Matchbox Toy Cars Playset, 4-Level Garage & 1:64 Scale Tow Truck, Kid-Powered Elevator, Car Repair Station & Spiral Ramp

We bought this for my 2 year-old grandson (he’s 26 months) because he loves his little cars and carries them around like comfort toys. He also loves fiddly things that turn and open and close. I read the reviews that it was a great toy but hard to assemble. Full disclosure, I’m pretty good at assembling things, but I honestly did not see what was difficult about the actual assembly. Also, I’m a woman, just to be clear that assembling a toy with a lot of pieces isn’t the sole purview of a male relative (😉 *see husband’s reaction to the applying the labels). The illustrations are very clear and the ramp pieces are marked with letters on the bottom that correspond to each other. The most difficult part was applying the labels. There are a LOT of them and some are very small. There is a very good diagram for placement though. I only got confused at the very beginning with the labels for the elevator levels. I wind up peeling them off and using the parking lot labels that corresponded to the elevator ones. That is, the elevator is marked “1”, “2”,”3”, and “4” and the entrance to each level has a corresponding label. Just like in an actual parking garage. So, I won’t lie, this took me nearly 3 1/2 hours and most of it was applying labels. I watched all of Spielberg’s War of the Worlds and half of Constantine before I was done. Opinions on whether I should have bothered with the labels was split with my husband and daughter (child’s mother) saying he’s too young to care, and me and my eldest daughter (Aunty) saying,”Hell yeah, you need the labels.” The way I see it this toy has longevity and he will appreciate the labels in the future. He was already noting the arrows, for example. He loves shapes and came name several, including hexagons. I will definitely be buying Hot Wheels tracks for Christmas. This toy was a slightly belated “new big brother” present. Also, we needed to update the toys we have for him to play with at our place.How did he like it? He played for it for nearly an hour, very intently. He didn’t need me to interact too much, as he has been for his more babyish toys that he still likes but in order for them to be fun, needs a lot of input from me. I love to play with him, don’t get me wrong, but it’s nice for him to have something hat occupies him fully without needing adult attention to keep from being bored.He zeroed in on just the things that would have captured my imagination; the elevator and the car wash. Oh yes, and he loved the tow truck it came with.

I am super pleased with this product. It is sturdy and well-built. I was worried it might be flimsy like the Hot Wheels tracks I've bought in the past (they've fallen apart on my kids while they were playing with them), but my concerns were happily unfounded.I am so impressed with the detail of this little garage. So many fun features! The elevator lift that you can crank, the car wash with moveable parts, the detailing station with mechanic's lift, the gas station, and the highlight of them all, the 3 level ramp! It is sooo cool and actually works, unlike so many other ramps I've come across. The cars go down really fast without getting stuck or held up (which is a big disappointment for kiddos) and you can even move little barriers w/ levers that change the location of where the car will go! For example, you can have the car race all the way down all 3 levels of the ramp, or you can have it only go from the top of the lift to the 3rd level for a car wash, or down to the 2nd for some detailing, etc. You can also choose where it exits from the bottom level, where I'm guessing there are options for adding extensions. I even like the little parking spaces :)I read several reviews that said the assembly instructions were very sparse and frustrating so I tried to prepare very well beforehand. I had my 15-year-old assemble it on Christmas Eve while I wrapped other presents and he put it together no problem, no frustration. It took him maybe a half hour? He really enjoyed assembling Lego sets, etc. when younger so this came to him very naturally. If you don't have an engineering-minded teen, there is a video on YouTube of someone actually assembling the track that was helpful. I think the most useful part of the video for my 15-year-old was the sticker application step. Be sure to apply all of the stickers first, before you begin assembly.Anyway, I've gone on and on so I'll just conclude by saying that this product has my enthusiastic recommendation. My 3-year-old loves it and it provides loads of possibilities for play. Oh, one last bonus - it works with all his little cars whether Matchbox or Hot Wheels or anything else of a similar size so you can't go wrong! It's a great little set I'll be saving for my grand kids to play with someday :)

I bought this for my son’s 2nd birthday. He looooves cars and trucks, and every time we go to my in-laws’ he spends hours (well, an hour maybe, still pretty good attention span for a toddler) playing with cars on their “vintage” 80’s car garage. So I finally got him his own.After looking at several options I finally decided on this one mainly based on reviews. This was a great buy. Yes it took forever to set up and I had my husband’s help. There are so many teeny stickers and some of them are hard to figure out where they go (as were some of the pieces). Definitely attach the stickers before you assemble all the pieces, at least for the majority of them. Have patience! It took us at least an hour to assemble the entire thing. Anyway it was worth the work. Both my son and 5 year old daughter couldn’t wait to play with it and it kept them occupied while we packed for our camping trip the next day. Our son woke up and went straight to his car garage and sat there for a good hour or two playing. It’s fairly sturdy but my kids have been able to take some pieces apart (not broken, just disassembled) and my son has torn the sponges off the car wash unfortunately. Again not too bad for a toy for a 2 year old boy.The novelty has worn off some now that it’s been a few weeks but it still holds the kids’ interest for a while a few times a week. If you’re looking for a toy car garage look no further!

It’s not too big and it has little options to lift the slide arms so the car can slide down to different levels. It’s enough to get 30 minutes of quiet time especially if you bring it out every other day.