Mattel Hot Wheels Flip N Go Spin City Playset Reviews

• Pleasantly Surprised!

  
  By A59FYEAWC6I9S on 2007-10-22
  After having negative experiences with other hot wheels tracks, I was pleasantly surprised by this one. First of all, there is no assembly required. Also, it is very easy for my children to use; even my 2 year old! It offers a lot of things to do so more than 2 children can use it at one time. And, finally, it is durable without parts that are always needing to be fixed.
  
  

• Great fun!!

  
  By A2E2YCRKLJCNS0 on 2007-11-19
  We bought this for my son's 4th birthday and he loves it! It is an interactive toy that uses his imagination and he plays for hours! I love that it is one unit - we don't have to constantly reattach parts or put it together when he wants to play with it. My daughter, age 6, loves it as well and they have tons of fun together. Storage is easy - not a million little pieces. I highly recommend it!
  
  

• Shoddy and no significant play value

  
  By A680RUE1FDO8B on 2007-12-15
  I bought this for my grandson - and it was the only disappointment of our early holiday gift giving.
  
  The shoddiness is apparent as soon as you wrestle the box open. The flaps are glued tightly and you practically need a crowbar to open it. There's a loose part that flopped out of the end of the box I opened . . . except it really isn't loose at all. It's a major part of the toy and it is tethered to the rest of it. It would have been nice of Mattel to let you know. I suspect many of these toys are damaged upon opening.
  
  Once assembled, the toy is really a big nothing. It most certainly will NOT work with all Hot Wheels cars. Mattel has a tiny warning on the box: "NOT FOR USE WITH SOME HOT WHEELS VEHICLES". Of the dozens of Hot Wheels we've accumulated, none worked well.
  
  Of course there isn't much to this toy. There's a silly lift to get the toy car into the sillier "2-level garage". You have to flip two levers to make it all work, a task that young minds will quickly find boring. Then there is a spiral ramp that can be height adjusted. None of these things work together. Each is a separate operation. The end is getting the car to go down the spiral ramp.
  
  There are several programmed noises and announcements, the novelty of which wears off in a few moments.
  
  In short, this toy has very little play value. I suspect the spiral racing ramp will be broken within a short time. The range of cars it will work with is extremely limited.
  
  Fortunately, Amazon has a good return policy which we're using.
  
  Jerry
  
  

• Pretty cool

  
  By A2FY33VEHJBXRF on 2007-12-08
  My 7 year old son has had his fair share of race sets, all of which either ended up breaking, losing pieces, or being permanently put away due to lack of space. This set was given to him for his birthday, and he adores it. We've had some problems with getting the pole in the middle to stay upright. It's fine once it's in there, but the kids have a tough time getting it to stay in place; they usually need help from the parents, which is fine, it only takes a second or two. Other than burning through batteries (probably due to my son forgetting to turn it off), it's been a great little set and it's very nice to be able to fold it up and put it away at the end of the day instead of it taking up more space in his room. He likes the sound effects and the spiral track, and I like the fact that it's pretty durable and not obnoxious. :)
  
  

• Plastic junk

  
  By A243FU8OLQQH6W on 2007-12-24
  "Santa" just put the Spin City together just after our almost 3 year old went to bed here in Christmas Eve. The first thing we did was cut the tether that holds the toy together into the box. Big mistake, that plastic tether is what goes inside the tower to make the spiral lift work. No instructions point this out. The instructions look like tax law. The toy itself is a miserable and flimsy design. Why not have the car launch and KEEP going down the spiral instead of taking pit stop for the child to have to physically turn the car to allow it to continue the remaining 50% down the spiral ramp? The sound effects are on the ramp itself, meaning, the car has to be physically HELD DOWN underneath a plastic hook to understand that "hey, you're getting a tune up" or "hey, you're getting a paint job." Santa is not pleased but has become more skilled with duct tape in making a desperate repair before Christmas morning arrives. Good thing we have a well made Melissa and Doug art easel we are happy with!
  
  
  
• Fantastic!!!!
  By AGTB5NMM2AGLN on 2008-01-28
  It is about time that Hot Wheels came out with a product that doesn't break straight out of the box!! My son LOVES this toy. These types of toys usually only last at most a week or two because of pieces snapping and breaking but this one is still going strong after 2 months. The best part is the fact that I don't have to keep putting it back together every 10 minutes. And he uses it with his brother and friends. Also, has all of the little sounds and "stops" along the way so it keeps his attention. The boys playing with this are 6 to 9 years old. I highly recommend this for everybody and also for people who are sick and tired of throwing away $40 for flimsy car sets. Worth every stinkin' penny.
  
