Power Wheels

I’m not a wealthy man; as a matter of fact I’m poor. (“Poor and perfect, with eyes like the sea after a storm”…sorry, off topic in the first line, ...wow) So, some of the higher priced toys for my kids have been a little out of justifiable reach. By expensive, I’m referring to toys that last one to two years and are hundreds of dollars. Falling into this category has always been the oh-so popular Power Wheels line including everything from Jeeps and ATVs to Hummers and Caddies. They always looked like a blast, I know I wanted one when I was a kid, but it didn’t happen for my older daughter and it wasn’t going to happen for my now four year old son….by normal means that is.

So my wife was out in the front yard one day with my son and the neighbor from across the street walks over and says “Do you think your little boy would like our old Power Wheels 4-Wheeler?” Little Man is four, but no dummy. He is psyched and says “Yes, yes, please, please, plleeeeease?” My wife asks how much they would want for it and the lady says “nothing”. They walk over and look at it and it looks pretty good. Little Man jumps on and at this point is crazy excited. My wife offers $50 to the neighbor but she says it will need a battery so we can really just have it and use the money to get a new one.

I get home from work that night and Little Man sprints to the front door and tells me he has a new motorcycle (4wheelers and motorcycles are the same thing in his mind) and can we please go get the battery tonight. I check it out and although apprehensive that it will actually work, we head to the local toy shop and indeed drop a fifty on a new battery.

We charge it over night and the next day I take my son out to do a thorough mechanical check and cleaning. Gotta teach the kid about maintenance, right? The kid buffed and scrubbed it like it was his first car. I guess technically, it was. Then, to my amazement, we plugged in the battery and the thing worked perfectly. He rode it in our back yard on the grass for a good half hour, at least, before the battery died. The slow gear only appeased him for a couple of minutes before he found the high gear and got some pretty good speed. 5Mph or something, don’t get panicked people.

Had I known the smile my kid would have riding that thing, I think I may have rethought my “too expensive” mandate on all things Power Wheeled. That night as we were getting him ready for bed, he asked if we could make a jump for his motorcycle the next day. I told him jumps were out of the question, but he has ridden and re-ridden loops on in our back yard and only tried to take it up the slide once.

The battery gives an impressively long ride and my nine year old even hops on it and tools around the yard too. I don’t know the exact weight limit, but I know it won’t hold my chubby frame. Although it looks really fun and I wish it would. So, with the exception of a couple of broken sprinkler heads, which I imagine I will find when I start watering this spring, and a four year old not quite understanding the benefits of a 3-point turn, I give this little gem 4 Power Stars.