Are Slot Cars Back? My trip to Electric Dreams and L.A. Slot Car Museum.
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- I will show you what is going on in the slot car community within the city of Los Angeles, California. We will also take a trip to the Los Angeles Slot Car Museum nestled in the hills of Hollywood. What is your verdict? Take a look cat a glimpse of this wonderful hobby.
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Back in the early '60's here in Detroit, we had 5 huge tracks you could rent a lane by the hour, spent lots of my teenage years trying to mooch a ride to them with my tackle box full of cars and tools. Man that was fun.....Thanx for bringing back fond memories.❤
You were livin in the heyday of the hobby. Thanks for watching Mark. So many old things are becoming new again.
@@TheDeLeonHobbyGarage yeah...I wish I was one of them! 😆
What a beautiful childhood story. We need more of this for today’s youth.
We used to go to a place called Tiny Tim's on Woodward Ave. It was like Disneyland for slotcar guys.
Yep, that was a good one!
I belonged to a slot club at Joe's Hobby Shop inn Dearborn. We met for races every week, and my brother
(who had a car and was older than me) drove us every week. I had kits I souped up, and all his stuff was handmade and soldered brass, because he was into electronics.
When I was a kid, in L.A., the 60s.
We used to go the a place called Revell Raceway, on La Tiera Blvd. On Friday nights.
They had 7 or 8 Huge tracks inside of a warehouse sized building.
I Had 4 cars, and controllers.
Several of the tracks had huge banked turns on them that were nearly vertical.
If you didn't go fast enough around the banks...your car would just fall of the track, and land in "the gutter" at the bottom.
I still have my cars, but they haven't been run in probably 50 years.
Everybody had a wooden tackle box to store and carry their cars in.
Great times for a 8-15 year old boy.
Very fond memories.
That’s awesome. Thanks for watching.!!
I'd like to know more about that place do you remember what tracks they had?
Very nice speaking Sasha. Very clear pronunciations. You can teach many especially here on utube. Can’t understand what many are saying in a ton of videos whereas I have to go back to replay a few times but not with you. Thank you. May God Bless.
The father and daughter duo are so cool!
They are pretty popular right now in the UA-cam slot car community. They came all the way from Texas to spectate this race so I had to get an interview with them.
@@TheDeLeonHobbyGarage what their youtube channel
@@troypowell1671 DNA Slot Cars www.youtube.com/@DNASlotCars
Growing up, we had 1/24 cars that we raced at a track that was close by. Revel made a track for home that we about wore out. This does bring me back. Thanks!
Thanks for watching. I met a guy at that event who is building a new layout at his home with brand new in the box Revell track sets he found from a collector.
Cool video!
I grew up in the early 60's in L.A.
Slot cars were really popular then. I was into the smaller H.O. scale ones.
My older brother was into the larger slot cars.
There were several slot car track places with multiple layouts for the larger ones around where we lived.
Most of them were in strip malls.
I used to go with my brother sometimes and watch him race.
I thought it would be cool to do that someday, but unfortunately by the time I was old enough, pretty much all of the tracks had gone out of business.
That is awesome to see a comeback. That is a really cool hobby.
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it. I love seeing old hobbies come back to life. I think pinball might be one of the next comebacks as well
A wonderful video showing the boys and their toys 👍
Thanks, we’re all kids at heart.
@@TheDeLeonHobbyGarage 👍🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂
Wow ! Sheldons hobby shop. San Jose Ca. Nice track in the shop many many moons ago. My favorite place to go with my Dad and Grandpa
That’s a great memory, Doug. I remember all the places that my dad used to take me to that no longer exist other than inside my head when I am reminiscing.
@TheDeLeonSlotCarRaceway my grandfather also had a small slot car track in his basement. My father and he would hot rod these slot motors by pulling windings off . They were into it .
Grew up in New Zealand and in the 80's a high school teacher had a track set up in the media room. I had an Aurora afx setup at home and between them i still have many fond memories. Glad to see they're still around and have such a passionate fan base to keep them alive
Yes they are still around although other companies now produce the AFX cars you were familiar with. I still have a box of them but they are almost as expensive as their larger counterparts and still blistering fast, too fast for my older eyes and coordination. 😄
Hobby has come a long way. Back in my day, we painted plastic model bodies and mounted them to our chassis set-up.
Back in the ‘60s, my brothers and I raced slot cars at Richie’s Speed City in Springfield, MA at the X, near Forest Park. They had a drag strip and several circular and serpentine tracks, including one with a high bank. I have heard that the track was moved to Ashland, MA after Richie’s closed. I raced an orange COX La Cucaracha with a balanced de-wound motor for higher revs and several ‘30s coupes with custom chassis and paint jobs. This video of the museum and track event brings back fond memories. Thank you for sharing.
