3 boys. They all love this toy....when it actually works. It is a huge pain to set up. All of the track pieces are labeled, but it's very hard to put together. There's no way my young kids could do it themselves. The pulley came apart and it wouldn't retract. I look it apart and it still doesn't work. I'm a little bummed because this is a very cool toy. Just wish it was a little easier to put together and worked a little better.

Putting it together was very easy. However the piece that allows the train to fo down does wear very easy and doesn't retract so good. Overall my nephew loved it and he could use his other trackmaster trains on it as well

My son loves this track but it arrived and after one use the train quit working (company did replace it). The spiral loop after not much use did stop working by itself my son has to help the train go thru but he still loves it.

My son absolutely loves this toy. We purchased it for him while he was in a spica cast. It was great because we could put it together and turn the Train on and didn't have to worry about resetting it each time the train went down the sail. Doesn't work very well if you have a train plus an additional piece attached but other than that no complaints.

The track is enormous. Much better price than what I have seen at Toys r us. Its so much fun to watch Gordon run up and down the track. One thing to be careful about is replace the battery. Only open 1 screw on the top or else the whole thing can come apart and its very hard to put it back together. I had to buy a second train just for that.

My nephew loves this set.He usually gets bored after a few days with toys but after a month hes still playing with it.Easy to expand the set up and durable.

Muy buen artículo. El ensamble es fácil y aunque son varias piezas es viable armarlo fácilmente siguiendo las instrucciones. Armado y completo es bastante amplio. Solo considerar un espacio amplio antes de comprarlo es mi recomendación. El envío bien solo que llegó algo maltratado de la caja debido al mal manejo de la paquetería.

This is one of the best Thomas toys my son has buyed so far. Thomas going through this track looks amazing; even adults stop to watch this. My son has connected this set with Avalanche Escape Set to make it even more long and interesting.

No hay mayor satisfacción para un padre que ver a un hijo feliz, y con este set del trenecito Thomas mi hijo es muy feliz. Se divierte mucho, ya tenia varios trenecitos de la serie que puede utilizar en este set, el diseño es muy bonito, la calidad de los materiales es muy buena, se puede utilizar el trenecito para que el niño pueda empujarlo de forma manual por las vías o admirarlo cuando funciona con baterías. Lo recomiendo ampliamente.