Clementoni61874 Mechanics Lab-Police Car, Multi-Colour

Birthday present for my grandson, he enjoyed building it with some help. Gear drive was a little problem.

For the asking price, I think this is quite a bargain. No it isn't Lego but you can easily draw many comparisons with the big L and Clemontoni more than hold their ground. Overall the quality isn't quite Lego level when it comes to the components and instructions but I would suspect that if Lego produced something similar, the price would at least double.The packaging is strong and will last in a child's cupboard without disintegrating. Made in Italy - makes a change from China everything!Given to our usual candidate, Ollie, he proceded to piece the car together with some input from us. He actually likes the fact that it's something different for a change. The educational bit, I'm guessing is that they learn about how gears work. After 3-4 hours, he was driving the car along the carpet, looking impressed.To get the second design plans, you need the app. Everything needs an app these days, it seems. Ollie doesn't have a phone yet so that means using one of ours. The app quality is good at least and gives an animated step-by-step guide on how to put together the second model. It also show the other Clemontoni sets that are available.Ollie's happy and it's great value so we've got to give it 5*.

An excellent Lego alternative; my 12-year old enjoyed constructing and using this, which took several hours and some assistance. The motor and remote control worked without problems.

When I ordered this car build kit, I didn’t realise just how “Lego-ish” it would be. It is ‘strongly compatible’, shall we say, with Lego Technics sets. Many of the joining pieces are identical. The longer stick pieces are visibly different, more squared off and with some unusual variations- such as holes that alternate in direction, whereas in Technics the holes in longer pieces are generally all on the same side. You can connect some Lego Technics pieces to this set, and vice versa. It is, as some manufacturers would say, “compatible with other leading brick brands”.We’ve tried “imitation Lego” before from various manufacturers, and it’s been a mixed bag- some practically indistinguishable, some terrible. This was our first experience with Clementoni-made bricks (our second experience with the brand in general), and overall it’s a pretty good compatible product. The pieces are sturdy and the connections are good.In several ways it’s not as good as you’d get from the Lego equivalent though. Unusually, you have to ‘pop’ most of the pieces out of plastic frames that hold them (I’m sure seasoned model-makers will know the proper word for those). This makes the ‘finding the pieces’ process a bit lengthier, but not in a good value-for-money way. It also means that where you pop the plastic pieces away from the connecting rods, it’s rather common to get some rough edges on the pieces. This can lead to sore little fingers when they’re pushing the pieces together, and so on. Pushing the pieces together varies between being as easy as Lego, or sometimes just a little bit tougher, but it’s generally not too bad.The printed isometric step-by-step instructions (for the first car) are alright-ish, but again, not quite as good as the brand they’re so clearly and heavily influenced by. It’s hard to tell in medium-to-low light whether it’s asking for blue or black pieces, for example. The print size is a little small and ungenerous- wasting less paper maybe, but just bordering on being difficult to follow at times.The finished build, though, is quite satisfying and impressive. The remote control, despite looking very cheap, works better than I expected. It’s slightly more lightweight than I’d expected for its size, and on a relatively small number of batteries (not included), it can get a half-decent speed up on a smooth surface. The turning circle isn’t very tight, which could lead to frustration if you don’t have much floor space to test it on, but on a bigger floor there’s plenty of zooming-around fun to be had.We haven’t built the second model yet, as it involves downloading the app and dismantling the first build, and my kids are very happy playing with their new remote control car at the moment so they vetoed the idea of taking it apart too early.At time of writing it’s reasonably good value- certainly cheaper than it would be priced at if it had the ‘Lego’ brand printed on it- and it does offer up quite a few hours of building and playing fun. However there are some rough edges and imperfect details to it, so it was definitely an all-round 4 stars from our house.

We decided to put this together as our house is going through a lego resurgence at the moment. This is my first experience of Clementoni and I very impressed with it.The bricks snap together very well and the instructions are clear as day. This kit is just like the lego technics series, and has variable models you can make but the police jeep is by far the best.Once built you can then use the remote control to drive the jeep around. Me and my son have had a lot of fun with this toy and I would certainly look at purchasing more of this very excellent alternative to Lego.

this was so much fun to build. My children loved the fact that from scratch they built something that not only worked but was fun to play with. The models can only be built independently of each other where as we were expecting to be able to build them both and race. Batteries aren't included but when are they now a days? this is a fun educational version of model building thats a great activity to do with the children on a wet afternoon.

A child and parent bonding gift where you can spend hours putting together either of the two police cars. I guess this is for a child who has an interest in mechanics, engineering, or just simply putting stuff together and wants the next level challenge as this kit has more than 300 components.The police cars have two electric motors for rear wheel drive and front steering wheel, gears and a transmission unit. I am not sure how these all work but this is better than putting a jigsaw together as you can play with it after! I mean let your children play with it. The remote control and car do need batteries, not supplied.This costs £40, and definitely worth it. There are other vehicles in the range including a roadster and dragster for £13, a farm tractor for £18, but they do not come with a remote control.