Since I was a small boy I had FischerTechnik at home. FisherTechnik is a construction toy like Meccano (well known in the UK) or the old “Maerklin Metal” construction kits. So over the years I accumulated quite some of this stuff. Some month ago I found out that one of my neighbours is collecting and, more important, activly using Fischer Technik. Been over there a couple of times and today went to a meeting of the Fischer Technik Club Nederlands with him down in the area of Rotterdam.
Archive for the ‘History’ Category
FischerTechnik – modern technical modeling since 40 years
Sunday, May 10th, 2009Carrera Servo – Slotracing without the slot
Friday, May 1st, 2009Towards the end of the 70s the Carrera Company of Germany produced a slot-less car racing system in 2 scales. The big one, called Carrera Servo 132 was in 1:32 scale. The cars where adapted from the original Carrera Universal system and Carrera Servo 160 where the cars where based on the Carrera 160 slot system. While the cars where adaptations of the existing cars, the track was a complete new invention. Instead of a slot and 2 or 3 power rails the system had 4 power rails, one beside the other. 1 car would use the outer rails and the other one would use the inner rails.
Carrera Servo 132 Trucks racing with VW Bully as moving obstacle
You Steer – bringing more action to scalextric
Saturday, April 25th, 2009The You Steer system by Triang Scalextric was a first attempt to bring more motor racing action to the track. The Idea being that you could use a steering wheel on your hand controller to move the guide blade and with that move the car side to side. This could be used to either steer around obstacles or to prevent the other car overtaking you. The whole system was released in 1970 and was revolutionary for that time.
YS100 - Set
YS100 - Content
History of Slot Cars
Sunday, March 29th, 2009UK … the Home of the scalextric set, some even say the home of slot racing. Historical accounts though place the birth of the slot car in the US with the Lionel Manufacturing Co. , well known for its electrical train sets, producing the first commercially available set. It was approximately 1/24 scale or 1/2 inch-1-foot and was patented by J. Lionel Cowen for the Lionel Corporation. (more…)
Handling old / vintage model kits with damages
Friday, March 27th, 2009Some of you have read already that I go to flea markets and do some of my sourcing there (see my Faller AMS post for instance). Sometimes you might get really vintage kits and if you are lucky they are even complete. Mostly the plastic or resin parts will be OK but the decals are a different issue. You’ll find that they are yellowing and worse even splitting.
Tamiya King Cobra – History
Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009The Tamiya “King Cobra” is actually a “DeTomaso Sport 5000 Spider (Fantuzzi)” and is not affiliated with the Shelby “King Cobra” like the name suggests. The link between the DeTomaso and Shelby was created by the Tamiya slot car and because of rumours that Shelby wanted to buy some of the cars. The design of the original was by Peter Brock, Shelby Engineer, who delivered something similar in design to the 1964 “Lang-Cooper”, a special Version of the King Cobra.
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