Hot Wheels Wall Tracks feedback thread

[AnnMumsnet]

This thread is for the 20 MNers and their child(ren) who are trying out the new Hot Wheels Wall Tracks starter kit.

Please add your comments on the kit below - everyone who adds their feedback (at least twice) and who sends in a picture of the assembled track will be entered into a prize draw to win a £150 Amazon voucher

So please let us know...

~ The age and gender of the child(ren) who played with the Hot Wheels Wall Tracks kit

~ How did it work being stuck on the wall? Did you like this? Did your child? Did you find it free-ed up some space on the floor?

~ Best bit about playing with it? What did your child(ren) especially enjoy?

~ Have they shared it with any friends/ siblings? Has it entertained them.

~ Do you think this is something you'd recommend to other parents?

Once your child had played with it a few times we'd like you to add your final general comments to the thread.

Thanks MNHQ

~ The age and gender of the child(ren) who played with the Hot Wheels Wall Tracks kit

Girl aged 6
Boy aged 2

~ How did it work being stuck on the wall? Did you like this? Did your child? Did you find it free-ed up some space on the floor?

It has definitely freed up floorspace and we can have it up permanently which is good. We have a small house so a toy this size wouldn't be able to be left up normally. I think you do need more than the 4 ft of space recommended though as the cars fly off the end of the orange slide at great speed and currently are slamming into a piece of furniture a couple of feet away. Cushions have been brought in as a temporary barricade.
Because its on the wall you do have to be very precise with the placement of the little sticky things to the wall. We followed the template and the instructions but find one piece continally pops off and the join is now sellotaped to prevent this happening. The sticky things do come off as advertised as long as you remove them carefully. My son grabbed at the toys and pulled a piece of track + paint off the wall.
My children love the fact that its up all the time and they can stand up and play with it whenever they like, without having to nag me to get it out or having to clear space on the floor.

~ Best bit about playing with it? What did your child(ren) especially enjoy?

DD liked the fact that the car can take several different paths down the track and its very fast so she can have another go again very quickly. She loves the loop the loop and on occasion can be persuaded to set it off for her brother. She also says the slide is really cool, especially when you build a brick wall at the bottom for the car to smash to pieces.

~ Have they shared it with any friends/ siblings? Has it entertained them.

DS (2) adores it and likes to run his matchbox cars down bits of it (only one Hot Wheels car supplied and DD keeps it in her room). I think in a year or two he will want to play with this all the time. All of her friends were interested and had at least one go. All of them play regularly with toy cars but it was only the ones who owned other Hot Wheels sets that wanted to use it more than once or twice. Only one boy played with it for longer than ten minutes, they all generally wandered off to do something else after having a few goes each.

~ Do you think this is something you'd recommend to other parents?

Its probably best in a house with a careful (ish) child with sensible younger siblings. The plastic isn't very strong and because its fixed to the wall it can cause damage if its just yanked off (obviously!). Because the pieces are just resting on the supports rather than clicked into place we have had some disappointments with pieces popping up as cars going over them and the whole thing is sellotaped down now.

Its is a lot of fun and my children play with it more because its up permanently, but it tends to be lots of small goes rather than playing for hours and hours. We don't own any other Hot Wheels stuff though, so I'm not sure whether that is why. Also its worth checking out what other Hot Wheels cars can be used with it as it only comes with one and the box says not compatible with some other Hotwheels cars.

Once its up they don't need any adult supervision and its a toy that they can play nicely with together rather than squabbling.

~ The age and gender of the child(ren) who played with the Hot Wheels Wall Tracks kit
Boys aged 8, 6 and 3

~ How did it work being stuck on the wall?
Works v well actually^

~Did you like this?
in theory yes but the template didn't allow for bits of the track that go over the sticky bits (IYSWIM) so it sticks out a bit.

~Did your child?
they bloody love it!

~Did you find it free-ed up some space on the floor?
At first yes but they are trying to do stunts with it so we end up wit extra cushions/building bricks etc

~ Best bit about playing with it? What did your child(ren) especially enjoy?
It's ready to go instantly and they can do it easily themselves. And they even played nicely TOGETHER which is rare in this house!

