My family loves to play Mario Kart and have been playing it for years. Sometimes while playing it, I would remember playing with toy race car sets when I was a kid before video games became so popular. Now I can combine the two and share toy racing with my children with Carrera’s new Mario Kart racing sets.
Carrera Mario Kart Tabletop Toy Racing Set
The Carrera Mario Kart Tabletop Toy Racing Set lets you race as either Mario or Luigi. It comes with two miniature RC cars and controllers. Any tabletop or hard floor can become your racetrack. Just connect the 60 colorful border pieces to create any shape of track you can imagine. These pieces have a flat easy side and a curved advanced side. If you run into the flat side, no problem. However, if you run into the curved side you can flip your kart.
The two karts have internal batteries and are rechargeable. Just plug in the cord to the bottom of the kart and then plug the other side into a USB-A outlet. It takes about 30 minutes for a full charge and they have about 15 minutes of run time. The karts are easy to connect to the controllers. Just hold down the button on one controller and the light will start blinking. Flip the switch on the bottom of the kart and it will automatically connect to the controller. Then repeat the process to connect the other kart to the second controller. Each controller can be used for either kart. The controllers each have two thumb sticks. One drives the kart forward or reverse while the other steers left and right. The analog sticks allow you to control your cart with three levels of speed and adjustable steering.
The Carrera Mario Kart Tabletop Toy Racing Set is currently available from the Carrera store on Amazon and sells for a suggested price of $69.99. It is appropriate for those 6 years and older. This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. However, this has not affected my honest review.
Here is a video of this set:
Carrera GO!!! Mario Kart Slot Car Racing Set
The Carrera GO!!! Mario Kart Slot Car Racing Set comes with two electric slot cars and a track that features a loop as well as an overpass. The track can also be assembled into other configurations that are flat without the loop. The track includes a start and finish section as well as a lap counter that goes up to 50 laps.
The two controllers plug into the track along with the power supply. Each controller has a turbo button to give your karts a little extra speed to get around the loop. These slot karts do not magnetically hold onto the track, so you need enough velocity to overcome gravity. The controllers also have a governor tab connected to them by a ribbon. This prevents the plunger from pushing all the way into the controller and limits the karts maximum speed. Once you have some experience driving these karts, you can easily remove the governor and give your kart even more speed. However, you will need to control your speed or your kart will fly off the track around the curves.
The Carrera GO!!! Mario Kart Slot Car Racing Set can be purchased from the Carrera store on Amazon and sells for a suggested price of $129.99. (affiliate link). It is designed for those ages 6 years and older.
Why You Should Get the Carrera Mario Kart Racing Sets
Carrera’s Mario Kart racing sets are a lot of fun. The karts are very detailed and really capture the look of the characters and their karts from the video game. They are also well designed. The RC karts are essentially miniature RC cars and you can drive them around anywhere on a hard floor with or without the track. The border pieces are very easy to connect. They slip right into one another and are easy to disassemble when you are ready to but them back in the box. I like the two different sides of the pieces. The flat side lets your cars bump into them so you just need to reverse and keep going. However, if you hit the curved sides, your kart will usually flip over. This allows you to make the track more advanced as you get better at controlling the karts. The set also includes some cardstock decorations you can fit into the tops of the border pieces to add more theme to your track.
Carrera Mario Kart Tabletop Toy Racing Set is perfect for the suggest age range of 6 and up. However, some younger children might enjoy playing with the help of an adult or older sibling. In addition to playing this at home with my own children, I also took it into my high school classroom and let my students try it out. They had a great time and it served as a wonderful reward for getting their work completed.
The Carrera GO!!! Mario Kart Slot Car Racing Set offers its own challenges to the racers. Though you do not steer your cars, you must carefully control their speed. While I set up the suggested track layout with the loop right from the start, I found it easier to start with a basic track layout with just curves and no loop while racers get used to the controls. I don’t know how many times I would use the turbo to get around the loop and then not slow down quick enough to handle the following curve. These karts go faster than I expected so it takes some practice with the controllers.
The slot track pieces are very easy to assemble. They slide into one another and stay together. When it is time to change the track or put it away, just pull them straight apart with a bit of force, but not much. The supports for the loop and the overpass snap onto areas under the track and with a squeeze they release. Though they seem fairly simple, they provide plenty of support for the races. The set also includes some cardstock rails and plastic connectors. Put them on the outsides of the curves to help keep your karts from going off the track if you takes those turns to fast. The slot kart set is a bit more challenging to race so I would not recommend children under 6 play with it and even those within the lower part of the age range may need some older help.
I have never used a Carrera product before. After playing with two different types of racing sets, I am very impressed. The directions are fairly simple and written for an international audience. However, the illustrations and simple wording is all you need. The quality of the karts as well as the slot track pieces are great. The karts are tough and the track sturdy so you don’t feel like you might break it if you push or pull too hard. The controllers for both sets are also well designed. I have not played with a slot car race set in a few decades so it was very enjoyable to race against my children and try to maintain control while pushing to win the event. If you are a fan of Mario Kart and would like to leave the screen and race in real life, I highly recommend both of these Mario Kart racing sets.
For more information on the Carrera Mario Kart line of toys or to make a purchase, visit the the Carrera website.
Disclosure: GeekDad received a sample of this item for review purposes.
