Chuggington StackTrack Koko’s Icy Escapade review and Snow Rescue giveaway

Oh Chuggington, we’ve avoided you for so long.  Really, we need another train show like we need small, pointy toys on the floor that the children don’t pick up.  To my surprise, both children, the 5 and 3YO loved the DVD, Snow Rescue and the playset, Koko’s Icy Escapade.

Chuggington StackTrack Koko’s Icy Escapade is a train set that combines elements of building block sets and moving vehicle play.  The set comes with instructions on how to build one layout and has links on their site on the other two suggested layouts.  However, as this is a building block toy in part, users can build whatever layout that they’d like.

The set comes with enough supports to create elevated tracks of varying length and height.  The tracks snap into the supports that allow you to build various shapes, as long as the track allows.  Our 5 YO is able to snap most of the tracks into place, although he needs a little help figuring out what patterns go together.  The only part that he isn’t able to work is the ice gate that locks into the side of the track that the train bursts through on its way down.

It also comes with an end piece, that stops train traffic and a seque piece if you want to hook it up to other Chuggington train sets.  The train is die-case metal and hooks into the boxcar with ease.  All of the train pieces fit very securely into each other like a snug fitting puzzle does.  This allows all of the train tracks to hold weight, even if they’re not being supported from underneath.

It’s a train set with a building block soul, regardless of how you set it up.  Putting it together is just beyond the skill set of our 3 year old, but he likes pushing the train up the hill and then watching it zip down, crashing through the ice gate and ending up at the bottom.

The kids saw Chuggington: Snow Rescue before playing with the train set.  They knew a little about Chuggington from seeing it on television and their friends, but this was their first time watching complete episodes and they loved it.

Each episode is about 12 minutes long and teaches kids about conflict resolution, social skills, conversation, problem solving, teamwork and more.  It also has humans in the show.  They work with the trains, ask them to do things and everybody works as a team.

Snow Rescue has a running time of 66 minutes and is ideal for children 3-5.

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