Thankyou William for sharing your story. If you read some of the comments, you’ll discover there are a lot of folks out there who also had a similar experience growing up with slot cars in the 60s. I do remember a lot of the guys discussing the Cucaracha in the museum as there were many examples of that car on display. Thanks again for watching and sharing your experience.
Slot cars are the greatest! Lots of fun. Hope they make a big comeback. 👍
Thankyou generac43, That will be up to us older guys if we can introduce it to the younger generation. The manufacturers are already producing these things like they are back. For good.
Thank you for the awesome tour. I'm hoping one day Electric Dreams will announce an East Coast store!
That would be cool to have one on each coast. Thank you for your comment. All-scaleslot cars. I try to provide a small glimpse into the scene there at electric dreams. Hopefully I accomplished a little bit of that.
A number of tracks and scales in a huge place in Ashland MA. Owned by Peter Mentro's " Modelville Hobby" probably the biggest and best slotcar facility in the country, Maybe the world. Worth a look for sure.
When I moved to Chicago area about five years ago, I was shocked and happily surprised to find there were several slot car tracks open here. Haven't seen one in KC since the 60s.
Even though many commercial tracks may have gone by the wayside, there are club circuits in many cities across the US where members compete on local home tracks.
Awesome that you got to be there in person, Thank you for the Tour
Thank you Rahul. I was able to enjoy it this year much more than I did last year when I was still dealing with Covid issues and could barely walk. You definitely should make a trip of it someday.
classic manta ray with sponge tires, globe motor, cherry red cox controller (with coiled cord and plug in jack) and the 18 wheel transporter of the day...a big tackle box. thanks for that memory...
What I unfortunately did not show you in my video was the vault underneath the museum which is housed original store displays as well as an original unsold parts and vintage pit boxes from the 60s owned by competitive racers and filled with the gear they used back then.
Great video Rob, was a pleasure to meet and chat with you. Looking forward to catching up again in the future! ❤
It was awesome meeting you and Sasha in person. Sasha does a very good job in promoting your channel and I could tell she has quite the fanbase. We will hopefully meet up again at another event.
At 11 years old in 1966 I joined Darlington and District SCC (Durham county UK) and really enjoyed it. I have had sets with my son growing up and for myself after he left home. Great fun and can get serious.
It can definitely get serious. Watching the qualifying session was like being at a golf tournament….the whole building of spectators and racers quietly rooting for each racer as they ran their laps.
Fantastic.
Thanks for the watch MultiSkyman1. It was such an awesome event. I can’t wait to attend next year.
@@TheDeLeonHobbyGarage 1960's San Francisco, we had "Playland at the Beach." They had a big slot car layout. I thought it was the coolest thing! Magical memories.
Love that Mazda 787B he had at the beginning. Favorite race car ever!
It is one of my favorites as well.
Wow we had a slot car business down the street from our house when I was growing up. It was a lot of fun
Most of us got home tracks after the commercial tracks started to close. Its nice to see them starting to come back
So envious that you live in the vicinity of Electric Dreams, I hope to visit someday. And I completely agree with @DNASlotCars - your opening is epic!
Thankyou Steve. It’s a fun day trip we get to make about 3 or 4 times a year. Better than Disneyland in my opinion.
I have many of the ones on the old car shelves and all the cars I made from scratch. I sold some but now I'm down to about 200 that are hard for me to part with. Closest commercial track is 120 miles one way but I have enough Revell track to go around my house. Still would rather go to a commercial track though. Didn't see any youngins in that group, too bad they are missing out. Dad bought my first car an AMT McKee when I was 6 and I have been hooked for 60 years! (can't believe it) Glad you all are still having fun.
There were a few younger people there that you probably just couldn’t see but I did interview an eight year old and her dad that have a slot car, UA-cam channel and she is very much into the slot cars. Take a look at the second interview I do and you can see that she’s very passionate about her slot cars. Many people have started building their own routed wood tracks as opposed to buying a plastic track set. It’s a fairly big undertaking to build your own route and track but I have seen some for sale, but most of them are just too big for the average house or garage.
@@TheDeLeonHobbyGarage I know some of what it takes to make a wooden track. Back when I lived in West Allis, WI I was in the group at Beloit Raceway run by a really dedicated old gentle man Hank ( he's gone now) but we as a group under his guidance built a tri-oval from scratch and it turned out beautiful! It was my favorite track so much so that I built 1/24 sprint cars with working torsion bar suspension and GP 12 Mura motors in them. I started with the monogram kits and made the chassis etc with brass rod. They are the coolest! I even put a GP20 in one. Pretty wild but the 12 was more controllable. Half of the group including myself all were into racing at Wilmot or Hales corners in the summer so this is what we did in the winter to scratch that itch.I subscribed so I should be #596!
