Thomas the Tank Water Tower Steam Set Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)My son who has recently turned 3 years old LOVES this toy. My sister has just gave it to him as a birthday present yesterday.
The instructions are not very clear. It took me some time to figure out how to make Thomas work properly. It requires3 AA batteries, one at the bottom of Annie and two on top (you need to remove the upper part to insert the batteries). This was ok in the instructions, no problems at all.
After placing the batteries, filling the water tank and Thomas with water, my son was so frustrated to see there was no red light in the funnel and that it was not making any sound, nor puffing steam. I thought it was just a matter of waiting a few minutes, but nothing happened.
I noticed that all water that was filled inside Thomas came off from the bottom, I thought that was the problem, but I think this is supposed to happen as there is a place for the water to be stored on the left of the water tower, so I guess the excess of water really needs to come out (If you don`t want your floor to be wet, be sure to assist your child and have a towel handy to remove the excess of water that is stored at the bottom of the water tower everytime your child fills in Thomas with water, or they may make it fall on the floor).
After many attempts to make Thomas puff steam, I decided to search on the Internet for instructions on how to use this toy and I found a manual on line where I saw there is another on/off switch button at the bottom of Annie.
I took my son`s train and noticed that this bottom was on the off position, then I switched it to the on position, placed Thomas on the tracks, but then again, nothing happened. Then I decided to replace the batteries with new charged ones and, voilá!
It began to make sounds and puff steam.
The instruction manual that came with the toy doesn`t show this button in the picture or mention it anywhere. So if you have purchased this toy and it`s not working or if you are going to purchase it, check if this other button at the bottom is switched on, if it still does not work, put new batteries on (requries 3 AA batteries).
I think these are the tricks.
You also need to show your child how to use it in the beginning. It is important not to fill the funnel from where the steam comes out with water (I think children may want to try to put water in there), there is a small whole on Thomas where the water must be poured into, but after I showed my son how to use it, he learned it without problems.
My son has been playing with it all day and it`s working very well.
I will only give 4 stars because the instructions are poor, but the toy is a nice one and works well. My son is a huge Thomas the tank fan, he has lots of trains and hundreds of tracks and he really loves this steam train.
If you are looking for a present to a child, also consider buying the wooden trains. My son loves these plastic trains, but he also loves the wooden ones. They are more expensive, but very nice for children and he seems to interact more with the wooden trains. There are also the die cast trains, less expensive than the wooden ones, but my son says he prefers the wooden ones than the diecast versions.
He says that the Steam Thomas and the wooden ones are his favorite.
Anyway, it varies from child to child. This is what my son says that he likes. :o)
Hope my review will be helpful.

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