My boy is 4.5? Too young ?
I think I was older when I got mine…..

Get it bought now , he will soon be choosing 🙂

If you have to ask….

You aren’t old enough for that kind of responsibility!

Way too young.

Buy it now for yourself, let him have a go on his 18th?
If he’s been good.

I’m having the same debate, mines 4 and 3 months. Think he is still a bit too small, will just spend the whole time retrieving his car from the other side of the room when he floors it around every single bend.

I was wondering this the other day. My lad is about 2.5 so definitely too young for proper scalextric. I got him the go mini one instead which has a setting where the speed is restricted and the cars can’t fall off the track. It looks fun for me let alone a 2 year old.
http://www.argos.co.uk/product/4182003

I started telling people to buy scalextrics for crankbrat at his 2nd exmas , got fed up dropping hints and sorted him out for his 3rd. he is now 4 1/2 . we have 18 cars ranging from 70s classics from eBay to up to date models and more track than floorspace in our through living/dinning room .
Crankbrat is now a keen driver and can get good lap times .
Scalextecs is no where near as popular with him as Lego but is something he and his friends enjoy . yesterday’s visitor almost refused to leave because of it .
To combine the Lego and scalextrics I have srewed some Lego base plates to a chassis so he can build his own cars up and race/crash them.

Apparently they get older every year crankbrat is now 5 1/2

Pob loves my set, he’s 3. Go digital and you can set the power output and have serious race session with the bigger boys once small boys are in bed. We built a set at the project house with a 25sec lap time.. probably at guess 100/150ft of track 🙂

Boy’s age is irrelevant… he’ll grow into it. Think of all the fun you could have with it in the mean time! I’d love one back in the house…

To combine the Lego and scalextrics I have srewed some Lego base plates to a chassis so he can build his own cars up and race/crash them.

Genius

Beamers Junior mastered the art of driving a scalextric mini around the age of 4. The same mini that came in the 300 set that was my 6th birthday present.

As others have said, buy it now and he will grow into it (while you play with it!)

Never too young, or old, for scalextric.

My mates Son will be 1 year and 9 months this Christmas.

Apparently, according to mates wife, this is way too young for him to have a Scalextric.

Think she has Sussed out that it’s for my mate and I to mess with and she won’t allow it…….

Spoilsport 😉

My boys are getting it for Xmas…. 8, and nearly 6 and nearly 6. Probably too late by the posts above… although I think Mrs Sheeps has realised it might be just as much a present for me as them (4 cars!)

I’m sure my mates daughter was 4yrs old when he bought her scalextric

Had the same discussion here last year. Opted for the Arc One set with extra accessories eg jumps, hairpins etc, plus loads more track. Great when it works but incredibly frustrating when it doesn’t. And it does the latter case more than the former. New braids and rubbing/cleaning the track just doesn’t guarantee a working session.

Re age, 5yr old Monkey jnr had little issue getting used to the controllers which was a plus. And some of the Arc app stuff made for some good races – the rest of it is badly thought out though.

Likely to sell it soon and possibly replace with an Anki set.

Whats this digital stuff? Weve got about 40 metres of ye old traditional Scalextric once every five years it gets set up (3 hours) then used for 20 minutes.

My kids “got it” aged about 4.

I’ve got lots of old Classic track that I run with more modern cars. I find that if you don’t run it for a while you get issues with motors, tyres, poor connectivity etc. It needs a good blast every few weeks.

I’ve not bothered with Arc and Digital as it is expensive and looks fiddly. Enough Classic track to build a circuit that you can’t get round on full throttle, an electronic lap timer and a good selection of matched cars works for us. A 5m figure of 8 will soon get boring.

I bought one for my then 5 year old. It was one on which you could slow down the cars a little yet he still got bored of them flying off the track all of the time and didn’t touch it again for 3 years. He”ll now play it for 20 mins and gets bored of it again so a lot of hassle to set up for not much use.

Much like a decent RC car, I think certain toys are much better off waiting until they’re 12+ and have a better attention span, however much you might fancy one yourself sooner!!

Thanks all – WeI have access to loads of classic track…so that’s the way we’ll go I think.
I may wait another year and get him the “football uniform” & the hatchet he wants instead! 😀

The scaletrix is for you though really, why is his age relevant?

To combine the Lego and scalextrics I have srewed some Lego base plates to a chassis so he can build his own cars up and race/crash them.

+1 for genius.

Senor J,

I have a whole load of Scalextric that I am looking for a good home for.

