[woodcote]

   

The cover of the 2022 catalogue gives a very good taste of what’s inside. There’s certainly ‘something for everyone’ with a strong focus on nostalgia with retro buildings, cars and sets – harking back to the heyday of the brand. That seems a conscious strategy developed since 2017 by the new owners and management team – and one that’s popular with long-standing collectors and those returning to Scalextric during the pandemic.

Let’s start with the sets and buildings…

       

There are two new flagship sets, priced at £159.99 – both with a very 80s retro style in terms of their contents and packaging. The first is a movie set – with Back to the Future and Knight Rider combined. The cars in the set are the DeLorean time machine from Back to the Future 2 and KITT. The second set is a fabulous Grand Prix release with the two Senna Lotus cars…

       

The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice the clip-on barriers. These are a re-working of the 1980s crash barriers – now available in two lengths and come complete with sponsor stickers, either retro 80s or modern day. The barriers will be standard in the high-end sets and also sold separately – one pack is enough for both the outside and inside of a full 180-degrees of Radius 2 curves.

Two sets that have been ‘refreshed’ with barriers and new cars are the ARC Air ‘ World GT’ and ARC Pro ‘Platinum GT’...

       

Both cars in the ARC Air set are new – there’s a new set-only R-Motorsport livery on the Aston Martin Vantage GT3, plus a newly-tooled Porsche 911 GT3R with a set-only livery of the G-Cat Racing car from the 2021 British GT Championship. The ARC Pro set sees the Bentley and AMG GT3 replaced by a AMG GT3 Evo in RAM Racing’s 2021 livery, plus the yellow works Corvette C8R. The ARC Air set cars remain super-resistant with black windows and working lights. All four cars in the Platinum set are fully high-detail models.

A third updated set is ‘Police Chase’…

   

This moves the set from the American deep South of the previous version to the UK motorway system – featuring a BMW 330i patrol car and a red Corvette C8R road car. The borders and barriers have gone from this set, but otherwise it’s the same – including super-resistant cars that have black windows. The BMW has flashing roof lights and a siren. All the new sets are scheduled for a summer/early autumn release, so definitely prioritised for the hugely-important Christmas market.

And now those buildings…

       

These are both a nostalgic step back and a completely new departure for Scalextric. The manufacturing process is the same as for the popular – and rather excellent – Hornby Skaledale OO range of buildings and trackside accessories. The are made from cast resin and come fully-assembled, hand-finished and painted – ready to place on your layout. The Classic Building range is proper 1:32 scale, so they are big.

The first two releases – the Control Tower and Grandstand – are based on the original designs first seen in the 1960 Triang-Scalextric catalogue and sold right through to the 80s. These have the classic period advertising from the 1950s Goodwood buildings that Triang used for inspiration. The Control Tower has a RRP of £49.99 and the Grandstand £59.99. Depending how popular these are, the range can be developed in the future – as was the case with Skaledale.

There are no Scalextric figures in the 2022 catalogue to go with these buildings – but I’m sure 3DP entrepreneurs will get busy adding 50s and 60s themed spectators to their lists of creations. That would certainly work for a layout recreating that era – or for something more Goodwood Revival-ish.

And there are a lot of new cars that will go nicely with that retro theme...