Not Trains! Shock Horror - My Other Love Slot Cars

I forgot to say Scalextric do have a USA operation, so if you wanted that batmobile you should be able to order direct from them at a reasonable price...

Ha...are you trying to get me into another collection? 🤨

Frankly, I didn't even know that Slot Cars are a thing now-a-days with all the R/C stuff.

To be fair I think they are more popular with the 'Dads' who had them as a kid than they are with the current generation of mobile obsessed kids.  This is shown by the number of nearly new sets that crop up on eBay at frankly silly low prices with a description along the lines of "As new, bought as a Christmas present, used once or twice since".  Still if you are a dad or like me a big kid its a cheap way to build up a collection of cars.  It's often cheaper to buy a set, take out the cars and if you don't want/need the track throw the rest away rather than buying the two cars separately.  Of course you can also pick up good condition 2nd hand separate cars also, some in better condition than others of course and often 'New, Old Stock' or 'New never run, from my collection' type auctions.  Similarly you sometimes get cars listed at silly prices because they are limited editions or whatever, which appeals to collectors, but as the limited editions are often 5000 big or similar they are hardly rare even if limited.  Bottom line is if you are careful to sort through things and you're not looking to just build a massive collection you can get some good bargains and build a superbly large track layout for not a lot of money

When I say cheap sets lets just say I've picked up some nearly new sets with say a figure of eight track, controllers, power pack, 2 cars, barriers, etc... for as little as £20 + shipping (which can often be nearly as much as the set price due to the size/weight of the bigger sets

Add in that even the oldest Scalextric cars (and often non-Scalextric brand cars) will still run even on the latest track (even be converted to digital if you're that way inclined in most cases) and it is a cheap hobby if you want to just play with them and ignore the collectible items...

[Super]

Too big for me and this late in life a collection I am not into right now. My deal is from my past as most collectors have. Auroras HO Slot Cars was my thing in the 60's. In fact I have been nosing around looking at them now and then Online to see whats out there.

Yes, I had those when I was a youngster too, in fact at that time I preferred them as the 1/32 Scalextric were pretty primitive back in those days whereas the Aurora AFX were superb, realistic looking and detailed in comparison.  They also had 'magnatraction' which nobody else did at that time.  Move on though and anything made in 1/32 for say the last 20 years has caught up and has both of those features and more.

I do still in fact have my original Aurora cars, albeit without the track which got lost over the years and during moves etc...  In fact its that which re-awoke my interest in Scalextric some years back as I was browsing eBay for Aurora and found the new Scalextric models and well that's history.  I have also bought some 1/64 scale models, but the original Aurora's are damn expensive here (always were) and even the Tomy AFX (they bought Aurora at some point) are quiite sought after.  These days the modern equivalents are Scalextric Micro which are the same 1/64 scale and are compatible as are Aurora with Scalextric Micro track (which can be had for a song along with the cars).  Unfortunately the majority of Scalextric Micro cars are not as detailed or realistic even now as the Aurora originally were which is a pity.  It seems Scalextric/Hornby consider the Micro range is for kids and they make and sell them cheaply and put all their efforts into the 1/32 scale cars etc... believing that to be a more adult/serious market.  Hence why the Micro are so cheap on the 2nd user market.  Of course the other big player at least in the USA is AutoWorld who do a nice range of 1/64 which are primarily based on the same or very similar chassis as the original Aurora, even to the point of the metal skids as opposed to braids.  They also do a nice range of HGV's (or rigs I think you guys call them).  I got a few of those as I did originally have an Aurora one, although not sure exactly what happened to that - I suspect one of my brothers pinched it at some point.

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There are some other 'unusual' releases from Scalextric, one is particularly interesting although its been out of production for some time now.  That is based around 'Super Bikes', you know the high speed big motorcycles.  The link below is to a set currently on sale on eBay, not necessarily the best example I've ever seen, but it gives you a clue to the flavour of the product.  These are a bigger than 1/32 scale, but are designed to run on exactly the same track as the 1/32 scale cars.  I suspect if you were inventive enough you could even make them 'digital' instead of analogue, but I've not seen anyone that's done it yet.

