The New Lionel Mega Tracks Set Arrived Today!- UPDATED WITH VIDEO AND THOUGHTS

I can't believe Lionel put their name on that thing. I saw it at York several times and all it did was keep flying off the track.

Let us know how it works for you.

Wishing you all the luck in the world.

Back in 1966, Lionel catalog'd several 1/32-scale, double-track slotcar race sets, and one of them featured a 360-degree twin loop after which the track zig-zagged back to its normal width.  Needless to say, I NEVER was able to get the cars to make it successfully thru the loop... and  even if I could have, I doubt they would have stayed in the slots during the zig-zag afterwards.  

Might have worked in HO-scale, but was pretty much impossible to make it work in 1/32-scale.  But it looked great on paper!!!  

Hope folks have better luck with the 2016 toy than I did with the 1966 version.

David

It kept flying off the tracks the night they showed it on TV. The Polar Express front pilot kept coming off the tracks too! LOL.

I also wonder how long the stantions that hold up the track will last. They seem to take a lot of abuse and see me kind of light weight.

None the less, congrats on winning it!

You can't beat free!  And you might end up having fun with it!

After about an hour of using this I can confidently say this set is actually quite enjoyable. The materials and car are very rugged and well built. The design shown below is the one Lionel provided step by step instructions for. Running counter clockwise with this design will give you fast laps while running clockwise provides "chaos and crashes". The battery on the car charges fairly quickly (didn't track how long) and lasts just under 15 minutes of continuous use. Overall I am satisfied with this set, would I get this for myself? Probably not, but for the younger demographic I don't see why they wouldn't like it. There is also an iPhone app that can be used with this for additional play value but I couldn't find it. 

I beleive John Lennon once state," A conspiracy of silence speaks louder then words" A moment of silence please....or my sentiments exactly!

As Train Nut said, "you can't beat free."

Enjoy it with your family, probably if I had won this set, my first impulse would be to utilize a toy dart gun and use this set to practice shooting at a moving target.

enjoy your trains...

Is it just me, or does the way the vehicle causes the nearer 360-degree loop to touch the rug each time the vehicle goes through look awkward as all hell?

I had -- and enjoyed very much -- Hot Wheels when I was a kid.  None of them made the track go like that.  If they had, my instincts would have told me, "This isn't going to last too much longer.  Better put it away before I get blamed for breaking it."

Is it me, or is this a "WTF"?

SJS

Somehow I don't think the target audience is cantankerous senior citizens .

Serenska posted:

Is it just me, or does the way the vehicle causes the nearer 360-degree loop to touch the rug each time the vehicle goes through look awkward as all hell?

I had -- and enjoyed very much -- Hot Wheels when I was a kid.  None of them made the track go like that.  If they had, my instincts would have told me, "This isn't going to last too much longer.  Better put it away before I get blamed for breaking it."

Is it me, or is this a "WTF"?

SJS

It certainly looks that way from the camera angle haha! The loop is actually about two feet off the ground at its highest point and I'd guess the car has about a foot of room at its lowest point when it whips down.