Customer Reviews

Life-Like NASCAR Racing Heroes Slot Car Racing Set

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I never realized that the cars were going to be tiny. My son played with some slot car set at a friends house and I bought this one as soon as we got home. The friends cars were similar in size to the ones I used as a kid. The plus side is that the set doesn't take too much room so you can keep it out of the way and not dismantle it. The magnets that hold the cars to the track are great. As a kid I recall how you couldn't open up the throttle as the cars would go flying off as you enter a curve. With these cars you can go pretty fast and stay on the track. I rated it a low educational value as it's not an educational toy. It seems pretty durable, though my son broke the plastic clip on one of the track pieces right off the bat. But he bent two connected tracks pretty hard. It's a fun toy, but not cheap for what you get. I think if the price was better or the controls and power adapter were more weighty and the wires were longer I'd give it a 5 star rating. Knowing what I know now, I'd have still purchased this set.

I bought this when it was on sale and feel, based on the cost of similar sets, that it was a good deal. One of the cars stopped working within a day, but the manufactuer sent out another one with no hassle. In the meantime, we bought another car so we could keep playing, and to have a replacement in the future. This is where the frustration has come in. I went to the local hobby store, Hobbytown USA, and told them I was looking for a car that would be similar to what I had with the set. I bought an "Autoworld" car and took it home. We realized very quickly that the new car was about 3/4 the speed of the cars with the set. Needless to say, it is not much fun to race the slow car. Being new to this, I tried to take the car back and hopefully get a car that was faster. I was told that you cannot take a slot car back after it has been used. After pitching a major rant, I realized they were not going to change their mind. I ended up buying another similar car in the hopes that it would race with the slower car and we would have 2 sets of cars to play with. Well...the new car was even slower (much slower)and will occasionally jump off of the track. Because of the return policy, I am once again stuck. I did receive the replacement car from the manufacturer in about 10 days and it works fine so far. Moral of this story - there is a big difference in the cars so my advice would be to stick with the same kind of car that came with the set. I have done some research since and you can buy the cars with the set as a seperate item, but they are not necessarily cheap. If you play with this very long, the cars will wear out and you will have to rebuild them or buy new ones. The cost of the set is only the beginning unless you don't plan on playing with it very much. I am not trying to give a negative review of the product because for the most part it is fun, but I wanted to point out some things that I did not think of so others can make a more informed choice.

Santa brought this for my 4 year and the Amazon price was awesome - such a huge track for only $55. Right out of the box two pieces of track were damaged and then within 1 hour of use one car died. Disappointed, I debated sending it back to Amazon or calling Walthers at the 800 number. Not replacing the gift was not an option - both my son and I loved this set. The person at Walthers was wonderful and immediately sent two new pieces of track and a car - no receipt requested, no questions asked, except if I needed anything else. Got the replacements 3 days later and all I can say is that the set is wonderful and the manufacturer is even better. That is the kind of customer service that keeps you loyal - I am now looking at a life-like HO train set for my son. This set is fun and has a ton of track fit into a small area. My 4 year old learned to keep the car on the track after about 20 minutes of use.

We were going to purchase a slot car set at ToysRUs. The reviews were horrible. I decided to look at Amazon. Well we found this set, purchased it and LOVE IT!!!!!!!! We bought it for our 3yr old grandson. My husband and I played it for days ahead (of course we had to set it up and try it hehe) Our grandson was able to use the controls easily. The first few trys the car when flying but now he knows to use the control at half throttle. So many have used this slot car set at all ages and all have enjoyed it. We are going to purchase additional sets and even the train set that can be added to this slot car set. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!!!!

When I went looking for a small slot-car track to introduce my five-year-old son to racing, I initially tried to find a small figure eight set like the Tyco set I'd had when I was a kid. The price difference between this set and the figure-eight starter sets was nothing, because this set was on sale. What a deal! The cars are the same size as those you'll remember from your youth (they aren't "tiny" as the other reviewer stated, unless you had the Womp, Flexi, or the larger battery-powered sets when you were younger) and they're magnetized, so they stay on the track much better than my old cars did. I tried my old Tyco Richard Petty 43 car on this track, and it works...but you have to take it slow.

Life Like (Walthers) also sells adapter pieces so that you can use your old Tyco track with their tracks. I don't have any of these adapters, but I noticed they were out there.

The most important thing, though, is that my kid loves this thing. We have it set up in the basement, and he's always wanting to go down there to run these guys around the track. He's already said that, for my birthday, he wants to get "me" some more track pieces so we can add to his track! These Life Like sets are the closest thing I could find to the sets I had as a kid. :)

I'm 40, and grew up with these toys. This was a gift for my 4 and 7 year old son. They're just as great as they were 30 some years ago. Only they seem to stay on the track even better. You can only run them with a feather touch, otherwise they will fly off the track, but my 4 year old has no trouble keeping them under control.

I bought this for my son and I to play with. It is a blast and the only problem I can think of is we wished we had more track. The track covers a 4 by 6 area like it states. So technically we got what we paid for. We now plan on buying extra track. Hope this review helps

I bought this set for my son and I could not believe how much I enjoyed it!! The cars racing around the track reminded me of my days as a kid and having a slot racing set. My son enjoyed it too but we all saw it would take some time for him to get a handle on the controller - maximizing the speed without going off the track.

The issue is --- I will report on a similar issue with another Life-Like racing set --- reliability and durability. The tracks break very easily. One track connector broke as I assembled it. I was very thoughtful in my assembly but too no avail. Other reviewers have commented on it also. I returned the set because of my concerns with longevity and the broken track.

I did learn one trick, though: sometimes power worked and sometimes it didn't. The solution was not checking connections or anything like that but rather making sure the pillars were set at the right location to elevate the track and to ensure the set is on a very (VERY) level floor.

Hopefully your experiences will be different than mine.

Don't waste your money on this. The cars are not durable. We got about 30 minutes of use out of this. The gears stripped on the rear axle. No replacements. Now what, the whole thing is useless.
Another thing is the cars go way too fast for little kids to control. Very slight pull on the speed lever is required. Most little people cannot use this control. It takes a very light touch. The crossover tracks stall the cars. Too many problems. Sorry I bought it.

Kind of what I always expect. It went together but some pieces were already broken out of the box. One of the cars would not run. Unless I wanted to spend a lot more money though, it was about what I expected. I also expected this to be more fun, but the kids didn't really want to play with it. Too busy with video games.