Official Pinewood Derby Kit found at Kmart!

[SKUDVR]

This cub scout dad was shopping for a birthday gift for my son, and found an official Pinewood Derby set with the car included! This Kmart is open 24 hours - I asked at the information booth and they said this kit is in all Kmart stores. There was also a bird house kit - this could be very convenient when the races start!

 

[OneHour]

Welcome to the forums!

 

I find it hard to believe that BSA would allow their logo'ed PWD kit to be sold outside of the BSA scoutshop. Now, the folks who make the kit can sell the kit to distributors who may sell it at Kmart but not as BSA logo'ed kit.

 

I have seen the kits from Kmart, Michaels, Hobby Lobby, etc..., and they are usually kits made by Pinecar. These are not accepted by our Pack. So the bottom line is whether or not your pack will allow non-BSA kit to be run in the race. There are folks out there on the Internet selling precut BSA pwd cars and pre-grooved and polished BSA wheels and axles.

 

So ... curiosity ... why would a birdhouse kit make it more convenient when the races start? Not unless the birdhouse has four wheels on it ... hhhmmmm ... that's not bad idea for a pwd car for this year!

 

1Hour

[DanKroh]

OneHour, how do you tell a non-BSA kit from the offical BSA one?

 

Last year, the PWD was the first meeting where I was Cubmaster. I'm pretty sure that a couple of boys (brothers) had cars that came from pre-cut forms, but the point became moot because the overeager Dad had grooved the wheels which made the cars ineligible. What we ended up doing was allowing the boys to run the cars (didn't want to punish the boys for something Dad obviously did), but told them that they would not be able to win a trophy or advance to the District race, since we felt that would be unfair to boys whose cars were within the rules. As it turns out, neither car did that well anyway.

 

We have a really knowledgable PWD chair, and I let him handle the situation last year since I was not as familiar with the rules as he was. But it would be nice to know what to look for if the situation were to come up again.(This message has been edited by DanKroh)

[SKUDVR]

TThey kits I'm talking about are NOT Pinecar items. I called the phone number on the back of the box and talked to a very nice person from The Mackin Group (who is making this kit). She told me that the kit was indeed liscensed by the BSA and that this is the first time that the BSA has allowed it to be sold outside of the scout stores. Their intent seems to be to make it easier for parents to get an official BSA PWD kit, and to expose more non-scouts to the fun of the program, which I think is a great idea. I was also told that they also make other BSA liscensed craft and hobby kits like the Bird House, a tool caddy, some robots and other items. I plan to check out what they have by googeling Mackin Group and look at the other official items that they offer.

[ScoutNut]

I looked at Kmart's website. These are NOT official BSA kits. Official BSA kits would say "Cub Scout Derby" on them. These kits are "My First Craftsman" wood kits. They are also 3X as expensive as the BSA official version.

 

The Kmart, My First Craftsman Wood Vehicle Racing Car Kit is $9.99. The BSA official Pinewood Derby Car Kit is $3.55. The Kmart version comes pre-cut, pre-sanded, pre-drilled & comes with paints, a paint brush, & a Craftsman screwdriver. I suppose if you have a family who does not have any tools in the house or has no time to spend actually creating the car with their son, this kind of thing might appeal. However it is NOT an official BSA kit.

 

The other Kmart wood kits are also priced at $9.99. Most of the BSA kits run from $3.60 to $8.75. Also, if purchasing from Kmart you add tax onto the cost. When purchasing from a BSA Scout Shop you do not.

[Beagle Scout]

Regarding sales tax on Scout shop purchases, this must vary state to state. Our local Scout shop here in Spokane, Washington, charges sales tax on purchases.

 

[OneHour]

Dan,

 

We look for:

1) The BSA logo'ed wheels. These are dead give away. Pinecar and the likes do not have these wheels.

2) The axles are nails. Pinecar are rods.

3) Bodies are all precut the same way. We have done this for the past 10 years. We come to know these bodies quite well. Sometimes, we let them through if the have the BSA wheels. Take a look at the variety of bodies that PineCar has: http://www.a2zhobbies.com/PineCar/Car_Kits/ . It will be very obvious.

4) The distances between the axles. There is a pinewood derby ruler that will allow you to check.

 

As I posted previously, it is harder to find and id these shortcuts because you can get the whole car pre-built out of BSA kit on the Internet, granted that you'll be paying for $50-$100 for them.

 

As for precut bodies, we begin to care less about the precut bodies since we have a pinewood derby workshop day where we ... precut the bodies for the folks any way! ... for the powertool challenged folks.

 

SKUDRV,

If indeed Kmart sells BSA kits, then it will definitely make it easier to mess up at the last minute and still have time to put another car together.

