When I was a kid, which is going back to the late 70's and early 80's, I was seriously into slot cars. I had a huge set up in the basement of my parents house. I still have my favorite car from back then, a 1st gen RX7 (it was a new car model at the time... 
). But last time I dealt with one, besides the $15 crapper at Wal-Mart, was probably 1986.
Now, having two boys of my own, I know they'd love a slot car set. The older boy is 7, the younger is 4. I don't know much about slot cars anymore. When I was a kid, it was AFX and Tyco. But I'd be lost now.
Anyone have recent dealings in slot cars? What's good, what's junk? In the basic look ups I've done so far, they seem pretty damn expensive. So if I can, I'm going to try to find a nice used set that's 3 or 4 years old. I don't want to spend a fortune on a new set and have my kids, especially the younger one, destroy it. So I'm looking for a good and sturdy set.
Ooh, ooh, pick me! (says the guy with ~250 cars and an attic full of track)
HO scale is still super awesome. The vintage stuff got a huge resurgence and you can buy new T-Jet stuff from a lot of places. AFX is still around and owned by Tomy, and they are still the kings of the track. Super fast, excellent bodies (modern LeMans prototypes even!). Mattel bought out TYCO, re-branded it all as Hot Wheels, and killed it. LifeLike bought out Marchon/Rokar and had a serious go of it for a little while, but I don't know what happened to them. Lots of specialty places making short runs. There's even full on buy it and plug it in dragstips with working christmas trees now and ET boards, wicked cool.
The big deal in the last 10 years though, has been Scaletrix and the larger stuff (1/43rd I think it is). Extremely highly detailed cars, but pricey and you need a LOT more room for a layout.
If you grew up with HO, (and still have your old cars) and want your kids into it, stick with HO for now. Buy a killer AFX 4-lane set and have a ball.
Cool, thanks for the info. Yeah, I grew up with HO. And with my kids still relatively young, I don't want to spend the big bucks on the highly detailed stuff, it would get broken quickly and they wouldn't appreciate the fine details anyway. For them, it's throw it on the track, squeeze the trigger and go.
I saw that AFX has something called TriPower. It has 3 settings that allow varying amounts of power to the controller. That way, my 4 year old can "floor it" the whole time and not get frustrated because the car flies off the track. Sounds really cool. Looking like even a nice basic starter set is $150. Ouch.
Hobby stores still the best place to go, or are there other places (besides Ebay or CL)?
Hobby stores are awesome, but insanely priced. MSRP on an AFX set is literally insane. Tower Hobbies online and Amazon have the best new prices, but honestly I'd buy a few gently used sets from eBay for pennies on the dollar. I quite literally just picked up another 4-lane AFX set plus a 4-lane TYCO set for $1 with no cars. Buy track like that and then just get some cars.
Your RX-7 btw, should be a TYCO chassis. I have 3 of them (Silver/Blue, Black w/stripes, and Black/Gold). Oh, and all HO chassis work on all HO tracks.
With the newer digital stuff, you can turn down the cars performance so less chance for the youngs ones to wreck things.
Javelin wrote:
Hobby stores are awesome, but insanely priced. MSRP on an AFX set is literally *insane*. Tower Hobbies online and Amazon have the best new prices, but honestly I'd buy a few gently used sets from eBay for pennies on the dollar. I quite literally just picked up another 4-lane AFX set plus a 4-lane TYCO set for $1 with no cars. Buy track like that and then just get some cars.
Your RX-7 btw, should be a TYCO chassis. I have 3 of them (Silver/Blue, Black w/stripes, and Black/Gold). Oh, and all HO chassis work on all HO tracks.
Damn, that's some seriously deep knowledge...yep, my RX7 is silver/blue. I actually haven't even looked at it in years. It's packed away in storage (in it's original box) somewhere. I didn't realize you could pick up stuff that cheap. If you come across another one that you don't want for yourself, feel free to pass it on.
Watch eBay for auctions, it's pretty easy. I may be downsizing some of mine soon actually, as I have a ton of TYCO and AFX and I really need to choose one or the other.
I have literally been into HO slot cars my entire life (there's a picture in the family album of me at 3 racing with my Dad at Grandpa's hobby store), so I follow it pretty closely. I also have some "race cars" built (gum tires, hot armature, etc) that will put holes in walls if they come off the track.
Start the wee ones off on some older slow models that still have traction magnets (think TYCO HP7 or early G-Plus cars by AFX). Use guardrails. When they start to "get it", doing one of the insane TYCO double-loop & up-the-wall tracks gets pretty insanely fun.
Javelin wrote:
Watch eBay for auctions, it's pretty easy. I may be downsizing some of mine soon actually, as I have a ton of TYCO and AFX and I really need to choose one or the other.
