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| Back To The Future vs Knight Rider Scalextric set Photo: Andrew Robertson |
I was upstairs reading and don't recall hearing the doorbell. I do remember being startled to hear my mother and sister yelling and screaming. They'd opened the parcel. My first Scalextric set was 1989's Formula 1 Set Silverstone. I say 'my', it was won in a competition entered by one of my sisters with a drawing I had helped with. I'm not sure what the statute of limitations is for giveaways in defunct children's magazines but it's hopefully shorter than those for stealing plutonium from international terrorists or any of the crimes the Knight Foundation investigated. The surprise that day (both theirs and mine) was because the first notification that we'd been won a prize was its arrival. It was ours, it was massive, and it was great.
Scalextric still is.
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| The full layout, without trailing wires to get the required 1.21 Gigawatts into the circuit(s). Look at how clean that floor is Photo: Andrew Robertson |
That set had two cars, a yellow Camel-liveried Lotus and a Marlboro-sponsored Williams Honda car. Neither of those teams exist and tobacco advertising in the sport is long gone. I won't say that the diode based "turbo flash" and whiff of ozone from the controllers explains why two of my siblings are electrical engineers, but I have many happy memories of the setup in our attic and the thrill of racing action.
My own fondness for Scalextric is shared. When my review copy of Back To The Future vs Knight Rider arrived the delivery driver was excited by the references to Hornby and Scalextric on the outer packaging, and made a joke about having to dig out Meccano spanners. My six-year-old nibling is a big fan of "back to tuture" and speed in general, and they and their parents formed a useful advisory panel as well.
The first thing of note is that my sister and brother-in-law were both more excited by the set than their child. Some of that's exposure to the idea of Scalextric, slot-car racing has far more electronic and electrical entertainment to compete with now than then. Some of that's nerd nostalgia, the confluence of Doc Brown's DeLorean and the Knight Industry Two-Thousand is shared with other products aimed at, well, parents, including Playmobil sets and no end of die-cast replicas.
The next is that it's great fun. The usual amount of housekeeping for reviews is dealing with envelopes or ethernet cables or juggling credentials for some esoteric streaming platform. Reader, I was so enthused I swept and hoovered my living room floor. Admittedly, this had as much to do with the footprint of the set as any level of diligence. The box is massive, but the track is much larger. If you're lucky enough to have access to a big table it might fit, but until and unless they let me back into the Conference Room at Eye For Film Towers I don't. One advantage of running it on the floor though is that when (inevitably) Marty McFly or Michael Knight can't quite keep their car on the road it doesn't have too far to fall. Back with that first set I couldn't tell you how often Riccardo Patrese and Nelson Piquet had to be rescued from an awkward angle of chipboard and loft insulation.
Which brings us to how much better Scalextric has become. We take for granted improvements to consumer electronics. I type this on a laptop whose computational abilities not only outstrips the (deliberately minimised) guidance systems of the Apollo moon-landings but the Hidden Figures who did so much work behind the scenes and back on earth. Helping avoid similar bumps is 'Magnatraction'. On those cars from 30-odd years ago this was a strip of extruded material akin to a fridge magnet, screwed to the bottom in and amongst exposed gears and some quantity of cat hair and fluff from carpet off-cuts. Now it's a neodymium style effort that's encapsulated in the plastic chassis of the vehicles. When putting the cars on the track there's a definite heft, an actual pull as they're seated, and while it didn't completely obviate the lateral consequences of recklessness and inattention it very clearly made a difference.
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| Largest track component with DVDs for Scale Photo: Andrew Robertson |
Then there's the rest of the cars. These are very effective 1/32 scale replicas of iconic vehicles from film and TV. The DeLorean is as outfitted at the end of the first Back To The Future, and albeit without flight mode, throughout Back To The Future Part II. It's got the Mr Fusion, it's got Marty in his life preserver, and, thanks to a fair few bits of electrical boffinry, headlights, taillights, and a flux capacitor in the cabin. KITT doesn't have William Daniels' mellifluous tones but it's got that Cylon-inspired scanner sweep on the bonnet. A particularly nice touch is that it persists for a bit after it (he?) stops. That's probably down to an actual capacitor, but it raised a smile every time it happened.
Motors are better. Moulding is better. Detail is better. It doesn't quite compete with high-end die-cast replicas (even of smaller scales) but the pristine glossy black plastic on K.I.T.T not only attracts rivals who look like David Hasselhoff with a moustache, but fingerprints aplenty. The set comes with four replacement contact-pads and changing them over is only a bit more fiddly than finding a working USB or changing over an HDMI. The cars are Digital Plug Ready, with a screwdriver and some fettling with the wiring loom you can insert an accessory chip to have up to six cars active on one track.
Racing is much the same. That sounds faint, but I don't mean it to. This set has both crossover and narrowing track sections, features shared with the 007 sets from 1967. 55 years of progress doesn't really change the thrill of swapping paint in miniature. Literally so in this case, after one particularly speedy clash. The controllers are better than I recall, the wiring too. While the cars are quite complicated inside the plug and play handsets were easy to orient and attach, as was the power adapter. I found it very straightforward to drive the car(s), and really appreciated the presence of an adjustable 'stop' on the controller trigger. That lets you set a maximum amount of input which with some careful calibration can get you whizzing around with consistent glee.
