Chuggington Wooden Over & Under Starter Set (A TRU Review)

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Recently The Boy has become obsessed with train sets. He knows all the characters in Thomas the Tank Engine, has a vast selection of wooden train track and makes me set them out in a variety of different styles. He honestly makes me. Ok, you've forced it out of me, I enjoy seeing if I can get as many different combinations down as possible. He stands there looking at me bemused.

However, when we opened our last box from Toys R Us to discover that there was a Chuggington train set inside, I'm not sure who was more excited! He adores Wilson and Koko, and Chuggington is his 'poison' of choice at the moment, watching it religiously every morning. I was ecstatic because there was a funky tunnel and hill set included in the 22-piece set.

The set is designed to be put together in a figure of eight-ish layout with a bridge section which also creates a tunnel for the track to go back through. The bridge is actually a clocktower and the top of this can be taken off and placed elsewhere to become another tunnel (this is best because it falls off anyway). Each of the wooden track pieces is made of good quality wood, finished well with no rough edges and are also embossed with joins and bolts to make them look more authentic. A rarity with these sets, but in the Chuggington set even the straight pieces have the grooves for the trains to travel along. The clocktower is made of tough plastic and is good quality. Sensibly the piece of track that uses this bridge is glued firmly into position.

In the set comes two carriages (Wilson and Koko) and Vee, the tannoy system. While Vee is cute, it really is just for decoration and doesn't have a function. Wilson and Koko are very good quality carriages and of a standard size: a bit longer than a crayon. They also have their names printed on the bottom of their quality wooden carriage, the finish is excellent.

This is a brilliant set, but I have one issue with it: the carriages fall off the track when they come down the bridge.

Trust me, we did extensive scientific research into this:

Our conclusion was that based on the size and weight of the carriages they're too big and top-heavy to stay on the track to be able to go around the curve on the suggested layout. In addition the angle of the incline is steeper than in the standard Brio set which means that the carriages are travelling slightly faster. It's a minor thing, but this basic flaw in the engineering has really irritated me. For the price, it should be perfect.

This is a good starter set which is made of high quality materials with an excellent finish. The carriages are chunky and robust, the track pieces realistic. The fact that it is branded with Chuggington has inflated the price to £39.99 and in all honesty I'm not sure I'd pay that much.

Chuggington Wooden Over and Under Starter Set is available for £39.99 from Toys R Us.

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We received this set for the purpose of this review. My opinion is honest and unbiased.

Choo-Choo: A Train Set Review

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A few months ago I contemplated getting The Boy started on a wooden train set. When I was a nursery nurse working with the two-three year olds, I used to love setting up elaborate layouts for them before they came in every morning, even if the little blighters did destroy it within five minutes. I mentioned to Tracey from London Toy Co. that I was wondering if this was the next step forward for The Boy with his toys, and out of the blue she very kindly sent me this:

Which I think you'll agree was rather kind of her, and The Boy was chuffed as well!

The large wooden railway set has 100 pieces in its sturdy carry-case. I can hear some of you squealing; I'm not sure if it's delight or dread at the amount. But for us, that's 100 pieces of fun and imagination. Not all of the pieces are train track, there are a lot of other items to make a 'town' like: a bus, trees, church, people, cars, train, houses etc. The attention to detail in the variety of accessories really allows for the imagination to develop: The Boy was 'brumming' the cars under the bridge and around the houses within minutes. He also built a little house up and then parked one of the cute cars outside.

The track pieces are obviously designed to fit with other compatible sets, which is incredibly useful. All of the pieces included in the box make the cover illustration and I created it within a few minutes. He loves having a bridge to drive the trains over and cars under.

This is a brilliant starter set with such a wide variety of pieces included that it is hard to fault it; it's such good value for money. However I would like to point out one or two tips for ease of use:

  • in the left picture above you can see that the bridge piece rests on two supports, however it can easily slide off the supports demolishing the bridge. We've fixed this by gluing the bridge unit to the supports.
  • the tracks have a variety of junction pieces in them (which is really hard to come across and ever so useful) but most of the normal track pieces are curved. There are only a handful of straight pieces which makes it difficult to come up with another layout.

Combine this starter set with a few more straight pieces and it is perfect for keeping pre-schoolers entertained for hours on end! We love the inclusion of the road vehicles and buildings.

The Large Wooden Railway Set is available from London Toy Co. for £54.99

We were sent this item for the purpose of this review. My opinion is honest and unbiased.

Review: Brio My First Railway Set

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Ever since The Boy was born, both Mr. TheBoyandMe and I have been secretly waiting for the moment when he was old enough to play with a Brio train set. Well it seems that the time has come for our wishes to be met, as his imagination has suddenly jumped into gear.

We were recently sent this gorgeous My First Railway Set to review from the Wooden Toy Shop, and it is a beautifully crafted starter set for wooden railways.

The 15-piece set contains both straight and curved (double-sided) track pieces, a soft fabric station that is also a tunnel, two on-off ramps, a bright green engine and three freight wagons decorated with images of fruit: one banana, two apples and three pears (excellent for counting).

The Boy wasted no time in opening the box up, examining the instructions and doing the typical male thing of abandoning them in favour of figuring it out himself. The track pieces are very high-quality wood, each one embossed with the 'Brio' stamp. This Brio branding is also on the engine and each of the carriages; each wheel is stamped. A very nice little finishing touch.

The Boy absolutely adores this train set. His imagination has been ignited and he is beginning to role-play with these small-world toys, re-enacting events that happen in his life and making sense of them. He has combined the set with his cars and even the Peppa Pig playground has been incorporated, although George is not very good at holding onto the engine and keeps falling off. Suddenly The Boy is now living his name and the little baby is being replaced by a child who uses voices for the different carriages which talk to each other as they join up to the engine!

We've added several more sets of tracks, bridges and ramps to The Boy's Christmas list now as he seems to be completely engaged with this train set. It's been set up on the living room floor for several weeks now and is played with every single day, more than any other toy.

The Brio My First Railway Set is available from Wooden Toy Shop priced at £23.95

We were sent this item for the purpose of this review. Our opinions are honest and unbiased.

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