Editorial Review

Fully equipped for the uber rescue mission, this souped-up spacecraft doubles as a jet and a Rescue Heroes command center. The top of the jet flips open to reveal an electronic screen and an operations deck, where Keytron, a robot, plugs into the control board to relay missions to the team. Included are two tethered backpacks which, as Rescue Heroes fans know, allow the action figures to communicate. What's more, the jet itself transforms into a giant robot, with a deployable space pod as the head and a tank-like tough-terrain vehicle down below. This is a sturdy, sizable toy that those who enjoy Rescue Heroes ought to love, and it contains plenty of moving parts. Also included is a C.D. Moon action figure in a red space suit. --Andy Boynton ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Wanna keep your kids entertained??
My Goodness!We started with such a small little Geotrax set and look at what we wound up with!!My 3 year old got a small set right before his birthday and played with it quite a bit.Then he got MORE for his birthday...and NOW, it is the first thing he plays with when he wakes up and the last thing he play with when he goes to bed!The airport set is probably his favorite by far!But he and his big sister LOVE to take it apart and make new creations with all the tracks and play with the battery operated train, fly the airplane, load cargo, you name it!They really use their imagination and work together with all this stuff!

The only downside is I had to buy a REALLY big tub to put it all in when we don't want to look at it all!The control center, construction set, airplane set and all take up quite a bit of room and there are times when we want it just "put away" for a while.But that's the only bad thing I can say about it...this stuff is just COOL!

I recommend this for ANY kid, probably ages 2 and up.I bought a set for my 2 year old nephew in March and my sister says he LOVES it.If your kids like planes, trains, and automobiles, this is the toy for him!

Another great addition to our geotrax set-up
This is a fun addition to the system.Set up time is less than 2 minutes.My girls love it.The only problem is the fight that sometimes happens over who gets to fly the plane.

To infinite and beyooooond !!!!
To wait for new Geo Trax series... some months.

To deliver it at home... less than a week.

To assemble it ... half hour.

To see the happiest face from my child, when he saw the plane flying... Priceless...... 10 Stars !!!

Great as an addition to your train or as a stand alone toy.
This is a very fun toy.I would consider it a stretch, however, to say that this is a necessary addition for your train set.I would say that this is a great toy on its' own merit.The airplane is a big hit.It flies in circles with the control of a hand-held lever.As it flies the propellers spin.There are three different sounds (a jet, helicopter, or propeller plain.)There is a luggage carousel that spins around for cargo.As I said, my son plays with this independently from his train set.It can be incorporated.I would not hesitate to purchase this even if I did not own any other pieces from geotrax.

Like it but prefer some of the other addons better!
My son recevied this for Christmas as an addition to his Geotrax system.He loves to play with it and loves the sound effects it has but, I found it to be more of a play alone part of the geotrax system than an integrated piece.Other add ons like tower clock, rescue squad, etc. are combined into the train system while this is not. It connects to it but the train portions pass by it rather than be part of it. Still a great piece but I think that if you have other toys like my son does his little people airport would have worked just as well by setting it up nearby. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

I love this set it is wayyyyy cooler than slimecano.
I realy love this play set. It has a launcher, a swamp beast that trys to knock the cars out of the track and, a hyperpod vehicle that is used to defeat the swamp beast. On this playset the car has to keep going around the track until the way to the swamp beast is open. when its open the car goes to the hyperpod vehicle then the hypervod vehicle goes defeat the swamp beast. You have only 30 seconds to defeat him. each time you defeat him he takes out 2 seconds off your time and when you lose he puts 2 more seconds. Buy 2 alkaline batteries they work the best on this set. thats what it said on the box of the set. I think this set is very cool because


1. It has a very fast launcher.
2. I like the hypervod vehicle
3.you have to keep going around the track and watch out for the swamp beast's arms they will knock the car out the track.

4. you can connect other sets into it if you like.
5. You have 30 seconds to defeat the swamp beast.
6.I like how the track is designed.
7.It is very durable.
8.It is very fun trying to defeat the swamp beast.
9. I like the phrases the swamp beast says.
10. you can push the switch down so the car can go to other places on the track.
I don't realy like slimecano it is very messy because of the slime.

