... Local yokel company, Learning Curve, has everything the little train lover in your life could possibly want, need or dream of for the holidays in its award-winning Thomas & Friends Deluxe Sights & Sounds Set (shown at top left, $480+ - varies by retailer).
The impressive 86-piece wooden set is fully loaded and will keep track-minded tots entranced for hours comes Christmas morning (a bonus for parents who have been assembling toys until the wee hours of the morning), and includes a ton of trains, tracks and accessories like Thomas (of course), vain James, drama queen Henry, offbeat Annie and Clarabel, competitive Bertie the bus and Sir Topham Hatt, the railway bigwig, along with interactive architectural pieces from the TV show like the Knapford Covered
Bridge, Windmill, Stop and Go Station, Deluxe Roundhouse, Deluxe
Cranky, Sodor Scrub & Shine and Mountain Overpass to name a few.
Best of all, everything fits conveniently and easily inside
the included storage bench that's fully decorated with Thomas, Percy, James and Harold. Safety features like locking caster wheels and removeable seat cushions prevent little fingers from getting pinched or poked, and the bench itself is sturdy enough for parents to perch upon.
Cosmomama says there's more in the details:
Parents will be happy to know that assembly time is quick - it only took Wills' dad about 20 minutes to put the bench together, and that was only because Wills kept nabbing his electric screwdriver to play Handy Manny.
The trains are securely packaged ornament-style - not in individual plastic packaging like their single counterparts, so there's no need to worry about nicks and chips, and as for track configurations and set-ups - leave that up to the cute little conductor whose eyes are about as big as saucers while unwrapping this behemoth.
