NonToxicReviews » Article » Hot Wheels Monster Trucks

September 15th, 2010 by Stinkhead

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My son and I went with some friends to the county fair a few weeks ago for their Monster Truck exhibition. I had never seen a monster truck show before, and neither had my three year old. We fell in love (see the video below). It was a ton of fun, and we’ve been playing with Hot Wheels’ Monster Jam Monster Trucks ever since. Check out the trucks and playset we picked up.

A few days after talking about the monster truck show, I stopped by Toys R Us to see what they had in store. I decided I had wanted a monster truck that was in scale to other Hot Wheels. We’re not quite at the full-blown Hot Wheels stage yet, but I wanted plenty of cars available later for it to run over. They have several different scales, but I went with this Monster Jam size, which is basically a Hot Wheels’ truck body on monster sized tires.

Flipping through the trucks on the pegs, I came across Storm Damage, he was at the show we saw, and was even locally owned! I had to grab it. The paint job is a lot different (I believe Storm Damage is sporting his all new 2010 paint job in our video) My son started playing with it instantly. We ran over all kinds of toys and would make him flip over on his side (just like in the video). I like how the axles are attached to the body with a slot that allows it to slide up and down. This gives the impression of some mighty shocks.

Pretty soon we had a gift card to Target we had to burn, and we found the Monster Jam Duel set for $15. This set comes with an exclusive Grave Digger, and a track that is 2 feet long! The whole thing folds up to about 13″ tall, and under 3″ wide. You can hang up to six trucks on the one side with the included slots, however if you grab some of the single trucks that come with hooks, you can attach up to six more trucks on the sides. The track quickly unfolds and sets up.
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At the top of the track is a starting tray where you rest the back wheels of two monster trucks. Lift the tray and send the trucks tumbling down the path. There is a strong barrier between them to keep them on their own sides, but plenty of obstacles on the way down from discarded tires, crushed cars and piles of rocks. These obstacles add a lot of bouncy fun, and you’re sure to get some wheelies and wipe outs with almost every race. I love the crushed cars. “That’s Mommy’s car!” my son points out.

We’ve been having a blast racing the cars down the ramp. It seemed neither truck really had an advantage, they won or flipped over an almost equal number of times. But then we tried different layouts (at my son’s direction). We easily disconnected the two ramp portions from the rack and laid it flat for running the cars back and forth on our own. My son also liked to set it up like a tee-pee and have the trucks climb and descend and go through the tunnel it created.

I love how it packs up pretty neatly and stores a bunch of trucks. My only complaints are with the stability. Maybe it’s the carpet we’re typically on, but the supporting joints don’t lock into place enough and it toppled over quite a bit (well, typical for a 3 year old playing with it) but I feel like it could have been a bit more sturdy. It all clips together or sets back up pretty easy, easy enough for my son to do on his own.

The individual trucks cost $3.50 at places like Toys R Us and Target, and the Monster Jam Duel track was $15 and comes with an exclusive Grave Digger. There are plenty of trucks based on actual monster trucks, in addition to what appear to be some trucks from the creative minds at Hot Wheels. These are a lot of fun and don’t require batteries or make a mess.