This is the latest subscription box for kids from Pley: the Hot Wheels Challenge Accepted Box!
This box was sent to us for review purposes. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes).
About This Subscription Box for Kids
The Subscription Box: Hot Wheels Challenge Accepted Box
The Cost: $24.99 + $5 shipping (box ships every other month)
The Products: “Early edition car and exclusive T-shirt in every box. The box itself transforms and offers exclusive track building options."
Ships To: US Only
March 2018 Box Review
My almost-3-year-old and I had a lot of fun with our last Hot Wheels box, so I was looking forward to receiving this box. Pley recommends Hot Wheels Challenge Accepted for kids 5-11 years old.
We'll start with the included booklet/mini-magazine. The featured car this month is Cyber Speeder!
The booklet has a variety of different activities, including suggestions for using the track pieces and cars you receive each month, and other pen-and-paper type activities.
They always encourage you to use your tracks with items from home; I love encouraging that type of creative play. I find myself enjoying Hot Wheels just as much as my son does!
Here are some of the other activities included.
Exclusive Hot Wheels Challenge Accepted T-shirt – Estimated Value $10?
(I gave this an estimated value of $10 which is somewhere between the Hot Wheels shirts I’ve seen at Target and Gap.)
Every box will also include a kids' t-shirt (you'll select the size when you sign up). I appreciate getting new tees with kids' subscriptions, because it helps add a little guaranteed value for me. Plus, my son loves to wear anything with cars and construction equipment on it, so it will definitely get worn!
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The tees so far have both had the same car featured in the booklet in each box, so this one is Cyber Speeder. They are a little bit promotional, but for a tee that my son will really like, I don't mind that personally. (If this were a box and t-shirt for me, I'd definitely feel differently!)
Hot Wheels Super Chromes Gazella GT – Estimated Value $3.99
It's really hard to find Hot Wheels individual cars online, especially if they're not specialty designs. In my last review, a commenter pointed out that you can sometimes buy the cars for about a dollar at Wal-mart or dollar stores, but I'm not 100% sure if those are the same car ranges or not... I suspect they might be older cars? If anyone knows more, please share!
This car is newer, from 2017.
I am pretty sure it's my son's favorite car in the box, too. We've been listening to and watching some Daft Punk videos lately and this is shiny like their helmets, so he calls this his "robot car."
It is a really cool looking car! The gold is so bright and shiny and the purple accents are pretty regal, no?
This one also seems well balanced and performs well on the track.
Hot Wheels HW Glow Wheels Cyber Speeder – Estimated Value $3.99
This is our featured car this month and is new for 2018 and again not available online anywhere. These cars are extra cool because of their glow-in-the-dark wheels!
Last month's featured car was also a HW Glow Wheels model. This has me wondering if we'll get some cool light-up track building options in future boxes? I hope so!
This car is sportier and looks like it was made for racing. It's not as stable as the chrome car above and flipped off the curve a couple of times, but generally it does pretty well on the track.
It's got some cybernetic looking designs on the top, too. I'm always amazed at how much detail is packed into these tiny things!
Hot Wheels Street Beasts Growler – Retail Price $5.99
This car is super cartoony and cool! It's a newer addition to this line, from 2017.
I think the chrome teeth really help bring this car to life, but it's certainly got a lot of visible attitude.
The back wheel is slightly bigger than the front. Cool look, but it does mean this car is less stable on the track than the others; it flipped off pretty consistently.
It's definitely an imaginative car, though, and I'm curious to see more from this line!
Hot Wheels Track Builder, 3 ft Straight Track – Estimated Value $3.99 (Available here for $1.99 + shipping)
(In my last review, I found these on Amazon for $3.99... they now start at $5.95 on Amazon! It appears Wal-mart sells them for $1.99 plus shipping. I wish I knew how much these are in stores to gauge which price is more generally accepted, so if you know, please leave a comment! I'm making a note to check it out next time I'm out somewhere that sells Hot Wheels toys.)
We received these in our last box too; it's a pack of 4 pieces of track with connectors that you can use to extend any existing track your own.
