Customer Reviews

Matchbox Hero City Ice Mountain Playset

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

My son received this toy for his 5th birthday. He plays with it alot and it is also enjoyed by his 2 year old sister and our 8 year old neighbor. It makes lots of fun sounds and has great action with the ice breaking, the rotating icy road and the vehicle lifter. Most Matchbox vehicles work well on this toy. Some of the taller trucks get stuck on the lower road and some vehicles work better than others on the vehicle lift, however the kids seem to enjoy helping some of the vehicle on and off of the lift. Our heavier Hot Wheels cars don't work very well on this toy nor do the very cheap lightweight off brand vehicles. But we're a Matchbox family so we have plenty of cars to use on this toy. Even though there is plenty of battery operated action, there is still lots of hands on fun - my kids can't seem to resist pushing the cars onto the ice and bypassing the lift to send a pile up of cars onto the icy rotating road. It's also a very sturdy well made toy. My only complaint might be that the assembly instructions are hard to follow. In order to activate the motion and sound the pieces must be very securely assembled. If it doesn't work the first time, take it apart and try putting it together again (I had to do this). If you buy this toy and the breaking ice doesn't completely come together, then pull off that section and make sure you've got the piece from the lower road in the correct slot that activates the breaking ice located on the underside of the rotating road. However, once put together properly it's a very fun and sturdy toy. Highly recommended!

I didn't read the reviews before I ordered this toy and I'm glad I didn't or I would never have ordered it. My 5 year old son wanted this toy so badly that I just went online and ordered it for Christmas. He/we have played with it consistently and constantly since Christmas. Usually, he rotates his new toys in and uses them all periodically with no one toy constantly...until now that is. He plays with this toy at least 5 times a week. It wasn't until I decided to write a review about it that I read the reviews that were already sent in. We have never had a problem with it at all whether it be related to the motor, the parts or the assembly or the durability. My son can be very rough on toys and this is one of the only two Christmas toys that hasn't broken down yet. He forces things in the wrong direction sometimes and I hear this grinding sound and then he corrects what it was he did wrong and still everything works. He plays with this toy for at least an hour at a time. This is a complete first for him. And when he asks me to play with him and suggest Ice Mountain, I'm so glad because all I have to do is sit there and operate one of the passage way levers. It's easy play for me and interesting play for him while he decides which routes the cars will take and which will fall into the ice and which will be rescued. We really love this toy. I'm sorry so many other people had such problems with it. How disappointing for the children that must have been.

Ice Mountain was one the top of my 4-year-old son's Christmas list. He was so excited when he unwrapped it Christmas morning and could not wait to put it together. His dad, who can assemble, build, and solve just about any mechanical/electrical problem was in charge of assembly. But, alas, no matter what we did the motor and sounds did not work. My son really didn't care about it "not working" because he didn't realize what the thing was supposed to do. That said, Ice Mountain was still hands-down his favorite Christmas gift outside of his Nintendo Game Cube. However, I was disappointed and since then had been trying to find a replacement for our apparent "dud" Ice Mountain -- with no success. Then, when I saw the reviews here at toysrus.com and read the comments of others that seemed to have had similar "duds" and then got them to work, I decided to give it one more try. At last, there was success!!! When I finally got the thing to work, I came to the conclusion that it's tricky assembly, and not faulty electronics, that seems to be the problem. You must really press the pieces together firmly until they "lock" into place. In fact, you need to use a lot more force pushing the pieces together than you're probably used to with most children's toys. The part to pay special attention to is where the underside of the round portion of the track that surrounds the "spinning ice" connects to the base where the crane/lift is located. There is a "semi-circular" shaped orange piece right at the critical point on the base. Push down HARD until that connection snaps and locks into place. For some reason, the motor will not work unless that is done correctly. Now, our Ice Mountain works great and my son is so excited he doesn't know what to do with himself. Now that it's working, it's actually really cool and a ton of fun! (Even my 6-year-old daughter thinks so!) In addition, the kids can learn a lot about cause and effect, as there are many things they can manipulate to alter the outcome of their play. That should help keep them interested, too, because they can keep things changing by just the move of a directional paddle, the push of a button, or by using a different type of vehicle. MY KIDS LOVE IT!!!

I bought this for my 3 year old for Christmas. I spent an hour putting it together with all the stickers. It didn't work. I changed the batteries to be sure. I braved the lines the day after Christmas to exchange it. The first thing I did was put batteries in the control part to see if it worked. I did NOT. I was EXTREMELY frustrated. I came online to see if others were having problems. I found I was not alone. One review said to make sure that all the connections were secure. So I put the new one together checking all the connections. Still it did not work. I then got on my knees beside the toy and put my body weight on it at each joint. I finally got it to work. My son absolutely loves playing with it. My advice is even when you have "snapped and clicked" it together and it still doesn't work, put your weight into it and make sure it's really together. I found that there was one connection that I had heard click together, but the toy didn't work until I pressed down on it REALLY HARD.

