Customer Reviews

Carrera Go Mario Kart Slot Car Race Set 1:43 Scale

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

My son was immediately attracted to this set because of the familiar characters. I assembled it while he was sleeping and found that I couldn't keep the cars on the track for more than a couple of laps at the time. The controllers are too sensitive for the kind of responsiveness you need to navigate the steep curves and vertical challenges of the advertised track layout.

The Wario car, in particular, must have a weird center of gravity, because it hops off the tracks even on the slightest of curves. Mario is better, but still, this set will cause far more aggravation than delight. My suggestions to Carrera would be:

1) stronger magnets to keep the cars on track
2) lighter cars so the magnets can hold them down more easily
3) much more gradual change in speed with the analog controllers
4) entry-level sets need entry-level track layouts

I bought a competitor's 1:43 scale "kid's" set for about the same price, and it's a blast (SCX 1:43 "Tuner" set). The cars have lights for great fun in the dark, and even with reasonably steep curves, the cars can absolutely SCREAM around the track without coming out of the slot. You get less track than the Carrera set, but the SCX set more than makes up for the difference with simplicity of construction and PLAYABILITY. My three year-old had the hang of racing the SCX tuners in about 30 minutes.

I've been trying to manage the Mario set for a few hours now, and if I want to stay on the tracks, I have to creep around at a snail's pace. I'll try a simpler (FLAT) track layout next to see if we can salvage this Carrera set at all.

First off, I must mention that if you are having problems with the cars staying on the track, flip the car over and press the metal connects down towards the car. If they stick out too much, they lift the car off the track and cause problems. Once I figured this out, me and my 3 year old were able to make lap after lap after lap without falling off the track. Wario was a little too big for some parts so he had to stay on the inside lane (when at the starting line), otherwise his head hit in certain spots, but other than that, if you are still falling off, slow down at the curves!! I was impressed how quickly my 3 year old picked up on that.

Overall I'm very impressed, I've been looking for a track like this for quite some time. Now I hope I can find some expansions, loops, and even other kinds of cars to add to the track.

When I got this for Christmas I started building it right away! It took a little over an hour, but it was worth it! This quickly became my favorite toy, and it is NOT A WASTE OF MONEY! In order to keep them on track, you need to pull these metal things on the bottom so that they face the rear end of the cart and at tight curves you need to slow down. I was able to get Mario around the track without stopping 23 times!
Overall this should have all 5 stars!Do not listen to the guys who gave it 1 star!

This toy is a lot of fun for my 6 year-old son and I. It has more strategy than I expected in a circular track, mostly because you really can't go full-speed the whole time, and yet you have to go fast enough to make it up and over the wall ramp.
I did discover that the key to making this track work well is how you adjust the metal brushes under the car. If they're too "fat" then the wheels don't have enough friction to keep the car on the track. But if they're too flat, the metal brushes don't keep enough electrical contact when going around the curves. It wouldn't have been difficult to include a couple "ideal" pictures in the instructions, while meanwhile it was tough to fiddle with it (and keep fiddling with it) until I randomly found a good configuration. That's my main complaint. Well that, and that we'd like to be able to get other Mario Karts (not just Peach) to race with also. Note that Wario only fits under the bridge in this track in the outside lane!
But overall, once the brushes are set, it's really fun and challenging to race with some skill to keep things on track!

The Mario car that comes with this set works great, but the
other one is a waste of time. falls off the track everytime, is too tall to make the underpass sometimes even. So you will definitely need
to buy extra cars, but I guess that is the fun of slot car racing.
I expect by the end of the summer, we will have bought several track
expansion sets and several additional cars. Its a ton of
fun and seems like a really nice quality slot car set.

Educational -- ? Well yes, like legos, needed a lot of patience, dexterity, and hard work interpreting the layout diagrams
on my 8 year olds part to put together.