The tracks are pretty flexible but the connectors do wear a bit if you put them together and take them apart frequently, so it's nice to get a fresh supply.
Hot Wheels Clamp It! – Retail Value $3.99
This is a pretty cool little accessory! You can clamp it down anywhere, and attach your tracks to any of the round blue connectors.
We don't have nearly enough track, but I bet you could build something really crazy and even connect multiple pieces to this.
It's easy to adjust and my son had no problem attaching it to various surfaces and moving the track around on his own. The top connector is also on a ball joint so you can rotate it any direction you want.
Hot Wheels Track Builder System Turn Kicker – Retail Value $9.99
Finally, the hero item in this box: the Turn Kicker set!
Like our last box, this set also comes with one more car for your collection, as well as some additional track pieces to help you connect it all.
I couldn't figure out what this car is, but I am loving the design!
It's low and pretty streamlined, so it did well on the track.
The Turn Kick mechanism itself is fully assembled, so all you need to do is set up the track!
Then you wind the arm back, and as the car hits it, the rubber band mechanism snaps it back and causes the back piece to "kick" the car forward around the curve. It's super simple and super cool.
You can also use your box in a bunch of fun ways this month, including making a tunnel!
As expected, my son loved playing with this:
Here are all the pieces we received in this box (not combined with anything else). If you look closely, you can see one of the cars being pushed through the turn at breakneck speed! He absolutely loved this. I patiently reset it for him about 100 times that night.
We also had fun using the clamp to make a starting ramp so the cars could gain speed. We experimented with trying a few different placements and I tried to teach him how the taller the ramp was, the faster the car would go.
He also spent some time just playing with the Turn Kicker. He'd reset it, then push with his finger slowly until it snapped back, and he'd pull his hand back super fast and laugh– then immediately go back to trying to figure out how it worked. I had to keep him from trying to take it apart!
Then we took everything up to our playroom too and set things up a bit differently! We had to use some wooden blocks to prop the track up to keep cars from flying off the curve because they were going so fast through the turn kicker with this setup. It's fun to experiment and troubleshoot with Hot Wheels, and that's where a lot of the educational component comes in I think. You're learning about physics in a practical, hands-on sense and building those creative muscles, too, by playing around with how the parts can go together.
Verdict: Our second Hot Wheels Challenge Accepted Box was a hit! We are looking forward to combining these pieces with the launcher we got in the previous box, and I'm sure after a few more boxes we will have a totally epic track. My only wish for this box is that they really amp up the educational aspect! Maybe I'm too much of a nerd about this stuff, but there are so many real-life lessons in physics to teach by just encouraging some simple experimentation: What happens if you don't use the clamp to make a ramp vs if you do? Do the cars travel farther? Why do you think that is?
As I mentioned before, this box is great for us since we're totally new to Hot Wheels and we can look forward to building our collection up slowly every couple of months. If your kids are already super into Hot Wheels and have a ton of accessories and track parts, it may not be worthwhile.
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? From Pley:
Cutoff's are the 7th of the month following a release month (boxes are released every 2 months: February, April, June, August, October and December) You must signup BEFORE the 5th of the following month a box is released in order to get the current box. Signups from the 5th and on will receive the next box to be released.
For example, signup before March 5th to receive February's box. Signup from March 7th and on to receive April's box.
Value Breakdown: Pley originally said each box would have a $45+ retail value. My calculation this month was $41.94, which is closer to the target than last month. If those first two cars also usually retail for $5.99 like Growler, we'd be right on the $45 mark.
Value for this box was really, really hard to research because of the nature of toy shopping and these cars specifically: they're sort of designed so that you have to seek them out in stores and find the ones you want to add to your collection, no? And the Amazon prices for all of the accessories were super inflated, so I didn't use them (That $3.99 clamp, for example, was nearly $10 more on Amazon!).
I do feel that for $24.99 + $5 shipping, this is an affordable box for kids that offers a lot of hours of play, and even builds into something cooler over time. And of course, Pley offers discounts if you sign up for semi-annual or annual subscriptions too.
What do you think?
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