 

Hmmmm ... for some reasons, I always thought that Beta Crafts manufactured the kits. I usually buy the 18-wheeler kits from them for our Open Division race. The wheels are exactly the same, but without the BSA logo. They used to manufacture the 18-wheeler pinewood kits for BSA; as a matter of fact, just bought a dozen 18-wheelers kits for our upcoming pinewood derby race in January. Oh well, the Mackin Group may be someone new ... but something is interesting about them. The Mackin Group, LLC is a toy maker with anual income of $99,000 from the Illinois area. Assuming that they make BSA kits, then I would expect their anual income be in the neighborhood of about $500,000+ since there are boatload of cubs out there. Let's assume that there are 70,000 cubs participate in pwd. That means that there should be about $245k of revenue for them just in pinewood kit alone. That is interesting.

 

1Hour(This message has been edited by OneHour)

[SKUDVR]

The Kits that ScoutNut is referring to are not the kits that I am talking about.

 

The Mackin Group kits are called "Deluxe Pinewood Derby Set" and say "Boy Scouts of America" across the top of the box.

 

When I talked to the person at The Mackin Group, she told me that they purchase the wood blocks directly from the Boy Scouts in Charlotte, and package them with the other items in the kit (all of which are BSA approved), under license from the Boy Scouts, and that The Mackin group IS officially licensed by the Boy Scouts for this, and the other products they sell.

 

 

[ScoutNut]

Doing a search on Mackin Group, it seems they do make BSA endorsed craft & activity kits. I have not seen any of their kits at our local Scout Shop, but they seem to be sold at various online hobby shops.

 

I can't find a website for them so I am not sure what their corporate story is.

[eagle-pete]

Question -

 

Should you use the non-BSA kits for local pack Pinewood Derby races, or is that taboo?

 

Eagle Pete

[OneHour]

It must have been the wrong Mackin Group that I found. Learn something new every day!

 

Eagle Pete ... it's really depends on your Pack pwd rules and regulations! Some Packs allow it ... some don't. Some allow wheels alterations and wedging, some don't. Some allow extending the wheel base, some don't. Our pack's rules are most don't ... to keep it even and fun! It is silly to have professionally made wafer wheels with extended wheel-base that can only accurately be made by a drill-press. Here is an excerpt of the reminder that we send out with the kits before every pinewood derby event:

 

"This project is a parent and son event, and is intended as such by the National Boy Scouts of America. The Pinewood Derby Committee STRONGLY SUGGESTS that each parent emphasize this idea with your son. In all of the events, we insist that the cars be built this year by you and your son (not the physics labs of the university, car shop, model shop, or other such facilities not generally available to the public or everyone in the Pack).

 

In recent months, a large number of online pre-cut BSA kits as well as complete cars are available over the Internet. These are shortcuts that Pack does not support. Although derby registration officials cannot prevent these kits from being used and they are very difficult to identify, participants should keep the following philosophies in mind before purchasing such kit:

1. The Cub Scouts Motto: "Do your best"

2. "Parent-child project"

If wining at all cost is the philosophy and you elected to purchase these shortcuts, then the Pack recommends that for a small fraction of the cost of these kits, a nice size trophy can be purchased for your cub scout. This will guarantee your son of a trophy that you and he desires and it also allow other scouts to compete at the same playing field. Please remember that Pinewood Derby is meant as a quality time and an effort between a parent and child."

 

1Hour

[eagle-pete]

I completely agree, 1 Hour

 

Also, I really like the Pinewood Derby Workshop Day. We have a few boys who come from broken homes who may or may not have a dad available and willing to help out with their cars. Their mother does her best, but she may not have the skills or the tools to help make a car for her son. I have seen cars come to the race with wheels and axles falling off and poor design. Even though we did some quick repairs on race day, these cars didn't stand a chance in the race. The workshop day is ideal for those boys because they can get the help they need and tools are made available. They would have a fair chance in the race, where they would not have otherwise. I wish we could have put something like that together for a few races. It would take some time and planning, but I think it would be well worth it.

 

Eagle Pete

[OneHour]

Eagle Pete, pwd workshop is easy to put together. All that you need are:

- a band saw w/gogles

- a drill

- some acrylic paint/ painbrush

- a few decals

- bullet fishing weights

- sandpapers / electric palm sander is easier

- graphite lubricant

- super glue, wood glue, wood filler

- a scale

 

- several adults to help!

 

At the workshop, they draw the body. We cut it out and that's it! We teach them what to do and how to do it. They do it themselves!

 

At registration, after weighing each car, we advise them if they are underweight or over and give them the resources to fix their cars. Every car is at a minimum of 4 oz! Every car is given an opportunity to lube its wheel if the cub chooses. To date, every one of the cars finishes the race ... none stop dead in the middle because it is too light!

[eagle-pete]

WOW

 

That is fantastic! We have a new Cubmaster now, but I plan to submit this to the Cub Committee and see if we can get this going! What a great way to involve the parents and other adults in the pack as well!

 

Thank you

 

Eagle Pete

[OneHour]

One more thing ... I have asked boys in our troop to help at these workshops as a service hour. Some even show up without needing service hours. It has something to do with ... "when I was your age, I used to make it like this ..." You'll be pleasantly surprised! The bandsaw is still operated by an adult!