Thomas & Friends: The Early Years: Season 1

This is definitely a must-have for any Thomas fan. This set contains the first season of Thomas & Friends, fully restored (there's a few mastering errors here and there, but nothing too noticable). It comes on three discs. The first two contain the episodes, while the third is designated for bonus features. Personally, I don't really care for the latter, but what's really nice is that the menu is deliberately designed after an Anchor Bay release, and I'm sure it will bring much nostalgia to anyone who grew up with them.However, there's one major problem that prevents this from getting a 5 star, and that is that it only contains the original Ringo Starr narration with no way to switch to the inferior George Carlin narration, or, at the very least, Ringo's US redubs. I've tolerated the inconsistent narrations on Thomas releases, but there's no reason for it here, especially when different audio tracks is one of the most basic things to put on DVDs.Overall, I definitely recommend this box set. There's definitely a reason it's sought after. Will there be another one like it? Who knows? But it's definitely a great release either way.

I lament the fact that Shining Time Station isn't available anywhere, but at least my son can see the Railway Series shorts narrated by Ringo Starr that I enjoyed so much as a kid!I'm not a fan of the all CGI Thomas & Friends that currently airs on PBSKids. They seem to have lost the fundamentally British feel in the storytelling, and have strayed far and wide from the tenor of the original books and early short films. The Thomas merchandising empire is also grating, and I'm quite annoyed to see Thomas referred to as "Thomas the Train" here and there and among parents--no! He's Thomas the TANK ENGINE. And furthermore, Thomas was but a part of the railway ensemble that made up Thomas and Friends. James, Edward, Percy, Gordon and Toby were often far more interesting to me than cheeky brash Thomas anyway!What you'll find here in this set are the model railroad films that illustrate many of the adventures from the books, along with a few other stories. Thomas is back to his cheeky self, always overestimating himself and getting into jams (just like children often do!). I wish the American "Shining Time Station" framework were also available, or the years with George Carlin narrations, but these episodes will make you nostalgic and happy and still captivate your little ones, so everyone wins, in my opinion.Especially if your child is excited about model railways or real train engines/train cars, as I was when I was a girl, these will be a big hit.

The copy I ordered here didn't include the discs, the little panphlet things that usually came with older Thomas DVDs, nothing. I wound up buying secondhand from another site.

We once had a video of Beatrix Potter stories that bored us to death. Our neighbor boy wanted to watch it, despite our warnings. He watched 5 minutes of it and then ran out the door screaming and never wanted to play at our house again. His mother said he said our house was too boring for him. That is how Ringo Star's narrations affect me. However, my daughter loves Thomas and Friends no matter who narrates, so even though she does not prefer Ringo Starr, she gives this 4 stars.

I was hoping this would be like the ones I had seen when I was a kid. They are only the Thomas videos although. What I was thinking was "Shining Time Station" where the kids at the station have a problem, and Ringo Starr (Mr. Conductor) comes out and tells them how Thomas had a similar problem and they show what happened on the Island of Sodor. Then they would go back to the station (which was real people). Still, it's the original Thomas segments and my son is loving it already.

I loved Thomas ever since I was 3 years old! It's nice to have the entire first season on DVD, especially since this year is Thomas's 75th anniversary and this is basically my way of celebrating it. If you loved Thomas or someone in your family loves Thomas now this is something that needs to be added to any Thomas collection!

If your child is like mine, you have lots of Thomas DVDs; and if your over 35, you will Love this Series. The first episodes are the best; they are the only ones written by the original author (the Rev.), they introduce each engine to the team, and Ringo Starr is the narrator. Also, they are the only ones to call Sir Toppam Hatt by his original name, The Fat Controller (later US releases actually over-dubbed this to be more P.C.). Its fun, its cheeky, the stories have the best content, the best models & crashes. We love it.

I've grown up watching Thomas, so when I saw that they no longer make the "Real" train series I was REALLY sad! I'm really not into the new CGI series and I think it ruins a lot of what was fun about the show to begin with. I'm really glad I was able to find this DVD of a lot of the episodes I remembered growing up. My kids love Thomas and I'd much rather them watch these episodes then the CGI ones. It's just so much more imaginative to me!

This collection of the original "Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends" shows is brought to you by a company that has "reconstructed" old Thomas episodes in American flavour. They call this "Thomas and Friends", and I have to say that the American version of the new Thomas episodes are very good in keeping with the old TTE&F themes / stories... but during a recent at-home Thomas marathon with my son, I realized that the Early Years series (of the original shows) is by far the best. Ringo is the perfect narrator, and the stories are a not "washed" with "social-political correctness" verbage. For kids just getting into Thomas, this is where to begin.

The episodes are great. But the difference in sound level between the episodes and the segue/credit music is huge. We have to turn it up to hear the episodes, only to get blasted by the music between each episode. I can turn it down between each episode (annoying!), but of course my 2 year old can't. Why mass produce something with such an amature error? And according to their return policy, now that we've opened it and used it we can't return it.

Great my gsons not had it off the tv yet lol he absolutely loves it its just as it should be not the modern versions