Thomas the Trike Rider

Advantages: Sturdy, well made, bright and attractive trike
Disadvantages: Needs a lot of pressure to steer using parent handle, plaque bangs against child's nose

...Thomas the Tank Engine has been a firm favourite with little boys (and girls!) for generations and my youngest son is another firm fan, singing along to the TV theme tune and possessing a range of books, toys and other merchandise emblazoned with images of Thomas and his friends. It seemed a natural choice to treat him to a Thomas trike for his second birthday, combining his love of all things Thomas related with his desire to be on wheels and keep up with his big brother! This particular trike is manufactured by MV Sports and seems to be of very good quality and not too badly priced. Prices vary from around the £40-£50 but I found the cheapest method was to purchase it from Littlewoods online and take advantage of a rather generous new customer discount code which knocked £25 off the price. The trike comes boxed and in pieces...

jo-1976 08.09.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Thomas & Friends Trike

Learning with Thomas!

Advantages: Plenty of games!
Disadvantages: Had to wait for the telly!

...My son?s main present of the ?in-laws? for Christmas is the product I will now try and review. The reason I am only just getting to grips with it is the poor little sod had to wait until his birthday for a television, this was so he could actually play with it! The product I will now review is - ?Thomas the tank, v-tech, v-smile? I am sure that many of you have seen these units advertised on the television, especially before Christmas, this is how and when my son first spotted it. First the set up - This was the part I wasn?t looking forwards to. My husband normally sorts out any of the toys or even household electrical?s as he seems to be able to set things up without the aid of instructions, or at least that?s what he says! Unfortunately two nights ago he discovered the delight that is Facebook, I have yet to get any...

sarahbarrow 09.09.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of VTech Thomas the Tank Engine Laptop

The Flood by Ian Rankin

Advantages: Good story, enjoyable writing and exciting ending
Disadvantages: No epilogue

...Background I'm sure most people have heard of this author Ian Rankin through the Rebus books and television series. This was however my first experience of his work. About the Author Ian Rankin was born in Fife, Scotland in 1960. He is the UK's Number 1 selling crime author. So far he has written 27 novels, of which his most successful have been the Rebus books. His first novel was indeed 'The Flood', which originally was planned for Radio 4's Short story section but was considered too long so Rankin converted it into a novel instead. He has received many awards for his work including an OBE in 2002 for his services to literature. The Storyline of the book The book is set in a small Scottish town called Carsden. Whose traditional industry of coal mining was closing down due to it being uneconomic to mine there any...

CPTDANIELS 22.01.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of The Flood - Ian Rankin

Thomas - courtesy of Deagostini

Advantages: great fun toys to collect
Disadvantages: can be expensive

...who was created by the Rev. Wilbert Awdry over 60 years ago as he recovered from illness and it is 60 years ago this year that his first book was published. Many books were written and from there the short stories were televised with Ringo Starr narrating and whose voice fitted the role perfectly. Thomas toys are plentiful now as well as dvds and videos and its easy to forget that these original stories were mainly written for the pleasure of Awdry's son who ended up writing some of the later stories himself when he grew up. We saw the Thomas set advertised on tv and because our son loved the program on ITV we decided to start a subscription for it to give him as a present at a later date - he was only 2 when we started it. We looked into prices for separate pieces of track and engines and found that this was quite reasonable as...

belfin 19.09.2005 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Tomy Thomas the Tank Engine

FREE DVDs

Advantages: Free trial, large choice, post included,new realeases
Disadvantages: see review

...I like movies and I like freebies, so when you get offered both in one swoop you?re bound to accept! I used my two week free trial with this company and remained with them for a couple of monthsbefore moving on to try many other companies free trials (and winning a new DVD player on Tesco DVD rental site on their free trial offer). I then had an email from DVDs 365 asking me to go back, and offering me a free DVD if I did so. I had just left Tesco (with my new DVD player) so I chose to go back with them. ∆◊◊ THE SERVICE THEY OFFER ∆◊◊ Basically it?s like going to a video shop and hiring films on DVD, except you don?t pay for each film you chose ? rather a monthly fee for which you can watch as many movies as you can fit in, for us this is usually around 8 a month (2 a week usually weekends...

dabmim 15.11.2004 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of dvds365.com

