The super station from last Xmas I think can have the batttery trackmaster trains, minis and adventure/take and play trains on the same track.

Mini Thomas Train Set : Target Mini Thomas Train Set : Target

It's cheap (that super station looked great but way too expensive atm) and at least you can pick up minis cheaply. I’d avoid the Take n Play / Thomas Adventures style altogether - that track is completely incompatible with Brio style trains, and the sets we’ve had have been flimsy in comparison to wooden track and Trackmaster sets. I think it was my favourite toy when DS was younger, hours of fun (we once reconstructed the roller coaster at our local theme park out of brio and duplo). I’d stick with brio - you can get battery operated wooden Thomas trains online and BigJigs wooden track fits and is waaaay cheaper than brio of Thomas versions. Perhaps it's my fault for letting him watch videos of other kids playing instead of actually playing himself!

Trackmaster track is more fiddly to connect together, so there’s far more adult input demanded when setting up Trackmaster layouts. I found this article which is useful but has annoyed me at how they keep changing things (and no doubt have changed again since that article)! Sadly DS is past playing with it mostly, unless we get it out for his friends' younger siblings (at which point he suddenly remembers how much fun it is and will happily spend an afternoon with it). You can get loads of "knock off" brio (big jigs, ikea, tesco - all fit together with genuine brio track).

someone explain the difference between the - Mumsnet Can someone explain the difference between the - Mumsnet

His birthday and Christmas are coming up and he's suddenly talking about wanting the more elaborate plastic track kits instead! Not that I’m bitter at all or have spent many hours writing complaints to the bastards who couldn’t give less of a toss.Trackmaster trains are all battery powered too, which can get expensive when you have children who set them running and don’t turn them off. You can get play sets for these, much like the track master/take and play with lots of ramps and twists.