T-Racers Review
THESE ITEMS WERE GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW. ALL THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS ARE THE REVIEWER'S OWN.
Reviewed by Deborah Banasko
I am a mum of three children and like to think I’m well informed on the latest toys, but I have to admit that I’d never heard of T-Racers until I was offered this review. I was asked to try out the T-Racers Turbo Wheel, Turbo Crane and Eagle Jump.
The packaging is really eye-catching and depicts a cartoon mock-up of what’s inside each set, with some added flare of course.
The principal concept is “mix and race”, which allows you to design and build your own cars by mixing, matching and swapping vehicle parts before racing them against oneanother. This idea works when playing alone and racing your own designs against oneanother, but is also great fun when racing against siblings, friends and especially competitive parents. I loved this whole idea instantly.
The turbo wheel blind box contains one full car and character set. There are 8 styles available with the prospect of 500 combinations, although I suspect if this toy takes off they may add more. The box is like a wheel and you roll the top sleeve away to reveal the main box. Now this is the fun part; inside the box are 5 different brightly coloured packages containing a different component (you have to love a suprise unboxing). The packets are also paper rather than plastic which is a bonus. In the packets you have the racer, the front chassis, the cab or cockpit, then the rear chassis plus the 4 wheels. The pieces fit together easily, are strong and there is fantastic attention to detail. Once you have more the one vehicle the fun really starts as you can swop parts around.
The leaflet inside details the names of each unique part. For example, as well as each racer having a name, the individual designs of each front chassis also have a name such as formula freeze, thunder shock or epic impact. As a result you can really get creative in your games as we do, and relate the names to an appropriate special power or skill such as the ability to freeze your oponent and so on. This applies to all of the car parts so it makes for quite an indepth game beyond just standard racing, and you could even exchange car parts mid-race during your pit-stop.
What I also love is that the racers are placed into teams, there being three teams altogether plus the ultra rare character X-Racer as a stand alone, and apparently he’s the racer to beat. This just adds another element to game play whether it be playing teams against oneanother on your own or in race battles with friends.
On the leaflet it mentions that you can follow the racers and discover their special powers on youtube, so of course we had a look. We found some short episodes of less than two minutes each, showing each racers and their cars special powers so they are worth a look to help ignite those imaginations.
Now for the Eagle Jump playset. Again lots of little packages, four this time with the same Eagle Jump designs on the packets. The ramp and launcher are already revealed in the box as that is not part of the suprise. In the packs are the exclusive car and racer, as well as the cactus zone scenario.
The jump is easy to set up, and the plastic is pretty sturdy. The principal aim is to attempt to complete the jump challenge by loading the racer against the launcher, hitting the button and sending the car up the ramp and over the cactus zone without getting prickled! This was great fun for my three year old as he had three cars to compete against one another. Once we mastered it, but we built onto the idea by using some home track to create a race with this play-set as an obstacle part way along, plus we also used other items in place of the cacti to launch the racer over and into so there is scope to expand.
The Turbo Crane is similar to the Eagle Jump set up, in that the crane sections lay exposed inside the box and this time there are three suprise packs. You receive another exclusive car and driver, an engine for the crane, plus a fence and three barrels. The crane can be used to pick up the barrels, and can be operated to move side to side as you can attempt to shoot the car through the centre of crane to knock the lever and send the engine flying into the air (I’m assuming to disable the crane). This is a little harder to master than the ramp, and has scope for additional play as you must defeat the crazy crane.
Looking at value for money, I feel that the individual racers are great value as you are paying for the element of suprise, the attention to detail with the names and various designs, the “gimic” element of mixing cars plus the vehicle itself.
For the two sets, I am torn over whether I feel £16.99 is a little high given that a racer and vehicle alone are £6.99. However if you look at them as a complete package, set up with some track at home or anything that you can make yourself such as a line of blocks, plastic drainpipe, ramps etc you can create some amazing race courses with the two playset obstacles to really enjoy the vehicles, as well as having the racers for some character role play. I must add that I am so pleased that the playsets have exclusive vehicles, unlike many of the playsets we have at home.
The age range appears to be stated as 3-8 years, and I am inclined to agree although 8 may be a slight stretch.
I would like to perhaps see a set that some actual track or loops to race around, specific to the vehicle sizes. This may be in the pipeline already, but I would certainly buy a kit like that and would love to build on the sets that we have.
What I especially like is that the possibilties are endless; yes, you only need two or three of the small sets to be able to create a good amount of game play, but equally if your child really loves the toy it can become a good collection item for birthdays and Christmas. The turbo wheel set is priced at £6.99 so this would be a great pocket money buy or reward, plus it’s also a great price point for a present for a school friend on their birthday.
I would award these sets 4.5 stars out of 5. They are so fun and exciting to unbox, and give parents of car loving kids something unique to add to their birthday or Christmas list.
Rating: 4.5/5
RRP: Turbo Wheel £6.99
Turbo Crane £16.99
Eagle Jump £16.99