Color-Changing Outdoor Fun with Hot Wheels

I’ve been sort of “meh” about Hot Wheels playsets in the past, but the Hot Wheels Color Shifters Blaster has been a pleasant surprise since it showed up on our doorstep last month. That may be because, once the kids and I set up the color-changing car playset and its accompanying H20 reservoirs, the thing stayed outside. See, this particular Hot Wheels set has been designed for outdoor play, and if the inside of your house is as overrun with toy cars as mine is, that in itself is reason enough for a thumbs-up.

Of course, the play aspect ain’t bad, either — nor is the setup. Unlike many similar toy-car playsets, which involve either a dodgy track assembly or collapsing “action” parts (all of which always seem to come dislodged the second my kids try playing with them), the Color Shifters Blaster is almost fully assembled right out of the box. Snap on the plastic water shield, fill the squirt gun and hot/cold water chambers, and you’re ready to roll.

Wile the track itself is nothing to write home about (once around and you’re done), the real hook for this one is the color-changing feature: You blast your Color Shifters cars with warm water to change their color, and dunk them in cold water (preferably icy; we had trouble with cool tap water) to change them back. You can do half-and-half, swirl and splatter designs, too, and while one car comes with the Blaster set, each car in the Color Shifters series reveals a new surprise when you soak it.

Get yours for $22.99 from Amazon.