About Wooden Mike the Engine

Mike is a medium red engine with his name on the side (notice that all these occasional characters have their names on the side while Thomas and Percy and Gordon and the like don't). Mike comes with his own red coal tender that says ARLESDALE on it.

Although most children probably know what Mike is for, I don't. I have never seen him in a story or on a tape.

We have several of the thomas videos and dvds. The first time I saw one, I thought it was really dumb, because almost nothing happens in the video. I guess I didn't like them because they are narrated and not like what we are used to seing these days. My boy loves them though - he loves to reenact what happened in the video with his trains, or pretend he is Thomas and I am Gordon or Percy and we are having an adventure.

One thing I don't like about these Thomas the tank Engine and his friends is that everybody seems male. I understand they were created by a man, for a boy, in the days when women were nothing but housewives, but still-- even the videos and TV show have all male characters and say things like "Sir Thopham Hatt thanked the men". There are a few females trains and trucks like Lady and Emily and Elizabeth (these are mostly new trains) but no female conductors or fire starters, etc.

We use our wooden trains and track with a train table - when Joe was very young, barely even walking, we had a simple circular track set up on a box. They seem good for a very young kids all the way up to kids in their teens. I have found the wooden trains and the wooden sets cost the most money and come with the the most accessories. In size, these trains are medium - bigger than the metal, smaller than the plastic.

Thomas the tank engine toys are based on the daily work done by an anthropomorphic train named Thomas, and his friends. Besides trains and track there are hundreds of accessories and thomas related items like clothing and videos and books and even collectibles - each train even comes with a small identifier card like a baseball card for trains. Babies and very young children are even amused by Thomas push trains and pullbacks and shape sorters and other colorful musical toys. Thomas was created by a concerned father trying to amuse his sick and bedridden son in the 1940's.