The favourite bit is the loop the loop part and the ramp that the cars shoot off at the bottom.

~ Have they shared it with any friends/ siblings? Has it entertained them.
All of them have played with this and enjoyed it, even my 8 going on 18 year old

~ Do you think this is something you'd recommend to other parents?
I'm not sure tbh. It's a good idea but it is rather flimsy and the cars have a tendancy to fall off the track sometimes. We have only used hot wheels cars on it too.

Once your child had played with it a few times we'd like you to add your final general comments to the thread.

The age and gender of the child(ren) who played with the Hot Wheels Wall Tracks kit
Boy 9 and Girl 8

~ How did it work being stuck on the wall? Did you like this? Did your child? Did you find it free-ed up some space on the floor?

We had problems with the stick on strip and several fell off. We have now run out of strips and resorted to blu tack. Falling off caused frustration.
Being on the wall does free up floor space and looks tidier.

~ Best bit about playing with it? What did your child(ren) especially enjoy?

Novelty value and speed of cars. Easy to share with friends and they especially enjoyed experimenting with different tracks.

~ Have they shared it with any friends/ siblings? Has it entertained them.
Yes very much so and appealed to ages 4- 10. Only problems have been bits falling off the wall.

~ Do you think this is something you'd recommend to other parents?

Possibly. Hot wheels is a bit like marmite, either love it or hate it. We've loved trick tracks but others haven't. Main concern is the strips falling off.

~ The age and gender of the child(ren) who played with the Hot Wheels Wall Tracks kit
Mainly played with by DS1 (6.5yrs) and DS2 (4yrs). DS3 (2 and a bit) really wanted to play with it but was a bit bad!

~ How did it work being stuck on the wall? Did you like this? Did your child? Did you find it free-ed up some space on the floor?
It works ok. If you don't mind having stuff stuck on your wall then it's fine. Personally I am not sure I would want it on the wall all the time and if you wanted to take it off then you would have to buy more of the sticky pads to be able to put it back on the wall at a later date (I am not sure if the stickers are specially made or are available to buy easily?)
The kids love it, but I'm not sure whether or not they love it more than a regular floor track.
It is nice not having it all over the floor though, and it's at a nice height for them to be able to run the cars down too. I did find that with 2 of them they argue over it and are constantly pushing each other out of the way though!

~ Best bit about playing with it? What did your child(ren) especially enjoy?
They like it all really. DS1 likes how you can change where the car goes by opening up the hatch or switching the track and I think he would love some of the connecting sets to make it bigger.

~ Have they shared it with any friends/ siblings? Has it entertained them.
They've only used it themselves so far, but we do have a friend visiting on Thursday so will update then!

~ Do you think this is something you'd recommend to other parents?
I'm not sure. I think if you only had slightly older children it would be a nice toy, but as mentioned further up my 2 do argue over it.
It also comes apart really easily and DS2 gets very frustrated with it, We've used double sided tape to stick some of it together.
It's also really annoying that it only comes with one car. None of the other toy cars we own (and we have a lot) will go down it properly, they're either too wide, too light or too heavy and don't go round the loop-the-loop properly. We have one other Hot Wheels car which also does not fit, so I can't even justify buying more Hot Wheels because they may not fit down the track!
So I definitely wouldn't recommend it if it was a toy that needed to be shared, If you lose the car then you're stuffed.
Also kids being kids they DO pull on it, and particularly the younger ones want to drive the car along the track rather than letting it go at the top... this puts stress on it and it either breaks off the wall or will pull the sticky bits right off and I think could cause damage

How did it work being stuck on the wall? Did you like this? Did your child? Did you find it free-ed up some space on the floor?
Its good that it could be stuck on the wall, but we found it very flimsy and it fell off the wall. The sticky tabs were not very sticky at all so was quite frustrating.
Best bit about playing with it? What did your child(ren) especially enjoy?
To be honest it hasnt been played with often as it kept falling off the wall.
~ Do you think this is something you'd recommend to other parents
no i wouldnt recommend it. i think its a bit of a gimmick actually.

~ The age and gender of the child(ren) who played with the Hot Wheels Wall Tracks kit
DS1(7.10) DS2(5.8) and DD1(3.4)

~ How did it work being stuck on the wall? Did you like this? Did your child? Did you find it free-ed up some space on the floor?

