Toy Story 3 - Falling with Style (product review)

My son just got the Toy Story 3 Hot Wheels Falling With Style track.  The concept is absolutely great.  The idea is that this is just like the scene in the first movie (which is replayed in the third one) where Buzz Lightyear is trying to prove that he really can fly and winds up "flying" through Andy's room on the "loopy loop" (as my son calls it).
 
Here's the problem, the car itself is not balanced correctly, especially with Buzz Lightyear attached to the car, to successfully make it through the loop.  My son has a lot of other Hot Wheel cars, so we tried a few other cars and a lot of those ones did work.  I also had to take a few similar pieces from his old "loopy loop" to make this one work better.  The tabs they include to attach the tracks together is a lot flimsier than the ones we got in the Toys R Us Fast Lane brand double loop.
 
I think that if you already have other tracks that can work with this, it would be great.  I need to try a few more height options and see if it works better, but so far, the suggested 30 inches did not work too well with just the items in the box.

My Review of Poingo Story Reader 2 Pack Set: Toy Story and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Originally submitted at Toys R Us

Venture into the story with Poingo! Move Poingo around the page to interact and play with two Disney favorites, Mickey Mouse and Toy Story. Connect Poingo to your PC or Mac to receive bonus content, free music and more!

Poingo Story Reader 2 Pack Set: Toy Story and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

This shows improvements!

By Mattsmum from Parma, OH on 1/1/2010

4out of 5

Pros: Page-Turner, Well Written, Engaging characters, Easy To Read, Informative
Best Uses: Younger Readers
Describe Yourself: Everyday Reader

My son got the Mickey Mouse book for Christmas this year. This book is a wonderful improvement over the books that came with the Poingo Pen. In the other books, no matter where you touch in the story section, it would begin from the beginning. This makes it hard to follow along, or even pause between paragraphs to discuss the pictures or anything. In this new version, you can touch the pen at the beginning of any paragraph on the page. So at least you can plan to pick up close to where you may have left off if your child goes astray. The additional activites are fun too. My son loved doing the Hot Dog Dance along with the book. Yes, it had the actual song and broke it down to teah how each character does the dance. My son three year old had a blast with that part. I hope to see mre improvements to this system.

(legalese)

My Review of Vtech V.Smile V-Motion TV Learning System - Blue

Originally submitted at Toys R Us

The V-Smile V-Motion Active Learning System by Vtech is a brilliant breakthrough gaming console that combines wireless motion-activated play, web connectivity, and educational gaming into a system that plugs directly into your TV. Your children will love the wireless action-packed play that guides ...

Vtech V.Smile V-Motion TV Learning System - Blue

Good when it works

By Vicki from Parma, OH on 12/15/2009

3out of 5

Pros: Educational, Engaging, Interactive
Cons: Works inconsistently
Best Uses: Entertainment, Young Children
Describe Yourself: Education Oriented, First Time Parent, Working Parent

I bought this in May 2009 for our son. It worked great for the first few months, then it started having problems. I called Vtech and they told me how to re-set the thing. (unplug everything, hold in the power button for 30 seconds, plug it all back in). I found myself constantly calling Vtech. It would work for one game and then I'd have to do the whole re-set thing every time he swapped games. After about 6 or 7 different calls to Vtech, they finally had me send the system to them and replaced it with a new one. I got the new one yesterday, so we'll see how long it lasts. My son likes the games and we probably have about a dozen different games. I don't expect much for graphics on this, so that's not a big deal. I just shouldn't have to disconnect everything and re-set it every time he wants to switch games (and hope it powers back on)

(legalese)