THOMAS ADVENTURE

Advantages: GREAT LEARNING ADVENTURE
Disadvantages: ?///

...My five year old son loves this Thomas game. He has got about 7 games all together but this one is his favourite. He is able to play this game on his own and he finds all the controls easy to handle. ****THE GAME**** Thomas the Tank Engines Working Together Thomas & Friends are Really Useful Engines. Every day is very busy for the engines on the Island of Sodor and they will need your help to show how useful they are. You can learn here important school skills by working together with Thomas, Harold and Bertie. "Peep! Peep! Full steam ahead!" Before you going to put your game in to console you have to turn it of and after your game is in the console turn it on and you can have lovely time spent with your favourite friends. On your TV screen you will find main menu which one will be showing: 1. Learning Adventure After...

redeyes22 07.02.2008 (30.12.2008) · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of VTech V-Smile Game Thomas The Tank Engine

Thomas The Tank Engine and Friends

Advantages: Great stories, good engines, educational experience
Disadvantages: The new stories aren't as good

...I am now 17 years old, but I do still love watching the odd Thomas The Tank Engine story very ocassionly. I grew up watching it and I had, and still do have, most of the videos and story books. I was pleased to discover that the programmes and concept is still going strong. They are continuing to make new stories and introduce more characters, both of which have some positive and negative costs. I will write everything that I know about Thomas The Tank Engine and try and gives those of you who haven't seen it before, a good idea of what it all involves. Thomas The Tank Engine (and Friends), is a childrens programme about the trains that operate on the island of Sodor. It follows them through their ups and downs and also their funny moods and strops that they get into. Each story tends to have a message at the end of it and it...

thespurs 06.10.2004 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Thomas the Tank Engine

Thomas Calling

Advantages: Great many hours of play, entertaining and educational
Disadvantages: Not really for younger children

...reviewing is The Vtech Thomas Phone. It is a toy designed with boy's in mind, but I'm not one of those people who limits their children to either dolls or cars. I'm sorry if you are, but I like to encourage my daughter with the toys that she wants to play with. My daughter wanted this phone so I bought it for her. It was actually a step forward because for a few years she wouldn't even speak on a play phone and she certainly wouldn't speak on a real phone, despite the fact we encouraged her to. We'd put my mum or dad on the phone and she would clam up and not speak to them. She still is a little bit like this, but she has improved a lot. I think the improvement is due to the fact that we have encouraged her to play with phones. The Vtech Thomas Phone has been on the market from October 2006. It is great fun, aimed at children from 3 - 6 years...

Mickie26 20.12.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of VTech Thomas Phone

Surprising Picture Quality - Panasonic DVD-S54

Advantages: Incredible picture quality when compared to my old non-upscaling player with a scart lead
Disadvantages: Sometimes disc drive can be really noisy when DVD's initially load.

...At first I wasn't convinced by up-scaling DVD player technology but was persuaded after reading an article in "What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision" magazine. Unable to afford a Blu-Ray player my sister and I bought the Panasonic DVD-S54 to match our parents brand new Panasonic TX-32LZD80 LCD television as their Christmas 2008 present. Admittedly it was a slightly selfish purchase as we both live at home and wanted to watch DVDs on the big new TV ourselves! We bought the player from the electrical retailer Comet for about £100 just before Christmas so there were no discounts applied. On Christmas day when opened we found a relatively small box tightly packed with the player in polystyrene packaging. All the components such as cables, remote and manuals were well presented in their own protective plastic bags, to keep them protected. The player...

bobbacon985 12.02.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Panasonic DVD-S54

For little Thomas lovers

Advantages: easy to carry a school lunch in
Disadvantages: none

...Sooner than you are ready for it will be the beginning of school term again, have you got everything your child needs? Will your child be taking a packed lunch ./ if so they will want a lunch bag. This Thomas lunch bag from Zac might be the one. Use your Amazon points get one from http://www.amazon.co.uk for £6.99. This bag suitable for children over 3 years old. This lunch bag is a blue colour and has a small picture of Thomas on the front . The top closing flap has more pictures of Thomas on it. This bag has a long over the shoulder padded carry handle that can be adjusted so it can be hand held, more versatile than the bags with just a hand handle This lunch bag is a good one it is made from wipe clean PVC type fabric. The seams have been double stitched, it is insulated to keep that food a little cooler /warmer you can...

mumsymary 11.08.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Thomas Lunch Bag