Tag: hot wheels

Hot Wheels Friction Car Review

Hot Wheels Friction Car Review

Posted on by Rebecca

A few weeks ago we were sent some Hot Wheels Friction cars to test out and review. The boys have been avid hot wheels fanatics since the day they learnt they could push a car and we have gotten creative in a number of ways with our smaller die cast toys. I’ll be honest though, as they get older, they are leaning more towards bigger cars and cars with “special features” so I jumped at the chance when I heard about these.

The Hot Wheels Friction Car features light effects, realistic sounds and all of the quality you would expect from a brand such as Hot Wheels. In comes in an assortment of 3 different colours and takes 3xAG13 batteries. There is always something so magical about Hot Wheel cars.

So what did we think?

I love that Hot Wheels are creating bigger cars and are diversifying more than the traditional “die cast collectables” and race tracks. The cars have an awesome friction system that moves by pressing it down and back. The boys had a blast racing each other along the corridors and the cars even do a cool “drift” thing and turn around. According to Yusuf, he likes the sound the best and according to Aadam, he likes the “speed and lights”. In terms of age range, they would be perfectly suited for 3-4 year olds. The features are basic enough for younger kids to play with. They are incredibly hardy and wont break easily, trust me, my boys tested them against the walls and stairs!

What’s in the box?
1 x Hot Wheels friction car with lights and sound.

We also got sent a Hot Wheels – Friction Asst. This doesn’t require any batteries and is a super entry level basic friction car. It comes in 4 assorted designs, rubber wheels and a friction feature. My little one loved driving this through the sand, and because there are no batteries this one can safely be dragged through mud and water without any concern.

Price and where to buy:

These Hot Wheels are avaliable from Takealot.com, Laceys, Toys R Us and most leading retailers.

Hot Wheels Friction Car with Lights and Sound (15cm) //RSP: R120

Hot Wheels Fast machine Friction  //RSP: R400

Hot Wheels Friction Car with Lights and Sound (25CM)// RSP R230

Playing with cars isn’t just for “fun” and there are several important lessons to learn, including cause and effect, physics and friction. Not to mention a little healthy competition with racing 🙂 So if you are still looking for a Christmas present for your 3 to 6 year old car fanatic; these Hot Wheels are a pretty awesome option.

Disclaimer – We were sent these toys to review, but all opinions are my own.

Lets get creative {Win a Hot Wheels Hamper worth over R1500}

Lets get creative {Win a Hot Wheels Hamper worth over R1500}

Posted on by Rebecca

Hip Hip Hooraaah ! For most of our kids it’s the first day of the Easter Break, mums’ are worried about what to do with their kids and how to keep them “entertained” for the holidays, I’m here to get your creative juices flowing.

With most children, toys are typically obsessed over for the first week and then thrown into a toy container and “forgotten about”. As parents we should try and re-ignite the imagination, show them different things to do with the toy, different ways to play. Imaginative play allows their minds to develop and think “out of the box” (excuse the pun).

My boys love to play with toy cars, trucks, buses, trains, diggers…. you get the idea. Toy cars can be played with independently, but children also love to race each other! It lets them learn about friendly competition and teaches them negotiation. They learn about cause and effect, what happens if the push or drop the cars from different heights. I love encouraging my boys them to test boundaries and to discover “what if”.

Its no secret I love creating things for the boys, we do this together and they often step in to give me “grand designs” or help with the painting. We love creating things to play with our cars in different ways.

Here’s a few things we have made recently:

A Mini “city” out of an old takealot box, complete with tunnels to drive through.

A parking garage made with crates and PVC piping.

An Outdoor/offroad track driving through “mud” and “rainforests”. This was possibly the biggest hit. Boys and Dirt? Always a winner.

A race track “ramp”, made with cardboard boxes.

A race car slide/ramp made with pool noodles cut in half

So heres the exciting part:

This Easter break I challenge all parents to get creative with their kids and their Hot Wheels®. By sharing your creation you stand a chance of winning a Hot Wheels Hamper worth over R1500

Heres the challenge:

  1. Create a unique way to play with your Hot Wheels Cars. I’m giving you free reign, you can use whatever you want, however you want. Cardboard, metal, real toy tracks, pretend toy tracks, mud, water…whatever your imagination allows.
  2. Post a pic of your creativity and Tag me (across Facebook or Instagram) as well as the Hot Wheels South Africa facebook page using the following : #hotwheels #hotwheelsSA #challengeaccepted
  3. Make sure you like the Hot Wheels SA Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/hotwheels/
  4. Share your creation and tag and challenge a friend to try and top your masterpiece!

By sharing your creations you are not only spending time with your children but are encouraging others to get creative. So start your engines and lets get creative !!

T’s+C’s:

Winners must reside in South Africa.

Competition closes on April 8th at midnight.

Hot Wheels® hamper includes:

Various Hot Wheels® Car packs

Hot Wheels® Track Set

Hot Wheels® Track Builder™ Accessory Pack Assortment

DIY storage solution for Hot Wheels cars

DIY storage solution for Hot Wheels cars

Posted on by Rebecca

Any mom of boys will relate to the frustration of finding little “Hot Wheels” or dinky cars lying about absolutely everywhere. Pick any one of my handbags and I can guarantee you will find a car of some sort in it. I find them everywhere, in my car, my bed side drawer, my under wear cupboard. We have dozens of the, yet at the same time, because they are all scattered everywhere you can never find them !

Hot Wheels® vehicles have been an ongoing favorite of collectors, car enthusiasts and racing fans of all ages. The brand is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, remains the number one selling toy brand in the world with more than 5 billion Hot Wheels® cars produced and 2 cars sold every second! I can officially say I have contributed to a large share of that with my boys 🙂

Typically I hold their toys and cars in your standard large plastic storage boxes from a Plastic Land but I absolutely hate digging to find the smaller cars in amongst the sea of other toys. I have been wanting to create a storage solution for their cars for a while. Naturally on google, there are endless storage solutions for these little matchbox sized cars. I loved some of the book shelf styled ones, where the cars are displayed up on the wall, but i wanted something slightly more interactive. I was particularly drawn to the one created by Frugal Fun for boys as it doubles up as a “play station” as well as a storage solution. It’s also darn easy to make.

You can make it out of three things:

Toilet paper rolls, mailing tubes or PVC piping as I did.

Initially I started off collecting the toilet roll inners but along the way i decided i wanted something a little more sturdy. I headed off to my nearest Mica and got 3 metres of PVC piping cut up for me it about 10cm sections. It literally cost me all of about R50 !

Using an old crate that I already had, I positioned the pipe pieces into the crate. If your crate is to deep for your pipe pieces you could easily attach a backing board into it to ensure the pipes all come out level and the cars don’t fall out the back.

I washed and lightly smoothed out the pipes with a soft sand paper (there were a few rough edges) and glued the pipes into the crate. I then made a super quick sign out of cardboard and nailed it into the top of the crate.

 

The entire project took me less than 20 minutes, to add in a little extra storage, we all know I am always extra, i glued a magnetic strip down the side of the crate. I had read somewhere that some hot wheels (with the metal bottoms) could stick to magnets. This didn’t work however so i cut small strips of magnetic tape and glued that to the bottom of some of the cars so they could stick to the strip, to increase the storage space.

 

 

Et Voila ! A super easy storage solution of all of your Hot Wheels ! Do you see the magnetic strip down the side? I love that part 🙂 Now i could really get fancy and spray paint it black and silver i guess, but lets me honest, “ain’t no body got time for that” 🙂