I've played with a lot of Carrera tracks as a kid -- but I don't remember any of them being this frustrating. Since the "Go" sets are marketed towards kids (and mine love to play Mario Kart), I figured this two-car set would be the perfect entry level setup. Not so. The cars' magnets are too weak to allow for reliable extended play. Even my 8- and 9-year-olds are having difficulties despite trying to properly slow for curves. The controls are simply not sensitive enough. To make things worse, the guard rails pop off with every minor impact -- it doesn't help that Wario's ride is a bit on the wide side and tends to make contact with the rails.

I picked this set up a while back when it had just come out, so it's possible that Carrera made adjustments afterwards. If not, stay away and go for another set. The combination of the cheap controllers and the bulky karts cause way too much frustration.

After buying this and reading all the complaints I feared the worse. Although after putting this together all of them went away.

My wife bought this for my birthday because we both love Mario Kart and Nintendo in general. I finally found the time to open it up yesterday and found out that finding a place for this in a small apartment was tricky.

The directions were a little odd, no words, all symbols and pictures. Think Ikea just with Mario Kart. It only took about an hour to set up and it was ready.

Now to the two major complaints.

1: Wario hits his head on the overpasses. Somewhat true.
You can adjust the height of the overpasses so both cars go under with ease.

2. They fall off too easy. Depends
The whole point of this is to race skillfully and to ease up when going around curves. Less than an hour of playing with this and I was taking multiple laps without falling. You just learn when to speed up and when to slow down. Like any car, both handle different and need a different touch when going around curves.

I have also found a trick that seems to work.
Wario seems to fall off less when he is on the outside of the track (on the side with the plugs) and Mario seems to fair better on the inside.

I could see kids getting frustrated with falling off but I could see them also learning about how to control their speed and have a lot of fun with this toy. Also somewhat education as when they get bored of the way the track is suggested they can use their imaginations to build a number of different courses.

Price may be considered steep, but from the other sets I have seen on Amazon, this one is pretty decent. The highest I saw was $400 and most of the licensed (Speed Racer, Batman, Mario, Nascar) seem to go for $75.

I will defiantly buy more track pieces and cars to add to this new hobby.

My mom bought this for my cousin for Christmas and this set is a blast!!! My brother and me put it together and it was pretty hard to get the track together, but after a while we finally got it. We never had a problem with them falling off the track, and if you just adjust the height of the things that hold up the track then Wario can fit anywhere. You do have to take some time and figure out how fast you have to go at certain points, but that is part of the fun.

The Good
1. Mario Kart :)
2. After you get it together it is very fun
3. The cars can crash and they do not break easy

The Bad
1. Price is a little high
2. Takes a while to put together.

In the end this is a gift that my cousin has played with more then just about any other gift he got. I play with him and we have had some good races and I think this is a great item.

I owned slot cars when I was a kid. It was fun. Yes, the cars fell off the track, but I learned quickly how to control the speed and it was never a problem.

My son bought Go Mario Kart for his birthday and it was so frustrating for him, he played with it for all of five minutes. I thought he just didn't know how to do it. Well, I was wrong. I tried it and was equally frustrated. The cars did not stay on the track. Speed was difficult to control. If I lay up on the speed, it slows to a stop and won't restart. Yes, all the tracks are connected, but some sections don't work as well as others. I suppose if I had extreme patience, I might eventually get this, but it's for an 8 year-old; and after experiencing the "thrill" of this track, I don't blame him for throwing in the towel. I've had slot cars. They're not all like this. We are returning this tomorrow.

Christmas gift for my 5 year old. Took an hour to put together and I am pretty good at assembling things. Directions are mediocre at best. Not once in approximately 2 hours of trying to play this piece of junk was I able to keep the cars on the track for a single lap. Slow down? Nope. Cars would stop completely. Had to lean over the track to nudge them along. Too fast? Guard rails worthless. In fact, they started to be nudged/bunched together that I had to contanstly reset the rails.

Over all a complete and utter waste of money! It will frustrate an adult in 30 seconds. A kid? forget about it!