Customer Ratings & Reviews

Great toy, great price and lots of fun with it, my son love it

I love this car. It does a lot of great tricks and sounds

I just got for myself and it is a great toy. Just paid.

My son loves it, it's fun and exciting to play with it.

Excellent product. Exactly as it was described!!!y

Everything you would expect from the sphero brand!

Got it as a gift for my boyfriend and he loves it!

Very cool idea, but the controls aren’t as responsive as an actual controller. Expect to crash a lot.

This remote control toy, for lack of a better term, comes from Sphero, the company I recognize for bringing us the real live BB-8 from Star Wars. This appears to be the beginning of an onslaught of interactive robotic toys that need the brains of our smartphones to process all that they have going on. Build - The car itself is fairly robust, and heavier than I expected. The details are top notch and even powered off it looks like a VERY accurate Lightning McQueen model. Powered up and you get your first glimpse of the big LCD that makes up the windshield and expressive eyes that are the cornerstone of all the Cars characters. The front wheels are also spring on separate A arms which make the car even more expressive when turned on. Working lights and the loud clear sounds that come from the built in speaker complete this wonderful model. Play: I was a little surprised that at almost $300 this car didn't come with a separate remote, even to play with it without all the other features. Reported battery life is 40 min on 2 hours of charge. I didn't get any significantly different than that myself. Not including a remote means one thing these days - it requires a smartphone to run. Granted you can do LOTS more with a smartphone than you can with a static remote. The many many MANY ways would keep a kid busy with this thing... now if only it was meant for kids and not adults... I won't go into detail on all the modes of play that the app provides, as you can easily download it yourself and check them out. Some of the games have you interacting with the screen more than the car, and lighting just provides sounds and lights, and then the main event - actually driving lighting. He is equipped with tires/suspension/powerful motor that lets it do donuts and drift on almost all floor surfaces (except carpet) and he's actually pretty good at it. This enhances the play and makes you look like an even better driver than you actually are. Overall I struggled a little bit with the cost of this toy compared to others, but Sphero has done their best to make up for it in the gameplay provided in the app. This is a top notch toy, likely aimed more at the collector or adult who enjoyed cars than it is to kids, but I didn't mind that one bit. I even let my kids play with it too!

When this thing was first announced I saw the videos online and thought it was awesome and now I finally have it! It’s hard to believe this thing is a toy. We certainly didn’t have toys like this growing up. I already have Sphero’s BB-8 so I’m familiar with how life-like their toys can be but this thing takes it to a new level. In addition to the front being able to bounce, the car truly feels alive with the LCD eyes and moving lips when it speaks. I'm giving this to my son who has a Lightning McQueen themed room but at only four years (almost 5) I'm a little nervous to actually let him drive it. Hopefully it'll spend most of it's time on the nightstand as it also just looks awesome. It's very well made and has all the details you'd expect. The animatronics are top notch, but I'd expect nothing less from Sphero which is quickly becoming my favorite toy company. When you take it out of the box you are supposed to charge it for about 30 minutes. I plugged in and about 5 minutes later Lightning McQueen’s voice said “ready!” so I took it off the charger and downloaded the app. Meanwhile, while the app was downloading and the car checking for firmware updates it was bouncing around on it’s front two wheels and quipping about being bored and asking me what I wanted to do. Once the app connected to the car it asked me to plug him in again so that he could update. The charger is actually where McQueens’ fuel cap is located which is pretty cool. With the app there are two way to control the car. The first I would call the “Sphero” way in which you have to stand at the rear of the car to orient yourself, press a button, then move a virtual joystick to both steer and accelerate the car. It's similar to the way you control the BB-8 toy and quite honestly I found it very difficult to use with a car. Luckily, you can switch the controls to RC which will give you a traditional (but virtual) accelerator and steering control. The car itself moves as you would expect, it can get to about 5 mph and can do donuts pretty easily. It's actually a lot of fun to drive. The tail lights function just as they would on a real car, lighting up when you brake. In the app, there is also a button to make him speak, which honestly if all this toy did was speak, move it's eyes, mouth and bounce around it would be an awesome toy in and of itself. The fact that it does all of that and is fully driveable is amazing. There is also a "speed button" which will make Lightning go at full speed along with the VROOM sounds which are actually pretty loud and will probably scare your small pets. All in all, I highly recommend this car, but I will say it's fun factor can be a bit limited by the fact that it would be painful to break this car. I don't know how much abuse it can take but this is something I'm probably gonna only use inside. Save the outside jumps for cheap throwaway R/C cars.

