VTechGo! Go! Smart Wheels Train Station Playset

My girls love this train and it has been going non-stop since Christmas. Their dad and grandpa both enjoy playing this train set with them. There are many pros and cons to this toy. I would still buy this toy all over again if I had to choose. The only difference is that I would have ordered several of the red curved directional pieces far ahead of time.http://www.vtechkids.com/support/replacement_parts/gogosmartwheelstrainstationplaysetPros:great for 1 year old an 7 year old.sturdy, safe for young and older.fun, holds attention, educational.The track can be configured to exclude the blue and orange ramp when necessary and for younger audiences.Cons:It only comes with one piece called a red curved directional piece. If I use several of the configurations provided in the package, including the one posted here with the product, the train will go off the track. This requires someone to sit with my one year old the entire time she plays.A one year old may struggle with any configuration that requires the big blue piece that you see in the photo. It requires the turning of a crank handle to get the train to the top.A one year old may struggle with configurations that require the use of the ramp. One year olds like to explore things. They will turn the train to go the opposite direction and when it cannot make it up the ramp, it leads to tears of frustration.On days of heavy use, we have gone through a set of batteries a day. It takes 3 AAA batteries. We tried the name brands, and now we just use $tree batteries so that every 5 sets of batteries cost $4.

We purchased this over a year ago for our 3 year old boy's birthday and he's used it almost daily ever since. At first he needed the help of his big brothers to decide where to put theW track pieces in a way that made sense, but now he's enjoying designing his own layouts and is proud that he can click them together himself.We actually decorated his birthday cake with it, which made a really fun surprise when we drove it around the cake. He still talks about that regularly.It comes with a nice selection of extras like signs, etc., which are nice b/c it give them something to manipulate and change around. The favorite is the gate which stops the train until they raise it by hand, which keeps them involved. We did not put the stickers on anything because we kind of liked it simpler and open to imaginative interpretation and he never felt anything was missing.As parents, what we really like is that it is one of the most durable toys we've ever bought. Yay, VTech! We have 6 kids so we don't even bother to buy things that aren't "industrial strength". It seems almost impossible to find toys these days that don't break immediately!The second thing we look for after durability is long term pay-off. In other words, once the novelty wears off is there enough to actually DO with the toy that keeps their interest? Toys that do everything themselves become boring space-killers FAST. This one is a firm win in this department. Right away we loved that there are two switches on the train- one to let it go itself, and one where you can push it (but it still makes the sounds). But out favorite feature is the hand-crank on the hill! This requires child activity every time the train goes on that piece! The crank requires them to practice manual dexterity at just the right level of challenge for a tot of 3-4, too. GREAT FEATURE!This is one of the best investments we've ever made for our kids. I was surprised that the older kids have trouble keeping their hands off it. I've even caught the 13 year old at it (don't tell :). The 7 year old clearly loves "helping" his little bro with it and it has been a great way for them to socialize and develop their relationship. I don't see the 7 year old outgrowing his love for it anytime soon, so it can clearly satisfy a large age range. In fact, our biggest problem is that now we have to buy another one for our 2 year old girl b/c she keeps taking the train and tearing apart the track. But again, with any other toy I feel she'd have broken it by now, especially considering how they clean it up by throwing the pieces across the room into a wooden crate!I studied the other products in the Go Go Smart Wheels line before buying this one and feel this one offers by far the best payoff. The other sets seem to all be lacking in terms of the number pieces you can manipulate (like with this there are just enough track pieces to allow different configurations). It seemed to have the most activities that kids actually have to do themselves which keep their interest, too. I thought by now we'd be wanted different sets, but we're going to go with duplicate train set for Christmas b/c that's what all 3 of the little guys want and the other sets seem to be lacking in track size and high-interest features.The only think I don't like about it is the noises, but I guess that's what sells toys (typically to people without kids!!!) I don't hate them like I do with most toys, but they make this toy less valuable as a distraction for when siblings are doing schoolwork. We still use it for that b/c it keeps them happy for a long time (1-2 hours!) but it does interrupt us.All I could ask for is a sound free switch for the pieces that make the train talk, and another train set with different but similar features.

I was initially contemplating purchasing a larger train table set after seeing how nicely my son played with it in a store. However, I am so happy that I opted for this instead. My 15 month old had been playing with it for the last month and I have seen him step all over it, throw tracks, chew on process and soul juice all over it. It has miraculous held up really well, especially considering how affordable it is. I bought this as a distraction so I could pack up our apartment before our move, but he has played with it every single day since I got it for him. I have figured out that the best configuration is a simple large loop. This way he does in the middle and doesn't mess up the tracks. Overall, it's a wonderful toy, definitely a great first train set for a small toddler. It's a lot of pieces, we don't use all of them yet since he hasn't been interested in assembling tracks. He primarily likes to watch the train go round.