Customer Reviews

Polly Pocket Pollywheels Race to the Mall

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

We bought this for our daughters, ages 4 and 6. They were SO excited about it (having seen the commercials of course) and they seem to like it but we (Mom and Dad) hate it.
The pieces are flimsy, especially the track supports. Even the slightest bump will have the track pieces separating and the supports falling off. The escalator feature is fun for the most part, but again, if the set up is bumped it dislodges the drive mechanism and the escalator won't go.
Needless to say, either Mom or Dad has to be nearby to re-set the pieces every two minutes.
The teeny accessories are useless and the girls haven't even attempted to play with them.
This toy is very cheaply made, and a big disappointment from a major toy manufacturer such as Mattel. It might be on your little girl's wishlist, but I'd steer clear of this one if I were you!

My 3 year old daughter had been asking for this toy, after seeing it on tv. I was concerned about the flimsiness that I had read about and had even decided not to buy it. However, I saw it at Costco, with an additional set of cars, girls and shopping bags for a very good price. One weak moment later and it was in my cart. It is a pain to put together. The directions are almost useless. The parts don't go together easily. One part - not at all. As mentioned in a previous review, any slight movement will make it fall apart. However, when it is completely together, it's a great toy. Even my seven year old son wanted to play with it. So, I adhered strong, transparent tape to every connection. Miracle of miracles, it now stays together.

Bottom line - if you are willing to put some extra elbow grease into it, it is a fun toy. You should only get this toy if your child REALLY, REALLY wants it. Otherwise, the time commitment to work out the construction problems is not worth it.

Despite the eye-rolling girly theme tacked on top, it's a decent race track game. You launch the cars, they go through a loop, and then there's an elevator ramp that pulls the cars up (as on a roller coaster) and a swirly ramp to go down. My daughter asked how the cars stick in the loop, and we got to talk about centrifugal force. There's a switch, so they can exit the "mall" or they can go in an endless loop back up the elevator ramp. My daughter fills it up with her Hot Wheels, which mostly also work with the elevator. Lightweight Hot Wheels with good wheels can also be launched through the loop - but many of hers are too heavy and fall. She doesn't seem to mind a little extra Crash-Em-Up action with those, though.

The mall thing is barely developed - it's just a place with a table and chairs where the dolls can sit when they're tired of being in the cars, which would add some simple dollhouse type play to the toy. You can dispense magnetic shopping bags into the cars, but even that isn't really about shopping. It's just cargo. Pink and lime green cargo.

My daughter loves playing cars, but she's at that unfortunate age where she knows what is a boy toy and what is for girls, and that that's important to her. I'm surprised, but the pink race track thing is just what she wanted. Go figure.

One caution: with the elevator ramp running, it is kind of noisy.

After reading only bad reviews and knowing how much my daughter would love her own track to play with her big brother I had to buy this and try it myself. I just spent the last hour setting this up and playing. This is just as sturdy as any Hot Wheels track. You'd have to kick it to knock this over. It's no steel or wood structure but it's more than adequate. This is made by Mattel who also makes Hot Wheels! They probably just felt it could be bad press to have a girls Hot Wheels track!! Too bad because they would probably sell a lot more. The only thing I could see people complaining about is the setup instructions are so so and maybe a few supports can fall out. However I played it without 3 supports and actually lightly smacked it a few times just to test its sturdiness and it was fine. I ran the escalator for about 5 minutes with no issues. I can't say how it works after that but it seemed like a good belt. I usually don't have the time to review these things but if you are like me looking for the only girl race track out there and read the 1 or 2 bad reviews I had to tell my story seeing I spent the time!! I know my son will actually want to play with his little sister's toy this Christmas.

So disappointed! My girls - 4 and 7 - were so excited about getting this toy but it's a piece of grabage! It's poorly made and falls apart so easily - the girls get so frustrated because every time they touch it the pieces disconnect. It's a waste of money - don't bother buying it.

This toy is a piece of garbage.

