If you follow me on twitter, you’ll know that I had quite the hefty rant earlier.
But this is not about that.
I must be in a mood.
This is about the totally irresponsible and ridiculous notions that Mom’s can’t play with hotwheels.
What.
No really. What the hell kind of crap just fell out of your mouth Matt Peterson?
Now, I have two sons. My first did not play with cars. At all.
But my 2nd?
HE LOVES THEM.
And we have bought a shit ton of them.
Proof? Look at that wagon. They may not all be hotwheels, but I can assure you that there are 100′s of them in there.
That’s a lot of cars, Matt.
You see, whereas my older son had more expensive hobbies ::cough:: Thomas the train:: my younger son has gravitated to the $1 hotwheel. And I have let him.
There are some really cool ones out there with flames, decals, wings. It’s actually a thing with us. We could be at the grocery store and there on an end cap is a hanging display of them. We sit there and go through them to pick out just the perfect one.
Picking them out as a MOM and son, it’s a thing I’ll always remember about his childhood.
But you know what Matt? You pissed me off.
BIG.
Do you really think all I’m good for is after school cookies?
Well, I am, but that’s not all.
Look at this track we have.
That’s a lot of track, Matt
LOOK AT IT.
In the summer we take it out to the driveway and build epic tracks.
But, wait, I’m not supposed to know how to do that.
HUH.
Instead of throwing your ignorance at moms, I’m going to clue you into maybe a few reasons why kids maybe have gravitated away from your product.
And how have I learned this?
BY PLAYING WITH THEM MYSELF.
I know. So hard to believe.
Reasons why hotwheels may suck:
Though the cars are super cool, the tracks?
MEH.
They are hard to put together in *just* the right way so the cars don’t get stuck on the joints. My son is 5 and gets pretty frustrated with the joints.
So Matt, maybe it’s the crappy joints.
We even have the wall tracks. They were ok, but unless you have an 8ft 5 year old walking around your house, my kid isn’t tall enough to put all the wall tracks at a height that wouldn’t require him to, I don’t know, be on a chair or have me help him start the car off. If you want to put 2 sets together like you suggest? You’re going to have to grab a ladder.
Maybe kids just aren’t tall enough these days, Matt.
Let’s not even get into how certain sets have to have that EXACT CAR that come with the set to work. Like some cars are too heavy to work on sets with action. That’s not how it works, Matt. Kids put all their hotwheels in a bin, container, pile and play with them. To play search and seek for the magical unicorn car that will work with the Twirly Whirly is not the game. You should either make the cars all the same weight, or at least color code the bottoms of the lighter cars that work with the sets.
Maybe it’s the fat heavy cars, Matt.
Another thing about the sets that have “action” to them?
Though the commercials make it look perfect every time, I can tell you that at least 50% of the time they fail.
Those tiny rubber bands you guys use to produce them break all the time and unless you have an advanced engineering degree and a slew of those micro screwdrivers to try and replace it?
FORGET IT. And you only give one replacement one? Silly Mattel.
And when your track is supposed to spin the car around and the rubber band breaks, no one is having fun.
No one wants their rubber to fail, Matt.
So next time you go and try and figure out why a product might not be succeeding as much as you would like, look at the product, not the moms who are often the ones buying them for their kids.
I’ll be waiting for my apology, probably while replacing another rubber band.
I was an only child. I owned ONE barbie, and she was usually at the scene of an accident, hit by one of my CARS.
I have been collecting hot wheels since I was about 8. I’m in between two brothers, and we grew up collecting and trading. simply collecting and trading: so much fun. I have my hot wheels and my kids have been collecting since they were about 3.
Matt? We just ignore Matt.
Like you do with dumb people.
(AWESOME, jen, especially the rubber joke. heh)
YES!!! THIS!!! ALL OF THIS!!!
I have a car obsessed four year old and we have been searching eBay and Craigslist for the vintage tracks that actually work. Freakin hard to find! No one gives that stuff up, because then then they have to use the modern crap.
Mr. Matt is dead wrong. And he kinda sounds like a douche. I played with Hot Wheels as a kid. I now play with them alongside my (almost) 4 yr old. I’ve used them to give alongside Valentine’s and put them in Birthday Goodie bags. So don’t tell me what I am “not” buying. And as for their tracks… I do a MUCH BETTER job with some cardboard and packing tape. So take that Mr. Matt.
