Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway: Circus Set Review

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(More customer reviews)My 3 yr. old recieved this for Xmas. Let me start off by saying that I was impressed by the quality of the toy and the care of its packaging. I also thought the playboard was a nice touch. By following the outline of the track sizes I was able to connect the tracks together in no time, which is good when you have an impatient child. As I watched my child play, the first thing I noticed is that the train came off the tracks a lot. I think it's because the track is a fairly tight curve most of the time. That annoyed me more than him. He would just patiently fix it each time. Then I noticed that the giraffe, when placed in the circus car, made the car unstable and it would fall out knocking the car over as well while he was driving around the curves. This frustrated my son a little, me even more! I think it was a bad design to have a tall animal like that. However, there is a fix to that. It turns out you can fit 2 animals in one car, so if you put the giraffe in a car with one of the others, it makes for a more snug fit, adding stability to the car. The last thing I noticed was that when you're driving the train around the circle and want to go through the middle crossover section, this can only be done from one direction. Meaning, you set up the trains the right way to go through the middle, but once you've gotten to the other side, the train is now going in the opposite direction. Thus, you can't go through the middle again! This bothered my son the most and me too. I was finally able to come up with a pseudo fix. I taught him how to drive the train backwards through the middle. He was satisfied with that, especially learning to do something new with the trains. In conclusion, knowing what I do, I don't believe I would purchase this set. If you ask my son, he will tell you he is happy with it. He probably plays with the trains just as much off the track as he does on. I've seen him play with a figure 8 set with one mountain/tunnel, and that kept his interest a lot longer than this one.

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Empire Builder Review

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(More customer reviews)This game is really alot of fun! Our little group when playing this game ranges from 33 to 15. We all have alot of fun with this game. We have played it so much, the puzzle board is starting to get worn down and the crayons are almost done. Everyone in the family will have fun with this game!

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Discover a modern North American classic. Celebrate one of our most vital and enduring passions: railroads. Use your initial investment to build track. Then pick up commodities where they are grown, mined, or manufactured and deliver them to a lucrative place of demand. Complete a delivery and make the money you need to buy larger, faster trains, and expand your railroad empire.With over a million variations, Empire Builder never grows old. Capture the entrepreneurial spirit of North America and learn to build an empire. Whether you share Empire Builder as an evening with friends or as a rainy day activity with your family, you'll always find it captivating!Geographically accurate, the game depicts North America's rivers, mountains and plains, as well as its natural resources. It's a great way to learn about the geography, business, shipping, and transportation of the U.S., Canada and Mexico while having loads of fun with family and friends.For 2 - 6 players, ages 12 and up.Playing time:90+ minutesContents:1 markable gameboard (puzzle-cut map), 6 wipe off crayons, 2 decks of cards (168 total), 95 load chips, 1 pack of game money and full color rules with game overview and introduction.

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Silverton Review

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(More customer reviews)Silverton is a game focusing primarily on the business aspects of railroading in the 1800s. The game components themselves are of varying quality. Along with the hundreds of plastic chips (to which stickers need to be applied) representing the various commodities, I also got a bag of wooden pieces. These include small discs representing surveyors and prospectors (and more stickers to apply!), small cubes to designate rail line ownership and commodity prices, a pair of dice, and a turn marker. Different cards represent commodity claims, passenger routes, and engines.
The board is made of pressed cardboard, and is probably adequate for the relatively light use the it will see. The four interlocking pieces cover most of Colorado and New Mexico, plus a small portion of Utah and a tiny corner of Texas and Wyoming.
The rulebook is well organized and clearly written. The Basic Game rules cover the first half of the book; Advanced and Optional rules and scenarios for one to five players fill the remaining pages.
Play itself is a recreation of the late 1800s railroading and mining boom in the Rocky Mountains. Depending on the scenario and number playing, players begin in one or more cities. The order in which players take their turns each round is determined by a random deal of cards. Surveyors must then be placed before a track segment can be purchased; if two players want to survey the same segment, the dice are rolled and, with small modifications, the high roll wins. Prospectors are then used to establish mining (or lumber) claims or to establish passenger routes. Players have the choice of choosing, but possibly fighting over, one of eight face-up claims or passenger routes, or drawing a claim card to which they will have exclusive rights. Provided any disputes are settled, players then pay to purchase their surveyed rail lines and prospected claims. Claims are operated by paying an operations fee to the bank and rolling the dice to determine how much of the claim's commodity is produced. Revenue from any passenger routes is collected, and then players deliver their freight, which is then sold based on its market value.
As far as game play goes, that's pretty much it. The winner is the player with the most cash, or the first to go over a predetermined limit. There are rules designed to add a little color, such as prospectors and/or surveyors being arrested, but these have a minimal effect on game play. The Basic Rules are fairly simple to pick up, but handle a couple of things very abstractly. The Advanced Rules don't really complicate the game; after getting the hang of the Basic Rules players will probably want the added challenges the Advanced Rules present. Silverton also plays well as a solitaire game, so if you don't have any opponents available, you can still break it out.Silverton is an intermediate-level game in complexity and realism. Players have plenty of choices to make during play, but the rules are simple enough for children who understand Monopoloy.


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Set in the historic mining areas of Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah, Silverton is a game of railroading, mining, and commodity market manipulation. Use your surveyor to plot your railroads and your prospector to find your mines. Operate your empire of mines and railroads to position your gold, silver, and other commodities in the right market and at the right time to reap maximum profit. Contains a 17x22 mounted mapboard, Each player will have 32 wooden cubes and 8 wooden disks in one of the following colors. White, Green, Red, Yellow, Blue, Purple, 13 black 5/16" cubes for the price chart, 208 chips - in various colors, two decks, rules book, box and turn marker. For 1-6 players ages 12 and up. It plays in under an hour. Measures 2"L x 11.625"W x 2"H.

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Ravensburger Rivers, Roads & Rails - Children's Game Review

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(More customer reviews)Even the littlest one (3 years old) loves R, R, & R. He doesn't understand the "game" part, but he loves looking at the pieces, and he has figured out how the matching works.
Treating it more like a puzzle than a turn-based game makes it fun for everybody -- you spend as little or as long on it as you want, and then you come back to it later.
Our household challenge is to use all the pieces in as compact a shape as possible. My husband is obsessed with putting together a perfect rectangle. Hasn't happened yet, but he keeps trying!

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Rivers, Roads & Rails is a matching game with 140 picture tiles that show segments of rivers, roads, and rails. Your child has to match the tiles together to make a transportation system which makes it a great educational toy. And its even fun for you to play along.

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