I purchased Melissa and Doug Deluxe Wooden Railway set for my grandson Teddy for Christmas. We opened my gifts to the grandchildren at my house after church on Christmas eve. Teddy is not two yet. He absolutely loves his train set. When they got ready to go home they boxed the train set and put it in their living room across from the tree. When my son heard Teddy saying very quietly " Daddy, please help me, Daddy come? My son Daniel, thought his son was awake and in the new Christmas presents, as it was only 6:00 am. Daniel went to their living room and found teddy lying on top of the Train set box. He look up and said, Daddy, my train-- I need my train. He had not even noticed the new presents under the tree. It was his train set he wanted. So, before the others were up, Teddy and Daniel put the train tracks, bridge and the rest of the set together. There they were, both smiling and playing with the train when Sarah, Daniels wife and Grace, their daughter got up. The train engine went to the table for Christmas Breakfast. What a wonderful Christmas morning for the entire family. What joy this brought me, Teddy and Grace's Grandmother.

We bought this for my 2yr old for xmas and it was definately his favotite gift. Its a month later and he still plays with it every day. As for the product it's extremely durable even with my 2 and 3 yr old stepping on it. You get plenty of track and other fun additions and it comes with PLENTY of trains (which I was worried about) and they're pretty cool too. I did buy 2 sets of "Suretrack" which is all you need but a must for the parts that connect and go off the ground (small kids are pretty rough with stuff and they really hold it together). I would definately tell anyone i am more than happy with this product.

I am happy with this product, it is good quality and provides a lot of fun for our 2 and 3 year old kids. The reason I am giving it only 4 stars is that the traks that go up/ the bridge, are not stable at all, they get knocked down very easily, even if we are using the sure tracks to help them stay together. By the way, the train set SHOULD HAVE INCLUDED these sure tracks, why do we have to buy them separate, when the tracks don't stay up at all without them. And it is not only that you have to pay $25 more for two sets of sure tracks, but if you don't read the reviews, you don't know you need them too and have to make another purchase...

I don't know how Thomas tracks stay together, so maybe they are the same when it's about the wooden tracks. I heard that the plastic tracks stay together better. I agree with what other reviewer said that the parents have to waste their time putting these tracks together all the time, OR glue them on the train table, as many did. I understand now why! Our kids like to put the tracks together but they can't do a whole layout yet, so they always need help.

I love about this train set that it is BIG, lots of pieces and it comes with 2 trains with more cars/tenders, (express train/ passenger train), and a truck. I can say that I like them even more than the Thomas trains (we have both). By the way, they ARE compatible!
I am not sorry I got this train set, especially that it is about 4 times cheaper than Thomas train sets of this size. And I think that Thomas trains have the same issue about the tracks, as many parents glued the tracks on the train table too.

I, too, did alot of research on this type of train set and found it to be by far the best value for the money. We gave it to our train-obsessed 2 1/2 year old daughter for Christmas and she hasn't stopped playing with it yet. The quality is fantastic. She doesn't care that it's not the "official" Thomas set - especially since she got plenty of additional Thomas trains that work well with it too -although be aware that there are two slightly different sizes of the Thomas trains, the smaller of which I think is the die-cast. Both have magnetic connectors, but the one that is a little smaller doesn't really fit on the tracks. She still pushes them around and they are fine, but the bigger ones fit perfectly and roll nicely.
One minor complaint- the tracks can and do fall apart easily if they are raised. We have had to put them back together countless times already. My husband is going to drill screws through them to hold them together. So you may want to either permanently or semi-permanently fasten them in some way. Other than that, we are extremely happy with this product.