Hi Super,
They must have changed the track design at the point they started selling in the UK etc... as I've never seen track like that or connectors like that for that matter.
Aurora was definitely HO'ish as is Micro Scaletrix (about the size of a hot wheels car which is 1/64 scale so technically a bit big for HO). I found that scale superb as you could have quite big layout in a reasonable size space, whereas Scaletrix at 1/32 needed twice as much space for the same layout. There is as AOF04 says a 1/43 scale as well made by Carrera which is in-between the two but it tends to have more in common with Aurora than it does with Scaletrix featuring the same 'Stiff' track and similar track pick ups etc... As he also says they tend to do a lot of themed sets, for example Disney Cars, Marvel, Toy Story, etc... but they also do F1, Rally and similar sets also. The cars are not that bad, about the same quality/detail as the Micro-Scaletrix, but nowhere near as good as Aurora used to be.
The other thing I've seen beginning to pop up on eBay again lately is another slot oddity of the 70's and which I had one Christmas which is the Matchbox Motorway sets. These had an interesting twist on the slot car idea. Basically you had a hollow slot into which a long 'spring' would be inserted, this would mesh with a gear driven by a motor. You then got hold of your favourite Matchbox/Hot Wheels cars and you had these little adaptors made of a plastic base with a pin on it and a metallic sticker to go over the pin and hold it to the bottom of your diecast car. You then simply put the car onto the track with the pin in the slot and it would get dragged round by the spring.
Now this isn't like a racing slot track, but more like a motor system you could build alongside say a railway layout to give you moving vehicles alongside your railways. The main downsides though were firstly it was damn noisy, secondly setting up and putting away was a nightmare as you had to get the springs out before disassembly or in after assembly and worse of all the idea of a sticker holding the pin in place on the cars while in theory good is not so good when you try to put them on sticky/grubby toy cars as the sticker just doesn't stay in place so you get cars 'breaking free' randomnly lol! But even with all these faults if I could lay my hands on a good condition, complete set I would buy it in an instant as I've never seen anything like it before or since...
They must have changed the track design at the point they started selling in the UK etc... as I've never seen track like that or connectors like that for that matter.
Aurora was definitely HO'ish as is Micro Scaletrix (about the size of a hot wheels car which is 1/64 scale so technically a bit big for HO). I found that scale superb as you could have quite big layout in a reasonable size space, whereas Scaletrix at 1/32 needed twice as much space for the same layout. There is as AOF04 says a 1/43 scale as well made by Carrera which is in-between the two but it tends to have more in common with Aurora than it does with Scaletrix featuring the same 'Stiff' track and similar track pick ups etc... As he also says they tend to do a lot of themed sets, for example Disney Cars, Marvel, Toy Story, etc... but they also do F1, Rally and similar sets also. The cars are not that bad, about the same quality/detail as the Micro-Scaletrix, but nowhere near as good as Aurora used to be.
The other thing I've seen beginning to pop up on eBay again lately is another slot oddity of the 70's and which I had one Christmas which is the Matchbox Motorway sets. These had an interesting twist on the slot car idea. Basically you had a hollow slot into which a long 'spring' would be inserted, this would mesh with a gear driven by a motor. You then got hold of your favourite Matchbox/Hot Wheels cars and you had these little adaptors made of a plastic base with a pin on it and a metallic sticker to go over the pin and hold it to the bottom of your diecast car. You then simply put the car onto the track with the pin in the slot and it would get dragged round by the spring.
Now this isn't like a racing slot track, but more like a motor system you could build alongside say a railway layout to give you moving vehicles alongside your railways. The main downsides though were firstly it was damn noisy, secondly setting up and putting away was a nightmare as you had to get the springs out before disassembly or in after assembly and worse of all the idea of a sticker holding the pin in place on the cars while in theory good is not so good when you try to put them on sticky/grubby toy cars as the sticker just doesn't stay in place so you get cars 'breaking free' randomnly lol! But even with all these faults if I could lay my hands on a good condition, complete set I would buy it in an instant as I've never seen anything like it before or since...
Happily collecting things all my life... 