LEGO Duplo 65766 Thomas & Friends Bridge & Tunnel Set

LEGO Duplo 65766 Thomas & Friends Bridge & Tunnel Set

When one of the most beloved train engines meets one of the most beloved stackable toys, there emerges a preschool gift champion. The Thomas Bridge & Tunnel Duplo set contains 102 pieces to help Thomas go about his day, picking up payloads and traveling over hill and under dale to deliver them. Each portion of the set comes individually boxed to make setup clear and easy, and most pieces are big enough for little hands to manage. The set includes the famous blue engine himself rolling along on six smooth wheels, Tidmouth Station, raised cargo platform complete with sliding panel to fill empty rail cars, track signal, bridge set, mountain tunnel, and a full circuit with enough straight and curved track and switches to send Thomas anywhere he wants to go. The pieces are fairly simple to assemble, but adults will still need to help preschoolers with setup. This set can also be constructed in stages--just build Thomas and lay down track and you’ve got a great toy! As with all Duplo products, the design is customizable and compatible with other Duplo sets, allowing Thomas’s changing landscape to encourage imaginative and constructive play skill development. --Heather Lyndon

Lego 4980 Tunnel Transport

Lego 4980 Tunnel Transport

Think of it as "Raiders of Noah's Ark." With this 349-piece kit, builders are transported into another part of the imaginative and seemingly limitless world of LEGO, this time a deep-sea domain of mining and exploration. Most of the pieces are used to make the high-tech, superequipped, jet-powered, submersible Tunnel Transport. But LEGO maniacs can populate their terrain by assembling the pilot/diver and equipping him with LEGO weaponry and tools for the ultimate Rock Raiders quarry: two brown LEGO boulders that open to reveal the valuable "green crystals." The hours spent putting together--and playing with--this clever set will serve as a marvelous introduction to the undersea world of "Block" Cousteau. --Tony Mason