Travel Town Museum Gift Shop

I feared the worst going into this gift shop. My toddler sons are little train addicts. I step on toy trains in the middle of the night. When I roll over in bed trains poke me in the eye, the ones they take with them to go nye nye. Our weekends include a trip to the Southern Nevada Railway, which ends in a new toy train (or 2) each. If there is a monorail, tram or trolly anywhere it is mandatory that they get to ride «The t’wain, the t’waaaaiiin!» So naturally any trip to southern Cali owes a stop at the Griffith Park trains.
Travel Town gift shop has the most concentrated collection of train related wares I have ever seen stocked into a tiny 10×20 store. It’s really small. Surely, I imagined our vacation taking a heavy detrimental financial blow to the wallet. Especially after Unilocaling up on it’s previous reviews. You will find small wooden trains, regular die-​cast trains, books, shirts, hoodies, overalls, whistles, posters and the whole shi-​bang. The place is packed with choo choo’s everywhere! If you farted in there, a toy train would fall off the rack. No model scale HO or Lionel sets for sale though. Absolutely no electric train track sets at all. Those are mandatory for a train shop, I think.
To my relief, my 3 year old took a deep hard look at each side of the 2 isles and surrounding walls of Thomas etc. I imagined a crazed toddler with arms spilling over with numerous little $ 8.00 train toys. Luckily for me he was spying for which one was the one for him. It took bout 5 minutes of contemplation until he spotted the biggest toy displayed at the end window. After the words uttered «I want that one mommy!» A large scale battery powered steam engine was taken down from the display and he promptly took it over to the nice lady at the counter. I hastily turned the big box over to see what the damage would be, for the toy that all the kids wanted, but cheapo L.A. parents wouldn’t buy for them lol j/​k. Whew, only 25 $! Hallelujah! I can swing that and oh boy did that buy a never ending smile that lasted all weekend long.
«I love my t’wain daddy! Thank you!» That smile stayed on him even as I tucked him and his gigantic toy train into to bed. Thank you Travel Town Museum Gift Shop!

Let me give it to you straight.
The good things about the gift shop are; their air conditioning and their free play of toys for your children to play with. That’s it.
Gift shops are supposed to be on the higher price range but are also suppose to offer items only found there– personalized/​branded if you will.
After scouring the shelves I didn’t see anything that I couldn’t get elsewhere except for one thing. Save your moolah on Thomas the Train items and buy them elsewhere. They jack up the prices. So instead, I bought my son a pull back die cast metal train. Sturdy, substantial, classic. Yes, just like they use to make them back in the day. It is his favorite toy to this day, even among his Thomas the Tank Engine toys.

We babysitted our friends kid who loves trains. She is always making the Choo Choo noises when she sees one. So inevitably we thought this would be the ideal place for her. It was. We had lots of fun. It’s free to go in, and the small train ride is only a few dollars. Yes, the gift shop is a little pricey but I’m sure it is a way to help pay for the rest of the museum. Highly recommend for little ones that love trains.

$ 21 for a small Thomas The Train toy train, and a train table that costs nearly $ 700, i dont think so. I know gift shops are supposed to be expensive… but COME ON!!!