At What Age Does the Thomas the Train Obsession End?

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Aww... I remember my boys loving Thomas the Train- for a long time (4 yrs) strong! My husband made a huge 12x4 train table that was great! Now it's just a distant wonderful memory! Some times I still take the trains out when we have a little one over and my boys will start making the tracks again. Enjoy every moment of it, because now they're into electronics! :(

My boys are 10, nearly 11, and 7, very nearly 8 and my daughter is 2 and they still love Thomas. I still love them as an adult. It may never go away honestly ;)
It's definitely a good thing to be obsessed with :)

LOL. You may be in for the long haul! My Hubby is 33 and the trains come out at every Christmas including the pre-WWII set. He plays with them just like a little kid. Then there are the train shows (that he is now taking the kids to) and visits to train museums and then the "Day Out with Thomas". I busted his chops that they were going for him - he SWORE it was for the kids! LOL. I actually love it that he has an interest that he has the opportunity to share and bond over with the kids.

The thing is, I knew what I was getting before we married - he had built a "train table" in his basement with his Dad and several times, that was our "date". We would do dinner with his family and then go to the basement to play with the trains. He was/is so knowledgable about them. I find it very interesting.

Honestly, there are worse obsessions/hobbies that one can get in to. Are you old enough to recall Teletubies? Ugh! Maybe if you embrace it more, it won't bother you so much?

Good luck.
~C.

Since Fisher Price bought the line, the toys are geared more toward toddlers only. The older sets kept kids playing well past 7 & 8. The buildings were more sophisticated and interesting in design. The boxes even said for kids ages 2 to 99. :)

If you're lucky enough to have sets from the 90's and early 2000's, or to get your hands on the older sets they're now considered collectibles. My kids are pretty big, and still have a special spot in their heart for Thomas. I know they won't sell them anytme soon, that's for sure.

my boy is 7 and he has had thomas stuff since he was 2 , he still likes thomas

He may someday outgrow Thomas the Train eventually (maybe by 8 yrs) but it's common for train enthusiasts to switch to bigger and more elaborate train sets.
Have you been to a model train show?
They can be a lot of fun!
When my son went through a short train phase we made a point to visit Cass, WV to ride a steam train to the top of the mountain and we all had so much fun!
He was way more into firetrucks.
For years we could even go on vacation without visiting a fire station where we went.

My son started his Thomas obsession when he was 2-21/2. He is seven now. Though the interest in it has tapered off some over the last year or so, he will still pull out his trains once in a while and play with them. As your son gets older and goes to school, he will develop more interests and see other toys. It is such a wonderful and creative toy - I'm glad my son still enjoys these kinds of toys instead of some of the crazy stuff out there!

Enjoy - I think our Thomas trains are going to stay forever and get passed on down to the next generation :)

My grandsons all liked Thomas until about 6 or so. The grandson I babysat loved to watch it on TV too but his little brothers now love it and they're 3. I wrote on here for another question that I am glad for grandsons so I can play Thomas. :-) I won't outgrow it as long as I have little grandsons to play with.

Our obsession was from 2 - 5/6. I think it was when the movie Disney Cars came out and he started liking McQueen more. We have so much Thomas stuff and now my youngest is 2 and playing with them. He is not as obsessed though. We have tons of the old wooden, tons of the old school take along, and the battery operated sets. Oh and all the Lego Duplo sets. So 4 giant bins of Thomas stuff. When we finally get rid of it all we may notice we have a bigger house. LOL

My son was between 5 and 6 when the Thomas the Train obsession stopped. Once he left daycare and started school he was introduced to Pokemon and Thomas became a distant memory. My husband introduced him to Star Wars so that is also a big one these days.

too soon. Enjoy! It's a sweet age and I miss those little train characters (PS my son is 12 and still won't even consider giving away any of those trains - they are like old friends)

My daughter was about 5 when she lost her obsession with Thomas (she was about 2 when it started) BUT she still loves trains in general (she can sit and watch live trains or model trains for hours). She will watch the Thomas show or play with the wooden Thomas train from time to time (maybe every other month she mentions it). Next summer we are going to pass on the train table and train set to her new cousin who will be about one when we give it to him.

I think there is always going to be an obsession of some sort, just be happy it is not something that is harmful.

The wonderful non-profit executive whose office is co-located with mine gave me her son's outgrown Thomas trains and paraphernalia when her son was seven and mine was two. I'm eternally grateful, because my salary couldn't come close to affording even half of that collection! It was one of the nicest and most unexpected gifts my son has ever received!

My son was a true fanatic until about 5 when he started to taper his interest and enjoy Star Wars more. My younger son likes Thomas, but not with nearly the same enthusiasm. I love Thomas because it is so innocent, and I will be sad to see it go completely, however, I am looking forward to getting the train table out of our living room!!

7?? We sold my son's trains at about that age.

My son was 7 - sorry! ate, slept, drew, watched, played.
At least we always knew what to get him!

My son just turned 5 and he seems as into it as ever. We actually went to Day out with Thomas this year too - he was in amazed awe the whole day! He's now more into building tracks and making the trains have accidents (he loves that) than just driving the trains. I think he'll be into it probably for another year and that might be it. :(

I don't have a single daycare child that seems to like Thomas. They won't watch it and we don't even know where the few Thomas toys we have are most of the time.

Your son loves it. He may not stop liking it for a long time :) It's just his thing.

I think Thomas really appeals to preschoolers. My son loved it staring around 2 and now at 5.5 likes it but isn't obsessed. My daughter is 2, almost 3 and really likes it too. With 2 kids we have enough stuff to make some great layouts and will cover the living room floor on a rainy day. If your kid just loves trains he will probably eventually graduate to something more detailed.

My son was around 6 when he lost interest in Thomas. Then he moved on to Lightening Mcqueen and all of the "Cars" stuff. Now he is 10 and into Transformers, Beyblades, etc. Oh how I wish we could have the Thomas days back. They grow up was too fast. :(

My son will be 2 in Dec. He has an older sister that likes Thomas, but who has other obsessions (Dora, Hello Kitty).

Last week, we were in a department store, and my son grabbed a Thomas shirt off a hanger and gave it to me. My mom bought it for him, and as soon as he saw it again, he insisted on wearing it. In fact, he wanted to wear it to bed! He has Thomas Pj (clearance $1.5 at target), so I put those on him to prevent a meltdown, but the next day, when his Thomas shirt got put back in his closet, he went to grab it to put it on again.

My son loves playing with his trains, but I couldn't believe how much he wanted to wear this stupid Thomas shirt.

My much older brother and my younger brother didn't have Thomas the Tank when they grew up. Now they are both retired (the younger brother has no kids by choice and retired in his early 40's) are now into the huge Lionel and are several times the price of the TTT trains. In the case of my "little brother" he has been working on his newest train tracks for several years. My oldest who retired this year is ripping up his tracks and maybe knocking out a wall in his basement to build a huge layout.

My son who was into everything Thomas grow out of it when he was about 6-7 years old.

Enjoy

It was "over" here by right around 6.
He still loves trains but now it's the "N scale" sets for the holidays...
Don't worry, there will be lots of other obsessions to follow! LOL

When he discovers Spongebob Squarepants. :P