My dime (inflation) on the matter... First, Mark, when might you have the Thomas sets? My 4(almost 5) yearold loves Thomas (the wooden set) and we usually have a wooden thomas layout around the floor of my (unfinished) AF layout. He has his own CaseyJones Flyer that we repainted (yellow, red and blue. his choice, and we had a blast painting it) and I let him use some of my pikemaster cars, but A A Thomas set would be pretty cool for him, and soon, his little brother (1.5 yearsold).
As far as starter sets, I can see both ways for getting older folks into S guage (good sets vs cheap sets), but when you are dealing with a 4 yearold, you dont want him playing around with a 2 or 300 dollar train piece (mine knows (and cant reach) which ones are "daddy's cars"). Of course, as Tom Westhelle mentioned, there is a ready supply of old AF gilbert starter sets available (for kids). Frankly, I would even cringe at the thought of letting my kid handle a 100 dollar engine... so the good old pikemaster 20 or 30 dollar casey jones engines are great. The only thing that is disappointing about them is they dont smoke. 60 bucks or so for Thomas would be awsome... about the same as a casey jones setup (maybe a little more, but then its a new engine vs old), and using a very very well recognized product to snag the youngsters... good way to get a new crowd young going (and even their parents... I got back into trains because I wanted somethng fun for my kid to do, and remembered I had an old casey jones setup my uncle gave me when i was a kid, so i got it out and became addicted....). Sorry, I'm rambling. but the thomas setup sounds great! (Mark wrote...) >From: Mark Preman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Just to add info to the pile, I >(AmericanFlyerTrains.com)will be marketing an S gauge >Thomas the Tank Engine with a few cars for the younger >set so junior can run his train on dad or grampa's >layout. It is being manufactured by Putt Trains. >Pricing will be in the $60 range. Mark > >===== >Mark B. Preman >AmericanFlyerTrains.com S-Trains list sponsor: http://www.americanflyertrains.com All the "Flyer" you desire...books and accessories too! To UNSUBSCRIBE from this list send a note to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
