Customer Ratings & Reviews

First impression from just opening the box is quality. I just feel when a manufacture cares and love their product they also package it was they did here. The high quality doesn't stop at the box. It continues inside to the car it self. When you will find it has a animatronic mouth that moves when he talks. LED running head and tail lights. Which automatically come on when needed. ( like when you take racing under the couch). The emotive suspension has to be my favorite part and this just brings Lightning to life. To the life like voice. He sounds just like the movie, Cuz it is the same voice as the movie. Nice touch Sphero. On to the fun part, the driving. Tip if you are use to driving RC cars like my self. The first thing you need to do is change the steering from sphero (default setting) to RC. Which was one of the biggest complaints. And Sphero listened and added the RC feature with the last update. Driving is simpe and fun from the app on your smart phone or tablet. Lighting did well on wood floors,low carpet and tile. From drifting to doing doughnuts your sure to have a blast. The app also has some games to play like Pit Stop Panic. And a drive-in where when you watch the movie with Lighting he will talk and interact with the movie. The only problem I had was conductivity with the car. You almost need line of sight at all times. Out side I could not drive around my truck with out losing connection to Lighting. But didn't have any issues in side in the same room.

Sphero is a brand that's known for making cool toys - just look at their BB8! My kids love the Cars movie and when I saw that Sphero was making an "Ultimate Lightning McQueen", I had to try it out! First thing is this toy is expensive - like $300 expensive. That aside, there's a crazy amount of detail that Sphero has put into Lightning. When he arrives, you'll notice how solid and sturdy he is. Sphero could've gone on the cheap and used sticker decals, but everything on Lightning is painted on - except for his awesome eyes! His eyes are actually a small screen and his eyes respond to where you drive him and what he's doing. Want to put the pedal to the metal? Lightning revs up and his eyes go all serious! When my kids test drove him, they obvious knocked him into things. It was really funny to hear Lightning yell out "OUCH!" when the kids ran him into the kitchen table. For the voice, they went straight to the source - Owen Wilson voices Lightning McQueen and the speakers they put into him make it sound like Owen's actually in the room with you. The other cool thing when he speaks is his mouth - it actually moves in sync with the audio! Lightning's body is solid except for the soft, pliable material around his mouth that lets him move and express himself just he does in the movies! The app that you download to control him also comes with some cool games - but my kids had more fun running him all over the house. I tried to upload a video of him speaking, but I couldn't get it to work for some reason. Here's a quick run down of his specs: * 3 processors and 6 motors * Ambient light sensor controls headlights * Pivoting, suspension wheel system * Responsive screen for eyes * Articulated mouth that moves with audio If you're a fan of Cars, or have kids that are, then Sphero's Ultimate Lightning McQueen needs to be on your list. The only reason I rated it 4 stars was due to the price. At $300, it's definitely one of the most expensive toys, if not the most expensive, in our house.

WOW what a cool toy, Many adults will undoubtedly purchase this to play with under the guise that it was for the child. Out of the box I plugged it in to get a full charge, It comes almost fully charged. Lightning will tell you when he is ready. I am amazed at this car. You almost think he is alive. Lightning has a 30 meter range (that’s 90 feet to us Americans) a 40 minute charge and can go up to 6 miles an hour. You start by downloading the app (IOS/Android) and connect via Bluetooth. Then to get a full understanding of what he is able to do you should go to sphere.com/manuals and read through it. There you can find how to develop race strategy (match wits with lightning), unlock skills as you play with him, Learn about reactive touch (master his moves by a simple touch to the car) and Active studio (sequence animations for him to perform). He will even react to the original move Cars!! After ready the manual I and Downloading the app, make sure your Bluetooth is enabled and plug in McQueen, the app will do the rest, it first updates (takes 9-12 minutes depending on speed.) I did encounter a problem. My S6 refused to install the firmware, I uninstalled the app and booted phone reinstalled the app. It still would stick and the status bar wouldn’t move. I would hope that the app would time out and not leave you hanging in future app updates. I then used IOS and it took only a few minutes. The app is all immersive, the main screen lets you Maneuver the car in any direction. You can also turn on drift or boost mode. Initially you can race at 4 different tracks, unlocking achievements the more you race. The race is basically you and McQueen do different things to help you learn how to drive him. You can also practice skills in the pit. This is a game you play on the phone or tablet and McQueen interacts during the game. create scripts for him to perform (lines of speech) when driving the car around, and as mentioned above, you can watch the movie cars with him and he will respond or react to the movie (must be plugged in) My daughter absolutely loves it. Too bad the battery doesn’t last longer than 40 minutes. I would recommend this to friends and family. Also to people who have kids 7 and up give or take (do they know how to drive RC cars?) It will give you/them hours of fun. I would also recommend using this on a tablet for the better control. But it will still do fine on phones too.

