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For Christmas 2023, Lyons Cub received a Hot Wheels Mario Cart race track from his aunty. He already has several components of the Hot Wheels city, such as the shark garage, the Robo T-Rex garage, the shark port color shifters, and the toxic gorilla slam. Mommy assembled his new race track with his help under the Christmas tree. His first try was a hit! You shoot off the Mario race car that came in the package from the toady tower, and if you manage to get it through the gate over the waterfall without it falling down, it will come racing back to its starting point, put itself into start position without you needing to touch it, and you can shoot it off for a second round. How awesome is that???
This was actually Lyons Cub’s favorite feature, that the car came back like a boomerang and was ready to go another time without interruption. Of course, the car that came with the tracks worked best, but we tried out several other cars. The two Yoshis worked fine, too (the one on the right used to have a parachute, but I took the sail off so it would fit on the track without getting stuck):
Some fell off and some made their way through the waterfall, depending on weight and shape of the car and skill and strength of the operator.
The broken loop is not a problem at all; most cars, if shot off with enough power, make it over it. The biggest hurdle is the gap before the waterfall. Building this set was quite easy, since the yellow parts bear letters and are put together matching letters. There are few stickers to apply, such as the toad’s head on the lever to launch the car.
With dismay, my son watched my video in which most Hot Wheel cars fell in the crack between the waterfall and the track. He wanted to show off his own video, because he can do it so much better:
Lyons Cub really loves these tracks, and they are suitable for group play when the kids take turns and count who gets the most rounds completed without falling off. The toy itself is quiet and enjoyable. What I liked even more, though, is the Hot Wheels multiple-player, battery-powered corkscrew race track I got him for Christmas, where three kids can put their cars into the same race and fly out off the game when they crash into a fellow player’s car. This toy is rather noisy, however, and stresses parents out after a while, although it is a lot of fun for the children 😉 See for yourself…
Mario Cart race track vs. battery-powered corkscrew crash race track