Review – Flip Force Rally/Muscle

The WowWee Flip Force toy cars (official website, Amazon.com search*) first came to my attention a few months ago when I ran across one of the toy cars at a Walgreens. The packaging caught my eye and then the design led to buying one. But that was the last time I saw the toys in a store until Friday when I spotted one at a Wal-Mart in Massachusetts. And at a $1 clearance price I had to grab it.

Packaging

The Flip Force packaging is both awesome and frustrating all at once. The clear shell holds the car in a position so that you can see how it works without even taking the toy out of the package, but once you’re ready to remove the toy from the shell it’s a chore that requires scissors and a bit of time. I’m really torn on the packaging because without it I likely wouldn’t have even spotted the toy but the packaging was so annoying to open that I am less interested in more cars. In the end, though, I think the packaging was a great idea and looks amazing.

(And yes, the packaging has me really split. It’s great for selling the toy and not so great when you want to play with the toy.)

Flip!

So what do the Flip Force toy cars do? Well, if you hold the car by the gray handle on the rear and then rotate the car so the bottom is on the top then the pieces swing and reveal a second car design. It’s tough to explain so watch this Flip Force commercial and I think you’ll immediately see why I think this is a great idea and a fantastic toy for kids who love cars.

Rally Car

The car shown here is the Rally side of the vehicle. I love the red and white design — almost looks like it could have been a racer/ambulance design — and at 3-inches long (including the gray handle) the car’s bigger and bulkier than a lot of toy cars out there. The squat, beefy design to all of the cars in the Flip Force series reminds me of the old Penny Racers/Choro-Q toy cars (Wikipedia) and I know if I was a kid I’d be loving this today.

(Once I got the package opened.)

And what’s really nice about both modes is that the play feature/transformation effect doesn’t have any negative impact on the most important part of a toy car: the car rolls great across a smooth floor. And I will say again that I just love the look of the car . . . but then I’m a fan of blocky and different when it comes to designs and I’m not someone who expects toy cars to look just like real cars. Give me stylized fun over realistic cars!

Muscle Car

The reverse of the Rally, the Muscle Car design carries the beefy look to the underside of the car and gives us a new look that shares some specific parts: the fenders/wheels and rear of the two designs are the same, but creative design makes the fenders almost look like different parts. And what is really impressive to me is how smoothly the transformation is with gravity doing all of the work. I can already see designers of transforming robot toys looking at these and getting some ideas for future robot toy designs.

The paint on both cars is nice and tight, and I love how the designers gave the cars different colors for the windows to help really make the two designs look different. There are a few rough edges here and there, but nothing you notice until you start staring at the car (or looking at photos that enlarge the car by 500%+).

Closing Thoughts

The Flip Force toy cars (official website, Amazon.com search*) are recommended if you can find them on clearance for $5 or less. The official MSRP is $6, which is just a little high, but even at $6 I could see someone buying a few of these as a Christmas or birthday gift for a kid who loves toy cars.

And, to be honest, the more I play with this the more I find myself wanting to visit nearby Wal-Marts and Walgreens to see if I can find more Flip Force cars. And checking the WowWee webstore I find that I really want all of the Off-Road to Off-World toy cars. Okay, these are far cooler than I was expecting and I hope that the line starts to attract some attention so that it can see a second series.

Philip Reed will now resist the urge to order the Off-Road to Off-World sets directly from the WowWee webstore.