If you re ready to take the step of exposing your toddler to the world of trains, or you re hoping to upgrade what they currently have to something newer and more suitable to their cognitive development, you need to factor in several elements. The best train sets for toddlers in 2015 are either push trains or electric trains, depending on their age. Each of these has its own specific requirements for size, adult supervision and difficulty of assembly. When purchasing a train set, consider each of these factors accordingly to ensure your child has the best train experience possible. As you research train sets, one of the most important factors to keep in mind is the difficulty of assembling the track pieces. Because toddlers are still developing the motor skills necessary for more complex tasks, you ll need to factor in your child s current capabilities when deciding the best type of train to pick. Depending on your child's development, you can pick between a regular push train set or an electric model.
In the majority of cases, children under 5 years old still thrive on push toy trains. For example, Brio, Lego trains, GeoTrax, and Thomas the Tank Engine toys will prove most popular to these young and growing minds. Kids can still lose themselves for hours as they lay track and run wooden trains. Each of these sets have its own specific benefits, ranging from quality parts to recognizable characters to pieces that always line up no matter how they re placed. The cost of push train sets can become significant due to the wooden materials used to create long-lasting rail pieces. Even the cost of the trains themselves can add up swiftly. Still, the rail options available allow you to create a wide range of track layouts, comparable to sets suitable to older children and adults. And even if your child is younger than 5, this doesn t mean they can t use electric train sets. Many train set enthusiasts recommend starting toddlers at age 5 with electric trains simply because of the aptitude and motor skills required to use them.
Though the voltages on the rails and power pack terminals won t be a significant health hazard for younger children, the setup and operation of these devices are not as intuitive as push train sets. The rail pieces are more difficult to connect due to the smaller design of each part, and regular use of electric trains will necessitate adult supervision simply for safety purposes. From an educational standpoint, giving your child an electric train set helps develop significant hand-eye coordination as they learn to control the speed and direction a train is traveling. If you decide an electric train is the best option for your child, you ll find that numerous size options exist. Each size indicates a different scale for both the train and rails. O scale is the most commonly-used size among train enthusiasts, but for young toddlers you ll want to consider something that requires less space for setup and use. Typical O scale tracks require a four-foot by eight-foot table space for a simple track.
Instead, consider other scales, like HO, N or TT, which are comparable to the size and scale of push trains. Prior to committing to a scale, do your research and identify the size and space requirements needed to set up an electric train. Yesterday I was contacted by the website Tech Insider to help them list the Top 25 most valuable sets of All Time. It was good timing too since I did run the price guide numbers recently. With no real big surprise, Star Wars led the pack with getting 10 sets into the list. I think the one surprise is getting a set from 2015 in there with the Bat-Pod. No one is really sure how long that will remain in the list and if aftermarket builders will do a good enough job on the "fakes" to kill that market. Good old Mr Gold is still going strong after a few years and holding onto a value greater than $1,500. If you are lucky enough to have every set on this list, you are holding onto a pretty nice bundle of cash, $35,277.95! So the big question is, how many sets on this list do you own?
Ultimate Collector's Millennium Falcon DC Comics Super Heroes Castle Giant Chess Set Here are quick breakdowns by Theme: Edited January 8, 2016 by Jeff Mack Sign in to follow thisWe’re winding down 2016 and it’s time to continue with my “Top 10” lists and this time it’s for the most viewed LEGO posts of the year. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love to look at statistics. In regards to what the top posts were this year, I was actually a little surprised to see what showed up on my analytics. As usual, you guys like reading up about some of the LEGO sets that we’ll be getting in the future. This list came out in August so some of the sets have already hit store shelves and online. Not surprisingly, the toy fair season has everyone hyped for it since we get our first look at the spring and summer sets. This post really took my by surprise as to how high it is on this list. This project was eventually announced that it will become an official LEGO Ideas set that will be coming out in Fall 2017.
Another post that came out in the second half of the year which many people read up on a lot. Most were excited for the Snowglobe and Nutcracker Ornament GWPs. The Disney Collectible Minifigures a huge surprise when they were first announced but before that, a list of the characters that would be included was revealed earlier. This was the first toy fair of the year and there were descriptions of the LEGO sets that we would eventually be getting during the spring and summer. The distribution of minifigures per full box was revealed ahead of the official release. Another store calendar post made the list this year and main thing people were looking forward to on there was the Holiday Countdown Calendar (40222). This was a very early post in the year where there were already rumors swirling of the Winter Holiday Train (10254). It seems that you guys really like the Disney Collectible Minifigures and hopefully my feel guide helped you find the ones that you wanted.