Review: Chuggington Interactive Railway from Learning Curve
Chuggington Interactive Railway tested for Chopsy Baby by four children between the ages of three and five.
The new Chuggington Interactive Railway from Learning Curve, has upped the stakes in the toy shop trains department. Though at first glance it would appear it’s just another plastic toy TV spin-off, this set is any but.
The set is based on the Cbeebies animated series Chuggington and features trainees Wilson (comes with set) Koko and Brewster and a range of other characters available separately.
What makes this set special is that the engines and play sets use Smart Talk technology – a wireless network – to communicate with each other. This feature is very clever and very in-keeping with the new generation high-tech train stories of Chuggington.
Engines will recognise each other and interact through speech on and off track. They even know which part of the tracks they are on.
The set includes the trainee roundhouse with Vee, a loading yard and tower platform. All are interactive and have more than 300 sounds and phrases.
The tracks fit together easily and are quite kid tough. They are not likely to be broken by ham-fisted toddlers.
It does require a large clear area on the floor, some patience to put together and whatever you do, don’t lose the instructions.
Around a million AA batteries – actually included – are needed to power the set. But, it is unlikely that you will need to change them before the kids grow out of it and it ends up at a future car boot sale.
If you want this set to be a Christmas surprise from the Claus man himself, then wait until your youngster has gone to bed. Crack open the bottle of booze left for him and Rudolph and start to assemble. Don’t wait for the pressurised Christmas Day to put this together. When you are trying to burn sprouts and be polite to the in-laws, having this already assembled will buy you valuable kitchen time.
It took us exactly one hour to get the set out of the packaging and in operation. Harder to fathom than the visual fit R1 to C3 diagram, was all the little twisty bits keeping the parts safe from shoplifters.
Subsequent goes assembling the set took just 15 – 20 minutes.
Initially, it would seem the pieces of track could have been better designed. There seem to be far too many little pieces when one longer one would suffice. But after a morning’s play ending with Wilson and truck dramatically crashing from the top and involving a landslide big enough to collapse Chuggington, there is enough pieces for a child to construct a different track all of their own.
Conveniently for little train lovers, by accident or design, Learning Curve’s Take Along Thomas and Friends die cast engines seem to run happily along the Chuggington track.
This blessing creates further scope for imaginative play. For as the Chuggington trains and track automatically interact with each other this reduces to need for a child to create their own ‘voices’ and script. Additional playtime with the silent trains encourages the child’s speech and imagination.
The Chuggington Interactive Railway is a great toy. It’s strong, clever and will provide hours of imaginative play.
All Around Chuggington Train Set £59.99
Additional eight character engines £9.99 each
Other interactive play sets include: Bridge and Tunnel Starter Set, Chug Wash, Repair Shed and Rock Quarry.
Ideal for:
Chuggington fans
The big Christmas present
Available from major toy shops
www.learningcurve.com