LionelMega Tracks, Build-your-own Customizable Race track, Corkscrew Chaos Red Engine

Lionel Mega Tracks - Corkscrew Chaos Red EngineThis review was handled by the biggest kid I know; my husband."Lionel is expanding beyond model trains with the introduction of Mega Tracks, a revolutionary rail system where kids can use their imagination to design and build their own race courses! Utilizing a new clamp and construction system, kids can build anywhere."To translate. Revolutionary = monorail on flexible Hotwheel-style ......track. Imagination = learning curve. Race courses = 20 foot one-man circuit. Anywhere = anywhere you have a huuuuuuge table top or floor space.Mega Tracks requires a lot of table space and you need to be able to walk around most of the table. Why? Because the pieces are huge. The Red Engine is huge. I think the problem started with the Red Engine. The motor, gear train, or track grippers set the size. That defined the weight of the car. The weight of the car set the track weight and stiffness. The track set the size and weight of the support arms. Somewhere in there they had to add spacing margin so that there was room for the large car to not run into things as it went around the track. It is big. The example track used in the instructions is about 3' x 5'.Second, don't get me wrong, this is great fun but it is not something casually whipped together out of a child's imagination. The box states "Ages 8 to Adult"; I think an 8 y.o. will get fed up pretty quickly. Number of reasons.The parts are difficult to assemble and disassemble. In order to get the rigidity necessary to hold the track in place the joints between parts are very tightfitting. This adult struggled to get some parts apart when changes were called for. Very tight. Too tight for 8 y.o.The beam parts are two different sizes. Instead of being interchangeable you have to know the differences in functionality between the two in order to pick the right one. Why not put in a little more design, be clever, and have a single part?The only way to "hold down" the track is to use one of the clamps; at the edge of your table or piece of furniture of clamping thickness. Any other support structures just sit on the table top or ground and are free to slide around wherever they like. This causes problems when you have to worry about track clearance so that the car doesnt run into another track or wall when it is on its way by. Other support structures must be made of beams and joints that could have been used to better support the track. What they need is a mid table support with suction cups to keep it in place. Otherwise you are using books to weigh things down and hold supports in place.The play set comes well packed in a sturdy cardboard box. Inside the box is the product packaging with the usual clear circular stickers; I cut them with a precision cutter just because I may want to keep the box. The controller and Red Engine are cable tied in; I flipped them over to cut the cable ties from the bottom to avoid damaging the hardware. The construction parts were provided in a separate flat inside the product packaging. I strongly recommend having a parts bin available to dump all of the joints, couplings and track supports into; I am in the process of organizing my office and had a 2 gallon plastic tote available. The instructions are in pretty fine print; I ended up using a magnifier and guessing in a couple of places. I tried building the demo from the instruction sheet but it was just too large for my desk; I used my imagination. I placed clamps around the edge of my desk and stabilized them with some blue beams but eventually realized that every single part was necessary if I wanted a complete circuit. When I started attaching the track I realized exactly why kids will not have the patience for this toy. There are two types of track supports; a holder that attaches to the middle of a track segment and just holds it in place, and a joint that connects two track segments and holds both track segments in place. The set comes with 5 pieces of track, 5 track joints and 5 holders (actually a couple more but I am not counting) which should be enough to connect and support everything. Only there is nowhere near enough parts to build all the necessary support structures. Not perfect but you can not support some holders and that makes it all better. Right? No. Because joints must be supported AND joints must be exactly one length of track apart; if not, there is a gap in the track or there is curve that is not the desired radius or a curve that sags. This explains why you have all the unanchored supports; you have to slide things around a bit. And while you are sliding it around you have to worry about the length of the next segment of track, the clearance between all the track (particularly the stuff that is sliding around), the angle of the track, the radius of curvature, etc. Kids are either going to get this immediately or will not understand why the car keeps dragging on the floor around the second turn. A couple of different track lengths and more parts for support structures are needed here.The handheld controller requires a 9 V battery. Before you start assembling track you should plug the Red Engine in. Looking nose on at the vehicle there is a switch on the top left marked ON/CHG; on the top right is the DC power input jack. When you plug it in a bright red LED will light up. Once charging is complete, approximately 2 hours, the LED will turn green.The end result is a bit ... I don't know ... the little Red Engine definitely could. The long blue track sorta could. The weight of the car is a lot for the track. Even supported in the middle of each track segment it was flopping around like a long circular al dente lasagna noodle. The Red Engine can move; I got my reflexes tuned to slow it down before it flew off into the walls.Lionel has a little plastic widget to attach your mobile phone to the top of the controller. They point you to their website which gives a little stopwatch app. Now if they had made the train set at half or third scale of what it is, a few more support ideas, different track lengths, controlled the car via Bluetooth, and placed a video camera in the nose of the car. That would be cool.Upshot. A lot of effort. Not enough pieces to properly anchor track; check Lionel website videos for examples. No way to anchor supports in the middle of a table. Pieces can be difficult to disassemble; quite a bit of strength necessary. Need track pieces of various lengths. Car is WAY too heavy and large. WAY. I would say this is more for 12 y.o. to adult. This adult had fun and will be reconfiguring his desk every week or so; reminds me of a start up where we had slot cars, a ping pong table, and free Red Bull. Talk about the little engine that could.UPDATE: the packaging shows a little Red Engine and a little Green Engine. Unfortunately the box only contains one engine. The second is in an add-on kit that must be purchased separately.

The car is way too heavy for this track and the plastic clamps don't work well holding it together. My wife and I spent two hours trying to mount this thing to a board only for the vehicle to ruin are design within minutes. I considered going to "Lowes" to buy the required items to mount this thing in place but then thought, "what am I doing?" A good toy comes with what you'll need to make it work.

This took a lot of time. Which is good. I hate toys that are out together and “done” way too quickly. My son and husband spent over an hour on this. And it can be taken apart and out together many many different ways so they won’t get bored easily. The way the train seems to glide on the track is different than anything I’ve seen. And it doesn’t look “little” or “youn”. It’s got cool design and it goes very fast. It has lots of power and can be reused over and over. Pieces are very durable and don’t seem to break easily and the box easily holds the pieces. You can toss them back in and the lid will close and go right back in the closet. That is a plus for pick up time. It’s also a giant set-so it’s impressive assembled.

Not what we expected...It may have been defective.Our 9 year old was not interested after all the time that went into putting it together.It also got stuck at a point in the track, and we couldn't fix it.

Meh, this was not a good gift. It has spent more time in the closet than it ever got played with.

Missing battery. Parts don't fit properly. Total waste of time unpacking.

Bought this for my nephew for Christmas and he has many matchbox tracks, but loves this one. Can set up anywhere and he loves that it goes upside down. I save quite a bit of money purchasing from Amazon too. Other stores wanted way more for it.

Item as described