For those that know me a little better you will know that I am a bit of a petrol-head… Not in the I know everything about motors kinda sense, because believe me I don’t…  but in the I LOVE TO DRIVE FAST sorta way is a totally different story…

I guess I’ve got my dad to blame on that one… you see…When I was about 6 years old my dad arrived home from a prolonged business trip loaded with 6 boxes of Scalextric Race Tracks which we promptly (and for my mum’s dispair) we started putting together straight away. The track was so long that basically took over the whole house going from the lounge and dinning room into the garden in front of the house and back inside again. That caused some envy in most of the kids in my street… But it was also loads of fun and laughter during the makeshift championship we ran for the rest of the weekend.

Last week I had the chance to introduce Tb & A to one of my biggest kid passions.

We received an invite from the guys and girls at Threepipe  that look after Scalextric to come to Blogger event  that happen at  Cupcake in Parsons Green in London (BTW, thanks Sophie!!! You Rock!) and even though we got there VERY late (silly me decided to drive into London… which wasn’t SO bad apart from the fact that I couldn’t find where to park and then walked past the streed 3 times before finding it) the time we spent there was GREAT.

The Big Monkey was on his environment so didn’t take him long AT ALL to find his crowd and go race them in one of the sets that was set up all over the floor in the studio where the event happened. I was actually incredibly excited as to how much he loved the tracks trying each of them in turns…. And I have to say… The Olympic  Games Themed Tracks look awesome! You get to run Bikes instead of car. Quite creative.

We’d gotten there a just in time for the Scalextric Racing Championship in which Tommy got beaten by a girl (GOSH he was not impressed by this feat and made me promise not to tell any of his school friends) and I was beaten by a 5 year old!!! We both got kicked out on the 1st round… oops… No comments…

Little monkey was a little harder to please… that is, until we found the Chocolate Brownies and the Scalextric cakes (available at Sainsbury’s I am told) which he proceeded to shove at his own face, my hair and the floor… And then he found out there were Cars 2 characters to play with by which point he decided the pushing the car (yes… pushing.. using the controllers wasn’t fun… he had to PUSH the cars on the track)… and to hell with whoever else was running at the time… yeah… THAT…

I hadn’t been to a PR even targeted to MAD Bloggers in quite a while so it was great to see a few faces that I hadn’t seen in a while. Still missed out on my Clumsy Off competition with Sophie though…. maybe next time!!!

Was an excellent day out… and the best thing is that it didn’t end there…

We’ve been loaded up with goodie bags (including what Tommy calls “modern yellow racing car” and not one but TWO Scalextric Tracks (a CARS 2 and a 007 Aston Martin track) to play with… erm… review and report back… So… THAT we shall do..

Starting with the CARS 2 Track that came out as a companion of the new Disney Pixar movie where we join Lightning McQueen and his rival Francesco Bernoulli in the ultimate Disney/Pixar Cars 2 adventure speeding along the huge Scalextric Start circuit which represents McQueen’s iconic “95” race number.

It comes with instructions on how to put together another nine alternative circuits (bridges included). And over 7m of track which you can then extend by buying spare pieces and being as creative as you can be.

The 2 controllers for the the cars have two-position selector switch which allows the driver to choose slow or fast speed settings to reflect the driver’s experience (of course we didn’t know that when we put the track together so we had a SERIES of incidents with cars flying out of the tracks… in special when Vic joined us for some racing fun. Should have read the manual… but I’m a man… man don’t usually do that…

The Scalextric START track has a very easy push-together, pull-apart system keeping assembly time down to a minimum and making the build enjoyable and quick for adults and children. The set contains bridge supports so that a fly-over section can be created.  The vehicles are tough and robust… although… I have to say that Lighting was abit worse for wear after flying against a wall a few times… And we managed to take apart Francesco’s wings… but that is okay… Vic fixed it with some acrylic glue… don’t ask…

All in all… It is a great fun for kids 5 years+ but if you want to be adventurous like I was trying to teach Alex to race them (he will be 2 soon… need to get him in the right way, right?!?!?!) and see him flying the cars out of the track and laughing at itI’m sure you will have LOADS of fun too…

Other thing! I love the attention for detail on the cars! And the “Ciao McQueen on Francesco’s backside actually made me laugh… I am SOOOO juvenile… LOL!

Another great Christmas idea fro the Urban Vox HQ…

 

Me being me of course took quite a few photos which I’ve uploaded a few to Flickr (you can see them by clicking here) But I wanted to end this post with some humour… and the Little Monkey provided the BEST opportunity ever… You see… I had this dog when dad bought me my 1st Scalextric set… and I remember making the car race just so the dog would chase the car, which always made me laugh LOADS!

Well… if I EVER needed proof that Big Monkey really IS too much like me all I had to do was watch this video of Little Monkey chasing the cars as Big Monkey raced tem… And well…I thought I should share the laugh with you guys… hehehhehe… Enjoy!

Now… the 007 Aston Martin Scalextric Track is more of a grown ups toy… so well… THAT shall be reviewed by a more… erm… grown up panel… Coming soon  ;-)