We're so much fun! In early 60s, spent many hrs in basement of Gwinns hdwe,, we built our own cars as well as bought them
So you guys had a race track in a local hardware store? I just read a comment about a track at a local tire shop back in the 60s. Apparently a lot of businesses use them for entertainment. I suppose kind of the way arcades and pinball machines were used in the 70s and 80s.
Nice video, I really enjoyed it
Thanks Gene, it was a great day celebrating our hobby.
Really well done video mate, was a pleasure meeting you
Thanks Travis. I’m glad I got a chance to meet that slot car guy himself. Hope you had a great trip and look back on it with fond memories.
…..thank you for sharing 🤙🏼 was involved in 60’s as a kid. Watched as all the tracks closed. Got back when tracks reappeared several times over the last 50 years. ….would like to dust off my box and take sone laps 😁💫
Thanks for watching and the comment Dave. A few years ago, I dusted off my early 90s parma Champion and controller from the early 90s and it sparked a new passion for the hobby but in 1/32 scale this time and my home track layout.
In the late 60s, early 70s there was a Firestone tire store that had 2 tracks set-up in their showroom/waiting area where you could rent time on the tracks. They also sold parts, cars and track from a number of manufacturers including Aurora. I loved playing with them as a kid and actually still have all the track and cars.
That’s so cool. Apparently slot car tracks were very accessible in that era as a form of entertainment.
When I was a kid,there was two slot car tracks. One in Taunton Mass,and one in East Taunton Mass. I raced my 1/24 scale cars at both tracks. What a blast ❤❤❤❤
Well I’m finding many of us kids from the 1960s and ‘70s are starting to come back to the hobby and some others never left. We had some cool stuff back then to occupy our time.
Buddy, they never left. I have been racing slot cars for 60 years now
Thanks for the comment oldhick. For some of us, our tracks closed up in the 80s and 90s. I put my HO home track away when I got into R/C. We finally got a new local wood track in my city 2 years ago but I also have my own home track now, so for me, they will never go away again.
@@TheDeLeonHobbyGarage Excellent ! I was being a bit of a wise guy but I know what you mean. The Pacific Northwest, where I live, has always been very active. We saw the same demise of commercial tracks as you did. We took up the slack with club tracks and people just racing at their homes. I actually did start racing slot cars in 1962. I took some time off during my time in the military, but other than that, it's been continuous. I currently belong to a 1/24, 1/25 scale hard body club that has been in operation for 32 years. (19 years for me) and two different HO clubs. For the big cars, our chassis are scratch built brass and music wire, with an in-line drivetrain. We run 13 different classes, use sealed 16d or super 16 motors. We race EVERY Wednesday night. I could race every weekend with the HO guy's but I don't make every race. Anyway, it's great to see tracks opening up around the country. We even have a new commercial track open here. Good luck to you sir. Slot cars are life. lol
Loved the slots from the HO scale all the way to the 1/24th scales, they had a grocery store they converted into a 1/24th track I think they ran other scaled slots on it? But after Washington Grade School let out I would walk down the hill and watched them race! There was a science to how the cars were set up, tires, bodies and areo dynamics! Loved it all thanks for the flash back! Be Cool Byrne
Thanks for watching Byrne. This is probably the third time in my life. I’ve come back to slot cars. Started out with battery powered 1/32. Then went to HO and eventually 1/24 flexi and now finally settled on 1/32. Having a great time reliving my childhood.
Wow you met some real legends Rob well done sir 👍👍
Thanks Rob. I met a lot of great people. Everyone was so pleasant and happy to be there. We got to speak to a lot of the racers, and you could see the passion they have for the hobby.
Awesome video bud!
Thanks Dusty, I’m thankful that I got to share that event with people who could not be there in person.
Awesome Video Thank You Mr. Keaton
My friends and I had Eldon slot cars and tracks. We would join them together in my basement into one huge track. They were great times.
That sounds cool, and here we are in our 50s and 60s still playing with toy cars.
Hi there. Many thanx to you for showing this awesome footage. I appreciate it a lot. Especially the SC Museum was very interresting to me. I saw a few stuff, I remember from my youth in the 60`s and 70`s. It was very fine to see other stuff than Carrera, because this is the Brand which is since I can remeber back, the Brand we always ran here in Germany. I also saw something by Fleischmann, as well, which is a better known Company over here for Model-Trains. I still have a few Track-Pieces and Fences left from Fleischmann, but I cannot use it, because the rest has disappered in my youth. I had a Carrera Universal 1/32 Track in the 70`s. The Hockenheim 30500, plus an orange Porsche 911 RSR and the Bridge, plus several replacement-part Kits. I saw two Universal Cars among that collection. I wished they had more of Carrera Universal and the other stuff. Carrera had quite a few more things than just Slotcars, which are very rare and used to cost a hell of a lot, back then. Any how, thnx again and see you on any live-stream. Maybe later on Rahul`s. See you than. 🙂
Thankyou Bo, I condensed 7 hours of footage into a sub 30 minute video, trying to capture as much as I could.
