Thomas or Brio Train

[Pennylane]

I am planning on buying my DS a train set for his second birthday. We have a few Thomas Engines (wooden) and a take along Thomas set. I had every intention of just doing Thomas but I just purchased a small brio set at a consignment sale and it looks really nice too. If you were going to invest in one, Thomas or Brio, which would you choose and why?

Thanks,

Ann

[rlu]

Brio - price. I don't have any Thomas yet, probably will get for DS a few of the engines if he really wants them, but we saved a bunch of money by buying sets from Tuesday Morning. However, I think they are discontinuing the Brio wooden track - haven't heard about this lately.

[matthewsmom]

I would choose Thomas. I heard that they were discontinuing the wooden brio sets. You can get some great sets for 40% off at AC Moore. Just use the 40% off coupon with your purchase. It's a great way to start out. My DS loves his Thomas train set. They like it also because of the characters. We reenact stories from his books all the time and he has started to do it on his own.

[pittsburghgirl]

We actually have two Brio track sets, a bunch of Thomas buildings, tons of Thomas character trains, and a lot of other track and a few structures (got the Costco train table, so all of that stuff plus a variety of Maxim track pieces and a small Maxim roundhouse.)

The Thomas track is nice in that the straight track is reversible to road, and the track side is textured in case you end up with any battery operated engines. The quality of Thomas and Brio is pretty similar. The only breakage I have had with any of my track has come from the Maxim and Costco (Kidcraft?) track.

I am big on mix and match. I started getting some Maxim track because I needed a bunch of random, unusual pieces and the price point was all I could swing at the time.

My DS LOVES his Thomas characters, though, and plays with them regularly at our local bookstores, I don't think he would play as much with a non-Thomas set.

Marilee
mommy to James
http://b3.lilypie.com/CSwdm4.png

[shishamo]

We have a mixture of both. we started out getting Brios (I liked the look better), but my son got VERY into Thomas soon after that, so we ended upo getting a lot of Thomas pieces later. He just loved the faces and the fact that they have names. I wish we started with Thomas!

[Pennylane]

I think I am going to go with the Thomas. I really like the Brio but worry about the track being discontinued.

Thanks for all your suggestions.

Ann

[kijip]

We have both. They are totally interchanable. Thomas is usually more readily available on sale IME. Combine that with my Thomas fan kid and we mainly have Thomas. I have not heard anything about Brio going away. And even if it did, you could still use it with Thmas stuff and track.

[smilla653]

BRIO was bought by a Chinese company and they are changing their product lines significantly, including lots more battery-operated stuff. The new stuff is lower in quality IMO. The older stuff is in green boxes, the newer in black. Some of the newer track has plastic connectors. We bought our first BRIO last summer, only to find all this out. We are still buying mostly BRIO, though... the old stuff is of really nice quality and can be found easily at resale shops.

But once the kids get old enough, they'll ask for Thomas anyway!