  
• Perfect toy for ease of use and fun
  By AD491ILWROYI1 on 2008-01-07
  I read the reviews before I purchased this item and they were spot on. Easy to set up, not a lot of parental support and loads of fun for the kids. My child loves this and was one of his favorite gifts.
  
  
• Flip N Go won't flip you out for too long
  By A2XQWUGZXKYT9I on 2008-02-06
  This is a fun toy, but doesn't seem to be a toy that's sought out for too much repaet play. The thrill is over after the first few rounds. I think it doesn't run as smoothly as it could either. But my 6 year old was not disappointed to receive it.
  
  
• It's fun for a while
  By A321AVF1BCW7I7 on 2008-03-03
  We got this for our 3 & 6 year old boys. It was fun for a week or so, but they don't seem to play with it much anymore. It makes a lot of noise, and when they play with it now, it's not really making the cars go, it's just playing all the different noises. I think it needs to go on a shelf for a while and then bring it back out - it really seemed like a cool toy to me!
  Don't make this mistake: as any parents know, these days toys are tethered to their boxes lest they should escape. One of the plastic cords I cut in an effort to liberate the toy from the box was not designed to be cut, it was the cord that holds the two pieces together for the "flip & go" feature. Well, ours will never "flip & go": it sits where it sits, and doesn't go on trips, and that hasn't been a big problem for us. I just wasn't very happy about "breaking it" right out of the box.
  
  
• Junk City
  By A14F930HK7VQ3S on 2008-05-23
  My son received Spin City right before his 5th birthday. It was broken within the first two hours of play. This toy has a "stick" that twists into the center of the toy to make a lift for the track. Anyway, I guess he twisted too hard (on the cheap plastic) and now the lift won't work. Now he has a stationary track. No more fun, but he loved the first two hours of this toy. He hasn't played with it since.
  
  
  
  
• Cheap! Cheap! Cheap!
  By A27H3B4W9K1P2N on 2008-08-15
  This is not worth the money. It is cheap and poorly constructed. Sound effects never worked from the first day. Very few of the hundreds of hot wheels work well on the track. Does not work smoothyly. My 3 year old never played with it after Christmas morning. Deeply disappointed in Hot Wheels.
  
  
• Horrible
  By A2XJET5FKP5VDQ on 2007-12-26
  I'm sorry I paid $34 for this piece of junk. It is flimsy and it does nothing. I can't even figure out how to put it together properly, it looks so weak I'm afraid to even move the parts. Worst toy my kids got this Christmas. Definitely not worth its price.
  
  
• Flip N Go Just Okay
  By A231QSP91GKEKC on 2008-01-12
  We bought the flip N Go for my 3 year old son for Christmas. What I liked about it was that it was all one piece and there were no tracks, etc for him to always be taking apart. I do like that feature! However, it doesn't always work as it should. The one piece circular track goes up and down with a push of a lever and sometimes it gets stuck. I provides good entertainment for him and has lots of cool sounds that it makes but it is not high quality. It serves it purpose I suppose! Don't think it is as cool as it sounds b/c it's not.
  
  
• Good concept, but needs more content
  By AKGP5SN4ZEUSX on 2008-02-09
  Looks cool and fun, but can only entertain for short periods of time. As mentioned in other reviews, the 2 main parts of this toy operate separately and take away from the fun moment by having to adjust the spiral to work with the washer/garage section. Most of the cars do work to some degree of success i.e. speed of descent on ramp. The one main fault I see with this kind of toy is that it does not have enough to it to keep a child interested for more than 15 minutes, but does give you enough time to get something done while the child is playing with it.
  
  This makes a good "take a long" toy to share with other relatives/friends children and was one of the better toys released during that year.
  
  
• Not Race Ready
  By A1I1ESM0GAVYXB on 2008-04-02
  Where to start - I guess our major disappointment is in the up and down feature. After 15 minutes it no longer went up. My husband attempted to fix it, assuming a loose connection. No Luck. No it occasionally goes up? Even if it worked perfectly there are some major flaws. First of course is that it really only works with race cars. Hard to explain to a 3 yr old. You are supposed to start at the carwash and the car I guess flys onto the track but it never does that. When you do the carwash the car flys off the track entirely. And like others said the action stops because you have to flip the car slot to make it go down. I have a hard time figuring out how to use it. And I don't really feel it is a fold up and go toy because you would break things - there is no real cover like the other close up toys have.
  We should have gotten turbo city.
  
  
• Fun for a while...
  By AL5OEA6TICX88 on 2008-09-24
  Played with constantly - for about a week. This was the second version as the first one broke out of the box. If the original hadn't been a gift and the disappoint so great on the loss of the first, wouldn't have done it.
  