There was still a lot I didn’t cover but I think I got the best of it. I visited last year as well but was still suffering from long covid and could barely walk so decided to make up for it this year and cover this awesome day.
@@TheDeLeonHobbyGarage I am sorry to read you were infected. I was vaccined 4 times and I stayed mostly away from the public, not only because I was afraid of getting infected. My girlfriend and me are risk-patients and an infection would have caused us to to die from our illness we both are suffering from. Plus the longterm-effects are still causing a lot of damage and shows us how vurnerable we really are. And on top, many Doctors over here were/are still ignorant to recognize the effects for real. It is still hard over here to get it recognized by them and the health-insurance companies. But that is how insurances really are. They want our money, but if the have to pay, the reject to give it up as long as you can. But yeah, cutting those images is the hard part of it. It is a lot of work and I am grateful of any content that brings us further on, in our hobby and passion.
Rob, what an unbelievably great video!!!!!!!! Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!
I’m glad you enjoyed it SCD. Thankyou for watching🙏
Great video, thanks for sharing all the coolness of the event
Thankyou for watching slotcarheaven. It was a pretty great event.
I gained 10 pounds after consuming all the “eye candy”
@@slotcarheaven oddly, my wallet looses 10 pounds every time I visit 😂
great video Mr. Deleon, love the museum
Thanks, Ted. You should go check it out next year. It’s worth the trip.
I'm 65. When I was a kid.
We had on near. Can't wait to race again
There’s no time like the present!!
Great vid, Slot Car Racing is BIG here in Louisville, KY.👍🏁🏁👍
Thanks for watching @THROTTLEPOWER, they certainly are big in that part of the country especially the east coast where I buy some of my cars from.
@@TheDeLeonHobbyGarage 👍👍
G'day Rob, wow fantastic
Thankyou for Watching Rhys. Glad you enjoyed it.
Way better than video games!
To be honest, I still like video games as a child of the 80s but now I’m more about racing simulation, however slot cars offers real social interacting with the drivers you’re racing against as well as the modeling aspect. I wish more kids would start to embrace, non-digital interests.
When i was a kid i use to race these things for hours around my track i had it was so much fun. All the kids had their cars they would bring and battle it out.
I was the only one on my street with a slot car track growing up. My friends were all in sports and I was a car guy. Most of them are all injured now and I’m still playing with cars in my mid 50s.
We still have a hobby shop near where I live that runs a Drag Strip for slot cars.
Now this is the proper place and usage for electric cars and not pretending they are real cars like some naïve people think.
What a collection! My friend goes to Buena Park Raceway they do slot car drag racing on Wednesdays I believe
That race track has been around a long time. Thats where I first noticed the drag racing side of the hobby when I worked in Buena Park in the early 90s. Time sure flys fast.
Strombecker: Ford J-Car. Circa 1967.
Did you catch that one in the display case? They were pretty cool cars.
@@TheDeLeonHobbyGarage How the hell I let that set go is beyond me. It belonged to me and an older brother. I think our younger brothers inherited it. I can still hear the theme song ending with, "Strombecker racing, the name of the game". Or something close to that.
@@ndotl it happens to all of us. We get involved in other things and we just assume we’re done so we let it go only to regret it decades later. The only saving grace is that you possibly can afford to replace it now. I am meeting a lot of people in this hobby, who are purchasing their childhood toys all over again.
You did a great job on this video ! I’m new and it’s awesome to see all the slotcars they carry and sell !
Thanks and welcome
My Dad owned a place called "Mr. Raceway" He had tracks much like that on this video but they were a little bigger with large banks. This was in the late 60"s, good time!
That must’ve been pretty fun to have your dad owning the track where you could come and run anytime you wanted. Well late 60s were also pretty fun I’m assuming.
Great video! Really enjoyed .
I’m glad you liked it Wildman. It was difficult leave 6 hours of footage on the cutting room floor so I just tried to give you the best of what I saw and get it under 25 minutes.
That was alot of work wow.
They have never left in my house. Gonna be 50 in November. My son is 16. We still play with our race track. All my tyco and AFX from the mid 80s.
I still have my old tracks as well, I had Tyco, but always wanted AFX
@@TheDeLeonHobbyGarage my older brothers got the AFX. I got Tyco. But as they got older I took them over and never gave them back. 😂. And my goodness some of the cars we used to have are worth hundreds and hundreds of dollars.