I don’t have a son, but I do buy them for my daughter, and together, us feeble minded women folk have somehow (by the grace of God himself) figured out how to push them around and make “VROOOOOOOOM!” noises. It was touch and go for a second there, since this playing with car business is CLEARLY too complex for our delicate lady brains, but we pushed through, and we were victorious! We even invented a game called Cars vs Princesses, where giant Disney princesses smash the tiny cars like Godzilla. Probably a little of what he was talking about, but whatever. She still does the “vrooooooom!”.
I should add that the reason I am the one who buys the Hot Wheels and PLAYS with the Hot Wheels, is because my husband is some kind of weirdo who would rather collect the cars than actually use them. Hear that, Matty? My HUSBAND, the MAN, doesn’t want to play with your dumb cars; he wants to curate them in their original package (and probably make a spreadsheet, because he is very thorough) for safekeeping and posterity.
You’re an asshat, Matt.
As a mom with a son who was ‘meh’ about hotwheels and a daughter that age eleven still wants all of her hotwheels, but discarded the stupid tracks, I TOTALLY AGREE!
Ok, I missed what ever started this. But separately, I had my own pristine collection that I finally passed down to my brother when I was 15. And we all know what the tracks were for (when we were kids but not moms;), slapping each other like they are belts. So much pain;).
I guess I’m in the minority, but I actually don’t really know how to play with cars and wasn’t at all offended by Mattel’s comments. I never played with them as a kid, and I get bored out of my mind when playing with them with my four year old son. We basically just drive them on different furniture pieces while making car noises. I don’t know if that’s right or not…I just do what my son does. Luckily, though, he also enjoys playing with our Calico Critters – which is something I am very good at & know how to play. =)
So I’m on my first and only son. He’s 3. He refers to the grocery store as the ‘car store’ because we always get a new hot wheels when we go. It’s our thing. And yes Mattel, I have a vagina, and I too play with his manly hot wheels with him. Every. Single. Day. And yes, the tracks suck. They break, they are impossible to ever get set up correctly, and you charge too much for them. Also? My HUSBAND builds Air Force A-10′s for a living, and even he gets pissed at your crappy tracks.
Blaming the number one toy purchaser for their selling issues seems like a bad business decision. Hmmm… What if they actually asked mom bloggers whose kids were obsessed with Hot Wheels (hi!) what we thought since we play with these cats daily? Whoa. Did I just totally blow Mattel’s mind?
My son loves the cars but gets so mad that the cheap ass tracks don’t stay together, I won’t but tracks anymore because both of us get so pissed. We have a couple of rugs that have streets on them and now he makes his own tracks. It’s not that moms don’t know how to play with cars, they don’t know how to put out quality products.
I even buy Hot Wheels for my daughter! She loves playing with cars. This guy has another thing coming. You don’t go around talking smack, especially about us Mom! Great post!
I agree, it is completely about quality and options. I wanted something that didn’t mount on the wall and fling cars across my living room so that a) my 3yo could actually operate it b) there was some imagination involved and c) I could not have a HUGE FREAKING CAR TRACK HANGING ON MY WALL.
So we finally found something on Amazon.com that’s a garage and it’s a piece of crap.\ Falls apart every single time he plays with it (tantrums ensue). So while we have tons of cars around our house and underfoot no one is inclined to buy him more stuff. Even Cool Uncle Dan thought that all the Hotwheels stuff & gear looked awful and cheap.
BTW, my favoriate part of the article you link to is this quote: “The campaign seems to be backfiring. Some moms are saying they feel insulted.”
No WAY, REALLY?!
Idiots.
So MATT just lost his job. I HOPE.
I saw this earlier today and was planning a whole post about how the track Eddie has is crap and how not all Hot Wheels cars fit and LOOK! I am a MOM! A working mom even…and I KNOW THESE THINGS BECAUSE I PLAY WITH THEM TOO!
Stupid Matt. Stupid, stupid Matt.
Awesome Jen. Awesome AWESOME Jen.
LOVE this post. Every single part of it is spot on.Wrong, Matt!
Preach on, sister! Matt is a moron.
