Scalextric Monte Carlo Sneak Peek

[DaveKennedy]

No major company thinks in those "micro" terms, they think of the "macro" picture. I have talked with them directly about this car as i have other cars over the years. They understand the smaller slot car market is well... smaller.. than most of the companies they license to but they have their process and it is what it is.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

I suspect that the behavioral similarities between NASCAR and TV wrestling are not coincidental. Corporate "market-think" is the same where ever you look. Consumers only matter when they buy, or refuse to buy. Corporate responses are to find other consumers to replace the ones they offended, or give the consumers what they want. The insidious thing is that around half of consumers who are furious at corporate domination will cave in eventually, and it is known to marketeers that this is true. Thinking that a corporation (NASCAR, race car owners, sponsors, etc, etc), much less a multinational manufacturer, responds to consumer demand is fantasy, like it or not.

It is a huge undertaking to sell a corporation on anything for consumers. It goes against everything they were taught in their silly business courses in college that they were taking while you were actually studying something worthwhile. The fact that these four cars are going to happen is incredibly rare and there is a huge debt owed to those who campaigned for it. It is an aberration, it just doesn't happen normally.

This is why "resetting" is done in supermarkets and most large chain stores of all kinds, so that what you want is pointlessly moved to where you can't easily find it. The assumption is that you are so stupid that you will "impulse buy" what you see as you go looking for what you came to buy. My plan is to "borrow" the car of the idiot in an overpriced suit at my grocery headquarters and park it in San Francisco in the docklands, then take the keys back to him and say, "Go find it". Seems fair to me. We'll see how many cars he buys while he's looking for it.

[slothead]

Waay - the only comment I have to what you said is in regards to 'silly business courses' in college. Having just retired from a very highly ranked and expensive small liberal arts college I can report first hand that it is not uncommon for good graduates to be earning more than $100K a year well before their 5th reunion. Following in the path of people already in corporate positions makes it possible to join the network. As maddening as 'resetting' is for many of us, these methods are based on market research that show they increase profits - and that's the key factor.

I know nothing about licensing, but without market research to show another way would yield better results there's no reason to expect anything to change.

More importantly, now that this body is available those that are interested will be able to remake them into whatever livery they want. Looking at the Showdown cars shows many slotters are also excellent modelers, meaning they'll get as much enjoyment out of redoing these generic liveries as they will racing them or entering them in proxies. When other body styles from this era become available there are those among us who will love being able to recreate entire NASCAR starting grids from the mid-80's. And if Scalextric takes too long to release a Thunderbird, Pontiac, Buick, etc., it will give some resin casters a chance to fill the void. A great step would be for someone to create wraps to go on the bodies (like with modern race cars) that include the body colors, number, and key decals all in one piece.

[Chunker88]

How difficult would it be to convert these cars to Digital Carrera? Is there space for a chip?

[HomeRacingWorld]

Not that hard, there is room to work with.

[Fathead59]

My question is this, do they have these cars in a set that is like one of the race courses that they run on , on any given weekend ? They might be able to sell to that group of people that watch NASCAR on the weekends

[Fathead59]

And they are all Monte Carlos , now I am not sure but don't they have other cars that run also, not a big NASCAR fan .

[HomeRacingWorld]

There will be oval sets available. I doubt a road course will be done, but you never know. Personally, I’m happy with the oval.

This is a brand new mold. Of course there were other cars, but they cannot tool all of them. This is a good start for the series and time will tell if others are made.