This set consists of four major components: A Pirate ship, a skull mountain bridge with tunnel, a mountain tunnel destination, and some Thomas track. It also comes with Thomas the Train and Salty, and a red cart cargo car.
a. The Pirate ship is similiar to the mine shaft destination. Young engineers will be amazed as Thomas "disappears" and reapears poping out the front trap door. Curiously, the ship is arranged in the reverse direction to the natural flow of the track.
b. The Skull mountain features and imposing skull with a mouth that acts as a tunnel, the crest as a bridge. There is a lever in the track over the crest which releases a secret treasure. The chest can be looted and hauled away in the cargo car.
c. Down a ramp from the Skull mountain is another mountain with a tunnel a trap door, and a rock that moves to reveal a treasure map. Your little Engineers will love to let Thomas run down the track through the tunnel.
d. The track is very high quality. It fits snug and is stamped to look like a railway. It also has rugged grooves for gripping train wheels. There are two bridge risers, two merger track pieces, there risers (not including the ship) and a good stretch of other pieces. All the pieces are double sided but some look like roads on one side.
Brewster invades [WARNING: you may damage your set following this advice or decrease its resale value]
First, I noticed to my delight that Brewster fits easily through the map destination tunnel. No problem there. To the frustration of my little engineer, he does not fit through the ship trap door or the skull mouth.
a. I broke out the jigsaw and my son watched patiently as I carefully jigged the mouth wider, taking care not to break the through the grooves of the track above. I finished it with a serated knife and some elbow grease. Brewster just fit.
b. The ship was a bit tricky because the trap door is held by a rivit that won't pop out. So I drilled two small holes above the two holes holding the rivit. I ramed the trap door hinge rivit up into these holes using a hammer an chisel, taking care not to damage the plastic. No epoxy glue needed, Brewster fit through nicely even with this small distance modificatin.
c. I reversed the map mountain in they layout, making the track flow a continuous loop. Brewster ran over the skull opening the treasure, down through the tunnel, up over the [now shorter] bridge and through the ship, back around to loot the treasure in his cargo car! He drives hauls it through the mouth of the skull. Traintastic!
Review By. Aaron Ishii
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