Topic: Damned Expensive Toys Thread

[trapeze]

This thread is dedicated to the truly expensive and totally cool toys that are out there. And I do mean toys...not things like cars, televisions and A/V equipment. This may or may not be something that members want to contribute to but I thought that I would give it a shot.

I am kicking it off with a post on digital slot car racing. When I was a kid (really young) I lived for a short time in Ventura, California. While I was there I got to see something that I've only seen one time since and that is large scale slot car racing. This is where you would have a commercial location (a store front) with several large tracks where people could race against each other. There would be tournaments where people would compete for prizes and stuff. The tracks would be huge with multiple lanes...four, six and even eight lanes wide. You would supply your own car and your own speed controller which was a kind of pistol grip with a trigger hooked up to a variable potentiometer. You would set your car down on the track and connect your speed controller to the appropriate place and then, when given the signal, you were racing.

I remember getting a home slot car set for Christmas one year and it lasted quite a while. Well, until the cars were all shot and we (my brother and I) lost interest.

Slot car racing has now entered the digital age. You can now race multiple cars on only two lanes. This sounds unworkable but it isn't. Here is a review of one brand of digital slot car racing track called Scalextric. Better yet here are a few videos. The first video is a pretty good promotional one that explains (almost) everything that the track and cars can do. The second vid shows what can be done at home with a couple of hundred feet of track. This vid is pretty good because at one point the owner straps a very small camera to the top of a car giving you a first person perspective. Finally, there is a very elaborate track set up on a table (like a train set) with lots of scenery and stuff...

SCALEXTRIC DIGITAL TRACK SET FEATURES

200ft of Scalextric Track!

Scalextric Digital Slotcar Racing

For additional vids you can click here for the youtube search results for "Scalextric Digital." There are a lot of them.

I don't know if I'll ever get one of these sets or not. I mean, I like auto racing a lot (one of these days I'm going to visit the NASCAR track at Vegas for a "race experience" day) and this stuff has definitely got some nostalgic appeal for me since I saw it a lot for a while when I was a kid. But on the other hand it would suck up the space of an entire room in the house and mrs. trapeze would probably want to get my head examined for shelling out this kind of money. But...nevertheless it's fun to look at other people's set ups.

This Scalextric stuff is pretty cool with all that it can do, though. The computer stuff that can be done is amazing. Well, anyway...I am impressed.

So...that's my first entry into expensive toys. Feel free to play in this sandbox and add your own stuff* to it.


*Some suggestions: Pinball, R/C controlled stuff, Foosball tables...whatever toy that you might have enjoyed as a kid and can now buy a full sized super expensive version of today if you wanted to. Or maybe already have.

[AlanS]

I had the HO scale cars at home in my younger days. I made a visit to a 1/24 scale track in St. Louis YEARS ago and visited one in OK City about 25 yrs ago. I was never close enough to a 1/24 scale track to tempt me to buy a car.

[trapeze]

I could hardly believe it when a track opened up in my small town. But then the economy killed it along with several dozen other small businesses. It was fun while it lasted, though.

The Scalextric stuff is pretty pricey. A starter set that includes everything you need is about $800, I think. Not much track for that, although you do get half a dozen cars. I won't be buying one anytime soon at that or any price but it's still pretty cool.

EDIT: a cheaper set with two cars is on eBay for a couple of hundred (starting bid) so maybe not quite as pricey as I thought but I can see it getting expensive quick as you add cars and track.

EDIT: Also on eBay is the set featured in the review above. It has a "buy it now" price of $679 but includes half a dozen cars and a moderately sized track.

[IronDioPriest]

I used to have a pretty nice Aurora "HO" scale set when I was a kid, and I played with it A LOT. I'd run those cars until they were dang near burning up. That was a quality product when I think about it, because we abused the heck out of it and it lasted for decades, and rarely did I run a car into the ground. The track was a little high-maintenance. Inevitably  I'd have to go through and check the contacts every time I set the track up after tearing it down. because of that there were a few stretches of years that I just left it up - which caused a point of disagreement between mom and dad. My favorite and fastest cars were a red Corvette Shark, and a white "Mach 5" like on "Speed Racer".

One fun thing was that the cars were like a little laboratory for learning the principle of electromagnetism. They were easy to disassemble and reassemble, and I learned early that keeping the innards cleaned and lubricated with 3-in-1 Oil made the cars last longer and go faster. About the only things that would wear out on the cars were what we called the "brushes" (I have no earthly idea if that is what they were actually called or not). They were the tiny discs of metal that floated on springs that went through the chassis and touched the metal skids that contacted the track. Those would eventually get blackened and start to become eroded and warped. Keeping them cleaned would make them last longer, so I was constantly tearing the cars down to check and clean the "brushes".

Good memories, good memories.

I eventually outgrew it, but I saved it for my boys. But when they got old enough to play with it, I set it up and it wouldn't work. I went through the track and cars, checked and rechecked connections, and I just couldn't make it go. So I bought them a new set - off-brand, made in China. The thing lasted for a season, and was destroyed.

[Sectionhand]

I used to have a pretty nice Aurora "HO" scale set when I was a kid, and I played with it A LOT.

I had one of those too ! Lotsa fun !

[Predator Don]

Well.....since this is a damn expensive toys list.......my "hobby" since my teen years has been fishing. In the last 31 years, I've owned countless boats and I normally sell mine every 3 years and buy another.....matter of fact, my boat is for sale...it has been 3 years, but this economy has slowed the bass boat market to a crawl.

In all seriousness, I probably could be retired if I had the money I've spent on my hobby.