I have literally been into HO slot cars my entire life (there's a picture in the family album of me at 3 racing with my Dad at Grandpa's hobby store), so I follow it pretty closely. I also have some "race cars" built (gum tires, hot armature, etc) that will put holes in walls if they come off the track.
Start the wee ones off on some older slow models that still have traction magnets (think TYCO HP7 or early G-Plus cars by AFX). Use guardrails. When they start to "get it", doing one of the insane TYCO double-loop & up-the-wall tracks gets pretty insanely fun.
Shows you how behind the times I am. I assumed that they still all used traction magnets.
Guess my question would be, when I'm looking at Ebay auctions, what should I be looking for? A lot of the ones I saw seemed to be loose collections of track, or they were "vintage" sets that were expensive.
I need to bring this tread back to the top, looking for more help. Wound up buying my son a brand new AFX set. Found it for a steal. It's the big, giant size one. 64' of track, or something like that. Has the power cord with three settings, so I can keep the cars slower...which is cool since he's 4 and has to learn how to "drive" them.
We have it set up in our basement...damn thing barely fits on a 4'x8' sheet of plywood, and it loops all around itself. Worked great the first few days. It hasn't been played with much the past week or two. Now I'm really struggling to make it work. The car doesn't want to move. Squeeze the trigger and nothing. Push it a little and it moves 2 feet then stops. Push and moves 2 more feet. I remember when I was a kid, we used to use erasers to clean the pick up shoes. Tried that. Not much help. The cars that came with the track are Indy style cars. I found a used NASCAR style car on Ebay, and we tried that one. It's bigger and heavier. It worked much better, but still not perfect.
Are these things very temperature sensitive? Our basement is unheated, so it's cold. Any other thoughts?
My guess is that the rails in the track have a layer of oxidation on them. Try gently going over them with a scotchbrite pad.
Life Like is dirt cheap, and better than AFX to use. Cars are faster, handle better, and are more consistently competitive with each other, at least they were 15 years ago when I was messing with it.
With all of them, it is better to have separate power packs for each lane. It sucks when the other lane stops and your car speeds up from that.
I just gave a ton of that to my nephew. Got addicted to Scalextric, which looks much cooler but takes up way more space and is much more expensive.
http://www.hoslotcarracing.com/LifeLikeSlotCars.htmlhttp://www.opentip.com/Sporting-Goods/Life-Like-Products-Vertical-Victory-Electric-Ho-Slot-Car-Racing-Set-p-3558335.html
I loved my Aurora Model Motoring when I was a kid. The fabulous pancake engine Thunderjet 500. There wew lots of hop ups a kid could figure out.
I did longer axels, and made my own higher gearing by putting an armature gear on the crown gear drive.
I used to use a penny to clean the rails up on the set I had as a kid.
Yes, use a scotch brite or some fine sandpaper on all of the rails. Check the track for loose connections as well. (Sometimes the joints will work loose). Also, make sure to wipe the track down with rubbing alcohol after you sand.
Next tip: sand the "shoes" under the cars as well (the metal things that contact the rails). They will get worn quickly if you race a lot as well, so buy some "tune-up" kits. Also get a little dropper of oil for the motors. Use packing tape (I like to double-stick it to a section of old track not connected) and run the tires over it. As they pick up dust the cars get "loose". Clean tires=grip.
Post pics of you've got. I've got a ton of spares so if you need anything let me know, I'll gladly drop some shoes/tires/track into a mailer for ya.
Conversely, congrats on the A/FX track. I think it's probably the easiest track to setup and they have the coolest "racing elements" to add on.
Very cool, I'll clean up the tracks and the cars. The track does sit several days unused at a time, so that could be an issue. As big as this thing is, it could take a while to clean! 
It was strange how an older "beater" I picked up off Ebay (it's a NASCAR #18 from when Dale Jarrett drove it, shows just how old) seemed to go around the track pretty well, but the new cars that came with the set don't.
This is the set I bought him. They were easy to snap together, but the directions were horrid and it was like playing Twister in some spots....trying to click track together without falling on top of the other loops.
Why did I open this post... off to ebay..
Someday before I die, I will rout my own slot car track....
I keep thinking that I'd love to open a slot car raceway and have a Wargaming shop next door on the left and a Comic Book shop next door on the right... All I ever wanted to do as a kid was run a raceway. If I had any money and if the economy were worth a crap I'd actually consider trying it...
In reply to stroker:
I've been having that same dream for 20 years. The scary part is I actually own the inventory to do it! 
I don't have the guts to, yet.
Lots of cool stuff here:
www.electricdreams.com
and they are a GRM / CMS advertiser, so you know they are good!
http://www.autoweek.com/article/20120118/VIDEONEWS/120119822
You can also use a big pink rubber eraser if sandpaper makes you squeamish. Works on HO train track.
BTW anyone ever run an HO train with a slot car crossover track. Always wanted one.
I've run a classic Thunderjet/HO Train crossover from Aurora, and it was wicked cool.
