By: Todd Wheatley
(c) IQ-2k   05-06-21

HOT-WHEELS
(aka.Tracks & Cars - as my 4yr.old grandson says)

Inexpensive and fun? Yes and no on both accounts. The cars and straight sections of track are amazingly cheap. Other individual items are nonexistent or very costly. A single high-speed curve, for example, costs $10 to $15. The less expensive curved track is flat and causes the cars to either jump off or arrests vehicle momentum. Such a basic design flaw makes you wonder how this toy has lasted almost 60 years.

More importantly the toy company has abandoned creative play for pure profit. Instead of improvements to track design or individual components, complete sets were sold. Unlike the ORIGINAL set of basic components, the new sets have elaborate designs and are often tied to a Hollywood production. These sets are so complete ... its no imagination needed. Even worse, the set construction time likely exceeds the play time. Then there's the problem of clutter versus disassembly.

Just use it once and throw it away. And why not? It's not the job of a toy company to guide the play children. They are simply following the highly profitable strategy of planned obsolescence ... Think about it ... Why engage a child for days, months, or years when you can design flashy fad items that quickly lose their appeal and need to be replaced?

Just like the trend from LEGOs, the separate Hot Wheels sets have their own color coordination and lack the ability to interconnect. So without considering product value the disinterested affluent provide their children and grandchildren with these temporary distractions. No matter how quickly they are discarded.

Unfortunately the less affluent may find Hot Wheels a more challenging prospect for play time since items may quickly lose their appeal. The same problem exists for parents and grandparents that want children to be vested in play time and provide toys that retain value over an extended period. So despite the evidence presented so far, Hot Wheels (aka. tracks & cars) offers many benefits to a child's play time. Track assembly, for example, offers manual dexterity and creativity. Children also learn problem solving, quality control, and the principles of mass and momentum. Older children may get a bit of engineering practice as they build more complex tracks.

As a fan of the "old school" Hot Wheels, this section has been included on my website to help parents, grandparents, and others guide "tracks & cars" playtime for younger children (age 3 to 6). Older children won't need the same guidance, but this is more about spending quality time with kids. At the very least it's about putting thought into kids having real fun. Obviously kids have a certain preference and can be easily manipulated through marketing. Yet they lack the experience to evaluate "fun value" ... how much "bang for the buck". Therefore it's the role of the parents and grandparents to actively engage the play time of children.

Such active engagement comes naturally to some. For me this came about after some inaccurate information lead to purchasing "tracks and cars" way before my grandson was ready. Initially suspecting that was the case, I discussed the issue of toy cars with his mother. Despite my reluctance, my oldest step daughter assured me that little Remy already played with Hot Wheels. While he was excited to get the cars, he had no idea what the track was for. Obviously it was way too soon. The gift was not age appropriate. So I kept the set and made several attempts to see if he could assemble the track himself.

I put the set in the closet that summer when he was away. There it sat. Waiting ... waiting for who knows what. A year and a half later out of the clear blue sky Little Remy asked, "Can we play Tracks & Cars?". Now when he asks ... I get the set and we play together. At four and a half he still isn't ready to create his own track configurations and he still tends to throw the cars when he is finished playing. More recently there has been a change. During our last track time it was obvious he was more interested in playing "make believe" than watching the motorized boosters zip the cars around the track. It was the just kind of involved play I was hoping for: active & engaged - not just amusement or distraction.

While that kind of play comes naturally to children it's harder for adults. So forethought and effort will be required. Active engagement to help guide play time. Since adults understand "role play" the use of a DIORAMA can bridge the age gap. It can create a scenario to play "make believe".

Before the era of molded plastic toys, DIORAMAs were a staple for model railroading. The early forerunner of HOT WHEELS. Now thanks to youtube, some Hot Wheels DIORAMAs have been indexed on the DR-KNOW.BIZ website to provide a starting point. Given my busy schedule I'm hoping a couple of simple parking lots and a small garage (DIORAMA) will create the right atmosphere for creative play with my very young grandson.

Hot Wheels - DIORAMA (tiktok)

mobile phone viewing may require a separate window when videos fail to load properly. It should also be noted that non-TikTok loaded videos have up to 3 seconds of an adjacent non-related video lead


(edited 01-30-23, 05-14-21)
(c) 2021    DR-KNOW
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