Hot Wheels has been a staple brand for many families since the 60's, and continues to produce creative race track sets and dinky cars. The Hot Wheels Ultimate Garage is one of their latest play sets and is their largest garage set ever made! It is a little boy's (or girl's) dream!
The Hot Wheels Ultimate Garage is geared for ages 5-10 years, but personally, I think many kids 3+ would enjoy this just as much. In addition to the garage itself, the set includes 5 Hot Wheels dinky cars and 1 rescue helicopter. The garage has 36 parking spots spread out over 4 separate parking levels. Within the garage are several mini activity centres such as a fire hall, a gas station and a tune up shop which feature coordinated lights and sounds to enhance play. There are other smaller, more basic centres throughout the play set such as a restaurant and other places to cruise around.
The helicopter has a helipad to land on, which also has lights and sounds to compliment use. The helicopter has a rescue mechanism underneath for it to pick up and move the dinky cars around the playset or wherever your little one's heart desires. There are 2 working manual elevators on each side of the structure to move cars up and down each level, which is great if you have more than 1 player.
There are a number of entry/exit points on this play set, and 2 tall race track ramps. 1 is a side by side dual race track where a pop up sign will show who the true winner is. The other is a spiral ramp allowing you to race your car down from the fourth parking level and challenges you to beat getting bitten by the shark at the bottom. Will you be fast enough?
This play set is assembled in typical Hot Wheels fashion, by clicking and snapping track and pieces together. It is easily assembled, but it will take you some time due to its size and various components. Besides the obvious, one of the best things about this play set, is that you can connect your existing Hot Wheels tracks to this one, and expand the garage even more! You could end up having an entire Hot Wheels community if you had a couple of other track sets to attach! For a demonstration on how this set is assembled, you can visit this Hot Wheels link on YouTube.
The Hot Wheels Ultimate Garage is quite large in size and takes up a fair amount of floor space. They don't call it "ultimate" for nothing! It's an ideal toy for siblings to share, or to play alongside a friend or two. The size of it allows one or multiple players to get the most out of this play set, practically guaranteeing hours upon hours of play. As always, I love toys that promote creativity, free of electronic devices and this one definitely does that. You could play simply with what is included in the set, and/or use your imagination to create all sorts of additional scenarios. It comes with an on/off button and can double as a storage place for 36 cars in the parking spaces and more in and around the base of the structure. It's also a fabulous starter kit given that it comes with 5 Hot Wheels cars and a helicopter!
The Hot Wheels Ultimate Garage requires 3 AA batteries which are sold separately, and you will need a Phillips screwdriver to gain access and to secure the battery compartment. If you plan on storing this play set in its assembled state, it may pose a challenge due to its size. The box that it comes in is huge and comparable to the size of some flat screen TV boxes. You will have to get creative in wrapping the box if you don't want to use up a whole roll of wrapping paper.
The Hot Wheels Ultimate Garage retails for approximately $149CAN/$100USD. Prices will vary from store to store. As always, I recommend using holiday sales and/or price matching to your full advantage to get the best price possible. While this play set is a bit pricey, it is like no other. Especially so given the fact that you can re-purpose existing Hot Wheels track sets by attaching them to this Ultimate Garage. When you factor in the going rate for things like video games, it's not all that much more and fosters imaginative play without using a device.
All in all, I think this is a hit!
This play set could very well be the ultimate gift this Christmas!
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item and/or activity is safe and suitable for your specific needs. InfoMommy
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