These Super Mario and Yoshi radio-controlled karts feature directional steering in both forward and reverse, but that doesn't mean it's any easier to avoid crashing them into a wall. When the kart is facing you, left=right and right-left. I'm still not used to that, but experienced remote control enthusiasts say controlling an incoming vehicle eventually becomes second nature.

In any case, these little karts (the manufacturer says they're "1/24th scale," as if the full size models are physical things and not just 0s and 1s on a disc) are rip roaring fun, especially when you have a couple of rambunctious kittens dead set on upending them.

Super Mario and Yoshi radio-controlled karts

Read more in Family at Boing Boing

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

TAGS: family Kids

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SamSam

But can thew throw shells and bananas?
sqyntz

> controlling on incoming vehicle eventually becomes second nature.

the more expensive the toy, the easier it gets ;)
James Churchill

The trick with controlling cars like these is to not think of the controls as left and right, but as anti-clockwise and clockwise. Or that the controls only affect the side of the car furthest away from you (regardless of whether that is the front, back, side or a corner of the car.) Both are effectively equivalent, and both stay the same no matter what the car is doing (unless it has been flipped onto it’s roof…)
nixiebunny

Do they get bigger when they drive over a mushroom?
IronEdithKidd

After the Everest dead people story Maggie posted, it would be really nice of you to post video of said kiitens attempting to upend the karts, Mark. Pretty please with sugar on top?
http://www.matthewpetty.com/ Matthew Petty

If these are 1/24th scale, we can calculate how big they would be in real life, and therefore how tall Mario and Yoshi are.
http://twitter.com/eelstretching Stephen Green

Note: they make larger ones. 1/8 scale they say. The wife got Mario for the boy and Yoshi for herself.

http://www.amazon.com/Nintendo-Large-Radio-Control-Kart/dp/B005B8LPO6/ref=pd_bxgy_t_text_y
http://www.gyrofrog.com/ Gyrofrog

What is the half-life for this toy? Would anyone concur or disagree with the Amazon reviews?