You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Thinking about buying my 4 year old a set for Christmas.
Are they any good nowadays? I used to love them when little but I might be a looking back with rose tinted glasses. Some reviews I've read aren't that good. Cars break easily, track doesn't fiit together etc.
Half decent set is at least £100. Are they worth it?
I have loads (200 ft track + 50 cars) and my kids love it. However you need to have quite a bit as a figure of eight and two cars soon gets old.
I think that the old design track is more reliable than the new. You can get it on eBay for not very much but you will need adapter pieces. Also a spare throttle or two is a must incase one fails.
Scalextric do low detail impact resistant cars and high detail expensive ones. The majority of mine are high detail SCX which cost less and run fine on scalextric track.
The modern track is different to the older stuff, particularly in the way it clips together and is more rigid than the old stuff. This leads to a lot of adults trying to treat it like the old stuff and breaking it. Same with the brush systems on the cars. I bought my nephew a set for his birthday last year and it is much better than the older stuff I had as long as you read the instructions.
I bought the ARC set (that uses an iPad app to manage stuff like laps, fuel, pitstops etc) and loads more track, cars and barriers a couple of years ago. Great fun when it works, incredibly infuriating and an absolute waste of time, money and space when it doesn't.
Sometimes no amount of rubbing, cleaning, realigning blah blah would get it to work.
I'm aiming to move it on this month TBH.
From a few years ago...
https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/scalextric-anyone-else-playing/
https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/scalextric-3/
BTW, a 4yr old might not get on with some of the modern controllers. I think my son was 7 when he started on it and he was okay after a few plays. More knowledgeable peeps may shed more light on this.
Pfft, TCR is where it's at.
TCR was shit if one car was slightly faster than the other.
TCR is where it’s at.
I beg to differ.
Matchbox Race 'n' Chase is where it's at.
To echo others, it will probably be surprisingly similar to how you remember it. That's a plus and minus, in that the track and cars (and actually most of all controllers), still need tinkering with pretty regularly. I got a small track for my son when he was six and then supplemented it with a used job lot off eBay six months later - including the ARC kit which really added to his enthusiasm for it. I'd say 4 is possibly a bit young.
I played Scaletrix with my nephews aged 7 and 4 last year. The older one was fine, but would not recommend for a 4 year old unless you want to wear your knees out constantly fetching the car after it spins off at every corner.
Matchbox Race ‘n’ Chase is where it’s at.
Yes, the police car always seemed to be faster than the "crims" car
Yes, the police car always seemed to be faster than the “crims” car
It was but it was less stable over the jump, in the finest traditions of Smokey and the Bandit.
Anyone who owned a TCR will remember this more than playing with the race track...
(I wasn't being entirely serious, but we did have a TCR as it was the must-have toy that particular Christmas. My mum was properly ****ed off to catch me and my brother playing with it some weeks before Christmas after we had found the present in their wardrobe 🙂
Thinking about buying my 4 year old a set for Christmas.
Sure you are. (-:
Get yourself a car made by Fly and nothing will keep up with it, sticks like xxxx to the track
To be honest, it's all been a bit tame since trick trax..
Got mine out the attic over half term. Track was rusty but soon cleaned up with flap sander, all worked surprisingly well with relatively little staffing. Would like some better analogue controllers, our stock ones are a bit on / off.
No way would a 4 year old be able to deal with it unless you can turn the controller down. That said, maybe a present he can grow into? 😉
I've just bought my boy (5yo) a set for Christmas. https://www.scalextric.com/uk-en/micro-scalextric-law-enforcer-set.html
The new stuff (Micro) is supposed to be improved for kids. New track design from last year. Cars less likely to leave the track (boring?).
A bit dubious about it. Some good reviews from Scalectrix nerds on their forum though.
Used to love mine years ago, can still remember the smell now