*I was sent the Switchback Racetrack from Hape for this review. All opinions are my own.

My nephew Drew turned 3 last week and he absolutely loves cars. While he is excited at the idea of the common, plastic tracks made for small cars – they just don’t hold up to his rough play and at barely-3, he doesn’t always have the fine motor skills to piece the track together the first time, so it definitely frustrates him if it falls apart and needs remade several times. So I went looking for a track set that is more durable and perhaps aimed at slightly younger children. I stumbled upon the Hape Switchback Racetrack and while it wasn’t 100% what I had in mind, once I saw it, I thought he would like it.

The Switchback Racetrack is wooden and has four levels of “track” that hang at slightly different levels and angles so that you can place a car (or two! there are two lanes) on the top and it will fall down all four levels until it gets to the “finish line” at the very bottom. It allows for a playmate to join in because it has two lanes so the cars can “race” and as best I can tell, there isn’t any lane that “always wins” – it seems to me that it varies which is nice.

Seems how the Switchback Racetrack is suitable for children as young as 18 months, the only slight concern I had would be that it would be too young for him.  I can’t say that there are many toys that claim to be for ages 18+ that I would consider buying for him. However, I knew that he could sit and play with cars and a single “jump” for more than an hour at a time with me so I thought that although the idea of this toy is simple, it would really spark his interest and that it would have a lot of play time for him. Turns out, I was right! He’s been playing with this set all the time since I gave it to him. I was surprised to find that my 10 year old little sister even played with him with the set for a few minutes one day as she typically won’t play things with him that don’t interest her personally but they used the set to race each other for several minutes one day.

The set comes with four cars (each of a unique color so if racing its easy to tell who won) that are able to be “driven” while rightside up or upside down, which is what allows them to work on the track because sometimes the cars get flipped upside down when dropping to one level or another. This does mean that other cars that are not able to be driven upside down won’t work on the track, so I’m thankful that the set is generous in providing four cars instead of just one or two.

Although Drew enjoys cars of all kinds – his favorite are race cars. Typically, he distinguishes regular cars vs race cars by whether or not they have a number on them or not. The cars with this set don’t have numbers, but he still considers them race cars because he is familiar with checkered flags being related to racing.

View the Switchback Racetrack “in action” in my video below.

I love how sturdy and durable the set feels – I have no doubt that it will still be in nice shape even after Drew has outgrown it. I love the quality that comes with wooden toys and Hape has a considerable selection of wooden toys including cars, blocks, musical instruments, doll house sets and puzzles – just to name a few.

I’m really happy with the Switchback Racetrack (as is Drew!) and I plan to purchase more Hape toys in the future. It has made a great third birthday gift for him and I would recommend it as a birthday gift to anyone who has a child who enjoys cars, especially if they are a bit more rough on toys and could appreciate the durability that Hape offers.

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Emily

Hi there! I am Emily Evert, the owner of Emily Reviews. I am 28 and live in a small town in Michigan with my boyfriend Ryan and our two pugs. I have a large family and I adore my nieces and nephews. I love reading memoirs, and learning about child development and psychology. I love watching The Game of Thrones, Teen Mom, Sister Wives and Veep. I like listening to Jason Isbell, John Prine, and other alt-country or Americana music. I created Emily Reviews as a creative outlet to share my life and the products that I love with others.

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