Nevertheless, some of you simply MUST bring a gift no matter what I suggest, and I don't want to make life difficult by making the shopping impossible with zero help. So I'm listing some things but PLEASE CONSIDER NOT BRINGING A GIFT. Perhaps just view this list as some insight into the mind of the little prince!
He loves Thomas the Train, cement mixers and garbage trucks, airplanes and helicopters, Bob the Builder, school busses and fire engines, and tractors and dumptrucks, etc., probably in that order. Are you sensing a theme here?
"Things that Go" and "Trucks" are his favorite books (although he is requesting longer storybooks with actual plotlines at bedtime) and "On the Go" is his favorite Baby Einstein video. Probably would love a video of real garbage trucks and cement mixers picking up cans and pouring cement over and over. Definitely has a bit of obsessive-compulsive, this kid.
Loves to study the little paper Bruder's catalog we got free at the toy store of garbage trucks and cement mixers, although we have none of those because let's be real even the Bruder's toddler line ("Roadmax") is waaaaay too expensive for a 2-year old! We did just get a Tonka garbage truck (did not pay anywhere near $46 like they are charging on Amazon) and he has probably dumped the little motorized can thing a zillion times already.
D also likes to study the Thomas the train catalogue. He can point out just about every different Thomas the Train character in this giant sticker book when asked "Which one is Alfie? Which one is Diesel? Which one is Arthur? Which one is Daisy? Which one is .." .. there are 700 stickers, so I have a little cheat sheet because I can't remember all their names.
He has quite a few of the Hasbro-Playskool-Tonka "Mini Wheel Pals" cars (also known as the "Chuck & Friends" line) but none of the track, so that might be good. I saw a spiral tower for wheel pals trains that looked perfect - he doesn't have any wheel pals trains and there are 2 included. And this speedway looks pretty cool, or this carrier truck (also available in purple and red/gray, which might be nice since he already has the backhoe that comes with the red one, but those colors are strangely more expensive), too. I know the carrier is for the minis but I can't tell if the spiral tower and speedway are for that size or the full-size ones? Most of the ones we have ar the minis, which measure about 1 inch by 2 inches. He got the first 5 as a set from his first non-family babysitter, Hope, as a Christmas present. We are up to 13 now.We have no toy airplanes or helicopters. He'd probably love one.
He loved the Bob the Builder die-cast vehicles he played with at the Robertsons', especially the tiny Dizzy character, but I'm having a hard time finding the tiny size characters online, so maybe they are discontinued or maybe they came in a Happy Meal or something. But I see Bob has a cement mixer, too. Can you say "Love"? One of our birthday presents to him is the Lego-Duplo Bob characters.
As for Thomas, here is what we have so far, including birthday gifts I know family have already got:
1 single piece of the Trackmaster size battery operated trains: Thomas. (Bought at garage sale - 2 wheels missing but he plays and plays with that thing - I have had to replace the batteries already and we've only had it 2 weeks.) Trackmaster-size trains have their own track but it seems like they go on the regular "Wooden Railway"-size track just fine. Oh and the Target brand track is _exactly_ the same size as the uber expensive real Thomas Wooden Railway track.
Talking Railway line:
Thomas
Emily
Toby
Cranky + 2 cargo cars
James
Percy
Spencer
Edward
Wooden Railway line:
Jack
Musical Caboose
Sir Topham Hatt's Car
Harold
Rheneas
Skarloey
Rusty
Duncan
Bertie the Bus
Harvey
Bill & Ben
Monty & Max
Molly
TagAlong line:
Thomas
Easter Thomas - Thomas, Dye Tanker, Egg/Chick Car, Easter Caboose
Lights & Sounds Gordon
Videos:
Hero of the Rails
Calling All Engines
Sodor Celebration
Thomas and the Jet Engine
Come Ride the Rails
High Speed Adventures
Our gift to him will probably be either a used set of Thomas stuff from craigslist or one of the destinations such as the Talking Railway Haunted Mine or Railroad Crossing.
You can see, there is already plenty of "stuff", so now that you've read all about the toys he enjoys playing with, once again, please consider your presence at his party to be present enough!
