DON'T buy this set or anything Scalextric.
A summary of my recent experience: I purchased the 007 Spectre set for my boy's birthday. Within two hours of him opening the set (possibly an hour's use), and used only on a plushly carpeted surface with nothing to crash into except the track and cars as the set was manufactured, the Aston Martin broke down. The glide blade unit had failed.
I put it down to bad luck. I sent it back to Scalextric. While waiting, in an attempt to salvage my boy's birthday present experience, I purchased two more Scalextric cars: an Audi R8 and a Bugatti Veyron. Half an hour of use later, neither of these two new cars have a side-mirror remaining, one windscreen wiper has disappeared, and then the rear spoiler on the R8 snapped.
All three of these cars - the Aston Martin, Audi and Bugatti - are rated 'Super Resistant' by Scalextric (their 'extra tough' rating). This is utterly false and misleading, in my brief recent experience. I can't tell you how gentle we have been with them. The cars appear very flimsy and poorly designed: when I first held the initial cars I had the impression that 'there is no chance these mirrors will stay on and they feel very 'cheap''. In fact, as I was sending the first Aston Martin back while carefully sliding the car into a padded envelope, the wing mirror did indeed fall off.
To top it all off, we received the replacement/repaired Aston Martin back from Scalextric today (they didn't refund the return postage to them that they promised they would if I included the post receipt - which I did) and within 10 minutes (I kid you not), the Aston Martin broke again. It never even came off the track: it just spun on a corner.
Scalextric is not the same company now that you might fondly remember from your childhood. Avoid them. Even if you have the money to burn (just lighting 5-pound notes on fire in your living room would likely last longer), the disappointment isn't worth it. There are other electric car companies. Go to them.