  
• not as fun as it looks
  By AN715VRKRYC0U on 2007-12-25
  my kids just got this for christmas. i'm not too impressed. we'll see how long it keeps thier attention. my kids like to see a couple cars race around or so. this doesn't do much except give a few moments of the car going down the ramp. it looked cool on the box. but not that great after being tried.we have starter set thats more fun tan this.thank goodnesst it came witha gift reciept.
  
  
• Hot Wheels Fun
  By A7I06YTIUUTA2 on 2007-12-26
  My 4 year old and 9 year old sons enjoyed the Hot Wheels raceway. It is so easy to assemble and stays together. No little parts to get lost. The sound is great on it too. I would definately reccomend this toy and the price on Amazon and free shipping was wonderful. Thanks
  
  
• NOT worth the money
  By A4WD2M2WAX2YW on 2007-12-26
  This was the top of my 9 year olds christmas list this year, and well, a day after christmas it has shown how durable it is. The little spin pole comes off way to easy and if you barey touch it it mis aligns it. Causing the gear to not work to raise it... In fact this toy deserves the trash can after all of the frustration I have had with my son whom keeps breaking it and asks me to fix it.
  
  
• Fun
  By A1U9EX5JY2P5IH on 2007-12-26
  My boys, ages 4 and 7 love this toy. The younger one got it for Christmas, but the older one, who isn't even that into cars, has been playing with it as well. They love making the cars go around and around. The part that moves up and down is a little delicate. Sometimes the boys bring the lift down too far, and then they have trouble getting it to go back again. They have managed to re-secure it so far, just by twisting the center pole in farther. Overall, they are having a ton of fun with it.
  
  On a separate note, it is kind of big, and doesn't fold up easily. Not sure how easy it will be to store it after the holidays...
  
  
• Great fun for kids
  By A1O6I7294KOSP1 on 2007-12-27
  Purchased this for my son who is nearly 3.5 years old. He enjoys it very much but needs a bit of parental help to use it properly without damaging it. Its just a learning curve that I am sure he will master shortly. No real educational value here aside from developing some fine motor skills.
  
  The toy is nice because it packs up into a self contained unit when not in use. Overall it feels a little fragile and I am concerned about the longevity but so far no problems.
  
  The toy uses three AAA batteries which are not included. No cars are included either. slightly larger cars seems to work better than the smaller faster cars. The faster cars overshoot the tracks and end up side down rather than following along the track as intended. There are a list of recommended cars in the instruction sheet but I wasn't about to go out looking for a specific set of cars just to use this track. My son has enough cars that it was easy to sort through a few to find ones that work.
  The release latch on the parking garage is difficult to release for little fingers. Takes a significant amount of force to release it. My son hasn't mastered this yet and is a small obstacle to him fully enjoying the set.
  
  Overall this was a great purchase that has delighted my son...We shall see for how long.
  
  Pros
  Fast easy set up
  self contained when stored
  Fun voices and sayings at the various stops
  lots of fun
  
  Cons
  Seems fragile when closed and opened
  Doesn't work well with many cars
  Plastic doesn't seem to be marked for recycling
  
  
  
• Disappointment
  By A3J4TETT4T379D on 2007-12-27
  This was a real disappointment. It was very poor quality. The lever to raise the track up and down kept falling off. I was hoping hot wheels would come up with something great for their cars...but again they have disappointed me with junk.
  
  
• Christmas Favorite
  By A3SUTOQE5MB45T on 2007-12-29
  My boys got this from Santa and they love it (ages 6,7) and my little girl loves it too. My 6 year old played with it for about 30 mins as soon as he unwrapped it. It is a favorite so far... No assembly required and does what it supposted to. If your child enjoys playing with cars this is a great set.
  
  
• Already Returned It!
  By A1R1P4DAXAEK2S on 2007-12-29
  I got this for my son who's almost 3 years old. I was looking for something for him to use with all of his Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars. But this thing is a piece of junk. The ramp is very flimsy. The lever to raise and lower the ramp keeps popping off. And it is very difficult to open and close (fold up). We already returned it! Why doesn't Hot Wheels make a good quality, durable track for younger kids? Now I'm searching for a sturdier track... perhaps a wooden parking garage.
  
  
• Don't make 'em like they used to!
  By AGIR3HYC5M8GI on 2007-12-29
  My 4 year old is having fun with this, but I have to be there to "tweek" a few things (ramp has to be snapped into place when connecting, etc.) It is definitely cheaply made and flimsy - probably won't hold up over the years like the Hot Wheels stuff my brother & I played with when we were little. Very disappointing that they don't provide at least one car- Would be nice if the car wash, tune up, tires, etc. actually worked. It's ok, but I guess I expected more
  
  

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