Scalextric are clearly
going through a difficult time at the moment, even our local Hobbycraft
store has just sold off it’s Scalextric stock but has retained it’s
Hornby railway stock. Going back to the early years Scalextric was
always an expensive, aspirational toy, everything was expensive in
relative terms.
Today there is a lot of competition for the
slot cars
market with manufactures like, Artin, Ninco, SCX and Autoart to name
just a few. The market has become squeezed too with so many other
things for people to do; the internet, computer gaming etc.
So how do Scalextric fight back, well, we have a new
Scalextric Sport track system and we have the
Scalextric digital
system. There’s also no doubt that Scalextric are not the best at
electronic innovation and the digital chips are no exception. There’s a
high failure rate, we measure at about 5% to 10% which is crazy for
modern electronics. Scalextric should sort it out or ditch that part of
the market.
Our solution for Scalextric? Go back to the basics, simple cars with
OK detail and basic track systems. Get rid of these blacked out
windows and let’s have some interiors back, basic one or two piece
mouldings is OK, just like the old
Scalextric cars.
Ditch the Scalextric Start system and simplify the main product line
up. Scalextric must waste a fortune and time on innovations like
Scalextric Start – why bother?
Finally, sort out the project management, as all these late
deliveries from China are causing chaos in the market place especially
for the Christmas market. I support you Scalextric, but you must do
your part too.
Another great insight from
Scalextric Car Restorations
