My little man's love affair with Hot Wheels began early. He used to carry at least one car everywhere. In fact, a few years ago, while at his an annual check up, the nurse and I realized he was up four pounds from a visit that took place two months prior. And then I noticed a Hot Wheels car in his back pocket. And then another in the side pocket of his cargo pants. Upon further inspection, the nurse and I realized he'd been able to stuff 11 cars in his pants! (Shaving at least three pounds off of his weight.)So when the opportunity came up to review the newest toys from Hot Wheels, I was practically jumping out of my seat with excitement. Although he hasn't played with his cars lately, I wondered if Mattel’s Hot Wheels Power Loop Stunt Zone and the Trick Tracks Triple Stunt Starter Set (shown at left) would re-ignite his interest. The quick answer? Oh yeah, baby!
I would not recommend trying to put the tracks together when its about 5 p.m. and you've been slogging through the day on about four non-consecutive hours of sleep. My brain was dead, I was crabby and the boy was antsy. The directions are basically pictures of the process. But sometimes it was difficult to figure out what part goes where. This made for a tired, crabby, very frustrated mommy. Plus, you are supposed to attach rubber bands to various parts of the track, but the bands are already on. And I kept thinking maybe we were supposed to add extra rubber bands or something because why on earth would they tell you put put these bands in certain areas if the bands are already on?
At one point, I told Seth to wait until Daddy got home from his business trip. So my husband had the "pleasure" of listening to "the boy" beg to finish the project. Marc set to work still smelling like the inside of an airplane, didn't look at the directions once and had it put together in a matter of minutes. (Yeay me for marrying an engineer!) Soon both men were engaged in the action.
In order to get the full effect, you really need more than one car. And certain cars don't work due to varying weight and size. But that was no problem since we have eleven-ity billion of these at the bottom of the toy box. In a nutshell? All three of us thought the tracks very pretty cool - a definite winner if you've got little car-crazy kiddos in your life.
Seth's favorite part? The battery-operated launcher. "It made the coolest swoosh-swoosh noise and the cars bang together and then they shoot out!"
But the best part for me? Seth played with the tracks by himself. This is a big deal since he seems to think that I was put on this earth to entertain him 24/7. But it made my heart melt watching him lose himself in his own little world of Hot Wheels. I had missed that.
This post was written on behalf of Parent Bloggers Network.