Dad took me to Race-O-Rama on Bailey Ave in Buffalo in 1967. I was barely tall enough to see the track. The first car I saw whizzing around the track was a white Chaparral with its spoiler sticking straight up in the air. In an instant I was hooked. 8 years later I was 7th and 8th grade undefeated short pin H.O. and AFX champ. Good times, but I don't expect slot cars to make a comeback. R/C cars are so good today they made slot cars obsolete.
That’s really cool, this year, one of the main manufactures in 1/32 scale slot cars produced the chaparral 2F. I have a video of that race after purchasing mine and it seems that car is still as iconic today as it was back then even in slot car form. I also do R/C, and it is a Hobby that has many different aspects to it with broad appeal. Slot car racing and modeling are still popular with the crowd that remembers them when they were children. This new younger generation needs to get interested if they are going to grow to any extent, but the attraction to screen time and video games has our youth in a stranglehold.
@@TheDeLeonHobbyGarage I agree and the main reason I made my post is because I believe R/C is the future and young people will not take much interest in slot cars for the same reason my sons raced slot cars with me in the mid 90's but once they got used to it they lost interest because the new stuff is better. Bless you for being a track operator but if I were you I would hold small scale R/C races as well because that's the future. All the slot car tracks in Buffalo are long gone.
@@wsbill14224 well, I’ve introduced my kids to RC and modeling, which is another thing that I do. Unfortunately, this is not my slot car business but I do have my own home track which takes up much of my garage, which also includes about 40 RC cars that my son and myself enjoy.
@@TheDeLeonHobbyGarage I have a slot track in my basement too but no one is interested anymore. Good luck to you.
Enjoyed your video, well done!
Thank you for watching Bryce, glad you enjoyed it.🙂
We used to have a few tracks here in Sydney Australia too one close to my home. The old guys would always give us regular kids old parts even motors and let use there soldering gear. It was cool
I hear that slot cars are still pretty big in Australia. In fact, there are cars that are manufactured specifically for the Australian market.
@@TheDeLeonHobbyGarage I haven’t been to a track for years but there’s one not far from my place still . You have given me a little inspiration to go and have look maybe this weekend. Cheers mate
I used to do super womp first up then went Flexi onto group 20 , I miss doing it for sure but all the tracks dried up around Brisbane back in the mid 90s
I have two flexi tracks locally to me but I really love 1/32 scale, and the more scale speed they provide. The crashes in Flexi racing are horrific and the Lexan bodies usually only last a few races. 😀
group 20's car and canoga park race way man i miss that time
My now late older brother bought me for Christmas '79 the AFX Data Race computer race set. I over the years in the 80's added more cars and track.
But for over 30 years it sat boxed up in storage. I knew I would never give it away as it was a great gift from my cool but passed away older brother.
I decided to set it up on a table this past year. Ironically everything still works including the data computer. Some of the cars tires have deteriorated or hardend, I'm going to have to replace these tires.
But most of the cars are vintage afx G-Plus and Tyco 440x2, with a few afx magnatraction cars.
I' ll probably buy some new AFX cars soon.😎
Oh and too add way back when my older brother himself had a Strombecker(Sp???) race set. I think they were 1/24 scale. His had a 1960's White Chaparral and a 1960's Dark Green Jaguar. The layout was a basic figure 8 design. I was just a wee tot but remember racing it with him and his school friends back then. I remember his set has plastic course Marshalls and such. We'd set them on the track and run over them with the slot cars😂😂😂 yeah yeah goofy kids.
@@DigbyOdel-et3xx I grew up in the 70s/early 80s.
I missed out on the the commercial track scene in the 50s and 60s but I did get to have several tracks when I was a kid at home. And then I didn’t get back to slot cars until the mid 90s but it was mostly the metal chassis flexi cars that were popular at that time
These look to be 1/32 scale. Back in the 1970s I raced scratch built 1/24 scale. Started with conventional inline motors and later switched to an angled sidewinder setup. We used hinged frames with the body also hinged in the sides.
Yes, these are 1/32 scale, resin body plastic chassis cars. The 1/24th scale cars are still being raced today but in small quantities as scratch building is still a thing with the more experienced crowd.
Chassis made out of brass rod, tube and plate. Chassis to the front wheels are hinged from the motor. Flat plates are hinged on the sides and the lean bodies mounted to them with pins. Foam tires in read. Your controllers looks similar to what we used but ours only had a microswitch to bypass the rheostat to eliminate voltage drop. Wish I had a track close as I think my old box of 70s stuff is in the closet.@@TheDeLeonHobbyGarage
The Falcons at 7.00min are claics n Australia as those 2 cars finished 1 and 2 at Bathurst 1000. Legend vehicles. Paul from Australia
Yes they are. Their are cars specifically being produced exclusively fir the Australian market. Scalextric should also produce the Madmax movie car, I think it would be a big hit.