So my kiddo and her friends love the Ultimate Lightning McQueen. After the initial wait for a full charge (about 2 hours) they have been able to consistently get 35-40 minutes of run time out of it. Setup through the app is effortless. The learning curve for driving is a bit more burdensome. Of course, the kids figured it out much faster than I did but that's to be expected. I was hoping for dual joysticks like a normal R/C vehicle but not so much with this one. After figuring it out, driving was fun and the LED eyes combined with the "emotive" movements really set this apart from basically everything else on the market. It's a tad smaller than I expected but it's heft makes it feel like a quality made product. I've managed to slam him into a wall several times with no noticeable damage. (I luckily barely avoided a tumble down the stairs which could have been a major issue!) The cost of entry is a bit high, but with all the tech packed into the car that's understandable. I have had no connection or lagging issues, much like other Sphero toys. If the controls were easier to use I'd definitely give this one a 5-star rating.

Purchased initially through the online BB site and picked up in-store — unfortunately the product had been evidently opened previously, given this was a present I decided to return and re-purchase. Called BB online store and they sent me another one; arrived in worse condition with the box dented, the plastic film strip on the side peeled back. Not doing this again. What kind of store resells merchandise at this price point? Just because you have used inventory, send it back to the manufacturer. Don't pass it off as new and expect the consumer to pay full price. I'll be going to ABT for my electronics from now on. Would give zero stars.

The car is easy to set up - has the car itself which is very high quality, the charger which plugs in to the fuel door (so cool), and an app to download onto your phone. I had a bit of trouble at first until I realized the WiFi on my phone had to be turned on. The first update took a few minutes since my internet was really slow. The software is very easy to use and navigate. One of the funnest parts of this car is the talking - it talks while charging and talks when you turn it on and drive it. The eyes in the windshield also move, as does the body (all on its own too) - at impressive angles. The car is very responsive and can go frontwards and backwards and make donuts. You control the speed and direction on the finger joystick. It's pretty durable, even when smashing into dressers and other obstacles (and makes hilarious comments about it). It doesn't take long to learn to drive. Besides driving it, there is a Pitstop Panic game which is fun and challenging, racing against opponents, and you can watch the original Cars movie with Lightning McQueen and watch him react. You can also build your own scripts for him which I have yet to do. This has been some amazing fun and I was surprised at how much enjoyment comes from engaging with this remote control car! Any child or adult would love this.

I have to say this is a pretty cool toy, if somewhat expensive... To start off, I rated this 4 stars for an adult using it, but I'd probably give it 3 for a kid and I'll explain why in a bit. First, setup is reasonably straightforward, you plug the car in to turn it on for the first time (no on or off switch... odd) and it charges a bit and boots up. You'll hear Lightning McQueen start talking to you when he's ready to go. On your first connect (or two) you will have to download and push an update to the car which takes FOREVER. I had two updates consecutively on separate uses of the car in the same day and they both took quite some time, so be prepared to not play with it for a while when you're first connecting. The voice and sounds on the car are LOUD to start with, and you cannot turn them down until you're done connecting, so with the updates and such you end up with the car talking and revving very loudly until you're able to get in and adjust the volume. Second, for some reason the app wont let you use the car without location services enabled... I'm not entirely sure why a remote control car needs location services when all it does is connect via bluetooth, seems a little invasive. Third, driving Lightning takes a bit of getting used to. The app's default controls are like the sphero orb controls which is to say they dont make a whole lot of sense for controlling a car. You can switch them to the standard two-directional option like an RC car in the settings though, so I'd recommend that. The car is MUCH faster than I had anticipated, and while that's fine for me and for most older children, I had intended on giving this to my son, who is a little bit younger. It would be nice if inside the settings there was a throttle threshold so I could keep it at a reasonable pace for not only his age but inside use so it isn't constantly bouncing off the walls at high speed (this was worth removing a star since Cars is a kids movie, why not make the car from the movie a little more user friendly for a child. Sure the price point of this means that many kids wont have it, but any adult buying this will likely let their child use it at some point even if it wasn't FOR the child). I'm worried that the animatronic face is going to break from hitting the walls too much. I'm sure he'll get used to it, but a maximum speed setting would definitely help. There's a couple of one-button touches for it to do some quick tricks which is neat, but again the sphero controls are just annoying to use. Which brings me to the design of the car itself. The face is a soft rubber to help with the animations of the mouth with Lightning is talking.. Unfortunately the rubber is a little tacky to the touch, which means with it running around on the ground it picks up any sort of stray dust, hair, debris, etc... And it's annoying to clean off. So overall, the toy is pretty cool, but a couple of tweaks to make it so it's a little more friendly to a younger audience (it is a kids movie after all) would make it that much better.