THE SWAMP BEAST PLAYSET IS THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love this playset. On the playset theres one booster a swamp beast with two arms trying to hit the car out of the track and you have 30 seconds to defeat him. Each time you defeat him he takes away 2 seconds and when you lose he puts 2 more seconds. I would recommend this item to anyone who likes hotwheels playsets

Way cooler than Slimecano!!!
We returned the Slimecano (see the 1-star rating it got) and bought this as a replacement for our 5-year old son. This is the Hot Wheels I remember! Plastic, snap-together tracks, motorized accelerators for propulsion, fast, high-banked turns. This product actually works the way it portrays on the box. The beast's arms really go up and down and sometimes knock the car off the track. The beast's voice is neat, it sounds like a swamp beast should (think Pirate's "argh!"). I really like the timer on it, you only have 30 seconds to "defeat the beast" which means complete enough laps to trigger the upper loop diverter so your car goes on the inner track, hitting the "hyper pod attack vehicle" which provides the car with enough mass to knock the trigger and causing the head to pop off. If you win the beast knocks 2 seconds off your time (lose and add 2) and starts another round. The victory sound effects are pretty cool, too. All in all I like this toy, it's definitely worth the $24 we paid for it. ... Read more

Editorial Review

The worlds of toy racetracks and haunted houses have never exactly begged to be placed together but it's an interesting and highly entertaining match in this unique set from Matchbox. Part of the ever-expanding "Hero City" line, the haunted house features various secret traps and tricks such as a skeleton that launches cars with a good shove, a "Bones and Moans Bridge" full of scary sounds, and various other classic spooky bits. One car is included although the two required AA batteries are not. Classic racetrack fans will likely not be overly impressed by this simple and fairly corny setup but it's not really meant for the aficionado, rather for the younger children who love a gentle scare and an unlimited supply of trips through a haunted house. --Charlie Williams ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Fabulous!!
I bought this toy for my son who finally got to pick out a toy after potty training. It's now the first thing he goes to get in the morning and he plays with it for hours. The only bad thing was, no play mat was included and you can't buy it at the store, it must be ordered from matchbox.com. Highly recomended!!

Great for the Scooby Doo fans!
My 3 year old is a big Scooby Doo fan and just had to have the Matchbox Haunted House. He loves it. It is sturdy and easy for him to play with. The only complaint I would have is when the van goes down the staircase it tends to sometimes get stuck or come down on it's side. This doesn't seem to bother my 3 year old, but it may bother a child who is a bit older. Overall I think it is a pretty good toy.

Haunted fun!
My kids ages 3 & 5 just received this and it's great. It holds together fine. In fact it hasn't even come apart since I put it together. They are usually rough on most toys and this one is no exception. The noises are great also. I would recommend this for any child. Mine love it and I'm going to get another as a gift!

Spooky Fun for the Little Ones
This toy was a big hit with my 4 year old. He loves playing with his "spooky house" and I have to say no other toy has ever held his attention for so long. He too is a Scooby Doo fan so he spends hours pretending he and the "gang" are out solving mysteries. The toy seems very durable and holds together well considering how much he plays with it. Definately a keeper!

Neat-o
I bought thistand it was loads of fun.
Since I was 5 i've waited for a toy like this to come out! ... Read more

Editorial Review

Okay, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense that SpongeBob SquarePants and his starfish friend Patrick are racing around in cars. They live under the sea, after all. Wouldn’t the cars, you know, float away? But "sense" is something best dispensed of when exploring SpongeBob’s world. We are, after all, talking about a necktie-wearing kitchen sponge who lives in a pineapple under the sea. This cool little racetrack is sure to please the SpongeBob faithful with thoughtfully detailed set pieces such as the Krusty Krab restaurant, and the homes of both SpongeBob and Patrick. The set features many pieces and takes a while to set up. As for the actual racing part of the set, it works fairly well, even if the cars are on the pokey side. --Charlie Williams ... Read more

Reviews (13)

Just not worth it
My son recieved this for Christmas. Most of the time the cars simply will not move now because of the poorly built cars. I remember as a child instead of these quickly degrading bits of metal twisted together there were actual metal bands which would make the cars move. The track does go together well, and stayed together for me. But when you first try the cars out they move much to quickly and fly off the track(until the braids wear out and they refuse to move-which takes only a few days). I have yet to find any race tracks these days which are made properly.

