Hello, my name is John, and I'm a slot-a-holic!!! Man, this is an addictive hobby. I've lurked here for a while and wanted to say hey to all. I'm 41 with a 5 y.o. and I "blame" him for many slot related purchases!! I'm not a hard core racer. I tend to enjoy the tinkering more. My son and I made a 4X8 table in the garage using a Tomy International set. My wife even purchased a $125 Budshocars gift certificate for me for xmas. How cool is that??!! I wish I could walk into a hobby shop and actually look around and buy slot car stuff. I'm in LA (Lower Alabama) and there's nothing around here. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest!! I feel better.

welcome to the boards, theres a nice mix of racer/collector/customizer on here to answer any questions you may have.
I cannot help about your location, lol.

I also want to welcome you to the hobby and on hobbytalk, we are a bunch of great guys willing to help you any way we can, if you have questions feel free to ask any of us, i'm still learning as well, and i've learned that even if i thought i had a strange question it was always answered no matter the circumstances everyone on hobbytalk is great, we also have chat nights on wed. and fridays to in the evening, feel free to pop in and say hi.

I wish i could help you to with locating some slot shops in your area, i'm in southern california and there really isn't to many out here eithier,lol. i do alot on hobbytalk,ebay and some of the other great site guys have to offer.

I just wanted to say hi, and welcome you, and have fun.

Shon

Slot cars are fun at any level.Hopefully some of us
can pass it on to the next generation.

Welcome ropes. You won't regret it. :) rr

Pffft...that's mild...you aint got it bad intil you scour town for christmass tree ornaments to convert into slotcar bodies...:thumbsup:

Welcome!

(post pics):thumbsup:

Welcome to the boards!

What I found to be just as addicting (in my case) is working on the whole scenery scene. I'm constantly looking for, thinking of, finding ways to add something.

Hello John.....

Welcome to Hobbytalk. All kinds here: serious racer, way too serious racer, garage/basement racer, collector, customizer, hacker, tinker, tailor, candlestick maker...well you get the idea. :). Great people here. What a wife you have...slot car gift certificate for Xmas :woohoo:.......how cool is that?
As far as hobbystores, I know how you feel, I have nothing that even comes close to a hobbyshop near me.

I've always enjoyed reading this board. I guess its financially better to not have a store around me. I have to stop buying on Ebay!!! I'm in the Army and in 02 I moved my mother near me and with her came all of my childhood AFX track/cars etc. I looked at the stuff once and was bitten!! Thousands of dollars later here I am. The bug seems to hit me in the winter. I was a big fan of the AFX MT and enjoyed working on them. I was recently introduced to the Super G Plus with the purchase of the Tomy SI race set. I also dusted off some of the original G Plus chasis. I think they have become my favorite due to their speed and you still need to pay attention to driving. Unlike my kid....he just sticks with the Super G Plus and goes. He has no time for the MT or G Plus because they dont stay on the track!!!

Hey John,
If you are ever in the UA area {upper Alabama, Huntsville to be exact} give me a holler and we can getb together. mMy track is still justb getting started but it's always fun to bench race! There are a couple others in Huntsville that are addicted as well. I'm into Tjets mostly and I'm into customizing and racing. Later Rob

Hey Ropes,
Glad you found us and nice to here another young'n in the mix of the slot bug.

The bug seems to hit me in the winter.

I think there's a lot of us are like that. Once the warm weather rolls around, I don't do much with my slot stuff either. Slot car shows don't occur (for the most part) until late September and die off before the summer.

So maybe you take the spring and summer off, but you'll be back.

Joe

Hey John,
Welcome to micro racing. There is also a swap meet coming up March 7th in Dallas. I think a few guys from Alabama are planning on coming. Check it out in the EVENTS column.

Rich

Thanks for all of the posts!!

Oddrods, I'm a couple years out from an Army retirement and Huntsville seems like the place to start a new career in Aviation/Engineering.

I've been here since October and so far I think its great! huntsville is perfect for aviation/engineering. That's why I'm here.

I knew I was an addict when I started ironing the cards that my O gauge collection came in.The corners were curled and they wouldn't mount flat on the wall.Tom Stumpf

Ropes and Oddrods, if you ever need another Southern venue, Warner Robbins, GA has a mod center that keeps pretty busy. It's a vey nice town as well.

Hi Ropes! Welcome from another corner of LA. (Not UCLA, the ugly corner of lower Alabama LOL) From your post I would hazard a guess that you are somewhere near Fort Rucker? if so the state of hobby shops in the area is pretty meager. I work Dothan. Closest store with some slot selection is Hobbytown in Pensacola.

There is a new very large 1:24 commercial track outside Mobile (thanks to desotoslots for tracking it down), and there is an R/C car club here that has run a HO home track winter series, so it isn't completely dead!

Hey SplitPoster!! You are correct about Rucker. I saw a few hobby shop entries in the Dothan phonebook and not one of them are in business anymore. I do enjoy the people here. Alot more relaxed than where I was born in CT.