Hot Wheels Ultimate Garage Playset, Standard Packaging

Kids love it, so that's all that really matters. Has lots of room for car storage and several different ramps for multiple kids to all play at once. They love setting up races down the long ramp and using the automatic finish line to see which cars are the fastest. In retrospect I believe that routing the exit of the ultimate garage through the mouth of a giant shark may prove to be a liability issue, but the drivers should be aware of the danger. Assembly was not overly difficult but it helped to watch the YouTube video "How to build the Hot Wheels Ultimate Garage" on the official Hot Wheels channel just to see how everything went together. Note that with the side ramps, you need about seven feet of lateral space to fit this toy completely. It would be nice if the long ramp could be attached to come out the front or left side to allow for alternate configurations but you're stuck with the single layout shown in the photo. Although it is very large, it is light enough and not too difficult for this mom and dad to pick the whole thing up to move to another room or even up the stairs when the kids want to play with it somewhere else. The noises and lights aren't too loud or annoying, and it's easy to switch the toy off completely when needed. Finally, as with all Hot Wheels sets that use the same ramps, some larger Matchbox vehicles will not fit down the ramps although you can still park them in the garage. If you enjoy hearing your toddler ask, "Is this car too big? Is this car too big?" for every one of his 50 cars repeatedly, this is just the toy for you.

This toy is fantastic! It seemed like it would be overwhelming to put together at first, but the directions and pieces were excellent and easy to follow. Our boy was ecstatic to find it under the tree Christmas morning. I can't even tell you how much fun this toy is! We enjoy playing hot wheels with our son as much as he enjoys playing alone with the hot wheels ultimate garage. It is well worth the money and is everything it is claimed to be. I was worried the garage would not be that sturdy.I can see lots of use with this toy. With 36 parking spots to park your Hot Wheels® car collection and play space for more, kids won’t need to pick favorites. Multiple action zones, including a tune-up shop, gas station, chomping shark and helipad, mean they don’t have to stick to one story either!Play spaces include a sea-nic pier with chomping shark, multi-level garage, city scene, racing ramps and two -- yes, two -- elevators! Take a ride up, then cruise down the spiral ramp. Swing by the pier and try to avoid becoming shark bait. Fix up your ride in Speed City at the tune-up shop or stop to fill up with gas

Bought this for my 4 1/2 year old for Christmas and just finished assembling it. I have to say I am very impressed with the quality of this toy. The materials are strong and durable and assembly was a breeze. The directions are very clear and the diagrams are perfect, the parts are the same color in the diagrams as they are in real life. Love the sounds and the different things the cars can do. I think my 4 year old and his big brother will play with this together (oldest is 9). Great toy. Only thing is that it is a MONSTER. Takes up a lot of space. Bigger than I expected but he has so many cars it will be a great place to keep the favorite ones. We have had other flimsy garages that were not well made with some cardboard accessories, they were junk, this was worth the price for sure and am sure we will have it for a long time! Definitely recommend this toy if you had a little car guy!