Is playtesting before marketing a lost art?
Doesn't anybody playtest toys anymore before they toss them onto the market? Or is it enough that they look great and have a sure-fire cartoon character tie-in?

I ask, because as great and seemingly durable as this little SpongeBob race set is, had anybody in the Mattel boardroom actually tried to play it they would have quickly realized what a Festival of Frustration it is.

When you open the box, you're bound to be delighted by the brightly colored cardboard punch-out set decorations and the really super SpongeBob and Patrick "boats" (slot cars), which feel nice and hefty and solid. Once you've figured out how to put the track together (was it too difficult to actually label the tracks with the same letters by which the instructions refer to them?), and hooked up the power pack and the controllers (kudos for being battery powered, rather than requiring a wall socket, though the option for both would have been nice -- four "D" batteries ain't cheap), the next thing you're going to do, logically, is place the cars on the track and give a controller a squeeze.

And then the NEXT thing you're going to do is get up off your knees and go get the car and put it back on the track. Another squeeze, another track departure, another retrieval. Repeat ad nauseum. Or at least until your kid decides it's more fun to throw the controller at the little cardboard set decorations -- something which you may find yourself in agreement with.

Put simply, these sturdy plastic boat cars are ponderously heavy and too fast for their own good, which means they are highly susceptible to inertia: squeeze lightly and they do not move, just buzz plaintively. Squeeze just ever-so-slightly too hard and they go from standstill to Mario Andretti to Evel Kneivel in under a second, forcing you to spend 80 to 90 percent of your time crawling over to them and putting them back on the track.

And if YOU think that sounds annoying, wait until you see your preteen's reaction.

I did not personally experience any problem with the track coming apart, as some reviewers have mentioned. But that may be because Patrick and Bob spent the lion's share of their time extratrackular.

Don't bother
Honestly...this is one of those toys that is a big waste of money. The cars fall off the track too easily, the cardboard scenes are a major pain and just fall off and don't stand up properly and the overall track isn't very durable. It was a huge disappointment.

My son likes to play with the cars without the track because it just doesn't work well enough with them on the track.

I should have returned this.

Try Something Else
My son got this for Christmas and he was very excited. The assembly was easy enough, but the cardboard cut-outs would not stay up. It was also difficult to keep the braids under the cars in the right position so the cars would even go. I'd try another track before I wasted money on this one!

Too Much Fun !!!!!
I bought this for my 6 year old. I put it together myself (not very hard)and we just love it. You have to learn to slow down around the curves so the cars don't fly off. After a few times around the track it's alot of fun. I would buy this for any spongebob fan.... ... Read more

Editorial Review

Those of us who spend a lot of time looking at, evaluating, and playing with toys often complain that they all start to look alike after a while. After all, a racetrack is a racetrack and a doll is a doll right? But once in a while, a toy comes along that really makes us sit up and take notice. In that vein, the Hot Wheels Slimecano is easily the weirdest toy we've seen in a long time. The idea is to power up your Hot Wheels car (none included) using a special charger at the base of a big brown mountain with a creepy snake face carved into it. Then while the mountain starts spewing slime, you race to the top, avoiding falling boulders and trying to successfully jump over a pit of goo. The mountain shakes periodically and plays five different sound effects. The Slimecano promises a lot of action and happily it's well-designed so everything works pretty well. Although we're not sure how much sustained play value the Slimecano will have over the course of months and years, it at least brings a unique and bizarre element to the racetrack category. --Charlie Williams ... Read more

Reviews (5)

A Waste of Money
This is the worst Hot Wheels toy on the market right now. I am stunned that this product was allowed to enter the market with all of its flaws. It's flimsy, hard to put together, and lasts for about a day before it falls apart. Shame on this manufacturer!

lm
My son picked this out for his 6th birthday. It did take me about 45 minutes to assemble and it's not really sturdy, but he has enjoyed it. He loves the slime mostly. The pieces do come apart alot but otherwise it works well. Don't know that it is quite worth the price, but fun--just remember to have them play on a washable surface. We set it up on the kitchen floor.

