which brand train and table set?

daniella2727

we are looking to purchase one for our 2.5 daughter for Christmas. looking for opinions on which brand and why?

jllmb79

We have the Thomas the Train table, trains and tracks. We probably spent $600 dollars. Don't buy this. She was really into it every time we went to the library last year so my husband went all out. She used it a lot for a few months and now hardly ever.  

Do your wallet a favor and get the $79 or $120  Imaginarium table/track set and buy a few Thomas trains. Toys r Us sells this

monlyn9

We bought the Imaginarium one from TRU that we bought two Christmases ago. We love it because it came with everything that we needed for him to get started and the Thomas trains he already had (and have bought more since) fit on the tracks and connect with the trains it comes with. Now that he is older, he likes to build his own tracks on the floor so we have bought more track to add to it. Some of the additional track was Circo from Target and others were the Thomas brand (which my mom bought before I could tell her to buy the cheaper stuff). It all works together great.

MrsWindyCity

We started with the Melissa and Doug Figure 8 set and once he was using it pretty frequently we bought some additional pieces in a box like this: https://www.amazon.com/Wooden-Train-Track-Piece-Pack/dp/B005AW85YG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384802551&sr=8-1&keywords=train+tracks

Most of the major brands are interchangable. 

HML5382

I want to get DD a set too, but I'm really not willing to spend a lot of money since she's a total dabbler. I know she'll love it for a little while and then it will go into the toy rotation. I don't want a permanent "Train Table" either, we don't have that kind of space to spare! So I want something multipurpose. I'm planning to buy everything from Ikea. I've read that you can use the Thomas trains on the Ikea track, they are a bit tall for some of the bridges/tunnels, but for the price I'm fine with that!

I'm planning to spend $41 for the trains & a table w/ chairs. I'm getting the 20 piece starter set $9.99, extra 10 pieces of track $6.99, and extra train $3.99. I'm also getting the Ikea Latt play table and chairs $19.99 and thought I'd just buy a piece of green felt and plywood and cut them to fit inside the lip of the table so it can be taken on or off depending what we're using the table for.