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From poor quality to abysmal quality. Scalextric embraces artisans

15K views 132 replies 42 participants last post by  GRUNZ  
#1 ·
Artisans has been the marketing buzzword for several years now. Artisan bread, artisan cheese, artisan crockery, artisan whatever else you can think of. When it comes to non-food items, it's a delicate way for a company to tell its customers that it's cutting corners, using cheap unskilled labour and consequently its products are a bit sh*t and likely to have flaws.

Although I've not yet seen the word used in any of Scalextric's pitifully poor marketing campaigns, surely it's only a matter of time.
See exhibit 1 below.

WTF?! Window frames painted by artisans?

@Simon. Please implement some form of quality control for your cars. They've become an unfunny joke. Needless to say, this new Scalextric Holden that the postie delivered today will be returned.

Image


Image
 
#8 ·
Hello,
I'm afraid this is not an isolated problem. I ordered my Holden Commodore Bathurst Winner 1990 from the United Kingdom. The car had to go through EU customs, so it would be difficult to claim. The paintwork is a disaster, the black paint had bubbles and was peeling in places. I'm a modeler, so I fixed it myself. This is my first "Scalextric Made in Vietnam" car and the quality is truly a disaster compared to the Chinese production. I don't know if Scalextric has moved all the production to Vietnam or just part of it, but if this continues, I will never buy another Scalextric car again.
 
#11 ·
It’s great to see they let the 8 year old loose in the factory with some liquid paper. Next up, sharpie speed stripes.
seriously though, how is that acceptable? I would reject a $2 hot wheels if it were that disrespectfully finished. This car is sold out to pre orders most places is Australia so this is likely to be a glorious mess for our distributor Southern models.
 
#14 ·
Yep, or release the Bathurst 1000 WTCC winning #10, or ever famous (down under) #05, both Brock Mobil liveries pretty much the same as the Spa variant. Both will sell out in Australia (The name Peter Brock, the Brand Holden and the location Bathurst used in combination, it’s like a multiplier in a game), #10 being a Bathurst and WTCC round winner should do well in Europe.

My ‘90 Bathurst winner HRT car also had several minor issues with lack of adhesion of the ‘wrap’ on shut lines, I too got the modelling skills out and cleaned it up. I was always going to use this car so no biggy, but as a collectable car it wasn’t great.
 
#16 ·
The red stripe doesn't look good at the back either. Not sure if it's the light or paint issues but the whole side of the car looks poor.
Some of it is the lighting. The decoration appears to be a low-quality printed decal with insufficient clear coat over it to leave a smooth surface, so the surface imperfections reflect light in different directions. It looks a bit worse in the photo than it does in real life, but that isn't saying much.

I don't buy many Scalextric cars now, but the few I have in the past couple of years have all had flaws, although much less severe than this Holden. I buy them with the intention of substantially modifying them for racing, so I grudgingly accept small flaws, and therein lies the problem. We are it. We, I, continue to buy this overpriced crap. Until we stop doing so, Scalextric has no incentive to produce anything of a higher quality.


Is the rear wheel arch egg shaped? Maybe it's just my eyes.
It's a bit egg shaped, but by design rather than poor manufacturing. I'm happy with it and assume the shape to be a reasonably accurate representation of the real car.


Hopefully Simon can contribute to this thread with an update on quality control and if Scalextric will rerelease the car with better paint work in the future as its a popular model.
I admire your optimism, but don't share it. I've heard too many of Simon's platitudes before, yet nothing changes. I don't believe it ever will.


I thought twice before starting this thread, for the reason stated earlier. I and others like me continue to buy Scalextric's products even knowing that they're likely to be flawed. We're the fools. It is our custom that allows Scalextric to continue producing shoddy goods. We're addicts being expertly played. It's immoral, but that's life.
 
#43 ·
I and others like me continue to buy Scalextric's products even knowing that they're likely to be flawed. We're the fools. It is our custom that allows Scalextric to continue producing shoddy goods. We're addicts being expertly played. It's immoral, but that's life.
Amen to that!
 
#17 ·
I really wanted to buy the recent 60's BRM F1 car but they continue to use the fat driver figure and expect nearly £60 for it. I know Pendle's sell a Jim Clark figure for the Lotus 25 which could probably be adapted with an Immense Miniatures Graham Hill head but then the price is approaching £70. More than I'm prepared to pay!

John
 
#22 ·
Looking at the photos from David and Paddy it looks like someone at the last minute realised that they had the window framing the wrong colour and decided to correct it in the worst possible and cheapest way. The original release images from Scalextric showed the car with black window framing, which whilst correct on some versions of the car, is wrong for this one. If you look closely, beyond the child like over painting, you can see the black framing in both photos.
 
#25 ·
Calling this 'artizanry' is too kind for what this is and an insult to artizans. It's all about taking care of business, or the lack of it. Yes, some Scalextric models seem to survive the concept through realisation process better than others. My impression is that Hornby has become just too fast and furious with their releases and they are overreaching themselves. They seem to be seeking to measure their success (or otherwise) in terms of accelerated volume? All this is down to poor and inconsistent management within their business. Someone properly needs to take ownership and get a grip. I bought just the Ford Mustang 350 GT last year (last month) and I am satisfied with my chancing in terms of what this contends in being and is. How long will they go on like this?
 
#26 ·
Last few I bought was the same, real poor quality control, Scalextric club has gone crappy, terms eroded. Prices keep going up. I've not bought a Scalextric car in about 9 months. I'll not bother to renew my club membership, can't see me buying from them again.
Shame on them for the contempt they show for their customers :mad:
 
#27 ·
Where's WI when we need him, is he on holiday... @Wankel Ickx we need you
What the what? "Need" me? While it's very true that I've been painting window frames recently, I ain't fixing this amateurism!

All this is down to poor and inconsistent management within their business.
Hmmm. I think it's more down to Hornby being driven by their share price and the Vietnamese factory wanting to hit some kinda 'shipped units' target for the purposes of keeping a contract.

Neither of these things are good. 😟