Got stuck on the wall as soon as it arrived, only space left is the hallway, cars fire off the end and trip up mummy in the kitchen! But can be left up for a while where it is, if I dont trip up over it or have to move it to hoover then it can stay forever! Have spare stickers to redo once if necessary but then what? Are they going to be easy to find I wonder?
Boys think its fantastic, the best ever and I was 'the best mummy in the world', all be it very briefly...

~ Best bit about playing with it? What did your child(ren) especially enjoy?

They love the speed the cars fly off and crash into things. Its out of DDs way and as a result shes not interested, so they are well chuffed! We have a few hot wheels cars so quite a few fit and merrily hurtle onto the floor.

~ Have they shared it with any friends/ siblings? Has it entertained them.

Share? What a strange thing to suggest! Though actually they spent ages on it the first day setting up "stunts" for each other to test. Therefore kept them sweet for much longer than normal. As its on the wall they tend to wander past and have a little play then wander off again.

~ Do you think this is something you'd recommend to other parents?

Would recommend, but maybe not to the friend who has just had her house repainted! Have purposely stuck somewhere that is in need of a makeover, wondering how bad the marks will be when it comes down.
But if short of space and have car/stunt mad kids then a great toy.

~ The age and gender of the child(ren) who played with the Hot Wheels Wall Tracks kit

Boy 4
Boy 6

~ How did it work being stuck on the wall? Did you like this? Did your child? Did you find it free-ed up some space on the floor?

It stuck to the wall well, no falling off.

I don't think I do like having toys stuck to the wall. I like toys to be packed away at the end of the day, and because of the limited number of sticky pads we haven't yet tried to remove the track from the wall. I'm nervous that paint is going to peel away with the pads, especially if we leave them attached for a significant period.

The kids like having it permanently assembled, so they can get going on it without fiddling around.

It didn't really free up any floor space because the Hot Wheels cars they have to put on the track get scattered about, and they still play with other toys anyway. It wouldn't have made much difference to floor space if it had been a regular car track pushed against the wall.

~ Best bit about playing with it? What did your child(ren) especially enjoy?

The boys love the speed at which the cars are whipped around the track, and they've been measuring the distance they can get them to fly off the end.

~ Have they shared it with any friends/ siblings? Has it entertained them.

Boy friend (6) really enjoyed it. Girl friend (6) wasn't impressed, didn't want to play with it, but quite liked watching and helping gather the cars back up.

~ Do you think this is something you'd recommend to other parents?

Possibly if they mentioned they wanted a Hot Wheel track, but I would be very wary of recommending something that is attached to the walls for fear of it damaging a friend's paintwork!

~ The age and gender of the child(ren) who played with the Hot Wheels Wall Tracks kit

All boys- aged 3, 8, 10 and 11

~ How did it work being stuck on the wall? Did you like this? Did your child? Did you find it free-ed up some space on the floor?

Worked brilliantly: shared items can be difficult if they eman accessing another child's bedroom and we don't really want to keep toys out in the living room all the time. We have a wasted area between our landing and end bedroom that is safe and so it has gone on the wall there.

~ Best bit about playing with it? What did your child(ren) especially enjoy?

They liked the fact it could be setup longer term and didn;t need to be packed away every day.

~ Have they shared it with any friends/ siblings? Has it entertained them.

They ahve shared it between themselves which is fantastic as it's no mean feat finding a toy that can work for all of them!

~ Do you think this is something you'd recommend to other parents?

Already have done, one of the boys pulled it down and there as no damage so we feel we can happily. Will also get my nephew a set at some point.

Am going to put the after play bit straigh away as we've ahd it up five days.

It's quite possibly the most successful sahring toy we have ever had, after the Wii. Grandad has been asked to get add ons for christmas and they all love it; they got to choose a car each in Tesco (they ahve a good range) as a reward for helping with chores this week and we've had a fair amount of play from it. I have also found Dh quite interested and is playing with it as well LOL, freeing up valuable MN time - win win!