I was really excited to try the “Ultimate Lightning McQueen”. Below are my thoughts. Set up and unboxing: McQueen comes in a really nice box and it includes an easy to follow service manual. The app is only available from the google play store and the App Store (I would keep that in mind). The car is only usable with the app and a smartphone. Set up in the app took a few minutes after the latest update. Use: The application is pretty easy to use and I got the hang of it after a few drives. I would say it would be good for ages over 5. There are two driving styles to choose from. There is the Sphero style and RC car style. The RC car style was the easiest to me. I have tile and carpet in my basement and the car handled fine on the tile…it wasn’t very usable on the carpet. My two year old managed to pick up the car and slam it down on our tile, but it was still working. Overall it has been very enjoyable and pretty easy to use.

First ignoring cost, this thing is so awesome, it responds to touch, it seems to have a real personality and it moves so realistically. Behind the windshield is a color LCD screen which bring the "Eyes" of the car alive, moving with the spoken word, and boy does is speak (with Owen Wilson's voice, and quite loudly if you want it to) the front bumper is a soft rubber with an animated mouth that moves (mouth opens/closes w/animation) with the spoken words. The packaging of Lightning McQueen goes above and beyond excellent, a beautiful box secures Lightning by the wheels, a drawer beneath contains a small booklet and charger. The heavy box is printed with metallic ink, boldly advertising Disney PIXAR Cars 3 - Lightning McQueen. The car is controlled by an Andriod or Apple App which must be downloaded to your device - but we all have one or more so it can easily be updated to add/correct features. After down loading the app it instruct you to Update the Car, and it must be connected to it's AC adapter to do the update, which took about 2 minutes. But now I know my car is up to date and I have the latest app 3 minutes after unboxing - everything should be this easy - a good experience to get started. Now ready to get started, Lightning McQueen starts to chirp, wanting to get moving,you touch the car and it's body moves and reacts to your touch, you lift it up and it recants with another naturally spoken word choice. I don't want to spoil the fun by telling you the car says but it kind of errie - you will think the car is paying attention to you. Now using the app controls take some getting used to, the most important step that the written instructions gloss over, is the positioning button, you must push this "button" while standing directly behind the car pointing forward, fail to do this befor your start each time, and the car's controls will seem backwards or out of wack; do it right and the controls work reasonably well (you can also change to a RC control (up/down left/right set to sticks - this did not seem quite as natural as the joy stick), Still it takes a pretty fair amount of time to get the car to move exactly as you desire, after 1/2hr I still felt like an amateur, it really took 3-4 hrs usage before I could negotiate movements reliably. I'm sure a "kid" would pick it faster than I did, but a kid would not be concerned about crashing a $300 'toy' car (more like a little robot), so maybe I error-ed through caution. But with time by confidence grew, I was ready to try some driving challenges, that are part of the app, after a dozen or so attempts I was competitive on the challenges, and more impressed with, my friend, the chatty car. A few not so positive points, they (Sphero.com) claims you can operate the car from 30 meters (100ft); not in my experience, I got an out of range message, several times, and started "walking off" the lost at distance - and it was consistently about 20 long steps, which I'd call it 60 ft. Once understood it was still reasonable to have a lot of fun. The app (currently) offers 4 race tracks, one strait and a pit stop game which is much more entertaining than I though it would be, it was a real challenge to improve, but doable. The app allow you collect "trophies" , and race against others (this I could not test with only one expensive car). This bring me to my biggest complaint or really a is it worth it issue. This "toy" is quite a remarkable piece of technology, more robot than racing car, I don't think I'd trust it to a 5yr old, but I know a lot of 5-8 yr olds that would be truly amazed by my talking car, but the car is very fast, and a full speed, as the car warned me more than once, "that's going to leave a mark" and "maybe that will buff out" solid objects/walls will (probably) damage the car, I did not want to risk that. And that's where I have a hard time with the $300 price tag, at $100 or so I'l not worry about a kid playing with it, but for over $200 it's a struggle for me - but it's a lot of fun, unlike any toy Iv'e ever had - and it's faster then most dogs - so when you can drive well enough you can certainly have fun with your pets, as is quick and the cool lights on the car will capture their attention. So many ways to have fun with my my talking car....