I did not want to purchase this item, but it was the only thing my son was asking for Santa to bring him from back in summer time! I blame the youtube channels that he was watching. I caved and got it for him. Let me start by saying that when this is put together, this garage takes up a lot of floor space (mostly due to one of the ramps on the side). Thank goodness most of the stickers are already attached, with the exception of the stickers for the parking spaces. But you have to assemble the rest of the garage, which took us about an hour to do. It is not that hard to assemble ... a lot of pieces just snap together. There's just a lot of parts in this garage. It also comes with 4 cars and a helicopter. Two things we learned the hard way (aka our toddler pointed it out to us on Christmas morning) 1. The cars that come in the box have rubber bands wrapped around all 4 wheels that prevent the cars from rolling very well. 2. You need a screwdriver and some AA batteries (I think 4?) to operate the lights/sounds in the base area. (Not included!) One of the plastic ramps that spiral down looked a little funny - the ramp was not a smooth, gradual spiral down - it almost flattened out a bit. I was worried the cars would not be able to go down the ramp, but they had no problem! I did notice that the shark would get stuck sometimes and not chomp down on the cars when it came down the ramp. If you just pull the tail back all the way and cycle it a few times, it starts working again. I noticed that you need to pull the tail all the way back till it does not go anymore and clicks. Otherwise it does not chomp down and gets stuck. The long ramp on the side is pretty neat - you can load 2 cars into a "holding area" and then push the trigger to make them race down the ramp. At the end of the ramp are 2 signs that pop up when the cars pass, so you can see who the winner is. The set also comes with 5 grey plastic items that are not called out in the instructions. These are stoppers to put at the end of some of the ramps. If you use this at the end of the ramp, you do not have to worry about the cars going all over the house. There are 4 levels of parking spaces, with 10 spaces each. However, spaces 1 and 10 are open in the back. On the top level, they are the access to the 2 ramps. On the other 3 levels, they are just open (perhaps for expansion ramps?) So if you park a car in there, you just need to be careful if you move the garage, because they might fall off. There's 2 (manual) elevators on either side to bring the vehicles to each level. There's even little magnets that catch the elevator at each level. There were a couple times where the elevator platform fell off while holding a car, but my toddler had no problems snapping it back together. Overall, this is a great toy if you love hot wheels. There are so many interactive things that this garage provides to keep their attention and encourage their imagination. Just wish that it was not so big and a little cheaper! :)

UPDATED - Wow this toy is amazing; my son loves it so much. He is 8 and put it together by himself and has played with it daily since Christmas morning. I hated giving a low review for the item just because of the packaging but since I couldn't select a gift option for it when I ordered I didn't want others to be surprised but honestly if that is not a concern for you then BUY BUY BUY it is fantastic. MY PACKAGING REVIEW IS BELOW...NOT A REFLECTION OF THE PRODUCT INSIDE This 1 star review is SOLELY based upon what I found on my doorstep yesterday; the product has not been opened so I cannot review that but with Christmas approaching I thought I should warn other parents. My package arrived a day earlier than scheduled so I wasn't expecting it to be there on the weekend when my kids were home so that was the first problem, The second and more disappointing was the packaging...the box is COVERED in a description of what is inside it is actually almost laughable there is not one side of the box that does not in GIANT black letters declare the words "HOT WHEELS, TOY VEHICLES, ULTIMATE GARAGE" total overkill. I can only hope that while we were out none of my boys friends came to call on them otherwise I am going to have some serious explaining to do. I feel horrible giving this a 1 star review and will for sure update it after Christmas to more accurately reflect the product.

My son likes cars and building freeways . The set up was fine. There is a car eating shark that is strangely entertaining. Only major complaint is the missing orange tracks that is necessary to build the kit as the instruction show. My son didn't seem to care as he is 4 and does not know better. . Will need to find where additional tracks can be found.

So much in one toy. My 3 year old son loves this garage. Many stories high along wth the base which has a small hidden garage that one car can secretly hide inside. If we know kids they love these little nooks and it also has a small gas station pump which makes noise. There is a mechanics shop that makes sounds like its repairing a car. A helicopter pad with helicopter included that can load a car into its base with sound. Many places where you can attrach other hot wheels sets that you own or tracks. On one side of the garage is a huge spiral that lands in a sharks mouth which works great. As soon as a car comes to this point the shark will extend and chomp the car. My child gets a kick out of this every time. Countless parking spaces for maximum storage of all the cars. For those who have the space , it makes a great addiction to a hot wheels city. My child loves it and I love playing with him on this huge garage.

I bought this for my twins when they turned two. My husband shook his head when I came home with it because I've never had much luck with hot wheels products. My experience has always been that they don't last long and are not the best quality. This toy, however, changed all that for me. We have five boys ages 12, 9, 6, and the twins are now four and a half years old. It is still in perfect condition and it still gets played with! At first, my husband thought it was just a big parking lot for the cars, but there are actually so many different things for them to do. There are lights and sounds, a racing ramp, the shark mouth (which all the kids loved), and several other driving paths. We've had our house filled with kids aging from 2 to 12 several times over the last few years and this product has totally withstood the chaos of a house literally full of boys. Any toy that can do that gets high recommendations from me! I also loved that it comes with more than one or two cars.