Thomas the Tank Water Tower Steam Set :: Education by Design Store

Customer Reviews

My son loves it....

2008-11-10
We actually purchased this for my then 3 year old son and he played it to death. His little sister broke the wires between the trains and my son was devestated. We got him a different engine since we had all the working pieces of the rest of the set but he missed the puffing smoke of this one so after much looking we finally found a set and bought it again. He plays with this one just as much as the first set and still adores it at almost 5 years old. Would highly recommend for the train lover.

pleased mom

2008-09-07
My son loves Thomas. The train is easy for him to operate and he is able to assemble the tracks. The fact that it occupies my three year old for an hour is amazing. It is the only time he sits still.

What kind of evil people make these toys???

2008-07-21
I couldn't get the battery compartment open at all. Had to break the door off. The instructions stink. Was practically hysterical after trying to put this set together. Why do they have to make this crap so hard to put together?? I mean, WTF!!, ya know? My son is very tenaciously telling me I have to keep trying, but I have to wait for the tranquilizer to kick in first(lol)... Wish I hadn't bought it so long ago or back to the store it would go!

Thomas at its best

2007-10-28
My kid absolutely loved this one. Its got real steam coming out of the chimney and a very real sound "chug chug". Definitely a good buy and kid adores it. A dream toy for any Thomas lover.

Fun for Grandpa also!

2007-08-04
I must admit that I probably wouldn't have purchased this toy at full price, only because my daughter already has so many of the Thomas wooden railway pieces. However, I found it for $24.99 and bought this set plus the Diesel #10 for $8.99. I bought the set to use at my parents' house, and I think my dad has had more fun with it than anyone!

The downside is that it is not very interactive for the kids, but this is a plus for Grandpa. My daughter loves to arrange her wooden Thomas pieces all sorts of ways, and it drives him crazy that she never sets them up as a full track like he would. With this set, we just leave everything in place and turn the engines on and off. Grandpa thinks that the steam and sounds are the coolest things ever!

Fun for everyone!

2007-07-25
Play set with real working water tower When Thomas runs out of steam, stop under the tower Press the pump to release real water into Thomass tank, and hes ready to go again Train releases cool puffs of steam as it moves along track For ages 3 yrs. and up

Persistence paid off

2007-06-25
I purchased this set for my 4 year old daughter who has loved everything about Thomas since she could walk. My husband and I set it up after she went to bed one night because we wanted it to be a surprise for her birthday the next morning. The track went together pretty easily. We followed the diagram on the back of the instruction pamphlet. Before I even purchased this set I had read many reviews about it so I already knew about the small black on/off switch under Annie and I made sure that it was on. I did find it a little difficult to insert the two batteries in the top of Annie because it was hard to unhook her "body" and lift it off. Once everything was assembled correctly I filled Thomas with water using the small tube that they provide. When I saw water coming out from under him I figured his "tank" was full. I turned the switch on top of Annie on and let them go. Thomas raced around the track and made all of the appropriate sounds with the little red light coming out of his funnel but NO STEAM AT ALL. We parked him under the water tower and pumped a few times to fill him again just in case. Water again ran out of the bottom, we let him go again and he still did not steam. We were ,of course, frustrated at this point. I took Annie apart all over again and inserted another set of three brand new batteries. I turned Thomas upside down and unscrewed the reservior section, I filled the little plastic tube with water and manually filled the reservior. Then while I held Thomas upright my husband attached the filled reservior to his underside.We let him go again and let him run for about two minutes, STILL NO STEAM. We noticed that they include a replacement wick/filter piece. I turned Thomas over again, replaced the small red filter, filled the reservior and assembled him again. STILL NO STEAM. I detached the reservior under Thomas again, removed the small red filter and squirted water directly into the hole where it had been. I reattached the filter and the filled reservior piece again. In frustration I tipped Thomas and Annie up side down (I had detached poor Clarabel at this point)and SHOOK them. I then refilled Thomas using the water tower and guess what? STEAM! LOTS OF STEAM! He has been working great ever since. How ridiculous though! I am sure most people are not going to spend the hour to hour and a half of set up time that it took us to get him to do what most people assume he will do right out of the box! Now that he is finally up and running there are no problems. My daughter was thrilled and plays with this constantly. This is a really good idea for a Thomas toy but it definitely has its glitches. I am sure there are some people who have been lucky to avoid these issues but I just wanted to let everyone know they do exist and it is not just because people are not reading the directions correctly.

Very Cool and no troubles

2007-04-02
I bought this for my 27 month old son (I know, he's "too young", blah, blah, blah) and we both love it. I had no issues building it and actually found no issues with the instructions either, maybe I'm smarter than the average bear??? My instructions did tell me about the two power switches located on Annie, so maybe there are two versions of instruction sheets out there. My son loves it and so far it functions as stated. The steam and sounds are very cool and my wife looks on as the kid and me is totally facinated. I have only had it about a week, but so far, if anything, the steam has thickened. The only complaint I have at this point is that this Thomas does not detach from the second coach car (Annie), since Annie is the car that powers Thomas forward and provides the power for the steam and sounds. Also, this Thomas is much faster than the only other Tomy engine we have, so either Duck is slower than most or Thomas is faster than most. I wish they could have made them all go at least close to the same speed. This Thomas catches up to Duck in less than two circles around the track. Oh well, it's still very fun and cool.

Thomas The Train Water Tower is Great

2007-03-18
Children really love the action. The amount of track that comes wiith the set is very good and opens up new and different layouts.The smoking train is safe. With the light and the spray of water there is no danger of harm or fire. The children got a kick out of being sprayed by the water. Not enough to cause water problems, but it looks good.

Love the steam but poor compatibility

2007-01-14
My 3 year old absolutely loves the steam and fire, he does make a mess with the water at times, it is worth his joy though. My problem with this set is that I really wanted to expand it but there are many flaws when you try to buy the other sets. I tried to buy the Engine Wash set but the Steam Thomas with Annie does not stop in the right place to get washed because the stopper is on Annie. My son didn't want to have to switch engines every time he wanted to go to the Water Tower and then switch engines to go to the Engine Wash. I called the company they said someone would call me back about it but they never did, I took the Engine Wash set back. Then, I bought him the Sodor Expansion Set, although the other cars worked okay the Water Tower Station has an area that is too narrow for the Caboose to go through so he can't use the Caboose. I will say that the steam and fire are all worth it for my son to own, he calls it his fire choo choo and he LOVES it. I am dissappointed with the toy designers attention to detail. I will stop trying to expand this set and look into different systems for his next train purchase.

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