Pretty Cool Police Car
Written: Apr 07 '03
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Pros: Cool Sound Effects; 3 Figures Can Ride; 2 places for talking figures
Cons: The launching handcuff is really difficult to work; Doesn't come with figures
The Bottom Line: It's a cool toy and my son is happy to own it, but there are definitely some drawbacks here that should be considered.
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| neosmom's Full Review: Fisher-Price Voice Tech Rescue Heroes Police |
My son has had the Rescue Heroes Voice Tech Police Car for about two months now. He's just about to turn 3 years old. This toy gets lots and lots of playtime and I'm sure that my son would give it a five star rating.
This is a fairly large vehicle. It's approximately 15" long and 12" wide. It's blue with black and white accents and lots of stickers. Of course, since it's Fisher Price, Mom and Dad have to apply the stickers. To be honest, this vehicle wasn't terrible to work with. It took me about 15 minutes to apply them all and I'm extremely meticulous. I also had to snap the wheels in place on the bottom. That's a bit scary with all of the Rescue Hero vehicles that require assembly. It takes so much force that I'm always afraid I'll break something. Of course I didn't. Also, the car requires 3 AA batteries which you will need a Phillips head screw driver to change. Thankfully there is an on/off switch on the bottom of the car.
The main compartment of the vehicle holds two figures. A Y-shaped plastic top lifts up and the figures can be set down in the car. Each Rescue Hero has a sort of rectangular "hook" on their back. In the seats of the car are openings that these "hooks" slide into to hold the figure in place. If you use a Voice Tech Rescue Hero figure with the car, this is how they talk through the car. It can be a bit tedious placing the heroes properly in their seats, although it only took my son a couple weeks to catch on. He still brings me an occasional figure asking for help because he can't get them seated just right.
On the back end of the car is a compartment where a figure can ride along while standing up. A blue safety rail type device lifts up and then closes back down. The figure stands between this rail and the flashing lights for the car. Personally, I have found that it is much easier to place the figure in and take them out of this area without moving the safety rail. But, it does make a cool sound if you decide to move it.
On the front end of the car is a large (3"x2") handcuff. It has a yellow stick attachment that goes into the car where it is supposed to snap in place and then launch out. Attached to the yellow component is a fairly sturdy string that runs through the car and appears in the back where a license plate would be and it has a plastic key attached to the end. So, you snap the handcuff in place. Press the blue button on the hood of the car and the handcuff launches out. When it is snapped in place, it is open. As it launches out, it closes - ideally around something. The key at the other end of the string prevents it from coming out of the car. Once the handcuff has grabbed onto whatever it is trying to catch, you pull on the plastic key to "reel it back in" and supposedly snap the handcuff back into place.
Well, there are a couple of problems with this whole concept. 1) The handcuff doesn't snap into place easily. And the longer we've owned the toy, the harder it gets. It's impossible to pull the string and cause it to snap in place that way. You need to actually use your other hand to grab hold of the handcuff and push it into place. I even called Fisher Price about this particular problem and was told that it was standard and just a "poor design". I'll agree with that. 2) It is designed with two sides. The top is solid gray plastic that looks nice. The underside is hollowed out and ugly. We can only get it to snap into place with the ugly side up. 3) Good luck catching something with this handcuff. The commercials show old paper towel rolls being caught. I want to know how many hundreds of times that thing was launched before the kid managed to catch it just right. There is no control, so it's almost impossible to catch onto something.
The car does make lots of cool sounds. Just pushing it along the floor causes it to make sounds like it is peeling out. When you raise or lower the safety rail in back it makes a metallic sound like something clamping down and locking into place. There are two buttons on top of the car between the seated space for figures and the standing figure. They are stationed between the red lights. One is sounds and if you press that button you get a variety of siren sounds and the lights flash. The other button is for the Voice Tech figures. If your figures are seated properly, when you push this button they will talk to each other. Of course they say whichever inane statements they are programmed with, so it's not much of a conversation. I've got Rocky Canyon and Wendy Waters seated in the car right now and they are saying: Wendy - "I read you. I'm on the way. Over." Rocky - "Right. Copy that. We're on our way. Over." Wendy - "Roger that. Inbound for rescue. Over." Rocky - "I hear you sir. Roger." Well, you get the idea. Not exactly philosophy. :-) But my son does seem to enjoy it.
I will also warn you that as of this writing, there is a limited number of Voice Tech figures available. I can only think of eight and only one of those is a police officer. (There are also FDNY Voice Tech figures, but those really need to be mentioned in a completely separate review.) The police car can be used with any figures. It doesn't just have to be Voice Tech. The others just won't talk.
My overall rating of this car would be excellent if it weren't for the launching handcuff.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 24.99
Type of Toy: Action Figure
Age Range of Child: 3 to 5 Years
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Epinions.com ID:
neosmom
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Location: Orlando, FL
Reviews written: 11
Trusted by: 0 members
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