This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Fisher-Price. All opinions are 100% mine.
Thomas and Friends, a pirate ship and a hunt for lost treasure? That’s my little boy’s dream come true! And, it’s the story line for the new Thomas & Friends DVD, Sodor’s Legend of the Lost Treasure (available at Walmart.)
Kids can bring the movie adventure to life at home with Thomas & Friends TrackMaster Shipwreck Rails Set ($59.99, Walmart.) Fisher-Price created this set to go along with Sodor’s Legend of the Lost Treasure. It’s the perfect gift combo for young Thomas & Friends fans. All of my kids seem to have been born knowing that trains were cool. They love them! And our family Christmas tree is never complete without a train set set up next to it. This year, Thomas and his friends became part of our Christmas Trees and Trains tradition.
We set up the Thomas & Friends™ TrackMaster™ Shipwreck Rails Set by our tree so all the kids can play. Yes, this set may be recommended for ages 3 and up, but my boys ages 4 years old to twelve have all taken lots of turns with it.
My 4- and 6-year-old sons have been the ones playing with train set the most. And by “the most,” I mean nearly constantly since we set it up last week. One morning, before the sun was up, I woke up to strange sounds coming from the family room. I got out of bed to see what was going on. As you may have guessed, it was one of my boys making sure he was the first one to get a turn playing with Thomas and Friends that day. Can you really blame him for waking up early to play? The Shipwreck Rail Set has a lot of cool features. Even I was impressed watching Thomas climb up a long, steep incline of tracks all the way to the top of the ship’s mast. THEN quick as a flash, he plunges down – UPSIDE DOWN – and twists all the way to the bottom, catching the pirate’s treasure chest along the way. We had never seen any toy train set do this before. It’s really fun to watch over and over again. The kids and I agree this set totally awesome. My 12-year-old even said that it was the coolest toy he had seen for little kids.
The Shipwreck Rail Set includes a complete track layout featuring a pirate ship, Thomas train and a cargo car. Once Thomas gets started on the track, he goes around and around until you turn him off. The track automatically resets itself for the “free fall” action. Kids can grab the pirate’s treasure chest out of the cargo train and set it back on the platform, so it falls at just the right time for Thomas to catch it on his way back around again.
Just a couple of things to note, parent to parent. The Thomas & Friends TrackMaster Shipwreck Rails Set requires an adult to put it together. It’s not a train set that a young child can build on their own. Give yourself 30 minutes to an hour to put it together. The good news is that once it is put together, it stays together until you are ready to take it apart. But — we haven’t even wanted to take ours down yet!
The Thomas engine comes with the required AAA batteries (2), but you’ll want to go ahead and stock up on some extra batteries. My kids played hours with Thomas constantly running, and after about 2 days, we needed to replace the original batteries with fresh ones. Thomas needs his strength for his long haul all the way to the top of the ship’s mast! Family movie nights are also one of our holiday traditions, so we watched Sodor’s Legend of the Lost Treasure together. One of our favorite parts is where Thomas derails (That’s the bad part!) but as he’s flying down into this huge hole in the Earth, he goes into slow motion and makes a funny “OOOOH” sound that is pretty hilarious. We actually went back and watched this part a few times so we could laugh some more. And spoiler alert: Thomas lands safe at the bottom of the hole (Whew!) where he sees the lost pirate ship for the first time. Your kids will enjoy this action-packed movie.
It is the perfect time to start a new tradition with your family. Our Thomas & Friends movie night, plus lots of play time with the Shipwreck Rails Set has made the holiday season brighter at our house this year. Make Thomas & Friends part of your tradition, too!
Do you know any #ThomasandFriends fans who would love to see Sodor’s Legend of the Lost Treasure – The Movie? What would they love about the Shipwreck Rails Set?