18th-Jan-26, 02:50 PM
After looking at the Scalextric releases for 2026 I fell to musing how much the slot scene has changed over the years.
I bought my first new Scalextric car in late 1975/early 1976, it was a C50 JPS Lotus 72 complete with the now outlawed cigarette branding and it cost me the princely sum of £5. For the time it was a very nice car, I still have it today and it continues to run well with it's original motor, albeit with replacement tyres.
The 1975 catalogue listed a total of just 9 cars, none of which were new moulds that year. 1976 was a bit better with 4 new moulds and a total of 11 cars available. The only real competition in the UK were Airfix with a similar sized range of cars but most of these were made from moulds produced in the 60s and were not readily available in most toy shops. It was just about possible to obtain some of the Exin Spanish Scalextric cars but most people didn't even know they existed. Ninco, Fly, Slot.It etc would not arrive for at least another 20 years so the choice was somewhat limited to say the least.
Fast forward to 2026 and Scalextric has at least 50 cars slated for release this year, yes they cost in the region of £50 but I have checked the comparative value of a fiver in 1975 compared to today and £50 is not that far out. A peruse of Pendle's stock lists provides the staggering sum of nearly 1000 1/32 slot cars available for just the major brands of Scalextric, Carrera and Slot.It plus another 1000 for the multitude of smaller brands.
Regardless of what us boomers tell you, not everything was better 'back in the day'!
Today’s enthusiast has never had it so good, enjoy it while it lasts.
I bought my first new Scalextric car in late 1975/early 1976, it was a C50 JPS Lotus 72 complete with the now outlawed cigarette branding and it cost me the princely sum of £5. For the time it was a very nice car, I still have it today and it continues to run well with it's original motor, albeit with replacement tyres.
The 1975 catalogue listed a total of just 9 cars, none of which were new moulds that year. 1976 was a bit better with 4 new moulds and a total of 11 cars available. The only real competition in the UK were Airfix with a similar sized range of cars but most of these were made from moulds produced in the 60s and were not readily available in most toy shops. It was just about possible to obtain some of the Exin Spanish Scalextric cars but most people didn't even know they existed. Ninco, Fly, Slot.It etc would not arrive for at least another 20 years so the choice was somewhat limited to say the least.
Fast forward to 2026 and Scalextric has at least 50 cars slated for release this year, yes they cost in the region of £50 but I have checked the comparative value of a fiver in 1975 compared to today and £50 is not that far out. A peruse of Pendle's stock lists provides the staggering sum of nearly 1000 1/32 slot cars available for just the major brands of Scalextric, Carrera and Slot.It plus another 1000 for the multitude of smaller brands.
Regardless of what us boomers tell you, not everything was better 'back in the day'!
Today’s enthusiast has never had it so good, enjoy it while it lasts.
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