Big amusement park thrills for your littles

We snagged one of these at a thrift store so most assembly was already done but the go kart did not come with. We have other Smart Wheels vehicles we have used in its place. As awesome as the intended functionality is for this toy, there is a lot of room for frustration. The vehicles go up the ramp via a crank and is sent rolling down the slide down to the catapult. The catapult is released via a lever and the vehicle is up and over to a second slide that has a near vertical bank turn. This is where most of the frustration is born as the vehicles usually fall or flip off the track never to make it to the finish. Maybe the included go kart is designed better to make the curve.
Overall, this is a hit in our household. Our son, 2, still enjoys playing with this set alongside his other Smart Wheels even through the lack of functionality. I’d be lying if I said we didn’t have fun with it as well.

Love love love them

I really like the vtech go go smart car collections. I have bought my son quite a few of them. I like how they all interact with each other and say different things

Awesome

My two year old daughter loves this track. She loves to build things and take them apart and she loves cars. She will literally sit and play with this all day

My daughter loves this

My 1 year old loves this, she’s still trying to figure out everything, but it still entertains her. She especially loves the smart car that comes with it.

Assembly is a nightmare, but fun and well priced

I was really surprised to see how low the price was. Comparing it to other toys of this size and type, it's a really, really fair deal that makes this a 'buy' in my opinion. While there's some room for improvement, the fact that it's not over-priced makes a big difference.

So let's get the really bad stuff out of the way. That would be assembly. This might not be a dealbreaker for everybody, but certainly, you should be aware. While the text of the instructions is clear, the pictures (greyscale and super zoomed in when you need to see a bigger section) and leaflet are just poorly done. It's one of those 'foldable' leaflets where you are always turning it and opening it trying to find the next instruction. You'll need a long thin crosshead screwdriver (not provided) and if you don't have the exact right one, you're going to fit a speed bump right away.

The straightforward truth is that with two people, assembly on this was two hours of straining nightmare. Don't even attempt if you have a bad back. The stickers are also required to be applied by you and while it's not nearly as nightmarish as some (they don't immediately stick and refuse to budge), it takes up a fair bit of the assembly time. The other issue is the size of the toy makes it a bigger job.

That being said, once it's all assembled and works properly it's a riot. The idea is you can take the car up the ramp and then onto the catapult (the most fun part) and then it flies around a little track. The annoying part comes in when it doesn't work as intended. Depending on speed (which there's no way to control) the car often flies past the catapult bit or flips when going down the track. Both of these require picking the car up and placing it again. When it does work and can be done 'all in one' it's so much fun, it makes me wish it worked perfectly every time.

That said, my little testers did have tons of fun with it. I didn't find it too noisy and 'Gavin the Go-Kart' has plenty of sounds and phrases. He's the only part that takes batteries, they come included and he can be turned off if the noise annoys you, those are all big pluses for me. The age states 1-5, but I personally feel 1 is a little young for this toy. It's not designed for different types of cars, but you can use them nonetheless and there's also add-on tracks you can buy.

Overall, it's a good toy and worth the price, but could be improved a little by coming with stickers pre-stuck and more finesse so the track works perfectly everytime. Don't forget to put time aside for assembly!