Customer Reviews

GeoTrax Workin' Roundhouse

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was really excited when Fisher Price announced that a roundhouse was in the pipeline for Geotrax. Our family loves the Geotrax line and we have quickly lost a room to our ever expanding layout. As we've added the clock tower, suspension bridge, and numerous remote trains we've always had an issue. Getting those trains turned around.

As cool as the remote trains are, they only go forward. So when I heard about the roundhouse I thought this would be a great way to swing the trains around. And to a degree that's just what it does. There is a turntable in front of the roundhouse that spins an engine a full 360 degrees. It even features the new Geomotion option that allows the drive wheels of the remote trains to swing around by itself.

The thing is, when the trains wheel into the roundhouse for washing, servicing, etcetera... you still have to manually back them out. And where they could have made the ends of each fork modular, to bridge from one fork to another with track, they opted to put a permanent stop at the end of each of the three forks.

Its a neat idea, and maybe my beef is more with the unidirectional nature of the trains, than with design issues on the roundhouse. The roundhouse does provide several new options for imaginary play. Its well built, quite colorful, and integrates nicely with the existing Geotrax layout. Most kids(large and small) will be quite happy with this Geotrax addition.

I'm buying Geotrax vehicles since two years ago, and we are very happy (my child and I) about the quality and fun in every pack that we've bought.

I was yesterday unpacking Workin' Roundhouse, and oh my Good !! it's too big !!, where I'll put it?. The toy is great, the locomotive arrives, and turn to one of the 3 bays: a washing machine, a bay where you can "fix" your trains, and a one more bay where the trains can "sleep". The turntable is easy to use and you should have trains and a lot of tacks to ensamble in your Geo Trax System.

If you are buying all Geo Trax items, you should consider to have one room or a big area for it.

My kids and I were pretty excited about this addition to the Geotrax set, at Christmas. It turns out, it's pretty frustrating.

Like other reviewers have said, the turntable doesn't work all that well with multiple car trains. Then, when it's set for the train to drive on through without stopping, the trains sometimes get hung up on the "climbing" mechanism.

This particular addition takes up ALOT of space. While it's still connected to our geotrax set, I'm just not impressed with it's function. We have lots of other sets that are much better additions. This one just frustrated my kids, with not being able to turn around once in the "stall".

We just moved into a new house and one of the KEY requirements was a game room for all of the GeoTrax toys that we have - we bought the roundhouse for our son as a surprise for the new house. He doesn't even care if it's hooked up to the rest of the tracks - he makes his own sounds as the trains turn and as they get washed and gassed up too. I LOVE that he's so creative and expressive when he plays with ANY Of the GeoTrax toys. My ONLY complaint is that it is just so big. When you're out of control and you're buying all the cool new pieces to GeoTrax, you had better make room for it all! High Five Fisher Price - cool toys :)

It's a really nice addition to the Geotrax set that we already have. My 4 year old son loves playing with it and it is easy for him to connect with the other track that he has. He is pretty rough with his toys but has yet to break any of his Geotrax. I agree with the first reviewer, this piece is very big, we were thinking that it would be smaller but it was a very nice surprise. I have already bought another one to ship to my nephews for their set. All in all, it is well worth the money to add this to your growing collection!!

Hats off to the Fisher Price designers!
The roundhouse has several neat features:
1. it automatically disconnects all cars off the train engines (since there is room for only one engine on the turn table)
2. the gates go up and down automatically when the turn table is not aligned to the main track
3. The turn table pauses at each of the possible branches for about 5-10 seconds, which makes it easy for little engineers to line the engine up with the next track

If you are not familiar with the geomotion system: a lever on each building selects either let the trains drive through, or stop the trains and use the train motor (based on the gear tooth on the bottom of the train) to drive some mechanical feature of the building.

You gotta see it for yourself; it is a very clever system. My 3 yo loves it.

I just got the whole set of geotrax and really think they look great and way cheaper than Thomas however the round housecan only hold one train at a time so it derails the train if you have more than one locomotive. they really need to add the reverse as well so they kids and me ( mom ) LOL can really make use of all the options. However, overall I really love this toy but yes I had to convert my office room into the Geotrax room. be ready to do this if not stick to the basic set up. Its very hard though since it all is so cool

I wish I hadn't paid the money for this one. It only works in certain directions, its more of a pain than it is fun. I don't recommend adding it to your collection. There are plenty of other FUN accessories that you could buy instead.

While the concept of this item is cool, it is not very functional. It will turn with the train on it but not if the train has cars hooked to it. If you have cars hooked to the train then it is pointless and frustrating. Also the trains do not go in reverse so if you are using the remote control trains then it is really a waste.

In general, I LOVE the GeoTrax trains, and rate them 5 stars, overall. But this Roundhouse is a major disappointment. Some details are listed in another review - but that reviewer didn't think the problems were such a big deal... I do. Major problems are:

- They didn't make the modules interchangeable with other tracks. This means it is not nearly as versatile as other GeoTrax. You have no option to connect other tracks to the 'spokes' of the roundhouse.
- You need to manually turn the trains around once they go in for their wash or gas.
- Only one train car fits on the thing that goes around, so it doesn't work when cars are attached to the engine. This is the biggest and most frustrating problem. You need to unhoook your train engine from its cars and fool around with everything.
- It is just TOO BIG and that makes it hard to store.

We will be getting rid of ours...