Early Engineers Rock and Roll Quarry Set
Durability: 5/5
Longevity: 5/5
Value: 4/5
Score: 93%
Conclusion: This train set is a real winner with young children and should provide literally years of fun.
Learning Curve’s new Early Engineers sets are designed to provide younger children (aged 18 months upwards) with their own version of the popular Thomas & Friends themed wooden railway sets.
The Rock and Roll Quarry Set includes a little Thomas engine and cargo car, a ‘quarry mountain’ themed track setup, a sign and two boulders.
Thomas’s job is to drive up and down quarry mountain and to collect boulders. A handle at the top rolls the boulders down a chute and into a pot, where a spinning crane can pick them up magnetically and load them onto the cargo car, which is pulled by Thomas.
The set arrives well packaged, and is very easy to assemble, with the special ‘tracktile’ making it clear where to slot in all the accessories, as well as serving to keep the track layout in place.
It is perhaps a little too easy to disassemble, as we found with younger testers that enthusiastic playing often dislodged pieces of the layout, meaning a parent had to intervene in order to make it work properly (although older children could reassemble it on their own).
The elevated section of track also does not slot securely into place, it merely sits quite loosely on the top of the chute, and therefore can (and does) get knocked out of place during play.
Children in the target age range loved playing with this set. Fans of Thomas were instantly drawn to the familiar character, and younger children not yet familiar with the little tank engine showed why he is so popular, as they were delighted by the bright and smiling train.
The chunky Thomas is just the right size for little hands too, and the larger size of his wheels mean that he can be guided along the rails even by children whose motor skills are still relatively basic.
The magnetic feature of the crane was also very appealing to young children, who sometimes concentrated on merely picking up the ‘boulder’ with the crane and then replacing it, with lots of squeals of delight. Older children also had fun loading the boulder onto the train and enjoying Thomas-themed play.
With a strong base and sturdy pieces, the set endures a lot of very physical manhandling from young children and, added to the fact that the sets can be used with other Thomas & Friends wooden railway sets, this gives the toy great longevity.
Priced around £29.99 the set is good value for money, but may be best used in conjunction with other sets, as the track seems keen to direct you off to other places. Testers showed, however, that it can provide hours of fun as a standalone set too.
Approx. price: £29.99
Age range: 18 months upwards
Website: www.learningcurve.com
