Is Mattel Dumbing Down Things With Revolution?

[ripley802]

Are you stuffing your suit cases with them Ripley802? No need to take your clothes back just drop them off at the Salvation Army

They would need to work a littler harder on the "roll back" for me to do that. I did however find crash and repair salty and TRU was having a sale so I got diesel 10 as well. Those are the only ones I wil likely get though.

Interesting on Crash & Repair Salty being found in the USA. Someone a while back said they thought that was an Australian exclusive!

[ripley802]

Interesting on Crash & Repair Salty being found in the USA. Someone a while back said they thought that was an Australian exclusive!

That's what I thought to which is why I picked him up. The same store had 2 others which I should purchased if they will be rare as they were buy one get one 40% off.

TMR are frustrating sets to set up and get running well. Track joints kept separating causing derailments, points kept moving on their own causing derailments. The breakaway bridge was very iffy with only some locos making it around and the rest falling off.

Tablets and devices are not a fad in fact they are getting better and faster/smarter and can do more tasks than ever (I use mine everyday for many things). We need an electronic set where it is all controlled by a device

Sadly Plarail Thomas will seem to be discontinued soon so future generations will not get the joy that we have at the moment. Their only option will be Revolutions or their devices.

I have never liked track master revolution. The only systems I have liked are Tomica, Motor and Rail, Plarail and early Trackmaster trains. It all started going downhill from there

This is a late reply, but I'll take a stab at it. Yes of course the sets have been dumbed down, but I should think the reason is obvious. Mattel is pretty clearly aiming trackmaster sets at ages 4-6 (maybe up to 8) with NO attempt to encourage older or younger kids to play with them.

They've shunted younger kids into the take-n-play stuff and (AFAIK) removed the ability of the trackmaster trains to free-wheel in "off" position.

Since the line is only compatible with it'self now and there is no Fisher Price version of the "real-world" Tomica stuff, there is no incentive to keep any real-world functionality. The key is this:

All Fisher price wants to do is keep kids attention for as long as they are interested in Thomas and Friends, and that really isn't going to be past age 7 for most kids.

My son just turned 5 and I can already see him playing less and less with the Thomas characters and more and more with the few Japanese Tomy Trains we've been able to acquire. I doubt he'll be interested in Thomas by the time he's 8.

Of course we all know that our 3-6 year olds are more than capable of putting together creative layouts with track rather than just playing with playsets, but a colorful playset sure looks tempting to a kids (or a parent) on the toy store shelves.