Cheap isn't the word to describe it. It took my husband an hour to put it together, and the slightest movement makes the whole thing fall apart. You can't even turn it or the tracks separate and the pieces come crumbling down. My daughter (5 years) asked if she could play with it in the living room - so I tried to very carefully carry it - it was like starting over again.
Honestly, I was not expecting a really high quality toy here, but it is horrible. I am considering throwing it in the box and sending it to Mattell.
The "race" idea gets old after about 10 minutes and she just played with the Polly Pocket girls on her bed after that. So save your money and save yourself some aggrevation and just buy a little playset and some pink hotwheels.
Ugh!

It falls apart sometimes. It is not as bad as they say it is though. My Dad did a good job of putting it together. My cousin likes it. The batteries seem to last a pretty long time. My Grandma bought me some extra cars. The Jeep does get stuck sometimes. I would recommend you buy this for your daughter if she likes to have fun.

My 3 girls ages 5, 7 and 9 got this for Christmas. It was bought at Costco and came with a bonus pack of ten dolls with cars and little shopping bags that stick magnetically to the trunks of the cars. My husband put it together in about 20 minutes and he found it easy "if you follow instructions" although he is a handy type guy. My girls loved it! If you are going to buy this toy, buy it like this with lots of cars. All ten can go around and around the track together and they rarely jam! My girls even found other small toys they could push into the cars and send around the tracks. Set on a hard surface, this track has stayed together just fine except for the one piece with the loop that shoots the cars onto the spiral mall track. This popped off and my girls don't even want it back on. They use it seperately and shoot the cars up over the loop and out the open track end into whatever figures they decide to set up for the cars to knock down. This is fun in itself as they see what things they can knock down such as small my little ponies etc. They enjoy watching the cars going up the lift which works surprisingly well and around the mall. They like to pretend it is a roller coaster. I don't know how much staying power it will have and it does take up about 3 feet long of floor space but it sure went over well when they received it. I put a simple wood board down on the playroom floor and set it up there because it is a bit loud when all the cars get going up and down. We are all pleased with this toy.

Okay, I was very skeptical about this toy at first. We don't want our daughter too hung up on stereotypical girlie things. She loves puzzles and is just getting into card games, etc. The "Race to the Mall" theme sounded pretty bad to me. She saw it when we were shopping for gifts for her 4th birthday and fell in love with the box (give her a break -- she's 4).

But look, it's mostly a car racing game. Sure, the track is pink, but it's an action toy, and she's playing with cars.

I compare this in my mind to the old hot-wheels-branded race track I had when I was little. I think that basically just had the launcher, the loop, and a straight track after that. Maybe there was a finish line for two cars to race (but I'm not sure). This toy is much more elaborate, and allow for much more imaginative use. There's a motorized car escalator, you can route the cars to keep going aroung the track via the escalator, or to proceed down to the finish line, complete with cute finishing flags. There's a little mechanism for launching magnetic shopping bags onto the back of the car that is lots of fun for her to play with. In truth, she rarely uses the "mall" aspects of this, like pretending to eat in the little cafe or buying stuff. But maybe that's because we don't do much of this "mall stuff" in real life.

Okay, what people have said about it being flimsy is true to some extent. If you lean on the track much, some supports will fall down, and you would have to put them back in place. There's a little pin on the track near the shopping bag launcher that I am constantly pushing back into the little hole (one a day, maybe). I try to get my daughter not to lean on the tracks, and it seems okay, but she's pretty gentle with her toys overall.

So in summary, she loves it, and we parents don't really have a problem with. I think it's cool for her to have an action toy that is a nice break from learning her letter writing, doing puzzles, etc. BTW, I think we may have gotten it much cheaper at a physical store whose logo is a red bullseye.

p.s. - I guess it's worth noting that the two cars do not actually race. The car of the person who hits the launcher first goes, and the other one does not go until that person hits the launcher again. So things like the finish line with flags are really just for show. But she doesn't really know the difference, and didn't have some expectations going into it that were upset by this.

p.p.s. - The launcher can jam if it is not on a hard surface. Ours is on carpeting, so we taped up the little button underneath the launcher mechanism.

I got this toy for my daughter this past Christmas and it is still her favorite toy. Some of the other reviews complain that the track falls apart as soon as you touch it. Obviously this is the first race track they have ever owned. This race track is just like any other race track I ever owned growing up (except this one is pink). My four year old daughter would play with this track for hours if I let her. I would recomend it (and have) to a freind. (If you have problems with the track just stick a piece of tape at the conection. just like you did when you were a kid.)