Beautiful video, you captured everything, well done and great coverage. I have to say the piano music was very nice and went well with the video for a relaxing watch! Thanks for some great content 👌. Great to see Travis and the DNA interview. Slot cars I think are just going to get bigger and bigger with younger people getting more into it to carry it on. It is a hobby where you can have a 60- 70 year age gap and both be competitive, generations running side by side and all having a laugh.
Thanks for watching. SC2021I wanted to show just enough to get a feel for the events of that day without going overboard on video length. I think slot cars are back!
@@TheDeLeonHobbyGarage 100% the hobby side is, back in the day in the US slot car racing was a popular as video games are today! I don't think we are at that level but definately in a good position 👍
Great video sir!
Well thankyou and congratulations champ! Outstanding performance!!
@@TheDeLeonHobbyGarage 🥰
❤ola 👍 video thanks Rob was unable to drive up from San Diego mext event with a packed wallet😂
Thanks for watching Monty. Have you ever raced at VT raceway in San Diego? Christian Grasso has a really nice carrera layout and he’s a cool dude.
@@TheDeLeonHobbyGaragethanks been trying to make some local connections😂
c
So cool to see nerd hobbies coming back!
I proudly wear the nerd badge 🤓
@@TheDeLeonHobbyGarage ‘Having a whole house railroad, I’m right there with you💪🏽
Lots of cars but not one Classic Asp. Do they still dress the tires with Martex or juice the motors with carbon tetra chloride ? How about power brakes via a couple of C Batteries wired in reverse ? Is nerfing still a race strategy ? So much fun and great memories. I still have my injection molded Lola T 70 1 / 32 Scale.
The racing featured in this video mainly utilized natural rubber tires, which can be conditioned with conditioner oil and can be cleaned with basic lighter fluid. The foam tires are run on a different track are conditioned with various tire dressings. Everyone has their little secret methods of conditioning, tires, and prepping motors, but I don’t know if carbon tetrachloride is used. Modern controllers these days use relays, traction, control, brake control, and throttle control potentiometers’s. The track in this video mainly runs 1/32 scale styrene plastic bodied cars but I have seen 1/24 scale run as well. My older cars from the 90s are completely different with foam tires, metal chassis, and Lexan body without all the scale details. I am sure nurfing is still a race strategy, but I think there is a bigger emphasis on running fast and clean while avoiding mistakes
Nice to see companies focusing on great toys for children that don't involve a damn computer screen.
Now, if we can just get kids off of those screens, that’s the challenge.
Terrific Video !....Thank you, I just sub'd your channel !..
Thanks for watching and the sub. Enjoy the videos Jim Wolfe🙂
Carrera and Scaletrix are some of the best known brands . An expensive hobby , model trains are very expensive
Hobbies are expensive in general. Ive seen the price of r/c vehicles go from a few hundred dollars to now where they are pushing the $700-$800 mark. You can still get a home track starter set for around $200
I hope so.
My dad was BIG into these being a Boomer-Gen-Z'er depending on who you ask. Even as a kid growing up, I can remember the custom adult hobbyist versions he kept for tournaments and local events when compared to my Tyco's.
I grew up with this stuff being born in 1968. For us it was a slot, cars, radio control, cars, and 80s arcades. I left the slot car hobby for a while, but I’m back now.
Awesome
Thankyou Tom for watching and commenting🙂
Electric cars are in. At least in 1:1 scale. but a lot can be learned by kids in 1:32nd scale as I did in the 1960s.
Everyone ❤ Travis 🇦🇺
He’s the man. Travis brings a lot of positive energy to the hobby.
I'm jealous!
That was a full day of slot cars, we had a great time, thanks for watching. @slotcarsandhotrains
I remember in the 1960's when my brother and I plus 4 friends got into slot cars. We ended up building our own 3 lane tack out of several sheets of plywood. Hand routed the slots and used aluminum tape for the conductors. There wasn't a very good selection of cars to run so I built my chassis out of brass tubing and used clear vacuum formed shells for the bodies. My brother built a controller using 3 fixed resistances which approximated a synchromesh transmission. I guess I'm just too old for this new version of the hobby. Too expensive and a fixation on the chassis. Kind of like the old, smoky pool halls vs the wine bar pick up joints of today? I fast forwarded through the endless tour of glass cases of virtually the same cars.
There are a few people currently that are starting to get back to the old routed wooden tracks. They are a couple people that have created a group on the Internet for people who like to scratch build. There are a number of scratch builders now with their own, UA-cam channels making wonderful Replicas of cars that may have existed 50 or 60 years ago. The new cars you see in the glass cases all pretty much come from Europe in 1/32 and 1/24 scale. I even see a few cases where HO scale is starting to make a come back as well although those cars are too small and fast for my old tired eyes.
