I agree with you Spixie33. It might be worth putting the money towards a variety of opened ended toys like building blocks, these are constantly used in different ways by my group. My train set is just a hand me down set from Ikea and my "train table" is a homemade one I got used off Kijiji, though it rarely gets used for that - it is more a low table that play with other toys on.

We got the Jenga game for Christmas and they spent every morning all week using the blocks to build houses for their little dolls to play in. I also really like the gears building toys, they are well loved in my house and allow for a lot of creative building. It is this: http://www.learningtoys.ca/english/t...lding-set.html

I also want to get the building blocks that are magnetized, those would be lots of fun too.