Is the current offering of HO slot car sets good or bad for the hobby?

Short of Tomy's International Challenge set there is not much out there in the way of racing sets that really captures the appeal of slot car racing. In my mind, so many of the sets promote novelty over racing.

As an adult, the Super International is the only set that I could not pass up. None of the other sets really have appealed to the "slot racer" and "race fan" in me. Considering the entire "baby boomer" generation....Is this not a missed opportunity? Is there a market for more realistic and raceable slot car sets for an adult market?

It appears that the collector and seasoned slot racer are pretty much forgot about when it comes to marketing race sets. But, by targeting this market, race sets could become better and possibly introduce more to the hobby. Gone would be the days of yellow arrows and wild stripes decorating track!

I think the future of HO racing could be greatly improved by targeting the adult collector/racer with:

1) Track sets of famous races. Would you buy a 4 lane "1979 Daytona 500" set featuring the 1st through 4th place cars? Imagine minature versions of Donny Allison's Hawaiian Tropic Oldsmobile, Cale Yarborough's Busch Beer Olsmobile, Petty's STP and Waltrip's Gatorade cars? And.....a combination of track allowing one to build a "big" Daytona track, or a smaller Daytona version for limited spaces or a good old two lane? How about the 1969 Trans-Am race at Road America or the 1966 Indy 500?

2) Such sets should have a reliable lap counting system which would encourage actual racing. Electronics such as this are badly lacking in today's home racing. Large LEDs trackside would be great. Maybe even a mechanism to cut power like commercial tracks.

3) More realistic track pieces such as 24" radius 4 lane bank turns. Wouldn't it be great to race the 4 aforementioned stockers through a realistic sweeping bank? Adult sized hand controllers would be a natural as well.

4) I might even go so far as to not offer 2 lane tracks any longer (Of course 2 lanes can be made with the 4 lane sets). 4 racers, even 3 racers, is 200 times more fun than racing against 1 opponent. Many who have owned slot car tracks have no idea the enjoyment a 4 lane offers over a 2 lane. I don't think 2 lane racing "hooks" you like 4 lanes.

Anyway......There is not much out there to excite the adult racer with some money to spend. Might not be much out there to excite newcomers as well. Hopefully, one of the manufacturers will offer something to give HO a "kick" in the pants! Returning to realism and racing might create a larger market amoung the young and old.

Jim Norton
Huntsville, Alabama

Have a look...

http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/ehobbies-com_1961_376412990

Racemasters has been listening..... :lol:

Scott

You know I bought mine. It's a good step in the right direction. Painted one driver, painting the other, now those ORANGE guardrails..... hehe, I know the latter is being addressed, I'll bet there is a huge container of them to be used up first. I know, it would be nice if they sold a serious race ready set too, with a standard layout that people could compare times from on venues like this, encourage the sport and scale enthusiasts. Time will tell.

1) Track sets of famous races. Would you buy a 4 lane "1979 Daytona 500" set featuring the 1st through 4th place cars? Imagine minature versions of Donny Allison's Hawaiian Tropic Oldsmobile, Cale Yarborough's Busch Beer Olsmobile, Petty's STP and Waltrip's Gatorade cars?

ONLY if it comes with little figures of Donnie Allison, Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough beating the *!?# out of each other in the infield........ :lol:

I was only 9 years old when it happened but I can remember watching that race like it was yesterday...... Ahhhhh, the good ole days.........

Deron

ONLY if it comes with little figures of Donnie Allison, Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough beating the *!?# out of each other in the infield........ :lol:

I was only 9 years old when it happened but I can remember watching that race like it was yesterday...... Ahhhhh, the good ole days.........

Deron

LMAO when I read this. Thanks for joggin' the ol' memory. :p

I can see the box art now, "Real motor racing!...With new "Rockem Sockem" action figures included!"

In a world of premeditaded phony collectables, this idea would be the real McCoy.

I'd buy it! :thumbsup:

Make that 500 set complete with a big red Nascar trailer where you can call the rockem sockem figures for a good talkin' to and you've sold me!

How about a bunch of pre-recorded sound bites from Jackie Stewart? "It looks like he's taking his car to the gair-awge"..."He needs just a bit of petrol to finish the race".

In all seriousness, I don't know if it would work today but that's more or less how AFX ruled the world back then. They had Foyt, Andretti, Stewart, and other big names of the day to help promote their product.

http://www.supervipersystems.com/VargoSpeedway/HO_History/afxteam.jpg

Actually you could do the same Rock 'em Sock 'em routine in todays' NASCAR with Robby Gordon or Tony Stewart. http://planetofspeed.net/smilies/throwpunch.gif :p

Make that 500 set complete with a big red Nascar trailer where you can call the rockem sockem figures for a good talkin' to and you've sold me!

How about a bunch of pre-recorded sound bites from Jackie Stewart? "It looks like he's taking his car to the gair-awge"..."He needs just a bit of petrol to finish the race".

In all seriousness, I don't know if it would work today but that's more or less how AFX ruled the world back then. They had Foyt, Andretti, Stewart, and other big names of the day to help promote their product.

...And who could forget the Stewart classic, "There's no rear view mirrors on those cars!"

Dunno Scott, todays infield girl fights just dont seem the same as the old school dustups of yore. Perhaps they could change the rule book to include additional driver points for actually landing punches. Extra points for landing a combination and a super bonus 1 place jump in the standings if you knock your nemesis out.

That is the first of the Long Beach track I have seen from Racemasters. I have to admit, despite being a 2 lane, it stirred my soul! That box says this is for racing!

This track might be the candidate for the "Best 2 lane Track Ever Offered!"

