When did Scalextric become so expensive?

Ninco! said:
Scalextric collector here!
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I'm not an avid collector but I do buy the odd car now and again.

I've got 2 old US Scalextric sets. One set's track can fit inside the other to make 4 lanes. I have two Carrera sets which I actually use. The track is more fiddly to put together but feels solid once finished.

That Argos catalogue takes me back. :)
 
I had a set as a kid/teenager, so best part of 50 years ago, and I know it's still up in the loft. Not sure what state the cars are in, but I know they were formula1, as I recall a black JPS, remember have a hump back bridge and a chicane etc...might need to dig it out and check out the condition
 
dowie said:
Nothing really, seems it cost about the same as it did a while back.

I googled for an old Argos catalogue - here's one from 1990:

issuu.com

Argos No.33 1990 Spring/Summer

Argos catalogue from 1990 filled with lots of retro goodies. From Retromash.com
issuu.com issuu.com

Here are the sets they sold back then:
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Now it looks like the "Pole Position" set in that old catalog is the closest match to the "Grand Prix Racing Set" they currently sell - both come with two F1 cars and a figure of 8 track, the new one is a slightly smaller tract at like 17.5 ft rather than 20ft but comes with crash barriers and what look like better cars, the old set has some smoke feature though.

Now accounting for inflation £62 in 1990 is just under £150 today... and that set on the Argos website is selling for £160 so, basically still costs about the same as it did when elder millennials were little kids.
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Wow. We had the number 5 "Formula One" set. I remember it well. Not sure if it was deliberate but the Yellow Lotus car was heavier and could take more abuse on the throttle controller for noobs, but the Williams White/blue/yellow car seemed to accelerate slightly quicker but came off the track more easily! Thinking back, quite clever if this was deliberate as it added to the "skill" of it. My Dad used to scout around car boot sales in the early 90s and used to pick up loads of track and extra bits for dirt cheap. We ended up with enough track to build absolute monster straights on the patio in the back garden. They got up to such speed that they sometimes bounced just enough on the straight to leave the slot and come off. Dad also found this super high banked turn which we utilized at the end of the straight to minimize how much we had to slow down. Good memories.
 
Never had scalextric. Had some cheaper set with 1960 F1 Cars. Later had a matchbox set with the working headlights, a corvette, 911 and a BMW 3 series. Loved it, though always hard to find someone to race against. Scalextric was never cheap as far as I remember.
 
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loved Scalextric, got the Road race kit one Christmas and then loads of hand me down track from a friend of my parents.
The tracks got so long we had to add a 2nd transformer or the cars didn’t make it round.

As for pricing the road race kit was £65.50 in 1993

Should check out
https://retromash.com/argos/
It’s like reliving your childhood flicking through the catalogs
 
Vengance said:
loved Scalextric, got the Road race kit one Christmas and then loads of hand me down track from a friend of my parents.
The tracks got so long we had to add a 2nd transformer or the cars didn’t make it round.

As for pricing the road race kit was £65.50 in 1993

Should check out
https://retromash.com/argos/
It’s like reliving your childhood flicking through the catalogs
Click to expand...

My missus came home from work last night and asked why I was looking through an Argos Catalogue from 1993!

My Argos catalogue memory instantly remembered to go straight to the back pages for toys. Crazy the weird information you can keep stored in the brain.
 
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Ahh this thread takes me back. I actually still have two old sets in my mums attic that I really should set up for old times sake. One is “pole position” and I’m sure the other is a dukes of hazard one with a jump on the track?!
 
I have a set at my mums which had the JPS car in it, I think my parents bought that separately though, we had a really good shop nearby back then. I also had a Tyco CJ7 set which had a bendy section you could make into shapes if you wanted, I seem to remember the cars lit up and some track parts glowed.

We used to make the bendy part into a ramp and jump the cars out of the livingroom door, that soon broke them.

When my son was 7-8 years old he got a little set from his aunty, that is in the loft too now after about 1 hours use.
 
Because it's become a classic

I loved this In the 80s / 90s when I was a kid, when ever we used to visit my uncle used to go up in his loft in London and he would have a huge track, he was in to F1 so you could imagine there was a lot of what would have been 80s and 90s iconic F1 cars , rally cars, Le man's cars.

Remember the smell of lighter fluid to stick on the tyres before racing.
 
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I used to have one and you could put some oil in the start thing and lift the car up so only the front wheels were on and then when you press the trigger smoke would come out.
Fun for about 5m.
 
I managed to pick up about a dozen or so new boxed cars a few years ago (maybe 4 or 5) and I'm sure I didn't pay more than £15 for any of them. I got some rally cars (207, Scooby, Evo, think I got an old Cortina as well), a number of R34 Skylines (like the Zexel, Pennzoil, Calsonic etc) and some others, can't remember what the others were tho. Best to just keep a look out or try Facebook marketplace
 
Around 3 days after we sold our entire (more gave it away) when we emigrated. Something like 200m of track, including I think some four lane stuff, couple of transformers, 4 controllers, bridge sections, banked curved sections, pit lanes, lap counters. 12 cars (F1 cars, sports cars and open top racers [Le mans style?]).

Anyway, that was probably the precursor :cry:
 
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