Not really panic just frustration! (Vivid Imaginations Roary the Racing Car Pitstop Panic Game)

Member Name: mumto3

Product:	Vivid Imaginations Roary the Racing Car Pitstop Panic Game
Date:	17/11/08 (159 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well made chunky pieces

Disadvantages: Everything is too big and heavy and just falls off

My son was bought this Roary the Racing Car Pitstop Panic Game for his third birthday. We had suggested that he liked Roary and instead of buying cars or dress up things we were bought this game.

The idea of the game is to construct Roary the Racing Car on a mechanics ramp against a ticking clock. When your time is up the whole things flips up throwing bits or Roary all over the place.

The pieces you get are a mechanics ramp that has a timer and a stop button on it. You get a chassis, an engine, a baseball cap, four wheels, an exhaust and the roof section of the racing car.

The mechanics ramp is the pieces that does the flipping so you have to push the top of the ramp down and turn the timer and then press the stop button to hold it still until you are ready to start. When you are ready you press the stop button and the timer starts clicking and turning as your time slips away. As this is happening you have to place the pieces of the car onto the ramp in the correct order and the right way round before the timer stops and the whole things flips up. This is made a little easier as the chassis is fixed to the ramp before you set the timer off.

The main problem I have found with this game is that the pieces don't fit onto the chassis very well. You have four wheels two big ones for the back and two smaller ones for the front. Unfortunately the size difference isn't very obvious unless you look closely. The other problem with the wheels is that they are so heavy and the pin that is supposed to balance them on the side of the car is so small that they just fall straight off. Even if you haven't set the timer and are just placing the pieces on the wheels fall off every time you touch the car. The exhaust is also very difficult to fit as this slots underneath the back of the car but the slightest bit of movement makes that fall off too. Inside the car you have an engine piece but this can only fit on one way round and is quite small and fiddly especially when you are racing against the clock. However the pieces are all nicely made and there is plenty of attention to detail with regard to the Roary character. None of the pieces are really tiny or fragile and everything is made of hard solid plastic.

Overall I was very disappointed with this game and would not recommend it. I can't get the pieces to all stay on the car at the same time when I am doing it slowly and deliberately so when I am trying to build it against the clock and being "helped" by over excited three and four year old children it is impossible. We have a Bob the Builder game that is on a similar theme and that works much better.

My children like the Roary character and we have played this game a couple of times but they get bored of it quickly because everything just keeps falling off. The flipping action is also a bit weak and the pieces don't fly off as is indicated by the picture on the box.

I wouldn't recommend that you ask Santa for this one.

Summary: I've seen better versions of this type of game