I don’t have boys but a 3 year old girl who loves to play with her cars. We have plenty of them and I have bought them all and play with her with them. Even creating roads in our playroom with tape for her to play with her cars on.
This also makes me mad that he said we have never played with them. I have a brother who loved cars and had tons of them. I played cars with him all the time. With tracks and without. Don’t tell me I never played with them or don’t know how to play cars. Ridiculous.
BIG Mistake, Matt. BIG. HUGE.
I bet that dude just lost his job, bummer.
And yeah, we will pass Thomas down to the grandkids but all the Hot Wheels will probably go to Goodwill…
This pissed me off, and I don’t even have kids. What part of Matt’s brain broke and made him think that insulting his consumer would make them want to buy more of his product? That’s not how it works, Matt.
BEST!
I think it’s time Matt and his PR team waved the black flag and went to work on some damage control.
My boys are now 12 and 14, so we missed the wall sets, but I think you’re kindergartener is almost as tall as me, so perhaps they wouldn’t have worked for us. I agree with you about cars that only work with a certain set and in general, I hated the sets. We just wanted track, but back them in seemed all they sold was sets.
With our Thomas/Brio/wooden train pieces, they boys would fill up the basement floor with elaborate setups. And you know what? That train stuff was expensive, but I’m saving it for the grandkids I hope to have one day. The Hot Wheels (and generic) cars are in a big bucket that I keep meaning to give to our young neighbor and the sets wound up in a landfill years ago.
I totally feel the same way. The Thomas will be saved, the hotwheels sets, not so much.
OMG is he serious??????? UGH. Ok, I guess that tonight I won’t play wall tracks with my son like I usually do. and my daughter. Sheesh.
Wow, I totally missed this. Matt is an idiot.
Not knowing who Matt Peterson is, I Googled “Matt Peterson Hot Wheels” and your blog today was the third thing on the first page…..wow!
This is hilarious. Side note. I have girls and I buy them Hotwheels as well! Matt’s a dumbass
It’s like you’ve opened my head and just transcribed what was in my brain. My sister and I grew up playing cars together. In fact, I’m not sure either of my brothers ever did. And we do the same thing. A trip to the grocery store often results in a $1 purchase to add to our MASSIVE collection. We, too, go through every single car with both of us picking out our favorites and then he picks the final winner. But the tracks? They usually stay hidden away because they are crap. I’ve wasted so much money trying to get Wall Tracks to stick to my walls that I’m tempted to just superglue them. But then the tracks would fall apart anyway and the cars would NEVER make it around the loop even if you replace the rubber band with a brand new one.
Hot Wheels can suck it.
Reading that article you linked to I actually double checked that I wasn’t reading The Onion or something similar. Is Mattel really that dense? Women don’t know… how… to play with… cars?! I just cannot even.
My two GIRLS love playing with cars, on the race track that belonged to their MOM back in the day… So the whole “moms don’t get toy cars” thing was mystifying to me as well.
BTW, the brand she had & the girls still play with is Darda, and oddly enough, since we were missing the cars, I went out and bought new ones last year, and they worked perfectly on the tracks made 30-odd years ago. So I think you have some good points to make about Mattel’s car products maybe just not being up to snuff.
WHAT? I am the official buyer of Hot Wheels and I *may* enjoy playing with them more than my kids :)
uh…quick someone write a post on how to play with hot wheels…i don’t get it and there’s no directions. wtf, Hot Wheels, really do we LOOK that dumb. We buy (and play with) what our kids like. I certainly don’t ‘get’ pokemon but when my kid wants it, he gets it. I can’t STAND Power Rangers but I’ve got them coming out me ears.
We also have hundred upon hundreds of cars. And I can tell you I’ve played cars about a billion times (ok maybe not quite) more than good ole Dad has. Stupid men. lol
This message is 100% better just because of your accent.
I read that article a few weeks ago and it really burned my ass.
I can’t count how many times *I* have built tracks for my boys, bought Hot Wheels for them, sat at the store searching through racks and racks to find the BEST one, had races with them, and on and on…..
Well said, as always, m’dear!
What did I miss while my kid wasn’t napping? Did someone actually say that moms can’t play Hotwheels?? IS HE INSANE?
As a mother of 4 boys…OMG, I am with you…Mr. Matt you’re WRONG!!!!