[CMOTD]

My parents were not well off so, in spite of frantic letters to Santa, I never got a Scalextric set when I was a child. Dinky Toys GP cars were about as near as I ever got.

Christmas 1958 I received these:
       
Wish I still had them as the transporter would fetch a bob or two these days. It is a point worth noting that old toys are only worth money because children destroy most of  them so pristine survivors are not common. If you had kept all your toys mint in box and never played with them you could probably retire on the proceeds at some later date. The downside of this is that childhood would have been a lot less fun and, if everybody did it, there would be massive oversupply in the collectors' market and they would be worth the best part of bugger all.

But I digress, back to Scalextric, soon after Christmas I was invited to tea at a school friend's house. Now his parents were seriously well off and he had received one of the very early sets - #MM1 with rubber track, two Maserati 250Fs, cardboard battery house and simple push button control. In all honesty it was a bit rubbish as you rarely took your finger off the push button in time to stop the car for the corners. It was full power or nothing so it was a miracle if you ever completed a lap. We played with it for a while till the batteries went flat and then switched to his equally brand new Hornby Dublo train layout for the rest of the evening, I told you his parents were rich!

It was another 20 years before I acquired my own set and set off down the road to ruin that is slot car obsession but I suppose that Christmas visit must have planted the seed for later germination. Funnily enough I never had any desire to own one of those original sets from 1958!