Terrible Quality
The quality of this toy is so bad that my 4-year-old son recognized that the toy wasn't made well. It takes an incredible amout of time to assemble and falls apart easily. I took it back to the store because my son was so frustrated I couldn't take the temper tantrums. Hot Wheels needs to review the quality of this toy before it damages the reputation of their entire line of toys.

Slimecano is not a good time
Ok, i have to tell you, this toy is not a kid-friendly toy what so ever. It felt like we put more time putting this thing together and put together again (after falling apart over an over and over again)than we did actually playing it. This toy is highly NOT RECOMMENDED!!!!!

Very misleading
I was very disappointed with this product. I purchased 15 different Hot Wheels play sets for my son and on the back of the box it showed how you could attach it all to make a realistic town for your child to play with. The pieces easily fall apart and you spend more time putting it back together than playing with it. I also couldn't find the additional track to connect this to other playsets as displayed on the back of the boxes. It turns out that Mattel does not sell this additional track in stores and you have to order it direct from them. The sales people that I spoke with at Mattel had very little knowledge of their products and to top it all off...when I rec'd my additional track (which was very expensive) it didn't come with the stickers that actually make it look realistic. The road displayed on the boxes show stickers and look realistic but that is definitely not what you will receive. The Mattel rep informed me that they do make stickers for their replacement track which to me is very misleading. You are expecting a certain quality of product when you invest in these toys but are certainly not receiving what you are paying for. I would recommend not investing much money in the different world play sets offered by Mattel. Don't expect to be able to make the big elaborate towns for your child that Mattel leads you to believe you can make by purchasing all of their different playsets! Very disappointing!!! ... Read more

Reviews (10)

you can not go wrong with Matchbox toys
My son received this as a birthday gift from a friend.(it was on his amazon wish list) This toy is very durable and with boys being tough on toys this is worth $20! I did read the reviews about younger children getting their fingers stuck in the turning scull but we have had no problem. I suggest a 4/5/6 year old child would benefit a lot from this toy. The sound affects are cool and the play mat is a bonus!

DANGEROUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Do not buy this toy. I completely agree with all the reviews about the finger trap. My son has gotten his finger stuck many times. If the car does not go in correctly the head will not turn. My son has been using the tv remote to get it to work correctly. Matchbox should recall these. This is NOT a good toy for any age.

Bought for 4 year old...
My son loves this toy.He has not "trapped" his finger in the skull like I have read in other reviews.I can see how it could happen though.It only has two removable parts, so less to lose.He can put the pieces together himself and uses the playmat even more than the toy itself.We have a lot of these car playsets and this one is one of the best.

I agree to the finger trap!
I agree to the finger trap, it even hurts an adults finger, my husband and I have had this toy it snapped at both our fingers, I am taking this toy back to the store tomorrow..

Finger trap
I cannot believe that I didn't see a single review about the trap that this toy is. I got this toy for my son who is 3 years old. He keeps watching the commercials on tv and decided to get it. As soon as I got it out of the box he started playing with it and no more than 5 minutes later got the first scary moment. He was scraming because his fingers got trapped on the skull. The toy works this way: On the left side of the toy, there is a "elevator" for the car. Whe this car gets to the top, the child is supposed to turn the skull toward the elevator for the car to get in. Sometimes the car does not go all the way inside the skull and the child has to push it in with his fingers. Well, when the car touches the opposite wall of the skull, the skull itself turns very fast toward the front of the toy. The fingers of the child then get trapped between the skull and somekind of bars. I was very scared because for a moment I didn't know which way to turn the head to release my child's fingers.
I know children love this toy but as a parent I would not recommended. I bought one to give as a gift for a friend, and there is no way I am going to do so. Both boxes are going to be returned to the store A.S.A.P.

... Read more

Editorial Review

Half road-construction project, half skateboard park, this curious toy features an unfinished highway in the shape of a halfpipe. Two windup cars, Police Car and Street Racer, chase each other around the track with the press of an activation button. A jump propels the cars over a missing section of road, while a roadblock net helps the cops capture the Racer. All in all, it seems like trouble waiting to happen. There's also an "underground tunnel"--in the center of the track, below street level--for the cars to whip through. A carrying handle helps you take the track with you, and its ends fold up for easier transport, but the toy does take up a lot of room. There are storage cubbies for the two cars, and their chassis are interchangeable. No batteries are required. --Andy Boynton ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Favorite Track Add On
This is our family's favorite!It makes the coolest sounds when the trains pass through it.This is a must have for the geotrax fan! ... Read more

Editorial Review

Parents looking to teach kids a lesson about safety might want to steer away from this wreck-intensive play set from Hot Wheels. Still, the Zero G track is an awful lot of fun for anyone who enjoys the time-honored tradition of Hot Wheels cars smashing into each other at tremendous speeds. After laying out the numerous pieces of track using the included and relatively easy to follow instructions, rev up the one included car and other Hot Wheels cars and let them fly around the track.  The set features a large red set piece that looks daunting but for the life of us we could not figure out what it was for.--Charlie Williams ... Read more

Reviews (4)

It doesn't do a whole lot
Once you've put this set together -- and it's deceptively difficult for as small as it is -- and fire it up, you and your kid will probably say, "Cool!" 5-10 minutes later, you'll be looking for something else to do. If you buy another Hot Wheels car to put on the track (Matchbox cars don't work, and the box warns that "not all Hot Wheels cars are compatible" either), maybe there is some excitement in hoping the cars will crash at the intersection, causing the little "explosion" the designers have built in at the only possible crash site. However, straight out of the box, what you get is one car, a battery-powered impeller and a tiny track with two possible loop patterns, each of which literally takes less than two full seconds to complete. So you turn it on, drop the car on the track and watch it rocket around this loop and over a tiny (9 cm to be exact) jump again and again and again. If you want to interact, you can push down a lever and make the car take a different loop that is even smaller and has no jump. Is it cool? Initially... but it quickly becomes as interesting as watching the clothes spin around in the dryer.

Mattel are you listening?
This toy is about as much fun as all of the other over-hyped pieces of crap Mattel is foisting on our children nowadays. The greedy misers go out of their way to make sure none of the sets work together or can interconnect (and yes, I've bought a half-dozen or so). What you get is basically a self-contained unit that can only be put together one way. And they won't sell you individual tracks and connectors in stores any longer (though I saw one review that claimed you could get them direct from Mattel). Well, growing up my brother and I had only gravity, but we could put tracks together in a myriad of imaginative ways and create our own race courses, instead of being stuck with some adult's idea of what is supposed to be fun. Now wouldn't that be a great educational and creative "breakthrough" today?

I was able to buy a few spare pieces of track left on a shelf by accident in one toystore, no connectors and the salepeople didn't know what I was talking about. I made my own connectors from plastic milk jugs and my five year old likes the homemade tracks better than all the monstrous junk you can buy.

WAY COOL!
My daughter received this for her birthday and she LOVES it. It only took me about 15 minutes to put together (I thought the directions were fairly easy to follow) and so far it works wonderfully, we have had no problems with the track pieces coming apart. WAY COOL!

Kids loved it; assembly caused adults to grind teeth
I bought this for a five-year old boy. Once we assembled it, he loved it. Toy assembly, however, caused four intelligent adults (one of whom has an engineering degree) to rip their hair out. The directions were so bad and the assembly diagrams so incomprehensible that we really thought we weren't going to be able to put it together. It took several hours and all four adults to piece it together. It also seemed to be very cheaply made. The tracks kept popping apart because the joints weren't made very well. When I was a kid, Hot Wheels were well made. ... Read more

Reviews (28)

toy to make a kid smile
I am a grandfather of 4 and my 2 year old grandson just loves this item. We got it for him for his birthday and he has not stopped playing with it. He could race the cars for hours and hours. This toy is worth it.

