Carrera First 63011 Disney/Pixar Cars 3 battery operated slot car set

Oh my! How much fun can a six year-old boy have with a racing set like this! Well, I found that a fifty-three year-old father can also have tons of fun with it too. It took me back to my youth, when I had a similar set forty years ago.Before I dig into this review, I do need to qualify my rating. I still give this set a five-star rating, BUT we did have problems. I probably should drop the rating, but this set is just so much fun, I can't get myself to give it anything but five stars.Okay... With that out of the way, let me explain a few things about this set.The slot car set comes with the track pieces, cardboard cutouts that act as signage that you place around the track, plastic pieces to hold the signs up and raise the track so part of it extends over the road below, two controllers, and two cars: Cruz Ramirez and Lightning McQueen. Setup took about fifteen minutes and is very logical. I had to refer to the instructions only to figure out what the tiny plastic pieces were for and where to place the signage and track risers.You might notice other reviewers complaining about the cars not staying on the track. Carrera's product uses magnetism to hold the cars on the track. A plastic post extends down from the bottom of each car, and this slips into a channel in the track. The post ensures the car follows the lane the vehicle is placed on. Metal braiding is used on the bottom of the car to make contact with the metal track rails. This is how DC voltage is passed to the car. This design is different than the older style I grew up with, which used metal channels the car slips into for guidance and voltage supply. Personally, I prefer the old style than the metallic braiding. The braiding frays with time and gets bunched up if the child moves the car backwards on the track; moving it backwards causes the metal braiding to pull back in the wrong direction. It's a little difficult to describe, but the braiding is bound to wear out over time.When we finished building the track, Lightning McQueen raced fantastically! He drove perfectly and surprisingly fast. Cruz Ramirez, on the other hand, didn't. She didn't follow the track. If you placed her on a straight track piece, she'd drive it, but when a curve came, she would drive off the curve and not track it at all. Looking closely, I figured out that the plastic post on the bottom of the car didn't extend into the track channel. It was a manufacturing flaw. I've heard Carrera has good technical support, but I didn't want to have my son wait a week or two to use two cars with his birthday gift. So I used the smallest drill bit, drilled a tiny hole where the post should have been, located a real small screw, screwed that in, then used a bench grinder to file down the edges on the screw head. I backed the screw out of the hole enough to equal the depth of the post on the bottom of the Lightning McQueen car, and presto! She worked perfectly!But this took about an hour to fix, and probably should have been reflected in the star rating for this product. As I said, after this was fixed, the amount of fun my son and I had with this racing set erased any dissatisfaction I have with this product.One thing we noted is, Lightning is noticeably faster than Cruz. I'm not sure if this is because of the modification I made to Cruz to ensure she rides properly, or if there's some other factor affecting her speed. I was able to manipulate the braiding that extends off the bottom of the cars to slow Lightning down a little so they more closely match, but my son didn't like this. He always wants to be Lightning and always wants to win, so I put it back the way it was. Cruz is always a little slower.Fans of the movie know that Cruz's top speed is 210 MPH and Lightning's is 198 MPH, so having Lightning faster doesn't match the reality of the movie. But who cars… It's just a game. :-)The build quality is okay—lots of plastic. The track pieces fit together well, but it takes an adult to make sure they push together completely. My son wasn't strong enough to get the track segments to seat completely. This track requires four C batteries in the power pack. We played with the set for a number of hours over the weekend, and it's still running fine. The cars may be a little slower, indicating a battery change may be needed soon. The controllers work great, although the wire attached to the controllers only extends a few feet. They're small and light and the buttons operate smoothly. The speed of the cars is controlled by how far down you press the controller button. You can have the cars drive slower by not depressing it all the way, or you can have them go as fast as possible by depressing them fully. Speed control is not very sensitive. It's not so easy to control how fast or slow the cars go, but it does provide some level of control.This set makes a fantastic gift for any child interested in cars and racing. It's even more fun for fans of the Pixar Cars movies. If you don't want to be burdened with the expense of replacing batteries, the higher priced Carrera Pixar Cars tracks I believe have an AC supply that eliminates the need to purchase batteries.Along with the usual racing play, we had a great time taking various Hot Wheels, Matchbox, and Pixar Cars vehicles and placing them on the track as obstacles. When the racers crashed into them, they’d fly off the track and Lightning and Cruz would continue on their merry way until my son put another obstacle on the track for them to smash into. :-)Tons of fun for daddy and son... highly recommended!

More than expected. Bought for our 5 yr. old grandson and is perfect. As others say the track will work loose but what slot car track doesn't, this slight issue was less than we expected. It is fun, cars stay on the track, the track is large enough for small hands to work. The only con we have is the controllers need longer connection wires. Little ones in their excitement hang on to the controller when reaching to reset cars and the track gets dragged. Overall a kid friendly slot car set. Brought back a lot of memories.

Cars set is great. My 3 years old godson loved it. Had to help him put it together but he's enjoying it and the car stays on the track 100% of the time. Planning to visit the vendor since it's close to where I live and might get me a more advance version.

Very easy to assemble and great for my 4 year olds birthday. She loved it. Never had any issues with connecting to the track or any power issues.

The track is ok but not worth $63.00 . Also the order page was very misleading, it said 2 days to arrive and ended up being 5 days after confirming the order. I was not impressed.

