Please tell me about Geo Trax

[maydaymommy]

I'm considering letting go of all our Thomas & wooden railway things and getting ds2 some geo trax for his 3rd bday. I saw the Batman stuff and I think he'd really like it.

What's the deal with the "remote" trains - can I use the regular ones with them or should I stick with one type?

I saw different colors of tracks - do they work together?

Should I get a bunch of track pieces on Craigslist or other elements to go with new sets?

How have these been played with by your kids? Mine are 5 and nearly 3. Ds2 never got into Thomas, unfortunately. He mostly likes playsets & puzzles & doll house typed stuff, along with monster trucks.

[SnuggleBuggles]

We have a massive Geotrax collection. Tracks of all colors work together. We have a variety of engines (battery powered and push along). The remote controlled ones are fun and I would want at least one in the collection. They have gotten more expensive than back when they first came out. If you can find good condition CL ones, get them. I am a big fan of elevations because you can make cool configurations. I really like the 3 story clock towers. Note that many building are really big from a storage perspective.

We have owned Geotrax since ds1 was 2yo. They have been played with continuously since then. Ds2 isn't really into them though and prefers Thomas. Friends and family all love to build with the Geotrax when they visit- including ds1's 11yo friends. :) Ds2 still isn't great at building with them as they are a bit tricky to get together. However, there is lots of fun building together as a family; they give us ideas and we provide the man power. YOur 5yo will be fine building though.

Eta- ds2 is 4.5 and really getting into Thomas now. I wouldn't get rid of them yet.

[swrc00]

DS has both a wooden Thomas set and Geotrax. He plays with both. I scored a bunch of the Geotrax on Craigslist for $50. DS has started playing less with Thomas, but is very much into trains. I am going to be packing away Thomas for DS2 soon.

[scrooks]

We have both Thomas wooden and geotrax. They both get moderate play in our house. I have a feeling I will keep both sets out for awhile.

[kristac]

We have had Geotrax since DS1 was 20 months (now 7.5) and they have had continuos play since. They are a big hit with playgroups and easy way for kids a a variety of ages to play together. I think DS1 might have out grown them by now if he was an only but since his little brothers still play he is happy to join in the fun and enjoys making complicated track arrangements. Craigslist is a great place to get a big lot. I would recommend at least 1 remote controled train per child otherwise there will be fights. The newer ones have people that go inside and can go forwards and backwards- this is one of my kids favorite features and one of the reasons I feel Geotrax is more fun then Thomas. Stock up on rechargable batteries.

[KrisM]

DS2 has the Batman GeoTrax and likes it a lot. He probably needs more tracks for better layouts, but I'm not sure we really need more as he plays with it, but uses other things as much, if not more.

There seems to be a bit of a theme here. DS1 loved Thomas. DS2 not so much.

[abh5e8]

so they are similar, just one set is plastic? and has some remote control options?

[KDsMommy]

DS has outgrown Thomas (which reminds me I need to list it all on Craiglist for the holiday season) but still plays with his Geotrax, especially when other kids are over for playdates.

All the Geotrax track works together and the trains/cars are much bigger than Thomas-type trains. DS and his buddies love the remote control engines. I have a feeling Geotrax will be sticking around for quite a while. We started his Geotrax collection when DS was about 3.

[SnuggleBuggles]

so they are similar, just one set is plastic? and has some remote control options?

? They are all plastic, the Geotrax ones. Thomas and Geotrax are totally different in lots of ways. :)

[AlbrightRC]

We bought my son a huge "cars" geotrax set because he loves all things from that movie. Unfortunetly its not a toy that holds his interest for individual play. He loves his wooden trains and will play with those on his own. His train table was being used for his duplo block buildings and he asked to take out geotrax so we did and put away the block..a few weeks later he wanted his blocks back so again geotrax is in the closet. He plays with his wooden train stuff on the floor where he has more room to get crazy with the layout.

[Blue Hydrangea]

We have geotrax, DS got the Timbertown railway last year for his second birthday, and we've added to it with lots from a children's resale shop. The sets are interchangeable. We still help him build the track, since the pieces are a little hard to click together, but once they are clicked, they stay, even when he's walked on the track. He can play happily by himself with it for a long time.

We are stuck for the moment though, because I can't find any new train sets or trains in the stores, all the geotrax stuff is now Cars or batman themed, and DS just wants more trains.

[hellokitty]

Well, I usually chime in on these threads. My kids love geotrax more than wooden thomase/brio. I do too. We've had geotrax since DS1 was about 3 yrs old and he is now 8.5 yrs old and he STILL plays with it. He makes some really cool and elaborate train tracks. DS3 is lucky to have a big brother setting up tracks like that for him, lol. So, IMO it is a great investment. We started out with a beginner set from TRU and then bought a few accessory sets here and there. Target and Walmart usually clearance off some geotrax stuff here and there and I picked up stuff that way too, in addition for scoring more stuff dirt cheap at garage sales. So, we have two of those huge round bins (the kind with the rope handles) of geotrax. The only thing I don't like is that it eats up a lot of batteries and we've noticed that any kind of vehicle that is bendy (ie: semi-truck, train, etc) that has a remote has broken and stopped working with the remote. It's probably similar to the blue track (non-geotrax) electronic thomas set, we've had the same trouble with James (had a tinder attached) not working, due to wire in btwn James and the tinder.

Anyway, if I had to choose btwn wooden train set vs. geotrax, I will always choose the geotrax. It grows with your child. When they are little and too young to use the remote, they can still play with it. When they are older, they get a kick out of the using the remote and then when they are even older, boy their creativity for building cool tracks just takes off. We have a pretty large sunroom as our playroom and the track the kids have up right now takes up over half of the room. By far, our geotrax has gotten more play than our thomas/brio, but due to scoring our ginormous brio/thomas stuff for cheap, I'm keeping it for the grandkids, lol! I also love how the geotrax snap together and stay together. If you have little ones, the most irritating thing is that the wooden tracks are easy to get messed up or flipped over (esp bridges and anything taller), and they get so frustrated by that. The geotrax allows more flexibility in this dept, since things stay together better.

[hellokitty]

Oh and as tempted as you may be to get the plastic, electronic thomas (I think the brand is TOMY) set, DON'T DO IT! We have it and the set is a POS. DH let the kids talk him into it (yes, we have like 8 train sets, our house is like a boy's paradise), and it is such a waste of $, and the tracks don't stay together as well as the geotrax does and it's just very cheaply made.

[ray7694]

My ds LOVED Geotraxx but be prepared that they take up a lot of room and it is hard for the kids to rebuild the track on their own so it has to stay put or you are rebuilding it over and over.

Also they take A LOT of batteries.

Look on youtube for some videos of sets.

[elephantmeg]

DS was way into them at 3/4 but now they hardly get ANY play :(. DH can't get rid of them. And they take up soooooooooo much room. The buildings are bulky. We do still love them, DS is just obsessed with legos and that is all he plays and everything else just sits but YMMV.

[hellokitty]

DS was way into them at 3/4 but now they hardly get ANY play :(. DH can't get rid of them. And they take up soooooooooo much room. The buildings are bulky. We do still love them, DS is just obsessed with legos and that is all he plays and everything else just sits but YMMV.

We briefly went through this. I put them away for months, even offered to sell them to a friend whose son is nuts about our geotrax. Well, we just brought them back out again over the wknd and the kids can't stop playing with it. Put it away for a while and take them back out again later and see if there is renewed interest. I was very surprised how into it my 7 and 8 yr old have been again with this set. This time, it's all about building the most elaborate tracks and of course my youngest just turned 3 not long ago, so he's just into anything train related.