{"id":1289,"date":"2020-10-02T09:15:32","date_gmt":"2020-10-02T09:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.jadlamracingmodels.com\/?p=1289"},"modified":"2020-10-18T17:07:37","modified_gmt":"2020-10-18T17:07:37","slug":"micro-scalextric-history-compatibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.jadlamracingmodels.com\/2020\/10\/02\/micro-scalextric-history-compatibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Micro Scalextric History & Compatibility"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the start of 2019, Scalextric announced a brand new system for their Micro and My First Scalextric ranges.<\/h4>\n

The track, cars and controllers have be completely re-designed to provide a more reliable and enjoyable first taste of slot car racing for young families. I was lucky to have a look at the pre-production models and was hugely impressed. I think the Scalextric team fulfilled their brief really well.<\/p>\n

However, fans of the previous Micro Scalextric range were left disappointed and \u2013 in some cases \u2013 quite annoyed. The old and new systems were not compatible. The new system is the third 1:64 scale track and chassis design that Scalextric have produced. The first dates back to 1994 and was a simple re-branding of the American Marchon MR-1 product. This used a typical \u2018HO scale\u2019 track and chassis, with vertical track rails and cars with solid metal pick-ups. It was sold as \u2018Scalextric Micro MR-1\u2019.<\/p>\n

In 1995, the new \u2018Micro Scalextric\u2019 range was announced. This had re-designed vertical-rail track \u2013 joining to MR-1 track via an adapter piece \u2013 and a slightly re-designed chassis with characteristic Scalextric braided pick-ups. The two ranges were sold side-by-side for a number of years, with MR-1 gradually phased out. Between 1994 and 2019, nearly 300 cars and dozens of sets were sold in the Micro Scalextric and My First Scalextric ranges \u2013 most of those cars sold in the sets.<\/p>\n

The main problem with these old systems is the track. For an entry-level product, it was fiddly to put together and could be incredibly glitchy. Even if it worked perfectly, the cars would take a few laps to get going. And if \u201ca few laps\u201d turned into 20 or 30 laps \u2013 was that normal or was something wrong? Micro and My First Scalextric sets ruined Christmas Day festivities for too many families. As an introduction to slot cars, that was disaster for everyone.<\/p>\n