SlotRacer Forum
Hornby business news January 2026 - Printable Version

+- SlotRacer Forum (https://slotracer.online/community)
+-- Forum: News & Events (https://slotracer.online/community/forumdisplay.php?fid=38)
+--- Forum: News (https://slotracer.online/community/forumdisplay.php?fid=39)
+--- Thread: Hornby business news January 2026 (/showthread.php?tid=5164)


Hornby business news January 2026 - woodcote - 10th-Jan-26

Hornby continue to struggle. This informative and concise video explains the latest financial figures, released just a week before the 2026 catalogues are unveiled…

https://youtu.be/FmcvfA-KjHY

RE: Hornby business news January 2026 - ScorpiusWireless - 10th-Jan-26

They need a businessman to run it.
The future is digital. 
Yet nothing new released digital for almost a decade.
Then marketing. Do they use it?
Distribution. Non existent.
All these are tell tale signs.

RE: Hornby business news January 2026 - woodcote - 10th-Jan-26

With all due respect…


Scalextric is a small part of the Hornby portfolio. Australia is a relatively small marketplace for them. Of course, distribution in Australia is handled by the local distributor, not the parent company.

The traditional mass-market toy industry is struggling - that’s the headline I see everywhere. The sector’s biggest market (by far) is the USA. Trump’s tariffs have pushed some toy and hobby companies over the edge, but all have been damaged, even those who don’t manufacture in the Far East.

Some of that is mentioned in the video.

RE: Hornby business news January 2026 - BAracer - 10th-Jan-26

Slot Car News reported last week that Scalextric have just appointed a distributor for North America. Hopefully that won't do them any harm.

RE: Hornby business news January 2026 - ScorpiusWireless - 11th-Jan-26

(10th-Jan-26, 04:17 PM)woodcote Wrote:  With all due respect…

  • Phoenix have got some of the UK’s best-known businessmen involved.
  • Hornby have developed a cutting edge new digital system in HM7000.
  • HM7000 was released in 2023, less than three years ago.
  • Hornby marketing is pretty good in the UK - it pops up on all the socials and I have seen ads on commuter trains and on the London Underground as well as in magazines and newspapers.
  • Hornby products dominate UK hobby stores. The starter sets (Hornby, Scalextric, Airfix) are everywhere - in toy shops, supermarkets and online, including very prominently on Amazon, the biggest UK marketplace.

Scalextric is a small part of the Hornby portfolio. Australia is a relatively small marketplace for them. Of course, distribution in Australia is handled by the local distributor, not the parent company.

The traditional mass-market toy industry is struggling - that’s the headline I see everywhere. The sector’s biggest market (by far) is the USA. Trump’s tariffs have pushed some toy and hobby companies over the edge, but all have been damaged, even those who don’t manufacture in the Far East.

Some of that is mentioned in the video.

All good.
Not sure why you singled out trains and Australia. I’m talking mainly slot cars (yes Hornby sells more trains) and worldwide sales. 


Closing the US warehouse. Wow.
Marketing in the UK is expected but I’ve never seen any for years on the internet globally that I can remember.
Good businessman make it happen not make excuses. Carrera have simply taken up whatever market they have developed plus all the void left by Margate. In Australia Scalextric is simply too hard to come by, you hardly see it here now. It’s all Carrera. Now to be fair to Carrera they have earned it with global success. This proves 1, it can be done and 2, the market is still there.
So why is one company succeeding and the other failing? For all the reasons I mentioned. 

Just googled HM7000. Nothing cutting edge that I can see except a seen a train decoder with sound for $140. That should be $80 maybe $90 maximum. Get my drift? 
My comment was regarding slot cars. Zero development has been invested into digital slot cars in the last decade at Margate. That’s a major concern. It’s not that expensive trust me.
In regard to slot cars being only a small proportion it doesn’t have to be that way. And regardless it’s the same management with same issues.

Any other truths may look like bashing so I’ll leave it there but Phoenix is proven not to be effective. 
I wish Hornby all the best but with 1% cash instead of 20% I think it’s only a matter of time sadly.

Rick 
Scorpius Wireless
Not a competitor or threat to Hornby

RE: Hornby business news January 2026 - woodcote - 12th-Jan-26

I thought HM7000 would have piqued your interest as it is a wireless control system, with the decoders also compatible with standard DCC. Hornby are the first mainstream manufacturer to go down the wireless control pathway.

Slot car technology has always piggy-backed on the massively bigger model railway hobby. I suspect the Scalextric team have looked at HM7000...

RE: Hornby business news January 2026 - ScorpiusWireless - 12th-Jan-26

(12th-Jan-26, 09:51 AM)woodcote Wrote:  I thought HM7000 would have piqued your interest as it is a wireless control system, with the decoders also compatible with standard DCC. Hornby are the first mainstream manufacturer to go down the wireless control pathway.

Slot car technology has always piggy-backed on the massively bigger model railway hobby. I suspect the Scalextric team have looked at HM7000...
That’s cool.
I wonder where they got the idea from? Cool
I showed Hornby CEO and team all that in 2009. Too far ahead of the market they said. Big mistake. Maybe millions missed out on.

I also designed a DCC compatible wireless train system in 2010 that I showed the train community funnily enough called the MPD. I just got a bunch of nasty old grumps who said it could never work so I kept it to myself even though I proved it was actually cheaper and more functional with a local area network handling 2 way wireless Comms 100 more efficiently. 

I see they 8 configurable sounds to choose from, identical spec to my surround sound system I’m bringing out one day based on the MPD.

For years the train guys had it over us. Now it’s the other way around. We have the best comms, wireless upgradable gear, wirelessly configured gear, smallest decoder etc. 
No doubt wireless is the future but unless you have a world distribution network you’ll never be a global competitor. I predicted all manufacturers follow my system with no power base, straight DC power to rails and all run by app or PC. So far Scorpius, 02 and SCX have. 
If Hornby does go this route Carrera  will be the only non wireless system.

RE: Hornby business news January 2026 - woodcote - 12th-Jan-26

I thought you might like it  Thumbup

Of course, people have been playing with radio control and model trains since the 50s. Enthusiast-developed digital wireless control for model railways pre-dates Scorpius and oXigen. Likewise, those enthusiasts believed wireless was the future and DCC was already out of date. 

HM7000 seems to be inspired by a niche group of enthusiasts who have been experimenting for 20 years with using Bluetooth for control. However, the big American and European manufacturers remain 100% committed to DCC - and when the vast majority of enthusiasts have sunk maybe £10k into a top DCC system, they won't be changing anytime soon. HM7000 offers a very economical entry-point for younger newcomers to the hobby (or to digital control), who will instinctively prefer something app-based than some old-fashioned lump of hardware.

And that's the conundrum - advances in technology open up new possibilities, but manufacturers are beholden to the inertia of their loyal, ageing customer base. Same with slot cars.

RE: Hornby business news January 2026 - ScorpiusWireless - 12th-Jan-26

(10th-Jan-26, 04:49 PM)BAracer Wrote:  Slot Car News reported last week that Scalextric have just appointed a distributor for North America. Hopefully that won't do them any harm.

Its Professor Motor

RE: Hornby business news January 2026 - WilkFrisk - 11th-Feb-26

(10th-Jan-26, 10:38 AM)woodcote Wrote:  Hornby continue to struggle. This informative and concise video explains the latest financial figures, released just a week before the 2026 catalogues are unveiled…

https://youtu.be/FmcvfA-KjHY