I probably should use the term "toy" loosely. This little guy is technically very impressive. From the animated body and mouth movements to the screen (eyes), it's all very well done. He controls very well from my phone and is pretty fast. Speaking of the controls, which are built into the app, the app itself is very well done. There are mini games, and races that can be completed from within the app that all include the real-world car as well. You can also create "scripts" of dialog from the pre-recorded lines to create a sort of playlist to use while driving around. Also, another nice touch, Lightning can interact with the Cars movies. This is pretty similar to anyone who may have used Sphero's BB-8 toy that was released a little while ago. It's very cool. There are plenty of nice little touches all around. Even the location of the charger is smart. It's in the gas cap, and when the battery is getting low, Lightning will tell you that he "needs to refuel". Very creative, and cool. Pros: Very well designed, fun to use, feels very solid, creative, nice app, many fun things to do. Cons: Price may be a bit of a barrier for some

I am a bit of a kid at heart, so when Cars came out, I was captivated by the world Pixar created. Fast forward a few years, and I have a 3 year old now who loves all things motorized, and of course lightning McQueen. The sphero McQueen is as if you are talking to the character in your own house! The movements, sounds, and details are nothing short of incredible! The new update to the controls is also a huge upgrade, and makes the driving experience even better.

I bought this for two reasons, the first of which is my curiosity of could it really be as realistic as the sphero vids looked, and secondly because my 3 year old adores Cars (as do I). I was a bit caught off guard when I first switched it on because the sounds are amazingly clear, and the motions and actions are shocking to see first hand. My first attempt at driving was not admittedly great, the standard sphero ball controls just are nothing short of obnoxious on a car, but don’t panic, they added an RC style remote, and it makes ALL the difference. You won’t be missing the feature buttons for sliding, trust me when I say that you don’t need the button for that! My son absolutely loves interacting with Lightning McQueen and seeing him race through the kitchen, and the technology is fantastic, which keeps me saying “wow” every time!

Lighting McQueen comes to life! The robot is beyond real, showing emotion. Heck, even the mouth moves. Only thing i dont like is the driving aspect, needs work, but he looks great next to my computer.

Great bot. Amazingly lifelike and real, however, controlling it as a car is awful. It works but it’s not super fluid. App needs a little overhaul. Overall it’s amazing, just get it :)

I really wanted to give it a higher score because it was so cool. Lots of attention to detail looks and sounds like a $300 toy. But in my experience it wasn’t very durable. And I’m not saying that because I drove it recklessly and broke it. It just simply stopped working. I had it for about a week driving it carefully around the house to get used to the controls and it would take a few bumps here and there but never at full speed. (I’m sure you’re thinking oh he admitted to bumping it around and it’s just his fault but here me out. I’ve had plenty of RC cars In my life and I’ve never had one break because I drove it hard into a wall.) So when I felt I knew how to control I went outside to test it on the street. It didn’t last long and I don’t really know why. I made a couple turns and soon after the controls stopped working and It became unresponsive did a couple burnouts by itself and shut off. (Didn’t hit anything either) Never got it to turn back on after. Sadly I had to return it. Maybe it was just bad luck but for the amount of money, I just don’t isnt worth it if it’s going to break as soon as you take it off hardwood(really smooth) floor and on to cement or tarmac surfaces. I’m guessing some internal components got rattled and that was it. Maybe it’s just to advanced for its time and second or third generations will be more durable and than I’ll happily throw my money at sphero again.

Funny to watch and the digi eye screen is like being in the cartoon. McQueen can rev up engine noise and talk racing and move its suspension up and down. The coolest thing is he’ll do donuts.The car is not ment for rough play, it’s more like a conversation piece that you can drive around for attention getter. Great for parties and indoor use. Like anything new, you will need to practice driving Lightning. Kids love it and naturally want to drive it as so adults. Remember it’s a electronic device not a off-road rc car from a toy store.

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.

This app-controlled Lightning McQueen from Sphero is simply incredible! The LCD windshield makes his expressions seem very realistic, and the moving mouth just adds to the effect. The way the car's body reacts to your touch is also a really cool effect. There's a lot of great technology in the Ultimate Lightning McQueen. The price may seem high, but there's nothing else out there like this, and I feel it's worth it to get something this fun and unique.

