Dad Creates 'Real Life' Super Mario Kart Course For His Son During Lockdown
Andrew Dawson was struggling to keep his lad engaged so came up with the perfect idea
Stuck in their houses for weeks on end, parents have been forced to come up with increasingly ingenious ways to keep their kids entertained - like Andrew Dawson, from Cheadle, who took classic video game Super Mario Kart and turned it into the real thing for his son.
Having been cooped up in their house for so long, 36-year-old Andrew and his partner Rhiannon, 27, had struggled to keep six-year-old Drayton engaged, so over the Easter bank holiday got to work building a huge track in their driveway.
Overall it took 30 hours to put together, and it's a pretty impressive feat of design.
Speaking to LADbible about how he came up with it, Andrew said it was a way of stopping his little boy from being sucked in by modern technology.
The commercial manager said: "We've been trying to create various learning and play ideas during lockdown that minimise the use of screens, such as the TV and games consoles.
"He enjoys Mario Kart on the Nintendo when he goes to school holiday sports clubs, and keeps asking for an Xbox, which we don't want to introduce just yet.
"As remote control cars are fun for kids, I looked online for a Mario Kart one, and bought it originally as a toy for the house, but when it arrived I realised how powerful and fast it was so thought it would be best enjoyed in a bigger space."
As the idea started to percolate in his head, his vision got bigger and better - even including an impressive papier-mâché volcano.
Andrew explained: "With a garage full of cardboard, due to reduced bin collection days at the moment, I decided to build a track outside over the sunny Easter bank holiday.
"What started out as an initial idea of just flat cardboard progressed as my enthusiasm for the idea increased, screwing eggs boxes, tea bag boxes and tissue boxes to the track, as bumpers to keep you on course for turns.
"After working quite rapidly, I then decided to improve the aesthetics by painting bumpers red and white, turning boxes into a hospital building, and asking Rhiannon to mould a volcano from papier-mâché."
Then, once it was all finished, the only thing left to do was for Drayton to give the track a test run.
And it sounds like he's over the moon with his dad's creation.
"He absolutely loves it," Andrew told us.
"He said it's better than the actual game itself and he wants to use it so much that I'll probably progress the building of it when I get more time - adding more 3D buildings as bumpers, a possible track extension, and even a raised bridge over one of the roads would be great."
Top work, Andrew!
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Dominic Smithers