Others say...

"Cute set"
This is a cute train set and my son likes putting the pieces together. My son just got this for his 2nd birthday and likes playing with it. At 2 though he doesn't quite have the skill yet to keep the train on the track all the time and gets frustrated by this. I think an older child would have better control, thus not an issue. He's able to put the track together so that is a plus.

"thomas the tank enginge/duplo lego"
Children just turning 2 will have to have help with this toy, but as they learn to put things together, they will be able to use their imaginations and combine this with other lego toys to make whatever they like.

"wonderful fun!!"
This is the most wonderful thing ever!! My 2 yr old son just adores it, he sits and plays with it for hours.. He doesn't yet grasp how to put the pieces(i.e. train. station, etc.) but he loves taking the track apart and putting it back together!! And that is very good since my 1 yr old daughter doesn't think it belongs together! He is putting it back together as fast as she is breaking it! (very durable as well!) After reading some other reviews I thought there was goingo tbe virtually no track to play on, but there was much more thenm I was expecting! It is a great toy and we all love it!

"My toddler loves it!"
These Lego sets are a lot of fun. My husband and son have spent many hours sitting in the floor playing, creating and imagining. The only negative is that my son pulls apart everything we put together and he does it over and over and over. That gets a little exhausting; however, I'm just glad that we've found some toys that he'll play with for a long period of time. I've set it up in our family room and he plays with it while I cook dinner.

We also have the Spencer, Gordon and Harold sets. It's really fun when you put them all together. All in all, I highly recommend this product if you have a Thomas fan at home!

"Great starter set, but budget for more tracks."
Summary:
Top quality product from Lego as you have come to expect, allowing for hours and hours of fun (for the kids and parents) but be prepared to buy the other sets and extra tracks.

My Story:
My son was 18 months when I was looking for some sort of train set. I came across this really by chance at a store as I did not realise Lego made a Duplo series train set. Was initially looking at the wooden Thomas the tank engine sets, but those were incredibly expensive. In anycase, I bought this set first as a "tester" to see if my son would like it and also to test the durability of the toy. Passed with flying colours on both accounts.

The box itself is reasonably sized, but mostly filled with air. The Duplo parts are quite chunky. It comes with 1 very thin instruction manual. My initial impression of the tracks were that they were flimsy and didn't connect or stay connected together very well, but I quickly learned that they were pretty robust and the connection mechanisms were perfect for those with developing motor skills. They join together with a jigsaw type link. Thomas comes in 4 parts, the base with the wheels, his face, body and top cover of the body. Again very easy to assemble, great for the learning ones. There are quite few other bits like the train station, signal lights and loading tank.

The assembled set is a reasonable size (23" x 35" or 60 x 90cm) and fitted nicely on my son's play table. But as soon as I expanded the set with the other series and tracks, it has to be spread all over the floor. As a note, 6 curved tracks make a semi circle with a diameter of 23" or 60cm. The tracks work much better on a hard surface. If you put the tracks on carpet they do have a tendency of coming disconnected. The trains stay on the tracks very well (provided the tracks are on a hard surface) and don't often derail. Remember this set is a manual push train set. You can get the motorised 4.5V motorised train set which is also compatible, so that may be a great expansion option for when the kids are older.

Although it says its for 2-5 year, from a parts point of view it is safe as there are really no small parts to really choke on. When I first got it my son just loves to play with Thomas, taking the tracks and the various buildings apart, but after about a week or so he realised that the tracks needs to stay together and he leaves it alone now. After about 2 weeks or so he started putting the tracks together, shortly there after he started to put the Duplo brick pieces together. It will be a while before he actually assembles the tracks and bricks as it is suppose to but regardless, since we got the set, pretty much all his other toys are now collecting dust. I hope to get several years of play with this toy given the expandability and flexibility. Probably store it for a little while and bring it back out, especially during those cold winter months.

Recommendations:
If you are planning to get the extras, I recommend buying some sort of storage containers as they do take up some room. On the note of extras, if you are like me you will be wondering about what expansion options you can get. I have spent many hours researching this so here it a quick low down to save you some time. Firstly there are several of Thomas's friends available. These include Harold the Helicopter (3300), Cargo-Loading Cranky (3301), Percy at the Water Tower (5556), James at Knapford Station (5552) and Toby at Wellsworth (5555, although this doesn't seem to be available anymore in the US). 3 additional friends have just been released. This includes Gordon Express (3354), Spencer and Sir Topham Hatt (3353) and Salty the Dockyard Diesel (3352).

Secondly in terms of track expansion options there are several of these and certainly worth while additions to the already cool set. These are currently available: curved track (6 pack) (2735), straight track (6 pack) (2734), a bridge (3774), a level crossing (3773), and switching tracks (3775).

Thirdly, if you have been looking at the other Lego Duplo train sets (non-Thomas related) you would have noticed that the "Train Starter Set (3771)" has a Cross track (2737). You will then wonder, how can I buy the cross track? Well you can't, not new anymore anyway. This is where the research led me to a couple of things. 1, that there is an unofficial Lego Marketplace where you can find these and other discontinued Lego Duplo train parts. And 2, there use to be the Lego Duplo Intelli-Train series. This was an "intelligent" motorised series of train sets released in 2002 which has since been discontinued. Very cool indeed (as they get older). Just do a search on this to find out more. In any case over the years the Duplo Train series have had a number of supplemental items which we can no longer get, like the Intelli-Train Tunnel (3334) or the Stop/Start Rail (5027) to name a couple.

Finally, just a quick comment with regards to train track layouts. As the number of tracks expand the kids will have a great time working those imagination to come up with innovative and creative track layouts. For the parents, if you are thinking that you can just find example layouts on the internet, don't hold your breath. This will be tough. You will have to use your imagination along with your kids.