As a parent, I always find it helpful to talk to others about toys I'm considering. One of my son's Christmas gifts was a Hot Wheels wall track. I'd read mixed reviews on it, so I thought I'd offer my thoughts now that we've had it for a few months.
Hot Wheels makes several different types of wall track sets, and they're just like a car track that hooks to your wall using Command Strips. My son (age 5) REALLY wanted one for Christmas, but I was somewhat hesitant.
I've mentioned several times that we live in a pretty small house. We'd gotten car tracks before, but one was stepped on and broken pretty much immediately, and the ones that still work rarely got played with. It just always seemed like kind of a hassle to get them out and put them away. My other concerns were lack of wall space, and durability.
He ended up getting this Hot Wheels Wall Track Starter Play Set, and it's been a huge hit.
We solved the wall space problem by putting the track in the upstairs hallway outside his bedroom. I was worried it would get jostled off the wall all the time, and occasionally it does (maybe once or twice a month?), but it hooks right back in really easily. Is this my absolute favorite arrangement? No, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make for my kid at this point. Obviously if you had a playroom or bedroom to put this in, that would be better, but we don't. I was originally planning to just leave the hooks on, and take the track on and off, but it gets played with so much that it's just been up since Christmas.
It's extremely durable under normal amounts of kid play. It stays on the wall beautifully, and stays all snapped together nicely. I've had no complaints from my son (or my husband!) about issues with the track. So far, it's held up really nicely. I did have to talk to my son about how it's held up, and let him know that he can't be rough with it, or allow any of his friends to be rough with it. But so far, no issues there.
The novelty absolutely hasn't worn off yet. There's lots of different ways to configure the track to make the cars do different things, and my son likes to experiment with sending different types of toys through the track as well. He and his friends spend HOURS with this toy, and one of his friends' moms even bought it for her son since he loved the one at our house so much. I think it was definitely my son's favorite Christmas gift, and probably one of his top gifts in several years.
Definitely, DEFINITELY recommend this toy!
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