David Mincica vintage slotcars collection - DMI/Elmodan info

[Fallerfreak]

Amazing! So many little known slotcars! The Marusan E-type is really odd! The windshield looks really weird!

[slotcar7]

Hi guys, something more..and, to make the layout even more realistic, i put a real bonsai tree in it..what do you think? Doesn't it look like a spot of some old 1950s race track in France or Germany.. ? Carrying on like this, i'll become a gardener..

[slotcar7]

And now, a 1/24 Porsche made by BZ, a very famous American brand of the 60s..they made just five models that remain in the American slot cars' history, and looking at this Porsche you can easily understand why..

[slotcar7]

Now a 1/24 Ferrari produced by the Swiss company Kitty at the end of the 60s..wonderful quality and attention to the detail..just look at the driver's head..

[slotcar7]

And now, two 1/43 slot cars in mint condition made by RPM in Hong Kong and teh end of the 60s..this is one of the many brands that came from that city..so, an Aston Martin and a Chevrolet Corvette..

[slotcar7]

Now..there's a very famous French company, Norev, that made during the 50s/60s some wonderful static models in 1/43 scale, like the Maserati 200 SI..and there was, during that period, also another important French toy company, called France Jouets..when this last one thought to create their own race track, they asked Norev to adapt their Maserati to the track, to make them to become a kind of slot car, using a pin underside the track, like the German Rasant did..

So, a now rare race set was produced under the France Jouets' name, but with Norev slot cars..just one model of slot, the Maserati 200, was presented and they were astonishing..

Here there are two of them in mint condition..look at the steering wheel's style, in a 1950s fashion, and at the amazing small windscreen..a masterpiece, in my opinion..

[slotcar7]

And now a less detailed couple of 1/43 slot cars made by the German GGF, at the end of the 60s..a Ferrari and a Porsche, even if someone put some Ferrari decals on the Porsche too..it should have been a Ferrari fan..

[slotcar7]

Hi guys, something more, and i hope interesting overall for you, Fallerfreak..

These are two of the most famous, rare and expensive (i paid about 5,000 Swedish Krona each..) HO slot cars, a Chevrolet sedan and a Ford lorry both in mint condition, made by the British company Playcraft in 1959..actually, they produced two sets, and in the first one, the rarest, there were these two slots..and in particular, exactly these shown here, are some of the earliest produced, because just at the beginning the lorry didn't carry any load, later a kind of load was put on it..

The reason why these sets and slot cars are so expensive is because of their rarity..in fact, the sets produced, called Playcraft Highways, didn't sell well at all, and their production was, of course, limited..but some American entrepreneurs bought the idea, created new sets and slots, and Aurora was born, the biggest American HO slot cars producer..so, funny enough, from a British failure an America success was created..

[slotcar7]

Now, another example of HO slot car..a rare, mint, Mercedes made by Rasant around 1964..this German producer was on the market for just 4 years, before going bankrupt..and that was a shame because, in my opinion, they created a wonderful system for their cars..in fact, their slots didn't have any electric pick up, but they moved thanks to an undertrack piece, this one linked to the controller, that had two pins that went inside the car..in this way, everything looked more realistic, because you couldn't really see how the cars were moving around the track, and it was also impossible they could go off the track even in the fastest corners..but sets and cars were very expensive and, as for Playcraft, success didn't arrive..they later even tried to produce slot cars using a more traditional system, that could be fitted in a Faller roadway, for example, but bankrupt came, anyway..

While it's quite easy to find Rasant cars of the "Faller" type, it's quite difficult to find the original ones, like this one..

[Fallerfreak]

NIce cars !

The Playcraft Impala is really interesting. Faller used one in the same colour as on the picture above as an illustration along with ared & white Atlas Ford Thunderbird on some of their early accessory boxes,( i. e. 4781) because they lacked own produced cars in 1963 when pictures for the boxes were shot. On 4916 there is another no-Faller car, a black & white Atlas Chevy impala

[Ravajack]

What to say?
Hats of to your everlasting ability to draw new and rare slot car rabbits out of your magic hat.
Some I have or maybe seen before, like the BZ, but most of the smaller and Hong Kong stuff I've never even heard of.

Sorry to throw another spanner in the works, but again for your Kitty car I beg to differ. I don't think it's very ”Swiss made” except for the the paper label sticker in front. Like your previous 1/32 Kitty car proved to be of japanese origin, so is this 1/24 Ferrari. Original design and manufacturer for this was Nichimo, a fairly well known japanese maker of slot cars in the 1960s.

The proof is in the pudding, and while these specimens aren't by far as nice as your example of the ”Kitty Ferrari”, at least the resemblance is striking:

[slotcar7]

Hi guys..thanks to you, Fallerfreak, for these pieces of information, and thanks to you as well Ravajack, you know i need and i want to learn a lot..

The point is that i bought it as a Kitty and i've got its original box written in German, so i assumed it was produced in Switzerland..now i start thinking maybe Kitty was just an importer of Japanese slot cars ans sets..

But, as you can see, i took a more detailed picture of the tyre and what's written on it? "Otaki Racing"

And i checked on the internet and i've seen that Otaki produced a Ferrari exactly like mine..and the only difference with Nichimo are the wheels..so, now the question is: is Otaki a copy of Nichimo, or the opposite ?

And what i can understand now is that Kitty branded as their own slot cars produced by Nichimo and Otaki..what do you think, Chief Inspector.. ?

[slotcar7]

Now a rare, rare, rare complete set and so far the only one known left..an early 1960s Horse Race! made by Cragstan

The particularity of these slots are that the jockey, while running, goes up and down, simulating real race movements through that metallic pin that moves up and down, slower or faster in relationship to the speed..they both work and imagine that the first time i put power to one of them i got scared, because the jockey started to move so suddenly and so fast..

They're not maybe so detailed, but for sure they're a piece of slot car history, and many other great collectors have just heard about this set but never seen it..so, enjoy..

[slotcar7]

Hi guys, now two of the most famous Scalextric slot cars..a 1963 "Vintage" Alfa Romeo and Bentley in mint condition taken from my "Vintage" set

The story in short..in 1963 Scalextric decided to create a new range, the "Vintage", and produced a set containing usually these two slots, even if in some cases there were two Bentley..later, they decided to enlarge the range producing other two slots, never sold in the sets: an Auto Union (produced anyway in smaller numbers) and, as maybe many of you know, a Bugatti, that has become the most iconic Scalextric car, because of its rarity and, consequently, of its prices..

Now, the latest figures for these 4 slots are: £100/150 for the Alfa Romeo and the Bentley, £500/600 for the Auto Union, and £4,000/4,500 for the Bugatti..

And all this when, actually, at that time all the range didn't get a lot of success..and from that the small numbers of the overall production..

But why exactly the Bugatti is so rare (experts say that no more than 600 were produced and not more than 60/70 remain today)..? Because it was never sold using the normal channels, but it was provided just to the biggest shop dealers and, in most cases, just on order..and why that? Funny to say, because it didn't have the same good quality of the other Scalextric cars..! The assembly was quite difficult and the engine often overheated to produce some brown marks on the blue body..! So, Scalextric considered it a failure..a failure that gave birth to the most expensive model for a collector..

For the moment, as said, here there are the Alfa Romeo and the Bentley..and look at some details like the driver or the dashboard..

[slotcar7]

And now other two famous slots, in mint condition as well, from the German brand Fleischmann..the two Go Karts..

The two drivers have a wonderful appearance..overall the young lady in the rarer red hair and the karts look so realistic, in my opinion..enjoy..