I look at my boys, 12 and 10 and taller than me, and I wish for those days when they were tow-headed LITTLE boys, instead of these giants sporting the beginnings of facial hair and wanting me to buy them Axe Deodorant. Thanks to Parent Bloggers Network, I once again got a brief glimpse of the little inside my boys, as they put together and played with two new Hot Wheels sets. We had just sold a whole tub of Hot Wheels tracks and cars at our summer garage sale-doesn’t it always work that way, you sell or give something away, then your kids want to play with it again?- but Nathan found some Hot Wheels cars in the playroom. We got the Hot Wheels Trick Tracks Triple Stunt Starter Set (try saying THAT 3 times fast!), and the Hot Wheels Trick Tracks Power Loop Stunt Set (whew!) for this review.

Of the two sets, we actually had the hardest time putting together the Triple Stunt Starter Set. The idea behind these sets is that when it’s put together, there are three places where the cars will do something-go around a loop, jump off an incline, jump over a “fire”. It comes with rubber bands that loop around and pull back the launchers, which are activated by pushing a button. But with this set, no matter what we all tried to do, we couldn’t get the launchers to pull back and stay back. We’ll continue to work on it though, because the boys want to see the whole thing in action. There’s a crane that drops a car, that launches another car, that makes another car go around a loop. One thing though, the track takes up a lot of space, and works best on a flat surface. We set ours up in the hallway where there’s a wood laminate floor. You can connect Hot Wheels sets together and take up as much room as you have; if the boys decide to do that, I’ll have to pull up the rugs in the hallway too.

Ryan had even more fun assembling the Hot Wheels Trick Tracks Power Loop Stunt Set. And interestingly, he had no problem setting up the launchers on this one. He got the idea to clamp the top track to a kitchen chair and stretch it across the kitchen floor, too. Oh, and although I had to promise never EVER to tell his friends, Ryan says he “likes the Power Loop Stunt Set A LOT”. High praise from a 12 year old! This set takes 2 “D” batteries, which fortunately we had on hand. When it’s all set up, dropping a car down the track from the top bumps that car into the middle car which goes around one loop, and then bumps into the third car which goes through TWO loops. It’s kind of loud though, the motor. But fun!

The Triple Loop Starter Set is $21.59 on Amazon.com, and the Power Loop Stunt Set is $19.99 on Amazon. Add a pack of Hot Wheels cars to your order to bring it over $25.00, and you get Free Shipping. Order by Wednesday, Dec. 17th with Free Shipping and you’ll have it by Dec. 24th. Either of these sets, or both, will make a wonderful holiday gift!