Awesome my Nephew loves it

Looks as described-bought as a gift

Awesome Christmas gift my son and husban and dogs love it

Hallo,hier finden sich einige Rezensionen, welche - zurecht - über hinausfliegende Autos und ungleich schnell fahrende Autos klagen. Und sie haben recht. Zumindest zum Teil. Ich persönlich denke, dass es sich bei dieser Bahn um einen günstigen ersten Einstieg in die Carrera-Welt handelt, bei dessem vergleichsweise geringen Preis man einfach nicht zu viel verlangen darf. Trotzdem gibt es ein paar Dinge, die man beachten oder tun kann um den Spielspaß zu erhöhen:gegen herausfliegende Autos:- schauen, dass beide Schleifer in Richtung Fahrzeugheck gebogen sind- wenn man volle Batterien verwendet, fahren die Autos schneller und fliegen auch schneller aus den Kurven -> evtl. am Anfang halbvolle Batterien verwenden, bis sich das Kind an den Gashebel gewöhnt hat und nicht immer volle Pulle fährt.- die Kurven ordentlich zusammenstecken (teilweise lösen diese sich wieder mit der Zeit)- mal die Spuren wechseln (bei mit fährt das gelbe Auto besser auf der Außenbahn, da dort das rote Auto immer rausflog)gegen stockende Autos:- die Schleifer immer wieder mal von Fusseln befreien- die Schleifer müssen nach intensivem Gebrauch (wir reden hier aber über Wochen) mal tauschen -> Ersatz sollte man vorrätig haben- wie oben schon erwähnt, die Schleifer in Richtung Fahrzeugheck biegen- evtl. mal die Controller vom Trafo nehmen und wieder neu einsteckenfür Bastler - gegen herausfliegende Autos:- z.B das Auto öffnen und ein Gewicht einkleben (eher im vorderen Bereich)- oder einen stärkeren Magneten einbauen; auch ins Fahrzeuginnere, denn ein Kontakt zur Bahn könnte zu einem Kurzschluss führen (da muss man sich erstmal einen passenden suchen, in den einschlägigen Tuning Shops gab es noch keine bis Dezember 2018)Noch wichtig zu wissen:- Batterien mit besorgen, in der Verpackung sind keine enthalten- diese Bahn ist nur kompatibel mit Bahnen der first-Serie, nicht aber mit allen anderen Carrera-Serien.Warum nur 4 Sterne:...weil die oben genannten Punkte bereits ab Werk besser sein könnten/müsstenSo und jetzt viel Vergnügen.

Die Carrera-Bahn sollte ein schönes Weihnachtsgeschenk für einen kleinen Jungen werden. Nach derkurzen Begeisterung beim Auspacken, dann eher Enttäuschung und auch Ärger. Die Bahnteile lassen sich sehr schwer zusammenstecken - man hat das Gefühl es könnte jederzeit zu viel Kraft auf die Teile wirken und zu einem ersten irreparablen Schaden führen. Nachdem diese Hürde genommen wurde und die Begeisterung beim Beschenkten in pure Ungeduld umgeschlagen ist, die größte Enttäuschung: Die notwendigen Batterien sind nicht da! Eigentlich kein Problem, denn diese sind in unserem Haushalt doch immer vorhanden ... Denkste! Statt der gängigen Formate AA, AAA oder von mir aus D sollen hier Batterien vom Typ C verwendet werden. Ein entsprechender Hinweis findet sich zwar auf der Verpackung, jedoch fällt hier nur das Batteriesymbol ins Auge und weniger der Hinweis auf den Typ C. Diese an Heiligabend aufzutreiben ist ein sinnloses Unterfangen, da auch die sonst gut ausgestatteten Tankstellen der Umgebung diese nicht verkaufen.Bisher hierhin also ein klarer Flop...So, die Batterien sind nun da, der Spielspaß kann losgehen - oder? Die kleinen Flitzer sind wirklich zügig unterwegs und es macht allen Spaß sie auf dem Parcours kreisen zu lassen. Zunächst bleiben diese auch stabil in der Spur und fliegen nur bei Höchstgeschwindigkeit in den Kurven raus. Mit zunehmender Spieldauer wird es jedoch immer schwerer die Autos auf der Bahn zu halten und sie fliegen schneller mal raus. Nach zwei Tagen Benutzung lässt sich ein Fahrzeug (rot) nur mit viel Fingerspitzengefühl fahren, da es sonst aus fast jeder Kurve fliegt. Für ein Kind zwischen 2 und 4 Jahren (fast) nicht möglich.Grundsätzlich scheinen beide Autos gleich schnell zu sein, zumindestens zu Beginn. Aufgrund der beschriebenen Probleme mit dem roten Auto, muss dieses allerdings wesentlich langsamer gefahren werden als der gelbe Wagen.Zu einer Weiterempfehlung reicht es mir nicht aus, dazu überwiegt der Ärger und die Enttäuschung...

Good little starter track for 3+. Easy to assemble and opperate as all the corners can be taken flat out without flying off the track. Only negative is Storm is quite a bit faster than McQueen but my kids are only 3 and not really competitive so not that bothered

Encantados con el juguete. A mi hijo de cuatro años Le ha encantado. La única pega que pongo y no Le doy cinco estrellas es porque el coche rojo de Rayo se queda un poco parado en las pistas a pesar de que están bien entrelazadas unas pistas con otras. Tener cuidado porque si se recorta la imagen de detrás de la caja pra poner en el circuito luego no se puede recoger correctamente el producto. Por lo demás todo fenomenal.

Bought this for my grandson for his birthday who has just turned 4. He loves it hasn't stopped paying with it, well worth the buy!