Customer Reviews

KidKraft Deluxe Garage Set

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

While there are other "car ramps" out there on the market, nothing compares to the old matchbox & hotwheels ramps of the 70's & 80's. Until now that is. The KidKraft Deluxe Garage set is everything I had hoped for when I bought it for my 2 1/2 year old twins. The craftsmanship is great, the details are excellent & the overall value for what your getting is worth it. I put this together last night (getting ready for Christmas) and was very happy with the overall quality construction and the ease of putting it together. It took me about an hour to complete and the directions were perfect and easy to follow. This set comes with it's own wooden cars (similar to the cars & trucks used on Thomas Train sets) but it will accept & work with Matchbox & Hot Wheels cars as well. I would highly recommend this item.

I ordered this product for our 2 and 1/2 year old as his "big" Christmas gift this year. Because I had ordered other KidKraft products in the past and was pleased with their quality, I did not open the box to assemble the garage until Christmas Eve. When I did, I was completely disappointed. The two-story ramp - the main reason I purchased this toy - does not work. The cars (both the little wooden ones that come with the set and Matchbox cars) either roll on their side and stop 1/2 way down or shoot off the ramp 1/2 way down. (The ramp needs a higher wall to stop the cars from shooting off). All in all, 2 out of every 10 cars made it down the entire ramp. Additionally, the car wash is so narrow that only the little wooden cars that come with the set can fit through it. Matchbox cars do not fit through. Similarly, the elevator is designed only to fit the little wooden cars that come with the set. Though some of the mini Matchbox cars can get in it, most normal sized Matchbox cars can't. Some of the reviews I had seen indicated that this toy could be played with both with the KidKraft wooden cars and Matchbox cars. I did not find that to be true. The set is designed only for the wooden cars which, in my opinion, are lame - as they roll on their side and are not capable of going very fast. As a parent trying to create special Christmas memories for my sons, I was crushed - as I was hoping for so much more out of this toy. My fears came true on Christmas morning when my sweet 2 and 1/2 year old cried in frustration every time the ramp failed to work (again 95% of the time). I do not understand how this toy made it out of KidKraft's product testing department. I am so disappointed and angry that this toy ruined a part of my child's Christmas. I can only hope KidKraft's customer service department can do something to help. So far, however, they are unimpressive - as I was asked to leave a message for a customer service representative and have yet to receive a return call. I highly recommend you purchase another garage for your child.

Extremely well constructed. It took my husband and I about 2 hours to put this garage together, but well worth that time. Everything is put together with screws. What I like most about this garage is that it is one of the few garages that you can start a car down the ramp from the top and if will continue to go down each ramp until it gets to the bottom. Most other garages go down one ramp and the child must push the car through the garage to down a second ramp. I would highly recommend this garage to anyone. FIVE STARS!!!!!!!!!!! Janna from Virginia

So, yes, there is some time involved in putting this together, however, the directions are clear and accurate. If you are not handy with a screwdriver and have no patience, then this is not for you - or pay someone to put it together. Having said that, the reason it takes awhile to put together, is because once it is put together, it is solid and once it is together, that is it.
We have had other similar items and the plastic snap-together types are wobbly and you end up putting them back together again and again.
My daughter loves it - she can use all her hotwheels and matchbox cars on it, and there is enough detail to keep her imagination going for an hour or more.

This looked great when we saw the ad, but I have these criticisms:
1. The quality is not good, does not assemble well.
2. When the cars go down, they fly off and set which is annoying.
3. The elevator broke after short use.
4. Had to use super glue to keep it together.

So needless to say, I wish we would have not bought this.

I bought this for my 3-year old for his birthday and he absolutely loves it! It is money well spent. I researched a lot before buying it and found this to be the best garage/play set around. He especially enjoys the 3-story ramps and the elevator. It is hard to put together and the instructions are not 100% clear, but it is worth it!

This is the sturdiest garage I have found. We have 2 boys ages 6 and 4 and they have gone through 2 other garages. They really like the 3 levels and the fact that they can put the car on the top and it will spiral all the way down to the bottom. Most others stop at each level. Assembly seemed simple enough. My husband had it together in about 15 minutes. My 4 year old likes that it's taller and he can kneel in front of it instead of having to hunch down or lay down to see the lower level. It's big enough for 2 children to play at the same time. All around great toy.

We spent much time searching for this kind of toy for my 3 year old for Christmas 2010. There were certainly cheaper versions out there but we decided to spend much more for something we thought would be wonderful and would last. If you watch the video it certainly looks great. Boy were we wrong! In my opinion the whole main point of this type of toy is to put the little cars down the ramp and watch them go. That has NEVER worked on this set. The cars get halfway down the top ramp and fall over on their side and then fall off. No matter what we try (or what kind of car we try) this happens every time. Also, the gas pump pieces are falling off of their stand and need to be reglued, as is the plastic yellow bumper around the entire garage. We should have returned this set as soon as we saw how useless it was, but I kept thinking it somehow might magically start working right. Don't waste your time. It's just apalling to me that KidKraft would sell something that so clearly is designed poorly and does not function as advertised.

We bought this for my 3 year old for Christmas 2010 and it has not even made it to Christmas 2011. The elevator never worked and pieces started falling off of it almost immediately. Within a few months the ramp broke off in one spot and a few months later that part of the ramp had fallen off completely. My boys are not particularly rough with this toy, just normal wear and tear. So disappointed in the lack of quality of this item. Another toy for the garbage heap.

I typically love kidcraft toys, they are well made and fairly easy to assemble. Same went for the Deluxe toy garage... at least for the first 10 or so steps of assembly. The reason we purchased this particular garage is because I have 2 boys (1 and 3 1/2) and they are hard on toys, I wanted something exceptionally durable. We played with this toy at our cousins at it seemed to fit the bill. The individual levels are heavy duty material, it fits most types of cars pretty well and it withstood the beating of 5 kids 5 yrs and under for a week.

The problems that I encountered with this garage are mostly with the elevator, it is poorly designed. There are 3 sizes of screws used in the assmembly, along with wooden dowels. The screws are made out of cheap metal and strip quickly, so quickly that I had to use screws out of our own tool box to finish the assembly. The dowel assembly for the elevator never went together correctly and with an impatient 3 year old waiting to play, I finally cobbled it together and will have to come up with something better in the long run.

I will keep the garage because overall (outside of the elevator which frustrates my 3 year old to no end) it is a great garage that holds up to tremendous abuse, but beware if you are purchasing it, watch out for the elevator...