Customer Reviews

Thomas and Friends Wooden Railway - Talking Railway Cranky the Crane

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Talking Cranky the Crane was at the top of my four year old grandson's birthday list. I purchased it only to find that the talking mechanism did not work. I exchanged it for a second one, only to find that the crank did not wind the string. I exchanged it for a third. It worked great....for less than 10 minutes. First the crank winder failed, and within a minute the talking mechanism as well. This was with adult supervised gentle play by my six year old granddaughter! The four year old let her play with it first, and it failed before he had a turn! Very disappointing for all of us. We are not trying a fourth Cranky!

Got this product as an impulse buy at Toys R US for my son's 2nd Birthday. He owns a Thomas the train table and too many to count of the trains. This is an awesome product. My son loves it. You have to have trains with the gold magnet on them in order for it to recognize the train, lucky I had Percy. I have had no trouble with the crank or the build of the product. My 2 year old has pulled on the string, wound it back up. This crane seems heavy duty to me. You won't be disappointed, I really like this one!

Very Durable and well constructed product. My son loves to use the magnet on the crane to lift freight. We have not had success with the train reconginition feature where Sir Top Em Hat recognizes each train by name.

This was the best Cranky toy we have found. I actually bought one prior to this and when I opened the box at home, I realized that it doesn't actually attach to the tracks. So when we found this one, we loved it! It is perfect. It attaches to the tracks, recognizes when a train goes by it and when you push the red button you see and hear Sir topham hat! Our 2 year old enjoys winding and getting cargo too! I highly recommend this!

I had to return two Crankys before finally getting one that worked properly. I called Learning Curve to ask if there was an issue with these toys, and learned from the rep that manufacture of this toy was discontinued in the spring of 2010. So right now they're selling remaining stock. ToysRUs has it right now for $64.99. To be fair, when you DO finally get one that works, it is a great toy. Multifunctional; there's a manual button to open a door, Sir Topham hat appears and greets voice recognition trains by name; but he also says various phrases to the trains that are *not* voice rec. technology. The voice is loud, clear, and authentic. When the door is closed, the toys makes train sounds as they pass by Cranky. The handle/mechanism that works the magnet on a string is very easy to operate for little fingers and seems durable. It's just really great fun for the little Thomas fans. I would recommend it but *only* from a seller that has a liberal and hasslefree return policy.

Nice unit, our son had fun with it, unfortunately Cranky's head came off after just one day. I thought initially that it is supposed to do so - but no, the head would not stay on the tower after that, and it was not user repairable. When I contacted the manufacturer they offered to replace it with the 'regular (non-talking) Cranky as this one is discontinued. I hope that the regular one will be more durable.

My kids love this little crane. We bought it along with the Knapford station with the RFID and added a few more trains to the set. My kids love that Sir Topham hat comes out and talks to the trains. I do wish that it came with a few more cars and things for the crane to actually lift, but I am sure we will get those in other sets.

My 3 yr old son loves Thomas, and loves to build Sodor with me and my husband. The newer talking pieces are fun, because they sound like the characters from the shows. And the quality of the wooden "Thomas" sets are very good.