Functional? No! Fun? So!
Written: Dec 26 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Little boys love it. Durability. Battery life. Availability of accessories.
Cons: Cars may get banged up on off-track excursions. Will frustrate adults and perfectionist kids.
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| driver4t5's Full Review: Hot Wheels - Scorcher Chamber |
One rite of passage as adults is a better grasp of the fine details as well as an awareness of what is and what is not feasible. Lost in the distance, however, is the rush of imagination and excitement. Where we once looked for FUN, we now look for FUNCTIONAL. The latter is great when searching for a house or a car, but is a less important quantity when it comes to entertaining children. I got a re-education into the psyche of a 5-year-old with the Hot Wheels Scorcher Chamber.
The aforementioned 5-year-old, Kyle, currently has more cars than General Motors. Such details didn't deter him from wanting this set as well as the Hot Wheels Tornado Twister set. The allure for him was the fast action and the lighted car.
The set consists of a loop of classic Hot Wheels track and a transparent, cylindrical plastic apparatus whose ingress is at the bottom and egress is on top. A powered X-V Hot Wheels car enters the cylinder and works its way up the cylinder to the exit, where it makes the run of the track and returns to the cylinder. One car and charger is also included, as well as supporting apparatus such as tresles.
The charger requires just two AA batteries. The X-V car (which can also be purchased separately) is placed inside and in a matter of only ten seconds gets enough juice to run for about 30-45 seconds, during which time it can make 5 to 6 circuits of the track. The car has bright red headlights and the track glows in the dark, which makes for a pretty neat display in the dark. More than one car can be placed on the track which adds to the speeding, streaking light show.
The preceding two paragraphs are the theory. Here's how the set operates in practice...i.e. functionally.
The car gets so juiced up that often it misses the exit ramp and spectacularly sails out of the plastic cylinder and into the next county. The car behaves a little better when it loses some edge and might make two or three circuits of the track and vortex. The next attempt up the vortex is usually met with a resounding, harrowing head-on collision with the lower edge of the exit ramp followed by a 50-foot (in scale, that is) drop to the bottom of the tube. No medical help is available as Hot Wheels does not manufacture an X-V ambulance nor are emergency personnel available in the kit. One day a trial lawyer will make a toy killing.
Functionally, therefore, the toy is a flop since the car as often as not crashes into oblivion.
Is Kyle therefore disappointed? Hell no! He LOVES this set! And so I explain where the fun begins...
Part of the game for him is spending the ten seconds gassing up his car. The car makes a high pitched but entertaining sound while it's running. He then unleashes his beast upon the track and anticipates whether the car will survive the cylinder intact. If it comes back, he wins. If it launches into a low-altitude orbit of Earth...he also wins! When it meets the harsh wall of the exit with a force that would slice normal cars in half...he's still a winner. What gives?
Regardless of the outcome, he's treated to a surreal light show courtesy of the headlights and glowing track. Secondly, crashes and smashes are infinitely entertaining to little boys of all ages and sexes. So many successful toys have been created with the intent of destruction. How many of you remember Battling Tops? How about SSP Smash-Up-Derby sets? Scorcher Chamber brings on the same theme of carnage and havoc, even though it was likely inadvertant.
The bottom line is even if a toy isn't what it should be FUNCTIONALLY, it can STILL be FUN.
Kyle loves this and plays with it often. He got it as an early Christmas gift and has had mucho good times. The set itself seems pretty durable and battery life is good. I'd say it's his third favorite gift this year (behind a Nylint Truck/Sailboat combination and an angelfish Beanie Baby).
If a toy functionally sucks yet gets a lot of play, how does one rate it? I have to go with Kyle on this. It's a hit. Only perfectionist children will hate it. The rest...rev 'it up and go!
Recommended:
Yes
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driver4t5
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Member: Jon Harney
Location: Lake Mary, FL
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2000 - 2001 Epinions Fixture...Now living off of my Eroyalties Millions
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