Sadly, the world of Thomas toys is filled with cheap knock-off copycat imposters. Here is a very clever imitation of the real Thomas & Friends Tomy track playsets. Despite first appearances it is not until we put our detective hats on and discover the finer details, that we realise this Thomas play-set is clearly a fake phony in disguise! Can you spot the clues??

Featured Song: "Breaking Free" by Formular Won: http://bit.ly/VZysrR

Sir Topham Hatt says, "On the Island of Sodor no-one likes fake trains pretending to be the real Thomas, Annie & Clarabel"

As the detective eye-witnesses: cameo appearances by Ramone, Jeff Gorvette, Grem, Lightning McQueen, Nigel Gearsley, Rod Torque Redline, Stu Bop the Jet (Cars toys from Disney Pixar Cars Movie)

A derailed Frostini's Ice-cream Cars (Chuggington toy train with cargo) also appears in the middle of the knock-off impostor play-set demo as a simple symbolic representation of the damage that fake knock off toys are doing to the global toy industry.

It is a wonder how Knock-off toys manage to survive so long when similarities in design become as blatantly obvious as a circus trying to hide up a palm tree! This cheap knock-off copycat play-set most of the time works reasonably well. Though there are a lot of things wrong with this unlicensed playset! I've noticed the two conveyor belt hill car lifts do not work anywhere near as smoothly as the fluid-motion car hill transporters on Tomica's Mountain Drive track set. Also, when showing you all how-to build this buildable racetrack what I didn't show was that the racetrack pieces on the Forest Rail didn't always hold together properly during the building process, and at post completion when picking up the toy play rail to move it to another location. The need to move toys during house tidy up is something that all of us can relate to, and the last thing you want is for the big hypercity style track to come unhinged as you attempt to lift it on to a table or relocate to the children's toy box while everyone happily helps with the weekly house cleaning. Not to take this out of proportion, though it is so true that all the small things matter. And if your kids shared playset needs to be moved without taking it off its hinges and battling through the reassembly and unhappy tears of a child that spent what felt like ages to them helping mom and daddy build the raceway play toy, then of course we want quality. Even if our children don't have many toys, we still want quality especially when making the bigger purchases. This is because we want something that is going to last, that has the durability to withstand healthy amounts of wear and tear and so forth.

But I digress slightly, we all want the real-deal not some bodge dodge black-market product made in the wrong-doing back streets of who knows where! The real-deal is what we want, it doesn't matter if it's tires, toys, travel, tv, clothes, electricals, we want well-known brand trusted authenticity! Don't We?! Who likes a scam aside from the scammers? No-one, that's for sure! No scam's a good scam, and Fake Knock-off Toys are damaging the toy industry! The more global transparent awareness and intellectual property infringement reporting we can create on clone copycat production the better it is for everyone!!

Once heard some wise words about honest business and knock-off products. In the example the purchase of a fake Rolex watch is mentioned as an (albeit indirect) support of piracy and therefore a contribution to the hindrance of honest business. The moral of the tale is far greater than arguing against avoiding paying the price to purchase a real-deal Rolex. Sure there is a price to pay, either way.

If you ever find that you've bought some cheap knockoff product, you can always try returning it to the store where you bought it from and see if you can get your money back. Better still, make a video like this, spreading awareness that the toy/product is a clear fake and make the appropriate steps to report it.

The very reputable Tomy Tomica toys are a fine example of quality licensed toy railways and train sets for children, with Jlouvier and other reputable toy channels doing some really great reviews on these! By the way, if you haven't already, please check out Jlouvier Productions' channel for some awesome Thomas toy videos!! Here is a link to his super awesome channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/jlouvier :)

SOMETHING TO REMEMBER: Sure knock-offs have likely been around for a very long time, but they will only be around for as long as we are willingly buying them (unknowingly or not)!!!!

As always, thanks for watching. Stay tuned for more FluffyJetProductions arriving to your laptop, lounge room, phone, office, library, study, studio, work desk, gaming room, 24-7!

Lego Detective image by pasukaru76
used with permission (CC BY 2.0)
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/