There’s a great offer on the Thomas And Friends – Thomas and Cranky Playset at Tesco Direct, who are selling the friendly little engine for £10, with £3 for delivery, or free click and collect.  It’s £16.99 from an Amazon seller, so add another £5.13 for shipping, and £27.99, apparently, at Toys R Us.

• Play with Thomas and Cranky

This set comes complete with Thomas, Percy, Crank and the Fat Controller and a foldable play mat that you can take with you anywhere you go.

I don’t think this is the best deal on train playsets at the moment, but if you’re specifically after a Thomas and Friends set, this one is obviously among the best going at the moment and it is cheapest from Tesco right now.

Reviewers say it’s a good product, especially at sale prices, and that the trains are nice and chunky for little hands. The carts apparently separate a bit too easily, which can be annoying, but the kids don’t seem to mind it too much.

The play mat isn’t actually a mat, but cardboard, and it doesn’t go totally flat as it’s been folded in the box, but again – it seems to bug the adults more than the kids.

Thanks to Andywedge at HUKD

There’s a simply fantastic offer on the Thomas & Friends, Thomas and Cranky Playset at Tesco Direct: It’s reduced from £40 to £10, saving you a massive £30. At that price, it’s the perfect gift to put in the cupboard for those last minute birthday party invites.

• Choo-choo with Thomas and Cranky

I know this is probably more of a ‘boys toys’ thing, but my daughter is going through a serious phase of loving trains and cars. We visited a playgroup recently and she disappeared for twenty minutes (I could see her, but still) with a box of wooden train tracks that she put together and then played with the trains! I was so impressed – I have no idea where she had even seen a wooden train track before!  We managed to get a play garage off Freecycle recently, and she’s currently totally engrossed in that. And I’m totally happy to encourage unisex toys for play!

The Thomas and Cranky Playset comes with a foldable play mat, made of card, unfortunately, which doesn’t smack of durability to me, but at £10 you can’t really complain.

The playset comes complete with Thomas, Percy, Crank and the Fat Controller.

Thanks to 90DC at HUKD