Review: Hot Wheels Wall Track System

I posted previously about my sons' first Hot Wheels racetrack, and how it was a hit with them and with me. While looking for it, I searched Amazon for "Hot Wheels track" and was surprised to find wall tracks, something I had not heard of previously. I immediately liked the concept and made a mental note to purchase a starter set for my sons for Christmas.

A promotional photo of a Hot Wheels wall track

The Hunt

Money was very tight for me this holiday season and I put off buying the wall track until the weekend before Christmas. When I went to purchase it online, the starter set I wanted was not available for Amazon's Prime 2-day shipping and so would not have arrived in time for Christmas (it turns out that it was a previous year's model and Amazon proper was sold out so it was only available from Amazon merchants).

I thought I'd check my local Fred Meyer, though I loathe shopping in brick and mortar stores. I found a starter set named Auto Motion Speedway.

The Auto Motion Speedway Starter Set

The problem was that this starter set was much smaller than the one I saw on Amazon. I wanted more modules but had no idea which ones would work for my setup. Fortunately, on the back of the box there was an illustration showing a possible setup.

The suggested setup on the back box of the starter set

I thought this setup looked great. The only problem was that Fred Meyer only had two of the additional four sets that I wanted, Switchback Slider and Power Drop.

Switchback Slider

Power Drop

I drove to the nearest Wal-mart looking for the other two sets, and managed to find one, Spin Slammer.

Spin Slammer

I drove home planning to order the last set I wanted, Swing-Arm Slide, from Amazon. Unfortunately, Amazon showed that shipping would be delayed a couple of days and that it wouldn't arrive in time for Christmas. Getting frazzled by this point, I searched Target.com to see if it was in-stock at the local Target store. Fortunately it was, and I was able to pick it up there.

Swing-Arm Slide

I also bought a small jump set for the end of the track. Any standard Hot Wheels track can be added to wall tracks.

Mega Jump

It was while picking up the last wall track set that I noticed the child in the photo on the back of the boxes, and realized that, once assembled, this track was going to be too high for my 4 year-old twin sons. By this point though, after trolling through three different stores in search of sets, which definitely wasn't my idea of a good time, I was committed to seeing this through.

Assembly

I didn't quite know what to expect in terms of assembly when I opened the boxes. I had read that the sets came with wall templates for mounting, but I didn't know how adjacent sets would be accommodated. I opened the set that would be on the bottom right when finished and started hanging the templates from there.

The templates themselves are pretty clever; the template and track assembly instructions are printed on the same sheet. The template has cutouts for placing the mounting brackets on the wall. One simply hangs the template like a poster, and then places the mounts in the correct positions using the provided wall-safe 3M Command Strips. Plenty of extra Command Strips are provided to allow for fine-tuning of the mounts, which I needed to do a little of.

One note of caution: there are different types of mounts, so follow the instructions on the templates carefully.

The cutouts near the edges were open, indicating that an adjacent template could be overlapped. This worked perfectly except for where the Power Drop set connected, as it required a different type of mounting bracket than the adjacent set. I had to move the Power Drop set over a little to accommodate an additional bracket, which unfortunately put the end of it very close to the wall.

Once all the mounts are positioned, the templates are removed and the track assembled. The track assembly itself was pretty easy, with the starter set being the most challenging. Start to finish took me a little under 3 hours, but I have a horribly bad back and therefore work in low gear with frequent breaks. A healthy person could probably assemble it in half the time.

Parts of each set were left over, being entrance or exit pieces that I didn't use because I connected the sets to others.

Pictures of the assembly follow.

The blank "canvas"

The first template taped to the wall

Detail of the first template (notice the different mounting bracket types shown)

All templates taped to the wall (notice the overlapping mounting bracket areas between the templates)

Brackets mounted to the wall with the included Command Strips

Templates removed

The finished track

The last sequence of photos was inspired by this gag from
a favorite comic strip of mine, Liberty Meadows by Frank Cho

Lessons Learned

After making the agonizing Christmas-time retail crawl through several retail outlets, I wondered if there might have been an easier way to plan what sets I wanted for my setup. It turns out that there indeed is on the Hot Wheels website. There's a tool that allows one to select a "starting track". That set is then shown with "+" symbols at each connection point. Clicking on these plus symbols results in a pop-up menu with different connecting options in the form of additional sets. This tool only shows the current "model year" sets though. Apparently the ones I bought are a little outdated.

The Wall Tracks online tool

Seeing the options for a given connection point

I was a little bummed about the Power Drop set after assembling the track. The Power Drop is short and just runs into the wall, and I thought my sons would never use it and would always opt for the longer lower track. I kicked myself for not saving a little money. Little children think differently than we do though. While one of my boys is starting their car from the top of the track and making the long run, the other will oftentimes play on the little Power Drop stub out. Perfect.

As for the height problem (the track's height is perfect for me, but I'm 5'-11"), I got my sons a two-step step ladder. Now, the manufacturer does not advocate this and neither am I. In my case though, my sons are incredibly well-behaved and always ask me if they can use their track. Also, their track is in a front room. In other words, I keep an eye on them when they're playing with it.

Play

The younger and smaller of my twin sons is rather quiet, but he summed this track up nicely after I showed them how it works. "That's cool!" he exclaimed.

This wall track is rather more of a Rube Goldberg machine than a race track. A car's weight causes the Spin Slammer to lower the car onto the next stretch of track. The loop in the Auto Motion Speedway Starter Set is likewise powered by the weight of a car, though one needs to spin the loop slightly to get it started. The Swing-Arm Slide at the end of the track is our favorite though; it catches the car in a cage and then, as the weight of the car cause the track to pivot down to the one below, the cage spins two full revolutions before dropping the car perfectly on the track below to continue on its way. Brilliant!

I was a little afraid that this track might be a little too complex for my sons, who only turned 4 a couple of months ago, but, once they learned the right speed and direction to spin the loop in the Auto Motion Speedway Starter Set, they took to the track like ducks to water.

Summation

The current total cost on Amazon for the six sets shown in my setup is $119.11.

Grades
Value: A
Assembly: B+
Learning curve: A-
Play: A+

In conclusion, the Hot Wheels wall track system is a hit!