I really wanted my daughters to like the Tonka Bounce Back Racer. Because most of our toys come from the grandparental bounty, and because grandparents usually buy little girls play kitchens and My Little Ponies, this was the first remote control car to ever enter our living room.

Both kids were very exciting during the arduous "getting it detached from the box" process. Then I had to locate batteries and a screwdriver. Of course, since it is remote control, I needed batteries for both the controller (a 9-volt) and the car (3 AAs) -- and then, when the car wouldn't come on, I found a SECOND battery compartment in the car and needed to find even more batteries (3 more AAs for a total of 6).

Because all this was a bit challenging, let me share the one thing I have learned about kids' Christmas mornings: If you buy this toy as a present, get it out of the packaging and get all those batteries in it before you wrap it up. This goes for all toys, but especially one like this with three separate battery compartments to get opened and filled, and then closed with those tiny little screws.

Once I was finally done with all that, the girls were quite interested in the racer. It's designed to be a kid's first remote control car, so it's nice and rubbery with no sharp corners and no pieces that come off. My toddler enjoyed just pushing it around on its big wheels, and before long, the 4-year-old was using the remote to maneuver it around corners and under furniture.

Once it got moving on its own, the toddler skedaddled out of there, because she was afraid of it. But it kept the preschooler quite occupied for a good 30 minutes. However, after that first day, any time I tried to get her interested in the car again, she ignored it. She now understood how it worked, and she just didn't see any more possibilities for fun in driving it around.

I will probably give this toy away to some deserving little boy, or maybe a girl who's more vehicularly inclined. But as for my kids -- and I swear I didn't make them this way -- it appears that girls will be girls. And Tonka's motto these days? "Built for boyhood."

Disclosures: 1) I received a free review sample of this toy and 2) This article contains an affiliate link.