[Damo]

Hi All,

I've been reading all the various posts and looking at the pictures of the digital racing lines and chicanes that clever members have made. There's been mention of Hornby/Scalextric seeing them or members emailing them pictures to show them so that they may well produce standard chicane track pieces in the future. I wonder what the odds really are that they will? Has there been any info released from them they are aware of the idea or considering it? Are there Scalextric representatives on the forum? Can we get any comment from them?
I have been designing a track for some time now and would make these parts but would rather hold off for factory track pieces if they are likely to arrive.
I seem to remember a survey a while ago which asked what track pieces we would like to become available in the future. Does anyone remember that? Was that a survey from Scalextric?

Cheers,
Damo.

 

[Keeto]

Maybe in a half century's time.

I would LOVE to be proven wrong.

 

[Wraith]

No chance, if you read the forum you will see just how little hornby listen to us to gauge wht people would like.

Sad but true, starting to wish I had chosen a different digital system.

 

[Damo]

Surely to be the first on the market with such a cool track piece would give the a huge advantage over their competition?

 

[zarko]

Damo - unfortunately, only for the reasons known to Hornby, they are clearly not of the same opinion!

 

[TheCuckoo]

I think it is highly unlikely. As they are about to issue a profit warning, I think they will probably want to 'play it safe' for a while - in other words same cars, different liveries, maximum re-use of existing tooling. New track pieces would be a significant investment in R&D and I cant see it happening, though of course I would love to be proved wrong.

 

[montoya1]

This thread, like so many others regarding Scalex, fails to grasp the level of importance of us to them.

 

[Julian_Boolean]

Can't say I blame them, I'll probably buy at most 3 Scalextric cars this years, none of them will be at full list price, why would Scalextric be interested in what I want, they're in business to make profit, not pander to my tight arse whims.

 

[Mr Modifier]

Maybe what Hornby needs to do is offer other companies a license to make Sport and SSD compatible track pieces. Slot.It have obviously licensed the SSD chip technology from Hornby - why can't Hornby extend the business model and at least make a royalty income? There are probably quite a few efficient businesses out there that could develop items more cheaply than Hornby (smaller usually means fleet of foot). There are 3d printers out there that can produce quite accurate parts from CAD files which could in turn be used to make moulds. Some 3D printers can actually be used to produce low volume production runs. The technology is out there. All Hornby needs to do is give some bright sparks permission to develop and produce.

 

[Damo]

We all bought Scalextric for our own various reasons and as far as New Zealand is concerned, it is the only system you see everywhere. Only full on model shops here have Carrera or SCX or Ninco yet regular toy shops have Scalextric. So, they must be doing the right thing for the most part and to be fair we should acknowledge that. I just think that introducing a system like SSD and not adding new and interesting track pieces over time is mad. You need to keep the customer base you already have engaged and adding more to their existing sets.

Cheers,
Damo.

 

[Ade]

hi
scalextric are only interested in shifting boxes, shareholders an all...

The original photo's of the clc showed them in 2 sections each being a normal 45° R2 wich meant it would of been a breeze to convert them to a racing clc.

When they started production for some reason they had changed to a 90° R2..

The chances of seeing another variant of lc are slim and given that hornby are predicting poor sales within the group i would say that there is no chance.

We could have kept the clc if they had made minor changes to a few components but it would seem it's easier to delete a part because it causes problems between digital running and analouge.

From memory they could not even mention the shorting issue in the instructions that come's with the apb.???

 

[glengtl1]

As a business owner i agree that it would make sense to introduce new items over time to enhance and secure your part of the market you are in.In most cases business owners be it big or small will always want to grow and improve.A main problem business face today is that cost to produce are rising and there are many more players in the market driving prices down which is great for customers but long term will see a decline and its happening in all markets . its not always about the actual profit , it can be the actual money you have tied up before you get that return and if your customer is a late payer you may aswell not have the sale,20 g tied up to make 3 g dont work ,I dont blame hornby for holding back or culling a line i have done the same its all about survival at this point in time with the whole world slowing down and until we see a fall in the number of players or systems/devices in the market things wont change much and growth will be slow.
cheers
Glen

 

[MrFlippant]

QUOTE (Mr Modifier @ 30 Jan 2012, 10:39) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Maybe what Hornby needs to do is offer other companies a license to make Sport and SSD compatible track pieces.

I'm sure the offer is there, but the problem is likely to be cost of license. We have no idea how much Slot.it or Pioneer have paid for using SSD specs/technology in their products, but they've clearly decided that it was low enough to still make a profit. But, it's all about margins. If they make a kazillion of something and each shows a profit of a few bucks, that's a tidy profit. But its possible that a fancy lane changer will have such a small market (e.g. hobbyists, because it probably won't show up at Toys R Us without Scalextric on the box), and be so costly to produce and therefore purchase, that the expected sales are too low for it to be profitable, even without having to pay a license fee.

I'm also with everyone else, and hope that I'm wrong.

A friend of mine made me a racing line, and it's very cool. The kids at the fete I did on Friday really loved seeing the car slip through that curve so easily.