Hi all,
Well, I have been known to get all excited over silly little things, and this is one of them. As some of you know, my ds is very, very into trains at the moment, especially Thomas, that perennial favourite (who invades my every waking hour). Ds has even been known to go "Toot, toot" in his sleep after a big day, out riding steam trains (more on that schemozzle in alter entry).
This whole Thomas thing began when a good mate of ours, with the best of intentions, bought ds a Thomas train set for his birthday, with some extra track and a few spare trains to go with it. It was a top present and, needless to say, ds became just a wee bit obsessed with it. And, like any good mum, I willingly indulged this obsession.
No, seriously, like I mentioned in my last post, it's a toy that I don't mind buying extra bits for, for various reasons. Thomas is good old fashioned fun; it's endlessly extendable and made a very good option when people asked the inevitable "What do i buy him for Christmas?" question; it's well made- all the little trains are diecast metal; it's great for ds's fine motor skills, being a push train set, not an electric one; and it's just intricate enough to keep him thinking without being difficult enough to make him overly frustrated. It also doesn't help that i am veeery easily amused and distracted by trinkets and odds and ends that are marketed as 'collectible' or 'limited edition'. Between my EBay problem and ds's Thomas obsession, things were not looking good.
And so, finally, we come to the point of the story. While Ebaying the other day (before dh went and spoiled all my fun by changing his password), I happened across a Thomas playset that goes with our train set, with no bids on it, 3 days to go, at $25. I put in a bid for $35, thinking I'd be outbid and that would be the end of it. And, lo and behold, i won it for $31. Score!
Dh, being a depot supervisor for a freight company, asked one of his drivers to stop in and pick it up for him today. The driver obliged, and, when he got back to the depot, commented to dh that his sons had had that very same set, but it had been a few years since they played with it. Would dh like to come have a look, see if we'd like any of it? You betcha.
So dh cruised round there tonight. I was actually expecting him to come back with a few bits and pieces, probably for the wrong set anyway and not compatible with ours. But no. He came back with 2 playsets, enough track for CityRail, and 54 trains- that's not a typo- 54 trains (I'm including the bus, helicopter, truck, and tramp steamer all in the train count). There is also a huge train table for the track to go on, with a ledge around the side, that's just at toddler height. Dh paid the guy $150. Now, that might sound like a lot, but add it up with me- the play sets (including the one I bought off EBay) are $100 each retail, and the trains are between $10 and $20 each. Goodness only knows how much the table is worth. So that's somewhere round $1000 worth of Thomas, for $181. Double score!!
Oh, how I love a bargain. But dh and I now have a mutual agreement- no more toys. At all. Ds has enough and dd certainly doesn't need any. Hmmm.. we'll see how this goes. I'll let you know which one of us breaks first.