~ The age and gender of the child(ren) who played with the Hot Wheels Wall Tracks kit

dd age 7 dd age 4 dd age 10

~ How did it work being stuck on the wall? Did you like this? Did your child? Did you find it free-ed up some space on the floor?

it took us a while to find a suitable wall as we live in a very old house and the walls are a bit bumpy. It was easy to put up and didn't take long for me and my 10 year old to do it but I do worry about taking it down and whether it will pull the paint off. The children like having it on the wall as it is something a bit different.

~ Best bit about playing with it? What did your child(ren) especially enjoy?

My children like the loop the loop bit best and also trying to catch the car when it zoomed off the track.

~ Have they shared it with any friends/ siblings? Has it entertained them.

Initially it was meant for the younger children to play with but it is my 10 year old who has enjoyed it the most and found it most entertaining.

~ Do you think this is something you'd recommend to other parents?

I would recommend it to other parents as it was easy to assemble and fun to play with. It would have been better if it had more than one car though.

~ The age and gender of the child(ren) who played with the Hot Wheels Wall Tracks kit
DS 6 & DD 8

~ How did it work being stuck on the wall? Did you like this? Did your child? Did you find it free-ed up some space on the floor?
I thought it was a great idea as it takes up hardly any space. When we assemble floor tracks I find them annoying once my DC are in bed & put them away after a few days but as this is on the wall in the hallway I am quite happy for it to stay there indefinately. It was really easy to assemble & has stayed together perfectly eventhough it has been played with loads unlike some other floor tracks we own that fall to pieces a lot. Although I tested the track for my DS who loved it my DD has also enjoyed getting involved & playing with it with him.

~ Best bit about playing with it? What did your child(ren) especially enjoy?
I think the favourite part for everyone has to be the loop the loop although cars shooting off the slide & along the hallway comes a very close second.

~ Have they shared it with any friends/ siblings? Has it entertained them.
DS & DD have played with the track together. DS has also shared it with a few friends who were very impressed.

~ Do you think this is something you'd recommend to other parents?
I would definately recommend this to other parents & a few friends have already said they will buy it for their DC for christmas after seeing it at our house. My DS is desperate for add on packs that can go all over my hallway

~ The age and gender of the child(ren) who played with the Hot Wheels Wall Tracks kit
dd3 ds5
~ How did it work being stuck on the wall? Did you like this? Did your child? Did you find it free-ed up some space on the floor?
It took about five mins to assemble, it has been up for a week and is still stuck well, the kids love the fact it's always there and I love it because it is less likely to end up with broken and missing bits as it doesn't come down in this house[hsmile]

~ Best bit about playing with it? What did your child(ren) especially enjoy?
The loop the loop seems to be the best bit

~ Have they shared it with any friends/ siblings? Has it entertained them.
only the two of them have played with it so far, but they have friends coming over on sunday so we shall see, i'm sure it'll be a hit.

~ Do you think this is something you'd recommend to other parents?

Yes, it's much stronger than I thought it would be, and seems to be entertaining, although I am having requests for the add ons [hsmile]

All in all a good product......thanks MN and Mattel

OK, the after play...

I'm a bit mixed about it personally. They love it but they have to be gentle with it which is an odd concept for DS2 AKA The Toy Destroyer. However it is still up. It doesn't work all that well now and i can figure out why. The cars get stuck in the loop the loop and go nowhere which the boys are finding frustrating.

Won't be getting the add on bits for it because quite frankly we don't have the space. It defeats the object if it's no longer an on the wall toy and becomes an on the wall and spread all over the floor toy! Also would be useful if it worked with other cars even just the other hot wheels ones!

Where do i send the photo to ANd does it matter that it's taken on a mobile in not v good light?

reaper - pls send to ann@ mumsnet .com (no spaces)

We've now had the toy for over a week and interest has definitely declined. We have been housebound for a few days and it has only been played with once since Monday when a friend came over to play. She wasn't interested by it and after a five minutes of demonstrating DD gave up and they went to do something else instead. Even DS has gone back to his toy cars, he has pretty much ignored it. DD said she was getting cross with the fact that the car wouldn't go all the way down to the end everytime. Also when you put it back on half way though after it falls off or gets stuck then it doesn't collect enough speed to work the brown flappy bits. We'll leave it up for a bit longer and see what happens, they might just be over-exposed.