@@TheDeLeonHobbyGarage HO scale was like nanobots in my day. LOL. I migrated from slot cars to plastic scale modelling and have the same ideology. I look for opportunities to make working doors, flaps and ailerons. It's why I bought a 3D printer at 75 years of age.
But all of that said I support anyone with a hobby. I wish you well in future and appreciate your thoughtful reply.
Do the lanes wind up being different lengths with the inner lanes being shorter? Or does the inward turns make up for the difference? It doesn't seem like they can be all equal.
Thanks for the reply Greg.
Each lane is different. Each lane also has to be driven differently. The outside lanes are the hardest to drive because the tight corners will throw the car off the track if you are not going slow enough, so each racer hast to race each lane and they combined total laps in a given time limit wins the race
@@TheDeLeonHobbyGarage thanks for the reply, that makes more sense now. It looks like great fun too!
I'm in the process of building a D124 scale Carrera track 8 ' X 11' on a table 😊😊😊
Thanks for the comment Larry.
Mine is on a 6 x 12 table. Carrera takes quite a bit of space but I love the extra track width.
Mario cart on Nintendo killed slot cars for most kids. There are less and less real hobby stores around these days, in Queensland AU there is almost nothing available unless you want RC.
Thats true about hobby shops. I had walked into a large hobby shop in California last year that always had a large selection of slot cars and not only did they not sell them anymore, the shop moved to a smaller building. We only have 1/32 slot cars in the states because our retailers import directly from Italy, Spain, France and UK where they are made.
Their another nice track in Fullerton I think on lapama blvd
What was the name of that track? I used to live in that area and attend Fullerton college.
@@TheDeLeonHobbyGarage beauna park raceway or type in Fullerton slot car track
Great video! Are those all for sale? Or just for display?
Thankyou, Every single car at the store in the display cases are available on the website and for sale. None of the slot cars in the museum are for sale. They buy many vintage slot cars to put one together complete. We saw one slot car that they paid $8000 for because it was one of the last known of that car.
I need a track in Seattle
There is the Northwest slot car racing association located in Seattle as well as a commercial raceway in Edgewood called Pacific slot car raceway and 132 slot car raceway in Tacoma. Check them out.
They should have section with the slotless slot cars with steering == Magracing...
I’m not familiar with slotless slot, cars other than the Tyco command control set I had when I was a kid or the semi steerable Anki Drive cars. Are we talking Kyosho mini Z cars or something else? Please elaborate because I’m curious.
@@TheDeLeonHobbyGarage Search for "What is MAG Racing". In addition to being slotless, they are steerable via Radio Control (Max 16 cars). The track is special made to guide the cars on turns using magnet on car and steel on track. Some new cars even have reverse.
The downside is it uses a 20 min run time battery replacable in the pit stop (quick replace).
A future idea is to provide a charging system build in the track (similar to how cell phones charge wirelessly or again via magnets/generator type) so there will be endless fun! Additionally, would be nice if they have a larger scale size for more features and compatibility with R/C cars or even Slot-car parts-
In California is epicenter of hot rod yet no hot rods slotcars?
@@machoman5356 it depends on what your interpretation of a hot rod is. In my collection I have 427 cobras, GT 350 Mustangs, 67 Camaros, 1968 and 69 Chargers, including some other American hot rod/muscle car examples. Traditional, hot rods like the Willy’s, 3 window coups, High boys, T-buckets, are usually built from model kits for use on Drag Strip and oval layouts.
The majority of these manufactures who make ready to run slot cars are in Europe and they don’t have a history with 1930s to 1950s American Hot Rod era.
Years ago one manufacture did make several different, three window coupe and Willy models, but they were short-lived and not very good performers. Thanks for watching
@TheDeLeonSlotCarRaceway like a California hot rod an yes carrera makes them in all sizes ones with motor sticking out or flames down side. Maybe that culture is gone?
They never went away.
what scale are most of these cars is it 1:64
All of these cars being raced were 1/32 scale
oh ok thanks for the info@@TheDeLeonHobbyGarage
thanks@@TheDeLeonHobbyGarage
Back in the Mid 90's Orange County, Ca. had a dozen Slot Car Tracks, some of these hobbies disappear for a while then make a come back, the BIGGEST problem is the Track owners aren't very good business men (persons/ he /her zy/ zim whatever) they can't keep the doors open for very long with 8 Lanes when Rent is well into the Thousand$ a month, they ALWAYS need to have well publicized Races, where you can run a Race for 5 minutes and then another 2 minutes later run another one and charge $10-$20 entry fee and have 30+ racers show up, instead of renting 8 lanes for $15 an hour to 8 people, most hard core Slot Racers have MULTIPLE Cars so they would enter into 2 or 3 or more Class Races, because why just run one Class when you drove an Hour and a half to race?.
