toys, toys, toys (teenagers, parents, boys, play)

[ILOVEOHIO]

I am a mother of a 3 almost 4 year old son. He is OBSESSED with Thomas the Tank Engine (I'm not kidding). We got together with our parents about getting him the complete Thomas Trackmaster sets (thomastrackmaster.com).

With all of this made in China stuff going around, I got on a website to research and the Trackmaster is ok but still made in China. The website also said that the safest toys are made in Germany. There are these play sets called Play Mobil. Has anyone heard of these? I am interested and think I want to purchase them but not if they are not safe.

[notjustamom]

My youngest will be 4 in January, he's a "casual" fan of Thomas the train, too. I bet your son will the love the complete set!!

I have actually heard of Playmobil, my two teenagers used to have a lot of Playmobil toys. They were very well made. I have actually wondered about that company, I'd forgotten what it was called until you mentioned it. I haven't seen them in stores around here since we had our youngest son. I just found it online, wow, what a selection of toys! You can buy online, or find the store nearest you that carries them. It is generally educational toy stores that carry them:

http://www.playmobil.com/index.html

[Roselvr]

Originally Posted by ILOVEOHIO

I am a mother of a 3 almost 4 year old son. He is OBSESSED with Thomas the Tank Engine (I'm not kidding). We got together with our parents about getting him the complete Thomas Trackmaster sets (thomastrackmaster.com).

With all of this made in China stuff going around, I got on a website to research and the Trackmaster is ok but still made in China. The website also said that the safest toys are made in Germany. There are these play sets called Play Mobil. Has anyone heard of these? I am interested and think I want to purchase them but not if they are not safe.

I have a 22 year old son that was the 1st generation Thomas.. I actually have every piece boxed up still. He turned my 8 years younger nephew on to them.

I can tell you that after seeing these two boys with Thomas, if he really wants it, get it. I don't know what it was about Thomas but they were really into them too. They would both be very dissapointed had they not gotten them. I had no problems with ours as they were made really well. I don't doubt they were also made in China.

My son's Great Aunt bought him another set of trains, it was a whole layout with wooden tracks called Brio. My son loved these just as much.

[marrychen]

some product toys for children made in China are cheap but there are some bad materials in them

[saibot]

Playmobil is great but has a lot of tiny parts. My kids had quite a few, and played with them up to about ~10 years old. The two issues with giving them to a very small child are that they could be a choking hazard and that the pieces are easy to lose! I think they may make some sets with larger pieces for younger kids though; I would check into that.

My son adored Thomas the Train. It was all he played with from ages 2 to 4, and we read him all the stories also. We bought him a basic figure-8 wooden track set with a bridge, and various engines (he really only wanted to play with the engines he knew about from the stories), and my sister gave him a bunch of Brio track pieces her sons had outgrown. Those sets are compatible. He had the most fun just making a new track every day. It would run from his room down to the kitchen and under the table. We had friends who bought the big train table and glued all the pieces down--their kids never played with it.

When he was about 4.5 he discovered Lego and never looked back. But we definitely got a lot of use out of the Thomas train set.

Just my opinion but I would try to find a wooden set rather than a plastic one if you can. They are pretty expensive if you buy them new but look on eBay and Craigslist.