On paper, this is a neat remote-controlled car and should be a great experience for a Cars movie enthusiast. However, all I have to say about my experience with the actual product is: BUYER BEWARE. Currently, I’m on my third McQueen car. I’ve worked with the folks at Sphero for over a month trying to get a car that works 100%. So far, that hasn’t happened, so I want to share my experience with everyone in this review. As an FYI I’m using a Galaxy Note 8 as the controller for the car. Car #1: Refused to connect approximately 90% of the time. When it did connect, the range was extremely limited, less than four to five feet at best. I contacted Sphero customer support as the Best Buy stores in my area ran out of this product, so an in-store even exchange appeared to be out of the question. I provided Sphero the information they requested, and they provided a pre-paid return shipping label via e-mail. I shipped the car to them the next business day. Car #2: McQueen’s battery refused to take a charge. I called Sphero immediately and was informed by another rep that I should let the car charge for about 3 hours before using it. That had no effect on getting the car to work properly whatsoever so I immediately felt I was getting brushed off. I contacted Sphero again later that day and after a discussion I was provided another pre-paid shipping label via e-mail. I shipped the defective replacement car back to them the following day. Car #3: This is the car that I received two days ago and still have in my possession. The Sphero rep I spoke to assured me they would update the car’s firmware and software before they shipped it to me, which they did. Unfortunately, I’ve had the same exact problems as car #1, except it connects a little more often, around the 60-70% mark when it’s not on the charger. The no connection issues get rampant when the car’s battery is showing around ¾ charge in the app. So, based on my experience with this product I have come up with four possibilities as to what may be going on: 1) The car itself has rampant manufacturing problems that Sphero refuses to acknowledge. 2) The problem lies within the app itself considering all the connection issues I’ve experienced with two out of the three cars I’ve worked with. 3) The problem lies with a potential hardware/software problem that the McQueen app may be having with my phone. 4) All of the above. There are plenty of other reviews both here and on other websites showing that other consumers have had similar problems with the car, so it’s disappointing that Sphero would continue to market this product considering the overwhelming evidence that there’s something wrong with it. I haven’t experienced any connection issues with either my BB8 or my R2-Q5, both of which were also made by Sphero and all the phone reps I’ve spoken to have reported no known issues with the Galaxy Note 8 connecting with this product so I’m pretty sure my phone isn’t responsible. I did purchase an extended warranty with Best Buy for the car so I’m wondering if Best Buy will grant me an exception and give me my money back based on my horrible experience with this product. I’ve saved copies of both shipping labels to show that I’ve tried to get a working car directly from the manufacturer without success. So, I think it's quite clear that I’ve had my fill of trying to get a Lightning McQueen that works properly 100%. As I said in the beginning, it’s a neat product on paper but consumers should avoid this product. This product gets 1 out of 5 stars. Sphero needs to smarten up, issue a recall for this product and get the bugs worked out or discontinue it entirely from their line-up if they can’t fix it properly.

Oh my gosh, I love this toy by Sphero. It was up and running in about 15 minutes after we got it out of the box. Lightning McQueen is pretty interactive, and we enjoy freaking our cats with him.

I wanted this when it first came out, but I'm cheap, so waited and waited and finally it hit the right price point. This is an amazing RC and when you put it into movie watch mode, it is really fun to listen to Lightning make comments through the movie. Again, with Sphero, you need to get the software right.

Awesome gift! Didn't give it to my kids yet, But I know they will love it... very expensive and it took forever to match with the tablet.

We purchased as a gift for our boys as part of deal of the day for $100, was well worth it. We just returned it because it was used and not new like it said it was. It really does come to life.

I have a teen age son who, though liked it, is still not that big of a fan considering the toy costed so much. He was more hip about the $60 plane I bought him. It made me think that maybe it is not targeted for that age. So, if your kid is younger, this might be the toy for you. It’s a great device as a toy, not so great as a remote-controlled car. The mobile could not give the feel of a real controller. Setup: Make sure you clear your Bluetooth; I have Pixel and it was already connected to my Logitech Bluetooth adapter, and this car could not continue with setup. Once I disconnect it, it progressed smoothly. I contacted support and they were super quick to response but came up with standard troubleshooting steps. (Like remove and re-install) Build quality is top notch, and packaging material was something I have not seen in a long time (like blackberry Playbook quality). Just so rich. Finish is great, there is soft rubber at bumper, and the Car is a perfect example of extreme finesse. Its like they yanked this right out of a movie. The car seems to be geared more towards doing stunts, as we found it a little harder to keep it going straight. The car sense bumps and tells you about it. It does great drifts and is supposed to hit 6 mph. It’s not the best of racing cars out there. So, if you are looking for a racing car, I will probably look in to other options as well. Where it shines is a device which will keep your kid company, he can spend hours with it "not-racing". There are all kind of sensors and it detects where you are gripping it, and talks around it. It’s like they saw Talking Tom, and decided to make a hardware for it. (But except in car shape) The device is sensor galore, you touch, head, top, tail; it senses it, and it has some good texts to tell you about that. There are few small games in the app and a movie too, which kids can watch with the car. This toy is geared more towards digital entertainment then I thought. For this price, they should have given a controller as well, as it is not that fun without that. Plus, I would want my kids to have less screen time, at least when they are playing with a toy as a racing car.