Not Worth the price & doesn’t works great. My 9 year old son doesn’t likes it.

If you are a fan of lightning mcqueen, you must have this product and even thou needs to improve the apps

I have been wanting to try out the Sphero for a while with just the ball and when I saw this car I was excited. The car looks pretty cool and exactly as seen in the video,etc. I had a little difficulty getting it setup initially but finally got it working. The controls are a little tough to figure out. I am not sure if they are not that responsive or my controlling them is not very good. Either way I had difficulty controlling the car specifically at faster speeds. Setup was simple. Take the sticker off the windshield, plug the car in (for 30 min to full charge, may already be charged), download the app on your device, then connect. I had a problem using my phone (pixel XL) first so I tried my tablet (iPad) to get the updates and do a first test, then I connected my phone and it worked as well. Connecting seems a little difficult at times and it may have to do with going in and out of wi-fi or other network issues. The battery was pretty full when I took it out of the box, so I only needed to plug it in to start it up and connect at first. You will also need to plug it in if you power off the car completely (for storage) through the app. You can just put it to sleep and avoid this. After about 30 minutes the battery was below 30% and may have caused some of my connection issues. For car controls, there are 2 types, Sphero (360 dial with buttons for reverse, hi speed, and donuts) and RC controls (forward/reverse, and left/right turn). The turning seemed less responsive to me, or maybe just lagging. I noticed the car would not come out of turns quick enough and I never really ran it at full speed because I was afraid of running into walls. The range is more than 70 feet, but may lose connection around walls/corners. It definitely takes some work to learn the controls but is fun to play with. There are several games/videos/settings to tool around with. Head to head racing w/ a virtual track Normal App games (fix the car etc.) You can adjust the app volume, and the car volume (Lightning talks to you will your playing or driving) The Car/toy is fun to play with and I would still recommend it, but be aware of the connecting issues you may have and the car control issues.

Sphero makes quality high end toys. The packaging was beautiful, but the instructions were lacking. After putting “gas” into Lightning (love that the charge port is in the gas cap area!) and downloading the app we were off and playing! I had no issues running him from the berber carpet to the tile floor, granted I am not a good RC driver, I had fun! Controlling him on my phone through the app was easy and we loved him talking as well as the expressions. We all got a kick out of touching Lightning to make him laugh or scratch his itch. The movement of the car is pretty fantastic and looked a lot better than I thought it would. My daughter had a lot of fun playing with Lightning as well! This is definitely not a child’s toy and big grown up kids will enjoy playing with Lightning McQueen.

Ultimate Lightning McQueen is straight-up magic, for real. The attention to detail put into this toy is astonishing - from the charging mechanism (you plug him in, the plug goes under his gas cap), to the care put into the app (there's a ton to do and Lightning gives you feedback the whole time), to the impact sensors ("Ow! That's gonna leave a mark!"), to how he handles on carpet (exceedingly well), to his headlights and taillights that actually work, to the fact that he can reverse or get a speed boost, to his idle chatter, the fact that his MOUTH MOVES when he talks, and the whole chassis moves up, down, and all around. OK, sure, that's nice, right? Let's take it a step further: he knows if he's upside down. He knows if he's stuck. He tells you when his battery is low. He knows when you've picked him up and when you've set him down and he comments about it. He talks about what screen you're on in the app and gives feedback about what's happening inside the app, too. This is a SLICK toy that adults and kids alike will appreciate. He's not just a functional RC car, he's FUN to drive - he's not just a gimmicky car that "kinda works" - nope, Lightning has pep and travels well on hardwood as well as carpet. The controls are easy to learn, there's a reverse feature, a speed boost feature, lightning can also burn donuts AND drift with like two buttons. Will your kid be able to figure it out? Probably after like 2 minutes of practice (the on-screen instructions are pretty helpful, too). He's got race mode where you combine a little app play (pit stop puzzle game) and driving him around. All in all, he's pretty open-ended - there's a ton of fun things to do with him (from watch Cars - he responds to the movie - to just tooling around driving him from place to place). He's super speedy, the battery life is darn good for an RC car, the handling is good but you'll want a significant area to play with him on (and probably padded while you get used to his turning radius). I goofed plenty and he didn't show any scratches or scrapes. I was afraid to really wreck him, but he seems pretty padded, especially around the front bumper. If I had to conjure up a complaint, he's a little loud on unboxing (as in when Lightning is talking, the driving mechanism itself is quiet)... but I was also testing in my carpeted basement office, so the sound carried. Lo-and-behold, HE HAS HIS OWN VOLUME CONTROL. Did I mention these Sphero folks have figured out how to package magic? The app is not clunky (as Sphero has had a ton of time to figure this out with the other products - and in fact, I'd say this app is a significant step up from the Sphero BB-8 app, which I consider to be the weakest part of the Sphero BB-8 experience). If you or your kiddo is a Pixar Cars fan IN THE SLIGHTEST, this is the toy you/they will want to have without question or delay.

