Customer Reviews

Spongebob Bikini Bottom Boat Race Playset

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

 

 

Doesn't anybody playtest toys anymore before they toss them onto the market? Or is it enough that they look great and have a sure-fire cartoon character tie-in?

I ask, because as great and seemingly durable as this little SpongeBob race set is, had anybody in the Mattel boardroom actually tried to play it they would have quickly realized what a Festival of Frustration it is.

When you open the box, you're bound to be delighted by the brightly colored cardboard punch-out set decorations and the really super SpongeBob and Patrick "boats" (slot cars), which feel nice and hefty and solid. Once you've figured out how to put the track together (was it too difficult to actually label the tracks with the same letters by which the instructions refer to them?), and hooked up the power pack and the controllers (kudos for being battery powered, rather than requiring a wall socket, though the option for both would have been nice -- four "D" batteries ain't cheap), the next thing you're going to do, logically, is place the cars on the track and give a controller a squeeze.

And then the NEXT thing you're going to do is get up off your knees and go get the car and put it back on the track. Another squeeze, another track departure, another retrieval. Repeat ad nauseum. Or at least until your kid decides it's more fun to throw the controller at the little cardboard set decorations -- something which you may find yourself in agreement with.

Put simply, these sturdy plastic boat cars are ponderously heavy and too fast for their own good, which means they are highly susceptible to inertia: squeeze lightly and they do not move, just buzz plaintively. Squeeze just ever-so-slightly too hard and they go from standstill to Mario Andretti to Evel Kneivel in under a second, forcing you to spend 80 to 90 percent of your time crawling over to them and putting them back on the track.

And if YOU think that sounds annoying, wait until you see your preteen's reaction.

I did not personally experience any problem with the track coming apart, as some reviewers have mentioned. But that may be because Patrick and Bob spent the lion's share of their time extratrackular.

This is a terribly unplayable racing toy. Yet, there are circumstances in which it will "work."

Everything the other reviewers say is true: The cars constantly fly off the track, and you're spending a lot of time retrieving them. Oftentimes, the controllers come unplugged from the power supply. The metal contacts beneath the boats (cars) occasionally need manual adjustment. This thing was just poorly executed.

HOWEVER, the most heinous flaw was Mattel's designating this as a toy for 8 years and older. WRONG! I bought this set on a whim; it was cheap (at Kmart), and my kids love SpongeBob. They thoroughly LOVE THIS TOY! The key is that my kids were 3 1/2 and barely 6 at the time they began playing with it.

Today, they're 4 and 7, and they still love it. The cars' propensity to fly off the track, although infuriating for me, does not seem to bother them. We play on the carpeted floor, so they don't go too far, and the kids don't appear too inconvenienced by having to go get them.

The cars do stay on the track if you can master the touch of depressing the controller button only 3/4 of the way, and my 4-year old is able to do that. There are are only two speeds: fast and nearly fast. Go from stop to flying; there is no middle ground.

It's a poorly made toy, but provides entertainment for the right age group. (i.e., younger than 7).

I have been having some exceptional fun playing with this race set. I am 42 years old and feel like I'm a kid again racing with my 4 year old. The controls are just right for a toddler's hands, yet not too small for big hands. A very nice break from TV, videos and computer games!

My son is 2 1/2 and fell in love with it... When we got home, we had to put it together. Yes, it does take awhile to understand the directions, the tracks don't stay together well, the scenes fall off too easily and the cars race so fast, they jump the track. My son has lost interest in this already. Maybe he is too young, but I too lost interest with trying to keep the track together. It was fun while it lasted. We'll try it in another week.

I almost purchased this for a birthday present for my son. But I didn't because of the reviews I had read on Amazon. Instead, his aunt ended up buying this for his birthday, and believe me, READ THESE REVIEWS BEFORE YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT BUYING THIS! It's very touchy. The wire braids on the bottoms of Spongebob and Patrick are very touchy. They have to be positioned a certain way for it to make contact with the track. The track is flimsy and falls apart easily. Don't even bother with the cutouts of Krusty Krab and Spongebob's house and several others--they just keep falling down. Think before you buy this one!

My daughters love the fact this race car track was from the theme spongebob sqaure pants, however, what a cheap toy. The cars do not stay on the track, and only one of them works.

This is a great toy. The track does come apart sometimes but is easy to put back together. It did not take that long to assemble and you only have to clean the bottoms of the cars and they will run perfectly. It may not be as good as some other race tracks-but if you like spongebob it is definitely a fun toy to have.

This toys just does not work....I just bought it today and I am bringing it back tomorrow. My son is so disappointed. The cars barely move and the one time one of them did it ran right off the track. What a piece of garbage.

My daughter and I have been watching Spongebob since the beginning and we both love him.

With that said, we also love the racing set. I have been setting tracks up for many years and know the ins and outs. This track is put together well, if you don't step on it. If you have a toddler that can't keep off the track, I suggest assembling a layout that is not elevated.

The cars are a bit fast, but if you wrap a rubber band around the plunger right at the top, it limits the top speed of the car so it won't fall off the track.

We rated the 'fun' 3 stars because the track needs to be a bit bigger.

This is not a toy you can fob off on your kids alone. You need to get down on the floor and play with them. And like most real toys, you need to learn to use it, and even modify it for your kids' abilities. That's part of the educational value.

I think the complaints I have read below are because people are missing out on the fun of playing with and teaching their kids. I have uploaded some photos to the gallery to show how to make simple guard-rails which snap right into the guard-rail (!) slots on the track. Use a flat setup, not the elevated figure eight pictured on the box. Also as another reviewer wrote, just wrap a rubber band around the speed plunger to keep little ones from going too fast.

Over the years I have had lots of racing sets and I am impressed with the price and quality of this one. Well made durable track, clearly marked with letters for easy assembly. The cars have high-quality braided track brushes, just like expensive slot cars.

It runs forever on brand-x alkaline D batteries. Or you can use cheaper AA batteries with a batter upsizer kit available for a buck or two at any CVS, Walgreens, Eckerds, Walmart, or K-Mart. Upsizers are just plastic tubes which make the AA batteries as big as a D battery. You can even use rechargeables.

My son (6) and pals love playing with this toy. They laugh and shout and make up little SpongeBob stories. They like to challenge Dad and Pop-Pop to races where they really just try to run us off the track at the squeeze lanes.

Too many toys are virtual these days, like video games. Real toys like model cars, planes, boats, jump-ropes, balls, teach patience because they don't just work perfectly and teach a lot of lessons. Buy it and teach your kids the lesson that the real world is not neat or simple.