Hey all, i recieved this email from Slotcars Direct asking for slot fans to help him to convince Tomy to continue to make Tomy products affordablle and thus available in Europe. Below is a letter with an explanation of the story and a letter that you can cut and paste to email to Tomy. Lets help out the Tomy fans across the lake!!!! mj

Dear Customer,

I really need your help to save Tomy AFX in Europe. Eight years ago when Tomy UK gave up on the AFX range I took it on to keep this fantastic slot car system going. I have had to fight to keep the Tomy AFX system going for all these years but now it seems that the suppliers that have always delivered in the past have now stopped and the range is to disappear from Europe altogether. After weeks of trying to get Tomy to carry on letting me import the range and even trying to negotiate with Racemasters in the USA, I have drawn a blank. I need you to help me put pressure on Tomy UK to get them to see how big a customer following they have for the AFX. I need you and all your friends to email Tomy UK to express your concern in loosing my back up for the range. As we all know I have kept the prices down to what they were eight years ago, £9.00-£11.00, Racemasters USA have increased theirs to an all time high of between £18.00 - £25.00 which is as we know puts them in the 1/32nd price range. It is time to be heard, and pressure from all of us is the only way I can think of to make Tomy sit up and take note. I have drafted a letter below that you can copy and paste into your email or you can use your own words of help which would probably be better for more impact. Please, please, don’t just ignore this, it will see the end of AFX in Europe. Yes you will be able to import from the USA, but you will also have to pay for that privilege. Act now and save the AFX range in Europe. THANKYOU.



Dear Sirs,

It has come to my attention when visiting Slotcarsdirects web site, that the Tomy AFX range will no longer be available to us Europeans anymore because no one at Tomy is willing to help with the importing or supplying of this fantastic slot car range. I have dealt with Barry from Slotcarsdirect for many years and for Tomy to now turn its back on him and Europe is devastating to us all. Why is America and Australia allowed to continue with the range but we are not. As a Tomy customer I find this very bias towards other communities and I am shocked that this is how Tomy see the European market, 2nd place. I hope you understand my frustration with Tomy and want to know how are you going to support the AFX range in the future when you have took away the only real support we have had over the last eight years.



Yours sincerely,



---------------?



Please send to: careline@tomy.co.uk



Kind Regards,



Barry.

www.slotcarsdirect.co.uk

EAHORC is a big group of UK racers and we get our stuff just fine. I have been a big supporter of Barry, bought loads of stuff and sent people his way, but that email has a lot of spin in it.

The email did give me cause to reminisce about the Tomy UK careline :). Basically you could get the cars and sets anywhere that the rest of the Tomy range was sold, but if you wanted spares the careline was the answer. The phone lines were manned mostly by females, and back in the day when customer service meant something. They had no clue what a slot car was, but if you had the part numbers or could describe the parts in detail they would get them to you by the next day. More often than not a manager would authorize sending extra bits free and a note would be included to that affect. Superb stuff!

For all I know it may still be that way, just not for slots. About four years ago I attended the BTF, mostly to have a meeting with the Scalextric people, and happened to stumble upon the Tomy stand. It was all pre-school and baby stuff. When I spoke to the suits they had no idea their company was once involved with Slotcars.

I don't know when conventional importation of the slot lines to (eventually) the traditional bricks and mortar places in the UK stopped, but it was many years ago. Thanks to the Internet and Scale Auto etc, it did not matter too much. In fact it did me a favour, for years I thought Tomy only did a handful of Group C cars (and Tyco 2), alongside those bizzare looking lighted versions, but when I was forced to look further afield, well lets just say it cost me a fortune!

I wonder if any other countries had a Tomy Careline?

I am a Barry supporter. I got most of my Micro-Scalextric cars and over 100 Tomy cars from him. The TurboX chassis (my made up name) with the huge neo bar is faster than a stock P3E and they were a third the price. Barry has always done right by me. Service counts in my eyes. Hope he can work something out.

Thanks for the background Montoya - answers most of the questions I had after reading the letter from Barry.

I contacted Tomy France and Tomy UK (via the Carelines) when I was trying to buy a set last year and they both pointed me in Barry's direction.

A proper European HO operation from Tomy would be great for us, but I guess the economics just don't make sense for them at the moment :(

Andy,

It would be nice to be able to go into bricks and mortar places and buy Tomy stuff again, wouldn't it?

Businesses are understandably risk-averse. I have always thought the Life-Like range would carve a niche for itself in the EU, perhaps with BTCC or WTCC cars or something of that ilk. But there is a chance the whole thing would be a disaster, so why bother?

Thanks to people like Barry, that big auction site and the internet in general, we have been able to make the best of it.

I have always thought the Life-Like range would carve a niche for itself in the EU, perhaps with BTCC or WTCC cars or something of that ilk.

I think if the cars look good, then HO could be a runner in Europe again.

When the cars became plastic blobs (I'm thinking especially of the newer Mattel F1) I was really turned off the idea of HO, although everything else about it made sense.

Now with the new Tomy AFX cars and the latest Life-Like COTs, I think we're heading in the right direction. They deserve a place in hobby stores, not just the big toy warehouses.

I think Life-Like could sell NASCAR in Europe, but I like the idea of WTCC too. I also think Tomy could really sell an Audi / Peugeot Le Mans set and if they could sort out licensing on a new F1 body they would be made :thumbsup:

As you say, no-one is making economic risks at the moment, so we'll be patient ;)

No worries...we will smuggle stuff to you guys...:thumbsup: