My First Scalextric Set

I remember as a kid my dad getting this super impressive Scalextric set out of the loft for my brother and I to play with. We used to love it and my dad loved that we were enjoying playing with a toy he used to like when he was younger. We were probably nearer the age of 10 when we played with it so we weren’t that young and it never occurred to me that Reid might like to play with something like that with him only just coming up 4. It seemed like more of a grown up kid toy that was possibly even a bit too dangerous for younger kids to play with.

I was offered the opportunity to try out a Scalextric set, but this one was actually aimed at much younger children. It was called ‘My First Scalextric Set’ (£39.99) from Scalextric.com who do sets for all ages! Obviously I jumped at the chance to try it out with my son and was really excited to play with it (total big kid). However, although I was excited I also wondered how much it would actually appeal to him as he doesn’t actually play with cars much and is more in to action figures. So there was a slight worry that he would play with it once and then get bored.

When it arrived the box looked really exciting and was brightly coloured. I actually didn’t get chance to open it up the day it arrived and tried to hide it out of sight of Reid since I didn’t have time to play with it. Once he had gone to bed I put it out in the hallway ready to play with it the following day. I just remember being woken up with an excited little boy whispering (very loudly) ‘mummy come and play with the cars downstairs’. He had already been downstairs and spotted it whilst I was still in bed and daddy said you need to wait to play it with mummy. So he did the only logical thing in that situation, rushed upstairs and woke mummy up.

When I opened up the box it all looked pretty self explanatory and looked easy to set up. So typical me I didn’t read any instructions or really pay much attention and started building the track. This appeared to go well and then connecting up the remotes and plugging it all in was pretty easy, I placed the cars on the track and gave the trigger a squeeze. The car moved a bit but then it stopped straight away and I couldn’t work it out. After a quick scope of the track I noticed that there were arrows on there and I had some facing forward and then some facing the opposite way which obviously didn’t make sense. So I pulled it apart and reconnected it so all the arrows were facing the same way.

I told Reid to try his car as I had sorted all the track out and everything looked right. His car set off and went most of the way round the track before it stopped. So we tried it again and it stopped in the exact same spot. I had another look at that bit of the track and noticed the smallest gap between the two connecting pieces. So I spent time making sure the whole track was properly pushed together. It can be quite easy to miss if the pieces aren’t quite perfectly together. So you need to make sure they are all fixed together well. Plus it’s probably best you actually read the instruction booklet and look at everything properly as really, it’s such an easy thing to put together if you don’t do what I did..

The track was all set up properly and we were raring to go. We had our cars ready to race and little guy had to be red so I got the honour of having the yellow car. We pressed the trigger as far down as we could and our cars went flying round the track and on the second bend went flying off which Reid thought was hilarious. I showed him how to press the trigger so his car went fast but not so fast it went flying off the track and he quite quickly got the hang of it. He absolutely loved it and he especially loved it when mummy’s car went flying off and crashed and his car ‘won’. Which funnily enough was pretty much every time!

The Verdict…

The video below actually says it all! Reid absolutely loved playing with the scalextric set. So much so that he played with it all day and made me play it with him for hours until daddy got home and could take over. It is still currently set up in the lounge as he keeps going and randomly playing with it and always has to demonstrate it when anyone comes to the house. It is a simply brilliant toy for a child of his age! The fact that the cars go really quite fast and he controls the speed is what is so exciting for him. Most toys his age are a lot more babyish and cars for example tend to be a lot slower. I think that is why it was so exciting for him as they go so fast and they can crash and in his eyes probably seems quite dangerous (typical for a kid of his age).

Would I recommend this toy to anyone? Yes I certainly would. It can be played by just one child or two children could play it together so could be a nice toy for siblings to play together. It is also a nice change as a parent from the usual toddler toys he plays with and is a bit more fun for us adults to play with so that is what I love about it! I can see us upgrading to a more advanced one when he grows out of that one and it will definitely be a set I keep in the loft for any future children and a a kind of keepsake (so I think that says it all if it will make the cut for the loft!). It’s a keeper!

Did anyone else play with scalextric sets when they were younger or with their kids now? Let me know if you would love this for your kids (or yourself!).