Wow......I can't believe that track. Way to go Racemasters! I will have to buy one to join my un-opened Super International!

Jim Norton
Huntsville, Alabama

Scalextric offers their 1/32 sets with tracks from one set which can fit within a track from another scalextric set. In other words, you can buy two sets which combine to make one 4 lane.

I was looking at the Long Beach track and it appears that it could be turned into a 4 lane.

It would be great of Racemasters would follow Scalextric's lead and offer a second set which could be combined to make a four lane. This would be one heck of a 4 lane raceway with 4 champ cars!

I certainly would buy both!

Jim Norton
Huntsville, Alabama

That is one great looking set. Way to go Racemasters.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Norton
1) Track sets of famous races. Would you buy a 4 lane "1979 Daytona 500" set featuring the 1st through 4th place cars? Imagine minature versions of Donny Allison's Hawaiian Tropic Oldsmobile, Cale Yarborough's Busch Beer Olsmobile, Petty's STP and Waltrip's Gatorade cars?

"ONLY if it comes with little figures of Donnie Allison, Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough beating the *!?# out of each other in the infield........ :lol:

Ahhhhh, the good ole days........." "Deron"

I would buy it either way. Would love to see the four lane track section, longer straights, banked and non banked sections, curves with lanes collapsing down closer to each other and opening back up for the exit....... Dreaming. :eek: rr

Jim,

Looping back (pun intended) to your original point.....

I am 45 yrs. old and just getting started in the hobby. While I tend to agree with you with regard to the AFX offerings for the adult market, what occurs to me is that Tomy is a toy company. As such, they would consider their true market to be children (Ages 8 and up........the entry level to the hobby, if you will).

At the same time, in the short period where HO slot cars have been an interest of mine, it looks to me that with all the high end track (Max, Wizz), cars (Wizzrd, BSRT), controllers (Parma and on up), and all sorts of elaborate computer based electronics for lap timing and track power units that are available, there DOES seem to be a large and pricey aftermarket out there for the adult buyer.

Trying to put myself in Tomy's place, from a marketing standpoint they may consider this aftermarket the biggest hinderance to loftier ventures on their part for the more serious hobbyist.

All that said, I like your idea. But of course, I say that as an adult just starting out with nothing more than a Super International and 4 Way Split set to start with (so far....I plan to start construction soon on a new table!!).

Hottest Cars to collectors seems to be 1970 Lemans...(probobly has something to do with the movie)........SO, would it make sense to sell a Collectors edition Lemans set with say 4 cars...followed up with the Lemans collector cars sets #2,3,4 ,5 etc to fill out the entire field...and then change the box a little and make a Modern Lemans racers version with another 4 cars (say 2 LMPs and a couple of GT's).......Again doing a collection of the entire field for say 2005 or 2006.

Car sets could include 1 LMP1 set 1 LMP2 set a GT1 set a couple GT2 sets and a couple GT3 sets.......

A re-issue of the larger Russkit controllers could be in order. I've read several post about people not liking the little kiddie controllers that come in the sets.

And how about a booklet on how to make a road course layout. This works for the train crowd. You see magazines showing lots of different train layouts to build.

Trying to put myself in Tomy's place, from a marketing standpoint they may consider this aftermarket the biggest hinderance to loftier ventures on their part for the more serious hobbyist.

My take on this would be not to complete with the aftermarket stuff, but include the best of the aftermarket stuff in your sets. Instead of making your own controllers and power packs, go out and buy them from someone who specializes in those areas. Then get back to doing what you can do best - produce tracks and cars.
We really don't need multiple people working on the same thing. Spread the R&D money around to where there is a need.
I was looking at a website store the other day and they have already posted, though it is not available yet, track from Auto World. If this track is Tomy compatible (which I believe to be true), and if AW spent money to create their own copy of exiting pieces, that is just a shame. They could have taken that money and made new track pieces to compliment the existing Tomy system and bought any track they needed from Tomy.
Unless there is some kind of legal issue involved. In which case, we should do as Skakespeare suggested and eliminate all the lawyers.

Joe

My take on this would be not to complete with the aftermarket stuff, but include the best of the aftermarket stuff in your sets. Instead of making your own controllers and power packs, go out and buy them from someone who specializes in those areas. Then get back to doing what you can do best - produce tracks and cars.
Joe

I like that idea A LOT. In fact, there's a lot more that they can do.

Being someone who's just starting out in the hobby and is looking to build a table, I'm amazed at how much stuff the hobbyist also needs to manufacture on his own with materials from the home center. In particular, I've been following the threads on borders/aprons and guard rail/retaining walls closely.

The amount of accessories that SHOULD be available from manufacturers but are not just boggles the mind. A lot of lost opportunity there.

I absolutely agree that if the manufacturers were to up the quality of what they are selling, they would appeal to MORE people, not less. It's why people upgrade stereos, TV's, video game systems, etc, newer stuff is typically better. Quit pushing some of this old technology crap on us and pretending like it's the best stuff out there.

Put some basic parma controllers in a set with a power supply that can actually handle 4 cars at a time. Push the frickin' crown gear closer to the pinion on the pancake cars and for Gods sakes, either drill a smaller hole or use bigger axles, why is that so damn hard to do?

Give a list of layouts that will fit on a 4 x 8 or a door as opposed to just showing me how to take up half of my living room.

Pack a tool set and a tune-up guide in with the set so people who want can tweak their cars or make them run better can do it.

The track ain't the problem at this point... it's EVERYTHING ELSE!

One word....digital...

The chips are small enough now...imagine 6 cars on a two lane with lane changers...or 12 cars on a four lane... :thumbsup: