One of the best parts of being a father is being able to play with toys with my children. Despite my age, I’m still a child at heart; I have roughly the same maturity level and attention span as my children. I often find myself having just as much fun with my children’s toys as they do.
Recently, I was given the chance to review a race track set. I was pretty excited about this; I really enjoyed playing with slot car race tracks as a kid and thought my kids would as well.
In the box
- Two race cars
- Two controllers
- More than 36 feet of track
- Ten track connectors
- Thirty X-BLOX
- Four X-BLOX hinges
- Two base plates
- Instruction manual
Design
My first thought upon seeing the contents of the box was that it resembled a Hot Wheels track.
The tracks actually connect in a fashion similar to my son’s Hot Wheels tracks.
To connect the track, you insert the clear track connector into track and slide another track onto the other end of the connector. Each track connector has a small bump that fits into the holes in the track, locking the track in place.
It’s a very simple system, something my 6-year-old can easily construct.
Along with the track pieces, the race set comes with several X-BLOX pieces.
As you can see, the X-BLOX are essentially SkullDuggery’s version of Legos.
The X-BLOX can be attached to various parts of the track to raise their height or create ramps.
When the track is fully constructed, it resembles an oval NASCAR track (if NASCAR was awesome and had a ramp in the middle).
Of course, a race set is only as fun as the vehicles that race on them. For this set, Skullduggery pits a Ford Mustang Police Car against a Chevy Camaro.
I’m not a “car guy” in any sense of the word, but I think Skullduggery did a great job replicating the Mustang and Camaro.
Unlike slot cars, these cars don’t have a pin extending from their undercarriage. These cars are powered by an internal battery.
The undercarriage of the cars contains a power port and power switch.
You charge the cars by plugging them into their remote controls.
The controllers are powered by four “AA” batteries.
The controllers have an LED which flashes red while charging the cars and turns green when they are charged.
When you aren’t using the cars, they can be stored on top of the controller.
The chargers are wireless, but otherwise are fairly standard.
Pulling the trigger causes the cars to accelerate while pushing it forward causes the car to go in reverse. The response time from controller to car was instantaneous.
The only thing you have to remember is to keep the controller’s front LED within the cars line-of-sight. The LED is how the controller communicates with the cars.
One of the more interesting features I discovered is the race set’s quasi-compatibility with Hot Wheels tracks.
I say quasi-compatible because not all Hot Wheels tracks have a hole to lock into the track connector; therefore, the tracks don’t line up perfectly. Even so, the cars appeared to drive on the Hot Wheels tracks just as well as the race sets included tracks.
This is a pretty great feature, it allows you to combine the two systems and make some incredible race tracks.
Performance
Once the race track was set up, both my kids were very eager to play with it. They placed the cars on the track and attempted to race each other. They pulled the triggers and the cars took off….right off the track.
On the race set’s box, it says “blazing fast 500 MPH scale speed”; I’m not sure how accurate that is, but the cars are definitely fast.
My initial concern was that they were too fast because my kids couldn’t keep the cars on the track. Fortunately, that didn’t seem to deter them from having fun. Each time a car flew off the track, my kids laughed and put it right back on the track.
It should be noted, the trigger can be depressed at various levels, allowing for variable speeds. The problem is, it’s difficult to explain to young kids that releasing the trigger a bit when taking a corner should prevent the car from coming off the track.
One of the things my kids and I were most excited about was the ramp we created. I was actually a bit apprehensive about this; when I was a kid my ramps never seemed to line up properly and my cars always ended up off track.
I’m happy to say the cars were able to successfully complete the jump each time they took off the ramp.
The final feature isn’t necessarily performance related; rather, a neat visual trick. When a car drives over the track it leaves a temporary light trail behind. It somewhat reminded me of the trail of fire the DeLorean leaves behind in Back to the Future.
As I said, my kids really enjoyed playing with the race set. I wish there were an easier way to control the speed, but otherwise, I had no complaints with the race track.
Conclusion
I was really pleased with the race track and my kids really enjoyed playing with it. It was easy to set up, easy to play with, and fun to watch.
I’d prefer if I could limit the top speed of the cars so it’s easier for my kids to keep them on the track, but the speed didn’t prevent my kids from having fun.
I think most kids would enjoy playing with this race track and really want to recommend it, but there is one thing preventing me from doing so….the price.
$119.99 is a lot of money, and I’m not certain the race track is worth that much. I did a quick Google search and found slot car tracks ranging in price from $26 to almost $400. I’m not sure where this set should fall within that price range.
If you have a lot of Hot Wheels tracks laying around, this may be an excellent choice because you can probably use the tracks interchangeably. If that’s not the case, you may want to consider purchasing another set.
If you have the means to purchase this set, I do think you’ll be very pleased with it; however, if it is out of your price range, I wouldn’t lose sleep over not being able to purchase it.
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Skullduggery. For more information please visit their site and Amazon to order.
Product Information
| Price: | $119.99 |
| Manufacturer: | Skullduggery |
| Retailer: | Amazon |
| Requirements: |
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This brings back great memories of those slot car tracks I played with when I was a kid. Only much cooler now … this looks like a must-have toy for the holiday season. I checked out their website and they actually have a bunch of different tracks. Being able to do stunts is rad!
How do you get the cars to be able to link with the controller ,when you order new cars