The age and gender of the child(ren) who played with the Hot Wheels Wall Tracks kit:
-two boys aged 6 & 4

How did it work being stuck on the wall? Did you like this? Did your child? Did you find it free-ed up some space on the floor?
-It was quite easy to set up, I had to tape the guide sheet to the wall and then put the sticky bits on that stay on the wall. It took DH about 20+mins to assemble the rest. We are in the middle of decorating so this has been put on the (so far) undecorated wall as I was concerned about the stickers pulling off paint/wallpaper. The boys loved the fact that it is attached to the wall, as this was a real novelty. It did free up some space on the wall but there is still a big piece of track that runs across the floor.

Best bit about playing with it? What did your child(ren) especially enjoy?
-The boys played so well together with this, taking it in turns and they loved the fact that the car goes very fast especially the loop it runs round in.

Have they shared it with any friends/ siblings? Has it entertained them.
-They played with it together a lot in the first few days but have lost some interest now. I don't know if this is because at the moment it is permanently assembled in the dining room and they are now used to seeing it there, it's no longer a novelty. Also, sometimes the car gets stuck and also flips onto its roof so stops, and they get very frustrated by this.

Do you think this is something you'd recommend to other parents?
-It would be good if you had a large play room for children so it could permanently be left up, but it is still quite big with a piece that sticks across the floor. We live in a 3 bed semi and most of the boys bedroom walls are covered by storage, beds, drawers etc, so it is tricky finding suitable wall space. A good idea if you have the wall space as it's fiddly to put together, and would be difficult for kids to put together, so it would need to be left up otherwise it would take an adult approx 20 mins to assemble every time it was to be used.

Ours has now been up a while & my ds still loves it & it gets played with every day for varying amounts of time.
We had a few playdates over half term & it was enjoyed my a girl aged 1 & boys aged 2, 5, 6 & 11. It withstood the toddlers even though they were quite rough with it & everyone has commented on how much they like it. Each friend has said wow as soon as they saw it. Definitely a thumbs up in our house

Ours hasn't been played with much now the initial excitement has worn off. I think it will be when friends come round and at least it stays on the wall now. I prefer the normal hotwheels this does seem less interesting but it does have the advantage of not taking up floor space.

~ The age and gender of the child(ren) who played with the Hot Wheels Wall Tracks kit

Ds aged 6
DD aged 8 has also played with it

~ How did it work being stuck on the wall? Did you like this? Did your child? Did you find it free-ed up some space on the floor?

I quite like the idea of it not being all over the floor and getting stood on, its not got broke up and no bits are lost or broken, the only painted wall we had is on the landing do we have put it outside ds bedroom door and its out the way.

~ Best bit about playing with it? What did your child(ren) especially enjoy?

My ds enjoys tricking his friends by changing the way the car will fall and seeing how far the car will go off the end.

~ Have they shared it with any friends/ siblings? Has it entertained them. Could do with having more cars though that fit on it.

ds has shared it with his friends even a few parents have asked to see it work as their dc has gone home and mentioned it.

~ Do you think this is something you'd recommend to other parents?

It seems to be recommending its self to parents, but i have and would recommend it.

The age and gender of the child(ren) who played with the Hot Wheels Wall Tracks kit

DD (9)
DS (5)

~ How did it work being stuck on the wall? Did you like this? Did your child? Did you find it free-ed up some space on the floor?

We couldn't actually find a wall without wallpaper that was big enough (it was much bigger than I suspected! but we found it perfect for the front of a rarely used storage wardrobe and it fits there perfectly. I love the fact that it's not on the floor and doesn't have to be put away. My son loves that it's at his eye level and he can move around more (sitting still is boring apparently).

~ Best bit about playing with it? What did your child(ren) especially enjoy?

The races! Because of the different routes it can take, you can have a decent race between two cars at the same time. My children enjoyed adding it on to other hotwheels tracks and loop the loops and at one point filled most of the upstairs of the house with an extra long track! They also liked putting DS's Jenga set at the bottom of the wall track and crashing cars into that as they came down at great speed from the top!

~ Have they shared it with any friends/ siblings? Has it entertained them.