I wasn't sure where to start, there is much to say about this unique and advance piece of technology, so let me start for the tips to set up the unit. The box and packaging are outstanding. The McQueen car feels sturdy and heavy, which makes me feel really confident. Even it seems to be built of plastic and silicone, I did some research, and you will find inside 6 motors used for steering, driving, and controlling body movements, with a speaker loud enough so you can hear it clearly while you are playing in wide open exteriors. It also have a windscreen that is actually a LCD with the eyes that make all type of different expressions. And the bumper mouth is capable to move and make expressions as well with the voice of Owen Wilson, and like the movie, it doesn’t stop talking or complaining. The I played about 50 min and the battery wasn’t depleted, after a almost 2 hours charge. Esthetically speaking, the toy is an amazing approximation of the Pixar McQueen Character. So, the first I did, was to connect the McQueen to the Power Outlet, By the way, great idea that the power connector is a gas cap charge port that lifts up to accept the red charge cable. Then I installed the app called "Ultimate Lightning McQueen by Sphero" in my Samsung Cell Phone, and once it is installed, the app will look for the McQueen toy. My best suggestion, is to put your phone the closest you can to the trunk, ( I put it on top) which is where the Bluetooth antenna is located. It is going to check and install for all the updates available first. It is going to take a while, you have to remember, the better the cell phone model you own, the faster and stable the Bluetooth transmitter will be. On IPhone the Bluetooth connection is really fast. In my case the McQueen app performed updates in A, B, C, and D Stages. Once all the updates are done, McQueen is ready to go. The suspension moves the car to the right, left up and down, you will have to take your time and learn how to operate the RC control app, there are 2 options, the Sphero virtual joystick, and the regular RC. I started with the regular RC, that doesn’t give you to much options to do the donuts or rolls, but allows me to learn how to operate it and have some fun. My recommendation is to start in a wide open area, so you can practice and learn to control the speed, and learn how to take curves. Overall, it’s really quite fun. On the Sphero option, you will see a virtual joystick that can be moved around in a circular space, you control direction and speed. The more you tilt the virtual joystick towards the edge of the circle, the faster he’ll go. With enough practice you will eventually figure out, and you'll be able to drive it successfully. But because the toy itself is still handling all of the steering, it will occasionally crash into obstacles as it turns around to change directions. It took me a while to learn how to use, but once you mastered, is way better than the regular RC control. You will see 3 other buttons that are part of the app. The first is ‘reverse’, and it is not as fast while is backing up. The second is ‘drift’, it will allow to perform donuts and rolls. The third is a turbo boost. So, basically, the fun you can get with this toy, is totally up to you, and the skills you will develop learning how to control it. Lightning McQueen is more than a simple RC Toy, it is what I think a first gen of Robot Toys. With that been said, the Lightning McQueen feels really alive. This is a result of the combination of the LCD eyes, moving bumper mouth, and animated suspension and the hundreds of different phrases it speaks, voiced by an Owen Wilson sound-alike. It has a lot of sensors, including light, motion, and touch panels on the roof, hood, doors, and rear of the vehicle, the chassis of the car features 5 capacitive touch panels that respond to your touch, so anywhere you touch the car, the toy is aware of how it's being handled, and can respond accordingly, making noises, and complaining like the movie character. Every time you crash it or get it in an accident, McQueen will ask for help in getting back on its wheels. Another nice feature is the lighting. The red tail lights seem to be turned on all the time, but the headlights are light sensor activated. Finally, you can put the toy in a sleep mode, or power it off completely. To power off you will need to go to the advance settings, and just follow the instructions, which are quiet simple, however, to power on again, make sure you have the toy connected to the power. It is a wonderful toy, it make me feel like i am part of the future of the technology. It is my understanding that this is the first of five products that Sphero will release this year, with more interactives options. Now that I have played, watched and enjoyed all that this toy is capable to do, I cannot wait to see what other surprise Sphero is going to release very soon.