Cars 2 Mater Remote Control Vehicle

Reader Reviews
We have 3 of these Air Hogs Cars 2 R/C vehicles (Mater, McQueen & Raoul) and we love them all. We bought the double pack that included McQueen and Mater and the Mater seemed to have a short either in the receiver or the remote, but we bought a new one and Mater works just as great as the others now. The response from the remote is very good and I appreciate that the remote is more like a "real" R/C remote rather than the small, clunky remotes that you typically see in these types of toys. It's very easy to maneuver and do all kinds of crazy stunts. They have no trouble on low pile carpet though obviously work best on a smooth surface. They recommend not driving them outside but as long as you're aware that they are not weatherproof and shouldn't get wet, they work really well on pavement. They go fairly fast, probably the fastest for an R/C in this price range and for this age bracket that I've ever seen, and we've had a lot of them!They do not come with rechargeable batteries but this was actually a relief to me. They come with the 3 AA's and 3 AAA's that you need and we much prefer to just swap out some of our own rechargeables when the batteries die rather than play for 15 minutes and have to recharge for hours. That never goes over well with the kids! The batteries last quite a while. We have had the same batteries in ours for 4 days and they have been played with at least 3 hours in that time period. We did notice after about 45 minutes there was a visible decrease in speed as the batteries started to get low, but they still run at a good speed and we haven't felt the need to replace them yet.The tires are all rubber and have realistic looking treads. They have no issues getting over small obstacles and have enough power to push small things out of their way, such as a pile of small die cast cars. They can run over rugs and transition from smooth floor to low pile carpet just fine. This was a big deal for us because this has always been an issue with R/C toys in this price range. The details on the vehicles are great as well. McQueen has some stickers but Mater & Raoul are all painted. We hate stickers in this house because they always peel and tear with the heavy play they experience in our house. These cars are extremely durable as well. They have all been dropped, crashed and flipped over countless times and are no worse for wear. They still run like new. My son loves the way the eyes move when they turn, which also makes for some great fun even when they're not being driven.One important point is that though Mater and McQueen don't share a frequency, but Raoul and Mater DO use the same frequency. There is no way to change this, so this means if you have two children who want to play with Mater and Raoul together, they will have to move out of range of each other or they will be controlling both vehicles with one remote. My son thinks this is rather funny and makes for good racing, but I was a bit annoyed by this. The range is about 30-40 feet so giving the kids enough room to play together may be an issue. This the the only reason I docked one star. This would have been an easy issue to avoid if they had chosen to. When we get Francesco and Finn, I will report back on their frequencies.Overall we are very happy with our purchases and will be getting Francesco and Finn McMissile as well. Have fun!