Scalextric Super Bikes set

Other oddities found in 1/64 scale include a Star Wars set which has an X-Fighter racing against a TIE Fighter, these like the speeder bikes that run on 1/32 are mounted on a motorised base, if I can find an online example I'll post it below.  Similarly they did (and I find this really odd) a set consisting of a Velodrome circuit and a couple of guys on push bikes for the Olympic games we had here some years back, presumably because of how well we usually do on cycling.  With these apparently the cyclist legs actually move as they travel round the track.  I don't think it really caught on though as there's no expansion potential as a Velodrome circuit is simply a banked oval (bit like Nascar lol) and of course what point would there be having more cyclist models at best all you could do is change the colours of the outfits...

Scalextric Star Wars set

Scalextric Velodrome 2012 Olympics set

Just for good measure here's a link to one of the 1/32 track Star Wars Speeder Bike sets, this contains a Stormtrooper and (again) Luke Skywalker, gives you a look at how they look out of a box though and also shows you the base the speeders run on...

Star Wars Speeder Bike set

I wouldn't be surprised to see released soon a Captain Scarlet set perhaps for next Christmas with say the SPC (red Spectrum car) and another standard type futuristic car as the SPV & SPC models are due Q4 this year.  This would then emulate the often seen Spectrum agents chasing a Mysteron agent as often featured in the Captain Scarlet show of the 60's/70's.  Who knows maybe they will also do something along the lines of the 1/64 Star Wars set but with Spectrum 'Angels' fighter chasing a mysteron aircraft of some sort.  Personally though if they are going to go making something unusual like the above based on Gerry Anderson works I'd like to see Stingray & one of the Atlantian TerrorFish submarines of maybe an interceptor vs UFO from the UFO series

Stingray

TerrorFish

A little nostalgia for you;

Stingray Opening Credits to give you a taste of the show;



and a full episode of Captain Scarlet which should feature the various vehicles I've been talking about and definitely the SPV which is around the 21:30 point;



Just for good measure a you tube about the making of 'UFO' which was a bit of a departure for Gerry Anderson as it was actually a combination of models and real life people as opposed to puppets;



and having found the above it turned up this which I wasn't aware of - I mean I know the series Space 1999 very well (one of my favourites), but I never realised it was what should have been the follow up series of UFO which never happened...



And to finish here's a round up of the various vehicles invented by Gerry Anderson's team, surprisingly many of the designs are now familiar sights as real vehicles which is ironic

[Super]

My Slot Car history is actually before AFX and Aurora got together. There was not much mention of AFX here until the end of my collection when I was so young. It was all Aurora for me until the time that I sold the whole collection, layout and the Ping Pong table it covered to a friend of my Dad. If my memory serves...AFX brought in with them hand held controllers where my time was with Auroras small individual steering wheel counsel which I liked much better. As I found out later when I purchased an AFX set for my Daughter when she was young.

         

Hi Super,

That's pretty interesting, the first time I saw 1/64 slot cars in the UK was Aurora AFX, I don't think the earlier incarnations ever hit our shores or at least not on a fully commercial basis.  I'm sure there would have been some people with money that may have imported the earlier sets for personal use/collections, but I don't believe they were ever in stores here.

This of course is nothing new, many things that get released in the USA never quite make the leap across the pond and we only get to hear about them through specialist clubs etc... that monitor these things.  I'm talking here of all sorts of things, not just slot cars or trains etc...

I'm sure there is also the opposite sometimes, but I suspect its far less as after all any ambitious company with a good product wants to break into the American market if they can for obvious financial reasons.

[Super]

What year do you first remember your Aurora AFX set? What I remember of first seeing an AFX set ,after I got out of the Aurora Collecting/Racing, they had all kinds of stunts involved like climbing walls or jumps is that what you recall?