[Nonfractal]

Another episode full of stuff I'm not interested in.
I can't understand how Hornby staff can hold up a junk scalextric car in an adjacent slot to a lovely Hornby train and not see how poor the scalextric product is.
It makes me wonder whether there ever was a "good" scalextric car.
I had a UOP f1 shadow from the early 80's it was good in its day 
I suspect it could still give any modern scaley a spanking despite having a "no chassis" design.
AlanW

Ps
At least Simon didn't refer to s scalextric as "toy" this time and tried to wax lyrical about the racing.

[CMOTD]

My Adblocker won't let it run. Give us a clue please?

Turn off your adblocker?

It can also be downloaded to a Sky box or smart TV.

[Top Down]

Ugh! I turned my adblockers off and registered with streaming TV to get ads - and THAT! What a waste of time. 

Adblockers back on!!

[dvd3500]

I think there is a geo blocker on... I can't get the video to load here in Germany...

[woodcote]

I enjoyed the first series and particularly enjoyed the first episode of the second.

I do love looking at model railways - seems like they’ll be plenty to admire in the series. They certainly started with a real treat - Kathy Millatt building one of her sensational small layouts, a work of art in just 8 weeks. As epilot regularly reminds us in his magazines thread, slot car enthusiasts can glean plenty of inspiration and techniques from the much larger community of railway modellers.

I’ve always fancied having a train set - except a OO gauge layout just takes up too much space for anywhere I’ve lived or am likely to live. Hornby introducing a new 1:120 scale TT (Table Top) range that’s compatible with European and North American TT systems is a really interesting move - much smaller, but not as fiddly as N scale. There are many who argue that 1:43 scale is the most practical scale for slot cars in modern homes - if slot cars started again with a clean slate, 1:43 would be the obvious scale.

Following the repair department fixing those tiny Rocket locos was cool - and I do enjoy seeing everyone at work, often with the awesome backdrop of the old factory. It seems that more day-today work is happening in that iconic space. It’s pretty photogenic too.

Looking forward to the rest of the episodes - whether Hornby, Corgi, Airfix or Scalextric. Great nostalgia and also fascinating to see how the company stays relevant in an ultra-competitive toy and hobby industry.

[Top Down]

Agreed the TV programme's got a lot of general interest. 

Just didn't rate the extra downloadable 'episode.'

[dvd3500]

Did I see correctly that there was a Scalextric digital track around the test track where he tested the repaired Rockets?
I think I saw a curved lane changer and maybe a 4 or 6 car powerbase...?

[woodcote]

I enjoyed the extra episode too. Of course, mostly trains - and has to be seen primarily as an attempt to tell the history of Hornby through ten products. Never an easy task in any medium… I tried to write the history of Scalextric with four models a couple of years ago: https://blog.jadlamracingmodels.com/2021...four-cars/

The very brief Scalextric section of the programme used ‘a Porsche’ to give a brief glimpse of the heritage of slot cars, how they used to be made, a nod to the 1980s heyday etc. The actual car was simply something to hang that narrative around. Jools Holland’s Minic stuff (including a couple of Porsches) was really interesting, because OO scale is a second late-50s slot car origins story that’s rarely acknowledged in the UK. A British competitor of Minic - Derek Brand’s Model Motoring - became the best-selling slot car system of all time in the hands of Aurora in North America.

I bought that silver Porsche with my pocket money in 1979 or ‘80 and a few of us ran them (with lights) in an enjoyable rug-racing endurance series at weekends and in the school holidays. So nostalgia-wise, it was an excellent choice as far as I was concerned. And although a couple of minutes was no time to tell the story of slot cars, it was a decent effort by a TV production team looking at our hobby from the outside. I enjoyed it.

[dvd3500]

Looks like a Scalextric episode next week!

[CMOTD]

I think it is Corgi or Airfix next week, large scale Lotus 72. Scalextric should be episode 4.

I enjoyed this week's episode, fascinating to see how much effort they put into the running gear and performance of their trains. If only they would give the same attention to Scalextric cars!