22 HOBBY MERCHANDISER MAY 2019

Jeremy Dunning

SLOT CAR REPORT

Slot car options boost inventory flexibility.

Smart inventory selections can boost your slot car inventory flexibility to increase its attractiveness to more customers.

A car that is only of interest to one segment of your customer base will probably sell within a reasonable amount of time. However, certain accessories can make that car more appealing to a larger percentage of your clients. This month, we will look at two popular cars and two accessories that increase your flexibility and enhance sales of other items in your slot car inventory.

The Scalextric Ford Daytona Prototype probably looks familiar to you if you watch much auto racing. It has been hugely successful in American sports car endurance racing, victorious at the Daytona 24 and Sebring 12 hours. The Scalextric car looks almost better than the original, with excellent paint and tampo. The bits that stick out like the wing, body flaps and mirrors are flexible enough to stand up under pretty rough treatment. Most shop owners have had experience with unreasonable customers wanting to return cars, and this car will not cause unreasonable returns. I was in a store a few months ago and saw a man bring in a Carrera Formula 1 car complaining that the wing kept falling off. The car looked like he had brought it in tied to the back of his car dragging it along the road. Carrera paint is pretty hard to chip or scrape, but this fellow found a way.

The shop owner explained to him that Carrera Formula 1 cars are designed for the wing to come off in a crash to keep it from breaking (like most other manufacturers do to avoid breakage.) The customer kept demanding a refund or for the car to be “fixed” and almost got physical with the owner when he refused. Most shop owners have had similarly unpleasant exchanges with unreasonable customers, which is why I always mention the durability of a car when I review it.

The Scalextric Ford Daytona Prototype is very light but sturdy. It seems like the mold was created to minimize any plastic that did not contribute to the weight and rigidity of the car. I tested the car on my hill climb test track, and it registered the fifth lowest lap time on that track (out of about 190 cars tested.) This car is a safe bet for your inventory.

Accessories that allow you to extend and expand your sales are a godsend. The Carson Digital Plug allows you with no fuss or muss, to convert Scalextric DPR (convertible to digital) to Carrera Digital, and the results are pretty spectacular. One of the issues with digital slot cars is that the cars are not universal, which limits your custom-ers’ options. Now your customers can run on Carrera digital tracks with Scalextric DPR cars. I converted a Scalextric AMX Javelin to Carrera Digital and loved the results. New, lighter Scalextric cars handle so smoothly on my Carrera track. With the first converted

car, I tried to set a new track record. It was a Scalextric Ford GT 40 that I obtained from Lakota Collectibles, a great bunch to work with. You can sell the cars and conversion kits separately or do the conversion yourself, which requires about two minutes.

The AFX Pit Stop Holographic Theatre accessory has to be one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my many years of collecting and racing slot cars. This accessory is the brainchild of Steve Rus-sell, president of AFX, and keeper of the flame of the AFX legend. In 1989 Steve rescued AFX from the scrap heap and built it into a producer of fast and high technology cars and accessories that are second to none.

The pit stop is a combination race manager and interactive pit stop machine. You simply set the length of the race, press the start button, and, just like a real Formula 1 race you get a red light count-down and off you go. At some point each driver is told to make a pit stop, and he rolls into the pit lane and stops at a holographic pit box. Then, an entire pit crew runs out and services the car and tells the car to exit. After one or more pit stops for each racer the laps count down, and the car that is ahead at the end wins and gets a grand victory lane celebration complete with flag waving and noise. Because all HO cars run on AFX track, this accessory can be used

The beautiful Scalextric Ford Daytona Prototype and the new chip allow-ing you to convert Scalextric to Carrera Digital (bottom.)

MAY 2019 HOBBY MERCHANDISER 23

help the younger ones have some fun. It really works: I’ve tried it with kids and it was a perfect solution.

The Slot Car Skeletons in the Closet this month is a 1/32 car that is as rare as hen’s teeth. The OK Kader Mercury Monterrey is a very difficult slot car to find in decent condition. It looks like it was created from a 1/32 MPC Budd Anderson stock car project that did not make the final cut to be released. I vaguely recollect that Auto World used some 1/32 Mercury bodies in their Atlas-Auto world 1/32 cars from the late 60s and early 70s. OK Kader made slot cars in HO and 1/43 also, and I included an HO example of the Mercury in the photo. HM

with any car brands, expanding your HO sales opportunities to a significant degree. While you are considering accessories, stock up on some AFX power supplies. These little beauties solve the age-old problem of young kids not being able to control high-speed HO slot cars. The AFX power supply allows you to turn down the power and

The AFX Holographic pit stop with an insert showing the photo app and a screen capture of a pit stop movie.

The long gone and little missed AK Kader Mercury (top) and HO Aston Martin (bottom)