Thomas and Friends Minis

I come from a long line of collectors. My mom collected baskets and pottery (especially the Longaberger variety). My dad collects all things golf related. I think he'd collect music instruments if my mom would let him. I like to collect things, too. If I have a shirt I love in one color, I have to fight the urge to buy it in every color. If I have one in a series, I want to have them all - think American Girls and Precious Moments.

Now I have a little guy who likes to collect. Daredevil also likes to collect, but I definitely encourage it.

Daredevil likes to collect in this way... "I have wooden Belle, I need take-n-play and trackmaster Belle." I like to collect this way.. get all the wooden trains and then move on. Since we differ and they are actually his toys, he gets his way. However, we both agree on this Thomas Minis and they are releasing them in waves so we just scoop them up when we find one we don't have yet. Rumor has it the next wave hits US stores in late June/early July! We have our laminated "map" all ready for the next wave with our current Minis marked off.

In an effort to collect them all, I've been known to stand in the toy aisle at WalMart and try to peek at every mini in the mystery pack in an effort to spy what they are. I can almost always tell by pushing the train around the package and looking closely through the package. After weeks of this, my brilliant husband realized that the numbers on the outsides of the packages actually are codes for the trains inside.

If you're a Thomas Mini collector, here's what you need to know about the mystery packs that have been released in the US so far.

The number is about a fourth of the way down on the left side of the package. It has a batch code first followed by a slash and then the two digit code which tells you who is inside.

01 - Classics Thomas
02 - Spooky Percy
03 - Metallic James
04 - Racers Gordon
05 - Classics Edward
06 - Spooky Salty
07 - Neon Toby
08 - Classics Henry
09 - Old School Diesel
10 - Spooky Emily
11 - Classics Dash
12 - Classics Diesel 10 "D-10"
13 - Chillin' Paxton
14 - Classics Stephen
15 - Heroes Victor
16 - Classics Scruff
17 - Racers Bill
18 - Classics Bert

We are eagerly awaiting the next wave of Minis in this house! There's also a guy on YouTube who says you can disassemble them and create new combos, so we may have to do a little of that, too. Seems fun to make some custom trains with our duplicates.