Customer Reviews
I bought this set for my 4 year old daughter at Christmas, and, after a few hours, she announced that she wanted to play with it every day and every night. That's quite a recommendation, but not all good news because there's quite a lot of Railtrack type maintenance for the adult involved.
Firstly, to clarify a point made in another couple of reviews, the power is designed to cut out if the engine is derailed, as a safety measure. You have to disconnect the power supply for one minute, but in practice, it is far less than that.
I would also say that issues with the couplings are exaggerated. Yes, one came off, but they do fit back on again. Care has to be taken, obviously, so a little supervision is needed.
The track is quite hard to fit together and you must get it right, with smooth joins, but the main issue for me was the points, which cause derailment in some situations. I worked out that it was dependent on which way round the track the engine pointed, it worked just fine after that, forwards or backwards. But really, they should work better than that.
In a previous role as Santa for my son (now 20, so 17 years ago) I bought a Hornby set and had all the same problems, only I was less patient with it back then and ended up nailing it to a board. That made things even worse. So this is not a recent thing that can be blamed on China, train sets have always been fiddly. But still good fun if you persevere.
My son is fanatical about trains and he is now old enough for a Hornby. He was lucky enough to get 3 sets in one year (birthday and Xmas) as presents from family, The Devon Flyer, Eurostar and Thomas sets.
They all have most of the same plus points and minus points.
Plus -
They are great fun for any train loving child (or adult)
They can be converted to digital (at extra cost) which makes it able to run multiple trains on the same line
They can be extended and added to, to create a toy that should last years
Minus-
These will not last years, barely hours. They are made in China (not always bad), however in this case they are of very inferior quality. The engine is just a 12v DC motor in a train shell - how hard can that be?
The Devon Flyer lasted 1 hour before the motor burned out
The combinations of transformer and control box (just a variable resistor in a plastic box) which provide the power are very unreliable on sets and work intermittently. I will look to replace these with a unit I will build myself from Maplin components. How do you explain to a child that this is broken on Christmas morning, 1 hour into playing with it?
Also several couplings broke on all of the sets.
Overall, very disappointing that such a profitable company should resort to such cost-cutting at the expense of quality. I will buy other brand 00 Gauge trains from now on for my kids. Hornby are expensive and very poor quality.
Product Details
- Product Dimensions: 160 x 100 x 10 cm ; 1.8 Kg
- Boxed-product Weight: 2.5 Kg
- Delivery Destinations: Visit the Delivery Destinations Help page to see where this item can be delivered.
- Manufacturer recommended age: 0 months and up
- Item model number: R9271
- ASIN: B00260GJ8E
Price : £70.00
You Save : £69.99 (50%)
Product Description
Manufacturer's Description
Thomas ; Friends appeared in a series of children's books in the 1940s, and have delighted children and adults alike ever since. In 1984 Thomas ; Friends appeared for the first time on British television and made an immediate hit--becoming without argument an even greater favourite with the younger fan. This wonderful value set includes Thomas, Annie and Clarabel plus a selection of wagons and tankers.
Set includes: 1x Thomas Electric 0-6-0 Loco, 1x Annie Coach, 1x Clarabel Coach, 1x Open Wagon, 1x Milk Tanker, 1x Cattle Wagon, 1x Power Supply Unit - UK, 1x Train Controller, 2x Track Straight, 2x Track Double Straight, 1x 2nd Rad Curve Track , 8x Track Double Curve 3rd Rad, 1x Lh Point, 1x Buffer Stop, 1x Power Track, 1x Trakmat-The Hornby range includes many of Thomas' friends. There are new buildings to choose from, all of which add colour and excitement to the Hornby World of Thomas, and a range of new locomotives, coaches and wagons.
List Price :
Technical Details
- OO gauge
- Space required 1575 mm x 1143 mm
- 1 steam loco, 2 coaches plus a selection of wagons
- Extended oval with one siding and a buffer stop
- As featured in Thomas and Friends complete with Thomas trackmat
No comments:
Post a Comment