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| Screen accuracy includes number plates. You can see the displays on K.I.T.T.'s wraparound dashboard console, and the barcode on the Time-Machine is machine-legible even at altitude. Photo: Andrew Robertson |
Constructing the track and, perhaps more importantly for parents, deconstructing it were really straightforward. My memories of bent metal and unhappy plastic prongs have been replaced with easy slide and lock (dis)connection. It took me about ten minutes to pack everything back up and, with practise about as long to set it all back up. I've definitely spent longer trying to figure out how to unlock language or region options on DVD hardware. Storage is made a bit difficult by the size of the crossover section, but any box large enough to fit it will almost certainly take the rest.
I had a lot of fun with this. I sent some footage of it in action over to my sister to show to her child and beyond a "so cool!" (from my sister) the youngling asked "who wins?". I'll find out over the Christmas holidays as I've been instructed to bring it to my parents house for the season. In the mean-time though, I'd say those who buy it.
Will it Scalextric?
While setting up and reviewing the Back To The Future vs Knight Rider Scalextric set, I found myself wondering what other film and television franchises had Scalextric support. They've got their own category among Scalextric's cars but a short starter guide as to what outings of which franchises you can replicate seemed useful.
There's a long history of film and TV tie-ins for scale electric racing. Two James Bond sets with the iconic DB5 were sold in the Sixties. A working ejector seat and crash action for the 'underworld Mercedes' added to the fun, and one suspects a fair few hand mirrors were put in peril as weans recreated a key scene from Dr. No.
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| "Rubbing is racing" is from Days Of Thunder, but those cars didn't have as much in their interiors as these do. K.I.T.T. has the wraparound dashboard display and the Time-Machine has a light-up Flux Capacitor Photo: Andrew Robertson |
Since there's both 'good' and 'bad' versions of K.I.T.T. available, fans can recreate episodes Trust Doesn't Rust and K.I.T.T. vs K.A.R.R. as well as the Playstation 2 Video Game. Two versions of the DeLorean Time-Machine might raise questions about predestination or another lawsuit from Crispin Glover.
Having recently re-watched the Bourne films as part of a general Tony Gilroy catch-up it's possible to recreate most of its iconic car chases. In The Bourne Identity our superspy is put at a disadvantage by being behind the wheel of a Mini. There are several police cars available to chase him, including the Bluesmobile, but at the moment rather than rusted red you might need to use another character's lime green Mini. It's soon to be available with an armchair on the roof, and while one might joke about Jason Bean that notion is effectively the basis of the Johnny English series. A fourth outing for that will bring it into line with the Matt Damon Bourne films.
The Bourne Supremacy has him in a stolen Russian taxi, pursued by walking crossover Karl Urban. No taxis in the current range, but Del Boy's yellow Reliant Regal is a good substitute. I don't think Judge Dredd or Sylvester McCOy would complain too much about swapping a black German SUV for Adam Morgan's similarly monochrome BMW 330I touring car. Eomer might complain it was lacking in horsepower.
The Bourne Ultimatum has its eponymous protagonist make use of a car in a way many Scalextric racers will be familiar with, before absconding with a police car pursued by another agent. Three different UK police cars are available, but there's a certain charge to the Bluesmobile haring to a slightly more conspiratorial destination than Steven Spielberg's desk in the Cook County Assessor's Office.
Jason Bourne has Bourne pursuing someone else instead. There's not currently a Dodge Charger in the inventory. A currently retired model in black with an enormous blower sticking out the bonnet would do for anything Fast & Furious. In its stead there is that Dodge Monaco that Jake and Elwood drove, and it's mostly black. It's also available in a special edition pack with a ramp, though one suspects a station wagon full of Illinois Nazis isn't included. His target is in a Bearcat SWAT truck (thanks expository radio chatter!). Until and unless Scalextric join Hot Wheels and Playmobil and give us an A-Team van or the Scooby Gang's Mystery Machine you might need to stick a cardboard box on something else. Admittedly, a cardboard box with a car hidden under it would work for either of those iconic vehicles too, provided you attach it during an electric guitar montage or by going through a bunch of hallway doors.
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| "Swapping paint" - the 'stainless steel' of the DeLorean has rubbed off on K.I.T.T.'s Tri-Helical Plasteel 1000 Molecular Bonded Shell. The stickered display screens on the dashboard are similarly non-functional Photo: Andrew Robertson |
Bourne, Bean, and Blues Brothers aside, there are other franchises with good support from Scalextric. There are some tie-in Batman sets, though the Batmobiles are additions to rather than borrowings from the extensive garage of the Caped Crusader. They might even be visible if you angle your neck correctly during sequences in The Bat-Cave in The Lego Bat-Man Movie. Bond is well represented, the Lotus (Lotuses? Loti?) of Your Eyes Only, The Spy Who Loved Me, and the snow-equipped ski and rocket-launcher Aston Martin of The Living Daylights. There's also (at a smaller scale) a set for No Time To Die, though it's half again as long as You Only Live Twice rather than half the size of 1967's 007 Scalextric and film outings.
Straying a little from the letter B, a twin pack of team Jagermeister BMW could be the source of a drinking game that'd have you asking Dude, Where's My Car? While there are many films with great car action (see forthcoming feature) Scalextric have got your back when it comes to recreating at least some of them. While the festive season is often an opportunity to spend time with family rather than films, I'm hoping to earn Uncle points by entertaining the little ones with some slot car racing rather than screen time. I'll maybe drink the Jagermeister for them too.
