GeoTrax Videos - My Next Big Project

Creating Videos of GeoTrax Sets in Action, But First...

As you may already know (or have guessed), I have a lot of GeoTrax sets. They reside in various rooms of my home mostly on shelves I've purchased just for this purpose. Some are simply in stacks of boxes on the floor.

All of these sets were fairly well organized but not quite as well as I wanted them to be. So right now I'm in the middle of reorganizing them, so I can find what I need more easily and quickly. I should be finished with this task soon - hopefully by the end of this week.

When I'm done with the reorg, I plan to create some GeoTrax videos.

One GeoTrax Set, One GeoTrax Video

Still photographs, such as those currently on GeoTrax Packs, are wonderful for showing the pieces you get in each set. However, they don't give you a sense of all the fun you can have with them.

So here's what I intend to do: I want to make a short video for each GeoTrax set (that I own) showing what you can do with it.

Some of the larger (usually starter sets) have many moving parts. Sometimes you can use the train to activate a building. Normally you can manually make such actions happen too.

Some sets have remote controllers that make trains (and other types of vehicles) move and make sounds.

Some of the smaller sets have pieces you control by hand only. Though these may seem unimportant to you at first, your child probably will disagree. Sometimes all a child wants is a simple toy. (Clanging pots and pans, anyone?)

This will probably take weeks, if not months, to complete all the videos that I have in mind right now. Watch for the first of them in the next two or three weeks. I'll be posting them on YouTube and linking to them from GeoTrax Packs.

GeoTrax Compendium and Checklist Now Available

The Compendium and Checklist Is Here!

I finally decided to release the first version of my GeoTrax Compendium and Checklist. It's as ready for "prime time" as Version 1 is going to be.

I don't think there are any outright errors in it, other than those that are due to lack of verifiable information. So you should be able to trust at least 99% of the data you see there.

UPDATE: I did find a few small mistakes. They'll be corrected in the next version.

I am charging a small fee ($4.95) for access to it. I'm considering making this a one-time fee; that is, if you buy the current version, all future versions would be free. We'll see about that later though. If you buy a copy, you probably won't really need a future version.

You can purchase your copy here at GeoTrax Packs. You can see a sample page there too. Enjoy!

GeoTrax Online Games at the Fisher Price Site

Choose GeoTrax Engine Builder or Memory Match

I'm not sure how long ago Fisher Price decided to put a couple of GeoTrax games online, but they're still there as of this writing. There is a GeoTrax Engine Builder game and a GeoTrax Memory Match game.

Engine Builder

The Engine Builder game is really an online jigsaw puzzle rather than a (board) game. You can choose from three levels of difficulty. The Easy level is recommended for children aged 3-5 years. Medium is for 4-7 year olds, and Hard for 5-9.

You pick one of six engines - Aero, Woohoo, Goggles, Bull, Steamer, or Ironface - and then select the difficulty level. (Until I discovered this game, I thought Goggles was the engineer and Bunsen was the train engine. I was wrong.)

As far as I can tell, there is no difference between working on an Easy puzzle and a Medium one. Both have the same number of pieces each of which is outlined for you in the destination area. What makes a Hard level puzzle different is that the pieces are not outlined; the number of pieces remains the same.

Memory Match

The Memory Match game is a "concentration" style game with three distinct levels - again, Easy, Medium, and Hard. Each level is timed, so you can see how you improve over several plays.

The Easy level presents you with just two pairs of "face down" tiles. In each game (at every level), you click one tile to reveal a train. Then you click another tile to see if it matches your first one. If it does, the tiles disappear. When you have revealed all the matches, you get to see your time spent.

The Medium level gives you eight tiles, and the Hard level gives you twelve. The Hard level of the Memory Match game is the most difficult of all of these games.

If you think your child would enjoy these fairly simply online challenges, give them a try. They're harmless and - who knows? - may not be available forever.