The gold car always wins!
I bought this for my almost 4 year old and 17 month old daughters to play with together. They share it pretty well, but my 4 y.o. has figured out that the gold car ALWAYS nudges out the silver one and so, naturally, that's the car she always wants to play with. Luckily, you can use other cars (Matchbox clones) in there - as long as they're not too tall or long (the 1959 Lincoln is a little slow!) - so my toddler isn't always the LOSER. Like other people have commented, we have also experienced the sound going off when no one was around (not even the cat). I probably would take the batteries out if it went off more often but so far it's only happened a couple of times. If you're trying to keep it secret from the kids, though, note that the toy comes with batteries already installed, and the box DOES emit noise! (The UPS man was laughing when he gave it to me!)

The kids love it (even though Mommy doesn't!)!
This toy annoyed the heck out of me (I hear the noises it makes as the cars race down the speedway in my sleep!) but my kids love it.

World's Most Annoying Toy
I bought this for my son last Christmas. He enjoys it but the toy is about to meet Mr. Garbage. This toy has a feature that simulates the revving of a racecar engine. It's supposed to rev when you release the cars or when you pull the release in the opposite direction. However, at any given time (day or night) the revving of racecars can be heard. The least little bump to the toy, slightest breeze in the air or walking across the floor can set the thing off. I have to store this toy in our den downstairs or it will wake up the entire house at night. If Fisher Price hadn't designed it in such a sensitive manner, it would be a great toy; but it is EXTREMELY ANNOYING. Don't waste your money.

Toy is still in one piece
I am sure most of you can relate that toddler boys take everything apart and leave them in shambles around the house. Not this one. It comes in one piece and has stayed in one piece. The only complaint is the noise, but that can be remedied. The educational value, I suppose, is seeing how cars go down and seeing which is faster. My son has had it for a year and still plays with it from time to time. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Not Bad for 4 year olds
We initially were not going to purchase this since it had gotten two bad reviews....but my four year old son has been obsessed with monster trucks for awhile and insisted on buying this. Anyway...yes, the instructions can be confusing but all in all our son played with it all day long. He loved getting his other Hot wheels Monster trucks and trying them on the track (they also work). He really got into setting up a HOt Wheels Monster truck challenge and was able to win against the Crusher. If your son LOVES Monster Trucks he will probably enjoy this toy.

Don't waste your money
I think Hot Wheels has some great stuff out there....but this is definately NOT one of them. Putting it together is a pain in the neck..it's very hard to click every together and the instructions could not be more unclear. (be aware that the pieces do not come out again, so you're stuck with this large contraption to store afterwards). There is only one function...pull the truck back on the lever and try to hit the monster's chest....so we did....but it was virtually impossible to do. The truck keeps falling in the "pit" and gets eaten every time. It's just poorly designed. It's VERY loud and my intelligent 5-year old stopped playing after 10 minutes.

What a waste of money!
My 5-year-old son is really into monster trucks, and he was so excited to get this toy. He saved his money for months to buy Crashzilla. This toy is fairly expensive--we paid $25 for it at our local target. It really only does one thing. You cock back the truck and aim it for the monster. You either get eaten or knock its head off. Wow! For $25 you'd expect a lot more. My son was bored with it in a few hours. A better choice for those young monster truck lovers are the Crank & Crush sets. They are only $12 and keep my son entertained for hours a day. Stay away from this one!!!

Too Difficult For a 4-Year Old
My son loves cars and wrecks (of course). I saw this advertised on TV and thought he would absolutely love it. It wasn't too hard to put together. My son got frustrated when he tried to play with it, however. You have to pull the car back and release it. My son didn't have the strength to do it by himself. When he would pull on the truck (on the ramp) the whole contraption would slide towards him. He played with it a couple of times and then no more. Maybe older children would like this toy and be better able to manipulate it. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

fun for hours
Very durable, has 2 configurations for the track. The motorized part is easy for kids to use and works for a very long time (on batteries of course). We never had any problems and my sons used this A LOT. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Nice case, but not real durable
This case is a good first case for your little one. However, it's not very tough so it can be damaged very easily. And by ALL means, be sure to keep those removable trays inside the box. My husband stepped on one and punctured his foot! It holds 24 cars but the slots are different sizes for the different cars which is nice too. The sides are split already on ours and we've had it for only 7 months. It doesn't keep the cars from moving around once it is picked up and they completely are messed up and need reorganized if it is moved via the handle. ... Read more