Murdoch is a long orange engine. He is one of Thomas's new friends. We don't have Murdoch, but my son does want him. I am holding off on buying him because he is such a minor character.

The standard selling spiel on Murdoch is that he "has ten drive wheels," which I don't understand, since he only has 4 wheels. Maybe on the video or in a book he has more wheels, but not on the actual wooden train.

Thomas the tank engine and friends train and track are fantastic toys for girls and boys of all ages-as young as almost toddlers, to preschoolers, and children all the way up to 12. Good points of buying Thomas for a birthday or christmas present is, if they like it, you always know what to give them next time and they can start collecting Thomas. A bad point is that Thomas can be quite expensive. If your child likes Thomas you may also want to consider geotrax for the younger set and brio trains for less expensiveness.

In all the books and videos, the general message to our children is that the trains are hard workers who try to get along with their friends. Most of the trains, like Thomas and Percy, are always striving to "be really useful engines". Typical storylines are about trains that disobey or play tricks and then get into a scrape because of it and later, wish they hadn't -- or about two trains who aren't getting along, and then they find a way to make up. I feel these stories are helpful in imaprting a strong work ethic and good character to our children through play.