It is in DS's room, but he has shared it with DD (9) although she only plays with it when nobody important is watching her because it's far too young for her in her mind! DS has played with it with a few school friends over the half term and I know that it has gone on a few christmas lists to Santa since they've played with it too! (and a couple of people saw the picture I put on facebook of him playing with it and asked if it would be a good christmas present for someone too).

~ Do you think this is something you'd recommend to other parents?

Definitely, you get a lot of fun from it and there is something about stading up and playing with it that seems to make it more fun for the children. I would however make sure they have a big enough piece of bare wall. Once we have stripped the paper off DS's wall and painted it we will definitely move it from the wardrobe and on to a long bit of all - probably even higher up above his bed so he can attach even more intricate hotwheel tracks on to it.

Thank you for choosing us to test it - we've had so much fun with it this half term.

Ours has been up for a week or so now and the novelty has worn off. My 6 year old nephew played with it for 3 minutes then complained that there was only 1 car.

ok, my next update:

unfortunately the wall track has fallen out of favour. DS2 was given a regular hot wheels floor track for his birthday and that is apparently FAR more exciting than the wall track,.

I think most of the problem in our case is 2 yr old ds3 who just constantly pulls it off the wall.
If I had space up in one of the bedrooms I would have put it up there and the older 2 could play with it, but we have a smallish house and simply don't have a big enough area of empty wall to attach it to upstairs.

So, for the past 4 or 5 days it has been pretty much unused.

I would also like to know whether the fixing strips are generally available? We've had to resort to double sided tape and regular foam sticky pads to stick ours back up on the wall now after it got pulled down too many times and they don't really do the job that well.
I think it could get expensive having to replace the sticky pads, plus buying more cars to go with it as it only comes with the one.

I do think that if the track was upstairs and could stay up permanently then the older boys (6 and 4) would play with it a lot more.
We had a friend over last week (also 6) but he was completely uninterested in it.

Saying all this I have recommended it to a friend who asked about it as her youngest is 4 and has space in his room for it and I think would get a lot more use from it than ours do at the moment.

annmumsnet can you also confirm that you got the pictures I sent? I am crap at attaching stuff to e-mails so just wanted to make sure you'd got them

I didn't include any pictures of me lying on the sofa breastfeeding ds3 while ds1 and ds2 played "hairdressers" on me using the parts of the wall track! The loop the loop apparently makes my hair curly (rather painfully) and the first bit of track is a "breeder" which shoots out gelatine and changes the colour of my hair. They spent longer playing hairdressers with the track than they have spent actually using it for cars! lol

thisisyesterday - yes rec'd with thanks!

~ The age and gender of the child(ren) who played with the Hot Wheels Wall Tracks kit
DD is 9, DS1 is nearly 5 and DS2 is 2.

~ How did it work being stuck on the wall? Did you like this? Did your child? Did you find it free-ed up some space on the floor?
The fact it sticks to the wall is a novelty for all of us. We have a small to average sized house but with three children there isn't much additional room. I wouldn't have bought them a floor track due to having to get it out and put it away all the time. This is a great idea because it can stay out.

~ Best bit about playing with it? What did your child(ren) especially enjoy?
The novelty of it all. DS1 isn't a 'car' type of boy and DS2 is only just getting there so we haven't really had any car based toys before. They have all really enjoyed it.

~ Have they shared it with any friends/ siblings? Has it entertained them.
Yes, they have all played together with surprisingly little argument. I feel that there should have been at least 2 cars though. I have bought 3 additional hot wheels cars from the supermarket and none of them work effectively with the track for varying shape/size/height reasons.

~ Do you think this is something you'd recommend to other parents?
Yes definitely. I posted photos on facebook and many people commented that their DC's had wanted it. I would recommend it.

Once your child had played with it a few times we'd like you to add your final general comments to the thread.
It is a firm favourite with DS1 (nearly 5). DD has pretty much lost interest and so had DS2. It took me 45 minutes to get the blasted thing up, but thankfully it has stayed there. Only one of the brackets has come off but I was able to put it back on without the template. I think I have put it on too high as the car needs a little push. I couldn't bear the thought of getting the template out again and wasn't sure how it would work once the track components were stuck on.
One more car and it would be perfect!