Our son loves Handy Manny, tools, and fixing everything that he can so the Handy Manny Fix It Race Car was perfect for him.  I found it at Wal-Mart for roughly $14.

Description

The Handy Manny Fix It Race Car is made up of 5 pieces.  The Race Car pieces are all red so you will end up building a red race car.  There are also 4 black wheels, and 7 plastic gray screws.  There is also a sheet of stickers that you will have to place on the pieces.  This was actually a pain but I will get to that shortly.  All the parts are made of plastic.  There are 3 red pieces that make up the body of the car and a gray wing that goes on the back and an engine looking part that goes on top of the hood.  That is also gray in color.  The gray pieces also look a little like they should be silver in color but not quite. 

When I first opened the package, the car wasn't put together.  I guess that was okay because I had to put on all the stickers.  Along with the Handy Manny Fix It Race Car came a blueprint of the car.  The blueprint is on a blue hard plastic piece.  The blueprint shows how to build the car with illustrations.  Also along with the Race Car is Squeeze.  Squeeze is Handy Manny's pliers.  Squeeze is about 3 inches long and looks kind of silverish with green handles.  Inside Squeeze's "mouth" is a lug nut.  The lug nut is not removable as it is one plastic piece.

Performance/Opinion

The age recommendations are for ages 3 years and older.  I do agree with the recommendation.  The smallest pieces are the screws measuring approximately 2 inches long but the main reason why I agree with the age is because I can see a child younger than 3 years old get frustrated with it.  Our son is almost 4 years old and he hasn't had many problems putting it together himself.  He watched me put it together the first time and then after that, he could do it himself looking at the blueprint.  I love that it came with a blueprint because it makes it easy to figure out how to put it together.  It's like having instructions without having to worry about the paper getting torn up.  The illustrations are very easy to see and make it very simple for my son to figure out himself.  It has also allowed him to pretend even better that he is really "building" something with that blueprint!

Putting it together is really simple.  The biggest part of the car is the bottom piece.  There is a piece that makes up the top of the car where Handy Manny sits to drive it.  That part is attached by placing a screw through the wing and through that piece on the back of the car.  You will be putting on 2 parts at the same time.  It only takes one screw.  The other red piece goes on the front of the car making up the hood of the car.  This is attached by placing one screw into the front of the car where the front bumper would be.  Then you place the engine looking part on the hood and attach that with one screw.  Then all that's left is to screw on all 4 wheels.

You can do all this with Squeeze that comes along with the car.  The lug nut fits over the screws and you can use that to screw them in.  This is easy enough for my son to do but he found that just using his fingers were a little easier because some of the parts, you have to hold in place at the same time.  The screws are usually easy to screw into the holes but every once in a while, you have to play with them to get them started.

The real nightmare with this toy was the stickers.  There aren't any instructions on where the stickers go so I had to look at the box.  The only problem with this is that you only saw the front of the car.  You just have to place them wherever you think they should go.  The windshield and the side windows were pretty easy.  The windshield features Manny behind the driver's wheel with Rusty, Felipe, and Turner beside him.  In the side windows there are Squeeze and Pat, and Dusty and Stretch.  The front bumper, headlights, back bumper and tail lights were also easy to figure out.  There are also stickers that are for the sides of the car and there are lots of other stickers that I just placed wherever like bolts with fire around them (kind of like racing decals).  I ended up with stickers leftover without a place to put them.

Overall, I think this toy is fun.  My son loves it.  He has also put the parts together in his own way too.  I think it's great for learning how to read directions and following through with them.  It also teaches hand-eye coordination and gross motor skills.  It also gave my son a feeling of accomplishment after he put it together all by himself.  He was so proud of it!  I recommend this toy even if your kid doesn't even know who Handy Manny is.

Other Handy Manny Fix-It Sets

Fix-It Boat
Fix-It Nailer and Jet



Submitted in the All Things Disney write-off hosted by carstairs38.       

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 14.00
Type of Toy: Other
Age Range of Child: 3 to 5 Years