Toyology Review: Trackmaster Daring Drop Blue Mountain Quarry

This is a train track based on the Blue Mountain Thomas & Friends DVD.  Thomas is battery powered and drives round the track - either the inner one, or the outer one which features a 'daring' drop.

And that's it.

It took us quite a while to put this together. Dad reading the instructions and calling out for parts which the children then hunted through the pile of pieces to find. Finally we had it all set up, with it covering a bit chunk of our living room. We set Thomas going and he went round the outer track. We all made 'oooo!' noises as he hit the drop. The points were changed and Thomas went round the less exciting inner track. Then Thomas went round again. And again. And again. And...

Within a minute we'd done everything that can be done with the set. It's a set layout so you can't change the pieces to have a different track - I can't even see a place where you could add in more track pieces if you bought them. You simply sit and watch and occasionally change the points. We spent a few minutes placing toys on the track to be run over, but that didn't really work.

Considering the amount of time it took to set up, we'd expected a bit more. "Dad, do I have to keep playing with that? You just watch that," said my 4 year old who, as it happened, was the child who was so excited to get the track out in the first place.

I know, on the face of it, the Hot Wheels track we reviewed does pretty much the same thing - the cars simply go round and round - but that adds an exciting danger element with jumps (possibly not possible with a train) and crashing (more likely in the early Thomas episodes). Plus, being stuck on the wall, it doesn't require extensive set-up time every time you want to play with it.

On the plus side, the Daring Drop box is packed with bits of plastic - so much so that it's a puzzle getting it all back in the box again once you've finished playing with it. I suppose it does everything you'd expect it to do from looking at the box. The disappointment shouldn't really have occurred since it's obvious any enjoyment from the toy can only come from watching Thomas go round and round and round and round and...