Customer Reviews

Playskool Tonka Bounce Back Racer, Band A 27 MHZ - Colors May Vary

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(42)

 

 

If you are planning on buying more than one, they all run on same frequency. So you wouldn't be able to have them near each other, despite what you may have seen on Jon&Kate plus 8. So sweet of Hasbro to send them toys to promote on thier show for free, but it is misleading, they don't all work when played with in the same vicinity.

I bought this as a Christmas present for my son, and so I haven't gotten to see how much he enjoys it yet. However, I took it out of the box to test it out. It is a nice remote control car for a younger child. It has a very simple two switch (forward and backward) controller. It does seem very durable and you can run it into walls and furniture without worry of damaging them. I was disappointed, though, because it doesn't perform as shown on TV. If the car is driven into something at an angle it will bounce back; however, if it hits something straight on it just gets stuck and the wheels spin and spin. You then have to reverse to get the car going again. And after playing with it several times, I was only able to get it to flip over twice and that's only because I was really trying to over and over and over again. After looking at the package again, the product description says it "MAY bounce back or even flip." I have to say that description is accurate. If you're expecting lots of flipping...don't. If you can get past that, it is a fun toy and I do think that kids would really like it.

Let me preface this review by saying that I'm pretty handy and tech savy. I've assembled computers by hand, repaired cars and installed batteries in hundreds of toys and gadgets.

The Bounce Back Racer has one of the most perplexing battery configurations I've ever seen. There are two separate, screwed down compartments where batteries go. The location of these compartments is not at all obvious. Each compartment takes three AA batteries.

Then there's the seating of the batteries themselves. I've never seen a setup like this. Two batteries are stacked on top of one another, and then one side by side. The stacking of the two batteries makes removal extremely tricky.

My other complaint about the batteries is that the car chews through them very quickly. With moderate playing, be prepared to rehash the battery replacement nightmare every couple of days.

Once you get the batteries in, the thing is pretty fun to play with. My only gripe about the way the car works is that it would be nice to have some minimal steering. But I can understand why Tonka opted not to include this.

The build quality of the car itself is excellent. It can run into walls without doing any damage to the car of the walls. It's also made of a rubbery material instead of a hard plastic. So you don't have to worry about your kid dropping it and 1000 little pieces snapping off.

This car really could have been great if the designers had rethought the battery design. I know it sounds like minutia, but wait until you try to install these suckers. It's a real pain.

This was purchased for my three year-old son for his birthday. It sure does look cool, and it can take a serious beating, but the killer is the limited range. It seriously has a range of two feet or less. If you run alongside the car it runs great, and will flip walls and everything. That is, unless your child hits the wall first running to keep up with the car. With such a short range, it kills all the fun. What's the point of a RC car if you can't control it from a distance. Needless to say, my son hasn't touched it, as he gets frustrated when it quits working three feet away from him. This one needs to go back to the drawing board. Shameful.

We tried to get this for our son on two different ocassions. The battery compartments are EXTREMELY difficult to get open. The screws won't come out of the holes so that you can get the batteries in. The first time we did get the batteries in, the toy's remote got hot and never directed the car to move. The second time, after a VERY frustrating ordeal getting the battery cases open, and the batteries installed, the car did not move. And we had the switch on the car in the ON position. It might be time to do some more R and D, test it a little more, and make the battery compartments easier to get open- bigger screws, etc.

I,m sorry that I could not give this toy any real rate. The toy didn't work.and I had a very upset grandchild on Christmas morning.

We got this car for son's 4th birthday 2 weeks ago. He won't play with it now because he says it is boring. The remote has a limited range. There is no steering wheel and unless we lost the directions, there is not way to control the direction the car is going. He can't take it on walks or make a track. He can only control back and forward. It will also run and then stop for no reason.
The picture on the box shows an older child but it says it's for a toddler. Maybe a toddler will enjoy it.

I ordered this toy as a gift for my grandson. It doesn't work. I have put the number of batteries it required and it moved about 6 inches. I have e-mailed Three Blue Heron where it came from and haven't received a shipping label to mail it back. I have asked twice for one.

I'll just reiterate what the other reviewers have said - the cars just didn't work. We got two of them for Christmas, and loaded them with new batteries. After checking, and rechecking, the batteries and how they were seated, the racers still did not work. We went out, bought another set of new batteries, and still nothing.

Right about the time we thought it was something we were doing, I remembered the cardinal rule of all products - when in doubt, check Amazon reviews! Glad to know it wasn't just us.

Got this as a present for my 4 year old, my two year old loves it too and drives it well. Easy remote control with just two directions (forward is straight ahead, backwards in a curve), which is ideal for younger kids. The best part are the rubber wheels which are easy on the furniture. It is also very compact, quiet and durable.