Santa brought ice mountain for my 4 year old son last Christmas and my son has had a blast with it ever since. We have gotten hours upon hours of play out of this toy. Over the last year, we've replaced the batteries twice. This is because sometimes it can get left on by the kids. But 11 months later and it's still going.

We did notice that the lifting mechanism can sometimes slip if the kids are too rough or jam it somehow. This can be frustrating but we found that you have to take apart part of the slide and entirely remove the lifting crane then reset it back into place. My son soon learned how to do this and then went through a phase of completely taking it apart and putting it back together. My son has also had lots of fun not only playing with his cars on icy mountain but also small balls and large marbles.

This is one of those toys that come out when we have friends come over. Our son has shared this toy with lots of friends who have all loved it as well! We've had lots of people ask us where we got it. I would definitely purchase another Matchbox Hero City toy again in the future.

We thought we had one of the Ice Mountains that didn't work also, until we read these reviews and called Mattel ourselves to see exactly what to do to get this thing to work. The rep told us that the instructions weren't very good and it would have saved a lot of people a lot of grief if they would have included this in them: Next to the gear where the ice goes in at, there is a little white button, and on the bottom of the round ice part there is a little round peg sticking out. That part has to be pressed down last in order to depress the white button and get it to run. That button HAS to be pressed down in order to get power from it. We tried this, and it worked! My son loves playing with it now, and daddy is a hero for fixing it!

I got Ice Mountain for my 5th Birthday. I love it! There are lots of cool things that you can do with it plus it will basically run by itself if you want to sit back and watch the pile up. My cousin, John, and I just play with this for hours on end! Get it and your kids will love it! Rock On Ice Mountain!!

My 5 year old son received this toy as a gift for his birthday. He had asked for something else (the slimecano), but due to the bad reveiws of that product we purchased this instead. He surprised us all by forgetting all about the slimecano. He loved this toy. He plays with it and the Matchbox Ferris Wheel set (his other favorite) all day long.. atleast he did until this broke.

The Crane mechanism is poorly designed. The gearing inside of it does not handle the stress of being moved manually, or being hung up (as will happen when a car falls under its path of travel - a common occurrance). After 3 weeks of regular play, one of the gears inside the crane broke loose from its anchor (in the side of the crane body), leaving the works a jumbled and broken mess. No more crane.

I was extremely surprised to see this happen so quickly. My son has been playing with the ferris wheel (another motorized matchbox set in the same line) since Christmas, and the rotating wheel has stood up to considerable punishment from him without a problem. It still works after being jammed and turned by hand often. This, however, is not so forgiving.

I contacted Mattel today to see if I could purchase a replacement crane (or body with the proper gear anchor intact, only to find out that they are sold out. I can only imagine, based upon a quick glance at the reviews on this site that their stock was depleated by warantee replacements. For further evidence of this, the Mattel rep did agree to send me a 'voucher' for $23 (the supposed average retail price of the toy - not from where I'm sitting, look at the price on this site!). When I asked her if I could use it to purchase another ice mountain, she said yes, but I might want to consider a different toy, and that I could purchase multiple toys up to the limit of the voucher (I'm not sure, but I think she even suggested a 'hot wheels' car or 2... no promotion for that phone rep!

All in all, he was delighted to receive it and despondent when it broke. Mattel is trying to make good without alot of arguing on my part, so I'm not too unhappy. The only thing they could have done better, in my opinion, was better engineer the toy from the start.

I read many of the reviews and bought this reluctantly since its discounted even more at the store vs online. Glad I did buy it. Mine was easy to put together...took no more than 15 minutes...would of been less but you need to put stickers on (yuck)which for some reason I am slow at. My pieces went right together. They stay together well enough that my 4 & 6 year olds carry this up and down(or should I say drag) the steps and it stays totally intact and functions perfect. It seems to keep their interest long enough for me to get one or two things done around the house...a big plus!

As far as other peoples difficuties with it...Maybe people don't line up the main ice track piece with the groove properly. I didn't at first, so I did need to move the underside socket so that it connected and fit into the base piece right (its like a small disc That fits into another pinwheel looking disk) ...but that took a whole 10 seconds to figure out. Once it was aligned it snapped right togeher and power worked right away...

I LOVE this toy. I think Matchbox has put out the best vehicle accessories. Nothing from Hero City has disappointed us.

My 4-year-old loved this toy, but the crane that raises the cars broke right away. We already disposed of the box and have no receipt for it, so I think we're stuck. My son tried to push the crane arm down when it was going up and the gear inside broke. Now it makes a terrible sound and the crane won't move. If your child has this toy, make sure they know not to touch the crane arm. And good luck. They can't help but grab it if it doesn't pick up a car right.