Mike Barrett
Thea Lucic, 5, gets a thrill watching cars race through the loop as representatives from Hot Wheels brought their travelling tour to the Adventure Valley Daycamp in Thornhill Tuesday.
Thornhill
July 31, 2008 10:32 PM
Hot Wheels maker turns 40, takes interactive track challenge on road
Adam McLean
Odds are, if you are 50 or younger, you played with Hot Wheels cars as a kid.
Even if you are female and in that age group, you probably played “cars” as a child when your brother wasn’t home because you weren’t allowed to touch his toys.
To celebrate 40 years, Hot Wheels hit the road with an interactive, Hotwheels Track Challenge that pulled into Thornhill’s Adventure Day Camp on its only York Region stop Tuesday.
The Ontario-wide tour lets children build sweet stunt tracks, much like their parents and even grandparents would have done decades ago.
Armed with a trailer full of hot-rods, choppers, metres of track and loopdy-loops, Hot Wheels brand ambassadors Ryan Wong and Liza Ciampini took the young campers and their counsellors through a quick demonstration before turning the children loose on two separate piles of Hot Wheels gear.
The campers hunkered down and began sifting through the assortment of pieces. The mission: build the ultimate stunt track.
Not surprisingly, one such session became boys against girls.
“We’re gonna beat the boys, said Jazmine, 4, squinting against the sun and running a purple race car across her hand.
She then shared her prediction with the group of young lads no more than 10 feet away. While constructing their design, one boy broke the huddle and shot back a fierce, “No you’re not!”.
Each group built plastic masterpieces, complete with loops and jumps, setting off a domino effect of airborne race cars, whipping around the course where the participants played architect.
“The kids love it,” Mr. Wong said. “More often than not, they teach us how to use the track pieces. The kids creativity is just amazing,” he added.
After 30 minutes of feverish construction and test runs, the campers presented their courses with one final countdown.
The presentations garnered cheers as a rocket popped in the air, set off by a car whizzing by. The car raced through a loop and then the cheers turned to groans as the same muscle car was lauched from the track, but just missed its landing area nearly a foot away.
The campers weren’t necessarily being marked on style, but rather on participation and they all left with a little prize from the Hot Wheels crew.
“Each camper gets a Hot Wheels car made with the 1968 original die-casting,” said Ms Ciampini. “The chopper is definitely the most popular with the boys and the girls want pink cars.”
With all the different technology and video games available to children, it may be surprising to see them so pumped over a toy that hasn’t changed an awful lot since 1968.
But, even in the face of technology, it appears there will always be the desire within children to physically create, as well as virtually simulate. Ms Ciampini has seen this firsthand at different tour stops.
“At one stop, we were set up next to a PlayStation tent and most of the kids were coming over to play with the Hot Wheels. We got a huge crowd,” she said.
“Yes, kids are into computers, video games and that kind of stuff, but I think this is more fun. It’s tangible.”
The next stop on the Hot Wheels Road 2008 Track Challenge is at Kempen Fest in Barrie this weekend.
Visit
www.hotwheelscanada.ca for more information.