Drop me an email.

Paul

That is a cracking set. Well worth getting that than blowing a wedge on something new with only a few meters of track IMHO. If the motors in the cars are a bit tired they can be swapped out for about a fiver each. Both the Scalextric and SCX ones are readily available on Ebay. Tyres can be changed too as they harden with age.

I buy my braid in metre length rolls as it works out a lot cheaper than buying individual cut pieces. Also, wiping down old track with Muc Off brings it up a treat.

If you buy a bundle of old stuff may I suggest that you get a new Scalextric Sport powerbase, 2 transformers – one for each lane, new throttles (get a few as they are cheap – a couple of quid – and because they are so cheap you can end up with one throttle that is faster than the other, also you’ll have a spare for the inevitable failure), a digital lap timer and the connection pieces between new (Sport) and old (Classic) track. Ebay is your friend, none of the above costs too much and you should be able to build up an old set with a load of track for the price of a new one with hardly any.

Cars on the other hand can get a bit silly, but there are plenty of deals if you shop around. SCX work perfectly on Scalextric Classic track. Carrera are OK, but you have to faff about trimming down the guides. AutoArt look like a bargain but are rubbish.

I grabbed a 1:64 micro Disney Cars set for my youngest when he was 3, but when I set it up to “test” it, I let his older sister who was 6 at the time have a go and her binary on/off use of the throttle lead me to think that the weeman would not be up to it and it sat in storage for a year. Recently set it all up as we had some kids round and at just shy of 4 he was able to get the cars lapping the track.

I think the full size 1:32 stuff may be easier for them than the micro stuff as from memory the cars are a bit tougher to make fly off the track. I might get him some 1:32 stuff for xmas. Or more likely with his xmas money from ebay

You’ll be surprised how far you can barrel roll a 1/32 car!

Strategically placed cushions and a good stock of superglue are required in our house. I also check for missing wing mirrors at the end of a session.

Scalextric do the high-impact ones that are a one piece moulding and cannot be broken, but they look a bit “Fisher Price”.

My daughter doesn’t get to use anything like a GT car with a big wing and sticky-out mirrors or a rally car with spot lamps because she has no respect to anything. At all. And they always end up getting smashed. The SCX Aston Martin DBR9s and Ferrari 550s are always in bits, yet the SCX Ferrari 360s and Corvettes always survive, with the exception of the one that burnt out on spectacular style. A fiver to repair, but it looked awesome when it went bang.

SCX NASCARs look good are more or less Emilyproof.

Fragile

Strong

Fragile

Strong

Basically watch for sticky out bits.

I have never had any luck using old scalextric. I had a few sets when I was younger including a Knight Rider one with a jump. When I got them back out all the track had warped and was unusable. I had the same on an escort cosworth set I was given by a neighbour and a friend had the same with his austin metro set.

I’ve just bought my boy one for christmas, he’s 6. I’m getting excited myself, I loved it as a kid. love the smell more than anything. I think I’ll be shopping for more track and cars very soon…

Fill yer boots!

I judge anything around the £22 mark to be a good price. My Corvette (like the one on the first page) is the absolute Cat’s Ass.

Get a controller, drill a small hole in the trigger and thread a paperclip through it as a throttle stop – easy to remove if you need the controller back to full tilt.

My 2 year old has a razz here but it’s his 7 yr old brothers so wasn’t bought for him. He hasn’t mastered the digital lane change yet…

re the genius lego/scalextric combo i only screwed the blocks via the screw holes in the chassis as it was an experiment so i wanted to be able to rebuild the donor car , if/when i do another i will use a solid glue so that i can fix the height and spacing of the blocks on the chassis to allow a seamless lego build .

If anyone is interested and in the South-West then I saw this advertised the other day.

Scalextric Swap-meet

I went to one a few years ago and there was a lot of slot-car brands apart from Hornby being sold. Came away with a Ninco Lotus Exige which was so much faster than the stock Scalextric cars.

why is his age relevant?

Because I wanted some real life opinion,the sets are advertised as suitable from 5, I have since found out. Cheers.

@tootallpaul – thanks, that looks grand -I’m interested ,where are you based?

Harry the spider – thanks for all the info – the link is dangerous. 🙂

Because I wanted some real life opinion,the sets are advertised as suitable from 5, I have since found out. Cheers.

I’ll put a smiley on next time, wasn’t having a dig!

Senor J – Ash Vale, near Aldershot.

Drop me an email.

Paul