No doubt, just hobbies in general is a difficult business to be in. When times are good, people have extra money to spend on hobbies, and the opposite goes for bad times. The RC hobby has experienced the same amount of pain. As hobby shops close up or shrink in size or get gobbled up by larger entities, the entire industry feels the pain. I used to run it a small track in Brea, North Orange County and obviously that track went away as well. Buena Park is still open as well as piranha but it’s good to see places like electric dreams who run a very tight program and keep their inventory up which gives us the hobbyists more options.
@@TheDeLeonHobbyGarage We used to run R/C cars in the Parking Lot in front of a Hobby Shop that was at the far end of Shopping Center in Orange, Ca. then in the Summer it was a wonderful evening and there had to be 500+ spectators watching us Race, then some of the spectators went over to the Target that had a Food court inside and they lined up to get food and drinks all the way outside the store, when that weekend was over the Target got a Cease and Desist order against the Hobby Shop and made us look for somewhere else to Race. Yup, being in certain types of businesses can certainly test your stamina.
Was that the old Ultimate Hobbies store? I think they ran parking lot races there.
@@TheDeLeonHobbyGarage I think that was the place, they kept moving the Races, for awhile we raced in a Parking Lot of a closed Restaurant, until that was Sold and a New Restaurant moved in, then for awhile we raced in the Orange Mall's back parking lot, then the City closed a School that was there by the Mall and they planned to build a Park with a R/C Track and Skate Board Park, by that time my Son was off to College and we moved, so I don't know if it even got built.
@@Timinator62 I happened to stop at ultimate on the way home from vacation and they had moved again. This time a much smaller store than even the store they previously moved into. They have downsized tremendously. They used to have an extensive slot car inventory and they told me they got rid of it, and no longer carry slot cars. Their RC selection was typical of most current RC hobby retailers, but the store was basically cut down to about 50% of its original size.
So when is somebody going to rerelease all the Cox slot cars ? reverse engineer them!
All current slot car manufacturers are typically in Europe. As you may have seen, the slotcar world has grown into a mix of pre assembled 1/32 cars, and 1/24 cars many have gone the custom route with 1.24 using model kit bodies and brass built chassis
Those are the bigger cars, where are the original slot cars, the original cars are way smaller and are about 2 inches long, Those are later cars
If you look at the museum portion of my video, you notice all of the slotcars produced in the late 1950s-1960 were close to 1/24 scale, basically the size of a plastic model kit. HO scale showed up later in the late 70s which is what most of us had growing up. I like this 1/32 scale because they are large enough to work on. They drive at more scale speeds and the cars are a little smaller than than the vintage stuff from mid century.
Stoooppp!!! Stop stop stop stop STOOOOPPPP showing all those display cases full of awesome slot cars!!! 🤪😳😢😜
Thank you HughesGarage. There are supposedly 2000 cars on display and who knows how many in the back warehouse and that’s just the store. A couple of cars may even have followed me home.
@@TheDeLeonHobbyGarage mate, hands down the best slot car UA-cam video of the year so far. I’ve watched it twice now. Congratulations and well done. And hey, I’d love to add the DeLeon logo to my UA-cam Mt Rushmore. Would that be okay? 😀🏁
Where are the 24th scale cars?
At the 10:17 mark, I show you the 1/24 cars by Carerra and the entire museum tour is filled with 1/24 cars.
H.o. tyco blew away Aurora afx . Just saying ☺️
I'm not getting any sound
I checked the video, sound is still there, sorry your having issues.
Nice, but ur camera move way to fast
Sorry about that🙏. I filmed 6 hours of content and tried to get it all in under a 30 minute video.
Not a single HO scale car. What!?
Hello Richard, thanks for watching. Both of these facilities specialize in 1/32 & 1/24 only. While there are many HO tracks and cars around, there are none that feature HO scale that I know of.
PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't pan the camera. Image blurs and we can't see shit.
Sorry you had trouble seeing the video. I’m not a professional photographer so I’m just learning.
Idk I’ve been trying to sell my 1/32 cars.
Used 1/32 cars sell very well in the used sales websites. Most of my cars are used and are typically priced around $25-$35 each. Every year, electric dreams has a Father’s Day show where you can bring your cars and sell them at the store in their swap meet row. Also, a company in Ohio. Called Cincyslots buy collections of used cars. They are one of the larger store fronts that sell a lot of used cars and I have done business with them many times.
@@TheDeLeonHobbyGarage Thanks I’ll hit them up. I want to run them but no tracks for 1/32 in Charlotte that I’ve found
Yeagermiester Porsche
Buy a EV and have a load of crap
1:37 sweet little one/ cute as hell
Sasha was the star of that event. Everybody wanted to talk to her about her slot car collection.
Those factory produced modern slot cars are about as interesting as watching paint dry!