Spencer it is a light blue engine, very long, with a large, square, sloped back face -- like he's always going very fast and his forehead is pushed back. Spencer has a tender. I've only seen him in one story -- I only get him if your child is asking for him.

My son has played with his Thomas trains since he was under 1 year old. We discovered Thomas on a vacation when a family seated behind us was playing with several of the trains. My boy was fascinated with them and the family gave us a train. We protested but he insisted, saying they had several of that particular one because sometimes you get a free train when you buy a video, or duplicates come with sets.

The Thomas train tables can be very pricey, but with very simple tools you can build one for almost nothing, or even use a big flat coffee table as one. We ordered the train table plans from the Internet for like $10.00. The bad thing about the train tables is it takes a lot of room, but the best thing about it is that Joe loves it. We recently moved it from my office to out in the converted garage, and he still plays with everyday- in fact we were recently went on a short vacation and he asked for his train table several times while we were gone.

We have had nothing but good experiences with the quality of the Thomas the tank engine and friends products. Most of our trains come used either from ebay or from friends and relatives then they all work great despite minor cosmetic flaws. We plan on someday rewards putting the train tables and all the trains away for our son's first child's first birthday.

Thomas Train Toys links