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My 3 boys and I were very pleased to be able to review this John Crane train set, as soon as it arrived they were excited about setting it up. My eldest took charge and set it up, mostly by himself. He is 10 and it was lovely to see him as excited by a toy rather than a computer game as these days it is getting harder for me to get him to use his imagination.
He found it very easy to set up with the use of the picture on the box. The train set comes with lots of accessories which the boys loved as it made for more imaginative play. There was so much for them to do; they in particular loved the barriers and making the trains stop as people crossed. I had all 3 boys playing together nicely for a little bit, which is absolutely amazing, but when my youngest (who has learning difficulties) couldn’t cope we split the train set into two. He had a basic loop with a few accessories and the older two made up a track with the rest. This was done so easily and quickly that there was no fuss. The turns and split tracks have the grooves on both sides which I thought was a brilliant feature as it enables the children to create different tracks more easily.
Another fantastic feature of this train set is the ability to use it with other makes of train set. This means if you already have an existing set or wish to expand on this one it is easily done.
I have to admit I was worried about my youngest playing with it as he has behavioural issues and a tendency to throw things but when it arrived I was surprised how light the pieces were. Don’t get me wrong it appears to be a very durable set and it would last for a very long time, it is one of those toys that would be passed from child to child. I think for this reason and the fact that it has so many (100 to be exact) pieces it is fantastic value for money.
My boys were not happy when it was time to pack away but due to the size and the space that we have it could not have been kept out. I was also interested to see how easy it was to get back in the box because we have had problems in the past with toys not fitting back in the box properly which results in lost pieces or a ripped box. I am delighted to say that it was very easy and my 7 year old and 10 year old did it all by themselves, although they did not put them back in the bags that they came in, all the pieces were in the box and it shut no problem. This set definitely gets a 5/5 from the boys and me!
