If you know a child who'd rather race Hot Wheels than crack a workbook, check out the Hot Wheels Accelerator Laptop (model JW88) from Oregon Scientific.

The Accelerator Laptop has 60 learning activities (50 in English and 10 in Spanish) to help a child brush up on first- and second-grade skills. These include spelling, math, memory, logic and music activities, as well as games. For example, one of the math activities prompts the user to enter the solution to an addition problem. When the correct answer is entered, a race car image appears on the laptop's LCD screen, music plays and points are awarded. Other activities include word puzzles, memory games and number challenges.

Hot Wheels fans will like the car-inspired design of the Accelerator Laptop. In addition, this laptop has a built-in speedometer that lets kids test the speed of their cars, and the speed displays on the screen. Additionally, a multitude of separately available Hot Wheels racetracks can be connected directly to the laptop to track a car's speed. While this is certainly an entertaining option, we put the speedometer/race track feature in the "nonessential" category.

The attractive laptop design features red and orange accents, but most of the top portion is filled with speaker- and speedometer-shaped stickers. The small LCD screen is unfortunately only capable of black-and-white graphics, and we really wish it could display in color. That said, the Hot Wheels Accelerator Laptop from Oregon Scientific is sure to attract young learners.


Pros: 60 games, race-car design, built-in racetrack lets you clock your Hot Wheels
Cons: LCD screen is small and only displays in black-and-white