Scalextric for Kids?

[Dan_1981]

Little boy is 4 in December.

Which mean's it's finally time to buy things for him that I secretly want.

I got my old classic track down this weekend, it's seen better days, infact is buggered and has now been flogged on ebay.

So I can replace... but what's all this analogue, miniature, carrera, digital stuff?!


A little bit of reading later it seems Carrera is not Scalextric so I can ignore that. Miniature is suitable but will get boring quickly & need replacing.

Analogue seems to be the closest to old school scalextric and digital allows overtaking?!

So for a four year old - budget up to £100 - £150 - what sorta set shoudl I be looking at?!

[essayer]

the 1:64 stuff is pretty good, and it has a speed limiter built into the controllers -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Scalextric/MicroSc...

[Dan_1981]

essayer said:

the 1:64 stuff is pretty good, and it has a speed limiter built into the controllers -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Scalextric/MicroSc...

Hmm maybe Micro is what I need to consider then actually...

[r159]

My brother in law got my lad a full size scalextric as a Christening present.

Never too early!

[generationx]

They're now packaging "Speed Limiter" hand controls with some of the 1/32 stuff:

https://www.scalextric.com/uk-en/shop/sets/race-se...

Go for that then the track is still compatible with all the regular stuff.

Your kid is lucky, I had to wait until I was ten. What a birthday that was!

[Dan_1981]

generationx said:

They're now packaging "Speed Limiter" hand controls with some of the 1/32 stuff:

https://www.scalextric.com/uk-en/shop/sets/race-se...

Go for that then the track is still compatible with all the regular stuff.

Your kid is lucky, I had to wait until I was ten. What a birthday that was!

Ooooh now that's encouraging.

However the loops & tricks of the 1:32 stuff does look cool - particularly if you're four!

But they are really quite small cars etc...

[sgrimshaw]

Used Micro Scalextric set (and track) are very cheap on ebay as are new 1/64 cars.

You could get a basic 1/32 set for you your son's birthday and a 1/64 set for bashing around with.

A 1/64 set on a board is a good idea so you can play "whenever" .. 1/32 takes up a lot of space so tends to be put up, then taken down at the end of the session.

[Craikeybaby]

My four year old loves playing with my Scalextic set from the '90s, complete with Metro 6R4s and Ford Escorts.

[groomi]

I made a simple track for my boy when he was 3. It fitted perfectly under his bed and also had a flip down side revealing garages which he could play with his hot wheels without getting the track out every day. Lasted a few years for some fun.

https://youtu.be/B0jQC54Y0as

[Petrolism]

I loved Scalextric as a kid, playing with my younger brother. We had cars the company made in the 80's and a HUGE amount of track I was passed down by an uncle...
So with that nostalgia, I bought my (then 5) year old son a 1/32 modern Scalextric set. It didn't last very long. The cars broke all too easily.
Undeterred, I bought a 2nd set, which would mean more track. The cars broke - again.
My son does like to take things apart (a budding engineer - he's getting pretty good at building stuff now, at 8), but they clearly don't make them like they used to. There are better cars, I'm told, by a friend who races these things quite seriously. Must ask him. I'm not buying any more modern Scalectrix crap.