[woodcote]

Oh my! Hornby Hobbies only went and loaned a set of their latest pre-production models to Gaugemaster for AutoFest today... Several of these samples had not been seen at a public event before. Matt Taylor from Gaugemaster kindly allowed me to take some of the cars out of their secure case and photograph them for SlotRacer Online. However, if any of them got broken, we'd both be hunted down by Hornby and shot...

         

         

         

And by far my favourite of the lot...

   

 

I understand that pretty much all these are on their way to arrive either in the next couple of weeks or the end of November / beginning of December, depending on how slow the boat is from China.

A big thanks to Hornby for showing the cars and to Gaugemaster for letting us photograph them on their lovely little Brands Hatch track...

   

[Gordon Steadman]

I bet they sell a few of those Loti

[woodcote]

I bet they do  

The packaging says a limited run of 2500. It might be a limited edition that sells out quite quickly...

This is the third sample I've seen and they keep getting better. There were a few differences from the sample at Gaydon to the one on the website (here) and a couple more on this latest one. It would good to see Jim's upper arms sitting a little more naturally on the final version. Is it possible they are upside-down?

[Top Down]

Don't think so. If they were upside down you'd have to swap them left to right to get them 'the right way up', then the thumbs would be in the place of the little pinkies!

They definitely look odd as they are. Even odder if swapped over though.

[woodcote]

Yes, the hands/thumbs are the right way up!

I've looked at some pics of Clark driving the Lotus 25 and he does look a little hunched in the shoulders, but a more natural position might be something like this...

   

[CMOTD]

You do have to wonder at Scalextric's marketing strategy sometimes. Limited edition of just 2500 for such a sought after car?? There is virtually no scope for reliveries on this one. Are they seriously intending to invest many tens of thousands of pounds in the mould and then produce such a small number which will make it virtually impossible to break even?

[woodcote]

Indeed.

Maybe it's no coincidence that there's no mention of it being limited edition on the website listing...

[Scuderia_Turini]

The 1:1 E/F/I-Pace Jaguars seem to sell well so that could be a money spinner for Hornby.

Cheers Andy, thank you for sharing the info and photographs.

Leo