I'd like to preface this review by saying that I've had an exceptional customer service experience.
Pros:
-Train is excellent for kids to play with and enjoy indoors and outdoors.
-Surprisingly spacious and enough room for an accompanying adult for smaller kids who can't drive the train on their own yet.
-Easy to assemble in a short amount of time.
-Fantastic customer service team to troubleshoot issues. Very quick to respond.
-Wonderful gift for special occasions (in our case it was a Christmas present!)
Cons:
-The video advertising the product shows 2 adults and a child riding the train which is a bit misleading. The Actual weight limit of the train is only 60kg (roughly 133 lbs) according to the Product assembly manual it came with.
-Warranty on the product is only 3 months from the date of purchase. Unfortunately it's not very clear if this is in the assembly manual provided or somewhere else ( I never found it )
-Operating time is stated to be 1-2 hours which we found was a bit generous. It was more like 45 minutes to an hour depending on how it was used.
-Our train unfortunately had to be replaced due to a few issues (see below)
We purchased the product closer to the end of October/early Nov 2022 as a Christmas present. The information on the website was very easy to follow and the purchasing process was very easy as well.
The train was easy to set up and took at most a half hour to put together.
Our son loved his big surprise on Christmas, and the train worked perfect for a couple of days before we ran into our first issue.
Issue #1: Battery run time was 15 minutes.
We were a bit surprised that the train would run for only about 10-15 minutes before it needed to be charged. I contacted customer support roughly end of Jan/Early Feb and they were fantastic. Unfortunately they told me that the product is just out of the warranty period and that in order to have the batter replaced, I'd need to pay for the shipping. To trouble shoot the issue I had to purchase a digital multimeter to check the output of the battery after being fully charged as well. I found that to be a bit surprising but also fair enough.
The battery arrived but it didn't come with the adaptor casing that the original batter is in, so I ended up having to unscrew the original battery casing and remove the original battery. The process wasn't complicated but definitely tedious. The battery worked great and the runtime was significantly more. It was roughly closer to an hour with a fully charged battery. Then we ran into the second issue.
Issue # 2: Train stopped moving altogether
A week or so after the battery was replaced the train stopped moving all together. The console buttons and functionality of the console were intact, but train wouldn't move at all when the pedal was pressed.
Once again customer service was fantastic. I ended up having to send a video of the issue and through customer service they decided that it would be best to have the train replaced. I was told to pack up the train and ship it back then I would receive the new train. This was a very straight forward process, and the shipping was prepaid for which was a pleasant surprise.
We received the new train shortly afterwards and it worked wonderfully. Putting it together was again very straight forward and didn't take long ago, although this time around some of the washers looked like they were used (had track marks on them and needed some WD40 to lubricate some of the moving parts/wheels). I had no issue with this given that the original train was out of warranty, and we were happy enough to receive a new working train. Unfortunately we ran into issue # 3; the charger that came with the new train was defective.
Issue # 3 Defective charger.
The charger received with the new train was defective. I'm not sure what the issue was but it kept flicking between charging and fully charged mode. I managed to get it working for some time by unplugging and plugging it repeatedly until the red charging light would turn on consistently. This worked for a few weeks until unfortunately a few days ago when it stopped working. Fortunately I was able to find a cheap replacement charger which has been working very well. (A replacement charger through the store was more expensive).
Lastly, I checked with customer service about getting an adaptor case for the extra battery that I paid for, but the price for that is over $50 and shipping, which at that point I felt was unwarranted given everything else. (so I have an extra battery which I can't necessarily use unless I unbox the current battery out of the adaptor casing and reattach the wiring to the extra battery)
I will end this review by saying that my overall experience was positive even with the issues we ran into. My son continues to play with the train daily and he loves it. I would still recommend this product even with the few issues we ran into, and hopefully other people do...
