# what are your Memories ?



## cwbam (Feb 8, 2010)

seeing this

"..shoe box and a piece of clothes line would work better that walking back and forth..."

"My Mom still comments in regards to her chopped up clothesline"

BUTTER KNIFES ARE NOT SCREWDIVERS!!!! was mine
they worked great for old controllers to wire up.


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## GOODWRENCH88 (Feb 3, 2009)

i remember taping coins onto chassis hoping to keep them from sliding off the track in the corners. then came bloo goo for tire traction. very long time ago but i have a unopened bottle of bloo goo in my small personal box of slot cars. what memories those days are. but i am pretty old


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## Boosted-Z71 (Nov 26, 2007)

My Mom worked at Murphy's 5 & Dime, They sold Aurora T-jets, They were $1.50+ tax, My allowance was $2/ week, this was for mowing the yard, Trash detail, School Grades & anything else my parents ask me to do. The kicker was for the $2 allowance I had to agree to save 1/2 weekly, this left $1 for the T-jet fund & sometimes Mom or Dad would pitch in to cover the extra & tax. I bought a new T-jet almost every other week, The only problem was Murphys only stocked about 8-10 different models & sometimes the same colors, lots of green & white as I recall. Man I wish I could have the joy of opening those clear rectangular boxes with the little yellow foam padding strip again. I can remember riding my bike to the store, probably took an hour to decide which green Riviera I was going to get, I truly miss those days, Life was good!

Boosted


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## Marty (Oct 20, 1999)

Boosted-Z71 said:


> My Mom worked at Murphy's 5 & Dime, They sold Aurora T-jets, They were $1.50+ tax, My allowance was $2/ week, this was for mowing the yard, Trash detail, School Grades & anything else my parents ask me to do. The kicker was for the $2 allowance I had to agree to save 1/2 weekly, this left $1 for the T-jet fund & sometimes Mom or Dad would pitch in to cover the extra & tax. I bought a new T-jet almost every other week, The only problem was Murphys only stocked about 8-10 different models & sometimes the same colors, lots of green & white as I recall. Man I wish I could have the joy of opening those clear rectangular boxes with the little yellow foam padding strip again. I can remember riding my bike to the store, probably took an hour to decide which green Riviera I was going to get, I truly miss those days, Life was good!
> 
> Boosted


Our Murphy's (Toledo, OH) only carried Atlas and TYCO. The LHS down the street carried the T-Jets. Or we would go to downtown Toledo to the LHS and/or Tiedtkies(sp?).

Marty


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## bobwoodly (Aug 25, 2008)

Rider's Hobby Shop in Ann Arbor spinning the round display case looking at the new AFX cars. I still remember the heat and thumb fatigue from racing with those old Aurora thumb controllers for hours on end. The absolute inability to keep a TycoPro on the track because they were so wicked fast compared to tjets.


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

Our family room was right over the section of the basement my brother and I had the slot cars and train tables. If we started running before the soap operas were over, the thumping on the floor above our heads would start. "Okay mom!!!"  

This scenario was kind of repeated when I got back into slots this time around. I had a small table set up in my cave, and the TM nixed any running while she was watching TV. This situation changed when I swapped out the old Aurora transformer for train transformers..


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## tjetsgrig (Nov 1, 2009)

That smell........Mmmmmmmmm.........


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## sjracer (May 25, 2008)

My first slot car set was an AFX Magna-tracion set. I remember it came with the "rare" Black Shadow. I can remember spending countless hours reading the best of America's classic literature the Sears Christmas Catalog and the AFX catalog that came with the set and wishing for the Funny car Vega..... Aaaaaaaah! memories.


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## Dyno Dom (May 26, 2007)

Best of both scales for slot racing @ The Aurora Model Car Raceway
in West Hemp. We ran on a choice of 6 - 1/24th scale tracks, & when we 
were out of $$, both of the 6 lane tub tracks were free all day!


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## pshoe64 (Jun 10, 2008)

I had two sources within bicycle range, both long gone today. Family Hobby and Bike had tons of Aurora, AFX and Tyco. I must have bought a trailer load of Aurora track over 4-5 years back then. It sold for 10 cents a section versus the $4 for a pair of sections in AFX. They still had the 15 inch straights in the pin and clip style. Dimeco was the other source. They only sold cars and had a big turn-style display similar to a Timex watch display. It was full of last gen T-jets/Tuff Ones and 1st gen AFXs. It was so cool to get to scour the display while mom shopped.

I used to mow yards, wash cars, rake leaves, whatever I could to earn that next car, hop up part or track. We had a neighbor that [paid me $7 to mow and rake his yard. Dad paid me $3 and our yard was bigger:freak: Once I turned 12, I could ride my bike to those stores. About 2 miles round trip. What a different world that was. I don't let my kids out of sight in a Wal-Mart today. Sometimes I feel like my kids are missing something from that long ago world.

-Paul


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## Slott V (Feb 3, 2005)

Dad and Uncle Jerry were big TJet fans and I got to race on Uncle Jerry's Sterling Moss set once in a while when I was real little- probably 1968 or 69. When I was old enough to have a set at my house I wouldn't get to race because _they _were on it. 

Dad always took me to Bargain Town for TJets, AFX and Speedlines for both of us.


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

The smell, of course.

We got a pair of G+ cars when they came out... I had a white/fluorescent orange Marlboro McLaren (think I still have most of the body) and my brother got the orange one... was it the AJ Foyt Indy Special? For some reason, they smelled different when they ran.

We also got a pair of lighted HP7s... I had the brown Mustang Cobra, he had the light blue semi.

The yellow AJ's track cleaner truck.

Slicing the roof off my orange Nomad to make it an El Camino. Still have it, along with the AFX Camaro and Chevelle that got custom paint jobs.

More and more tabs busting off pieces of my old-style Tycopro track, till I lucked out and bought a big load of Faller at a train store that was closing it out. (I didn't realize at the time it wasn't real good for running most cars...)

The friend on the next block (we were kinda friends because our parents were friends) who had the brand new CurveHuggers NiteGlow set with the loops and the chrome Porsches. He was NOT mechanical at all, and I think the only time his set got used was when I came and begged him to get it out and I set it up for him on the kitchen floor.

Vaguely, I remember my first set... a big Tycopro set with the lighted Porsche and Chaparral. Still have pieces of the cars.

My uncle and aunt bought us a pair of Magnum 440s when I was in late middle or early high school. Both '82 Corvettes... I got the white/red one, my brother got the yellow/black one. Pretty sure they're still around too.

Riding my bike to Larry's Hobby, where they had some kind of storage/organizer unit of little tubs that were FULL of older Aurora stuff. I bought some AFX/MT stuff... I remember getting a green/blue Pinto funny car, the white/purple Porsche racer, and some chassis... the chassis had those foamy tires that were cut crooked and were already dried out when you bought them.

There's more, but I'm on my wife's work computer and she's bugging me to leave...

--rick


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## tasman (Feb 17, 2007)

*Hobby Stop*



Marty said:


> Our Murphy's (Toledo, OH) only carried Atlas and TYCO. The LHS down the street carried the T-Jets. Or we would go to downtown Toledo to the LHS and/or Tiedtkies(sp?).
> 
> Marty


Marty,

Did you ever go to the Hobby Stop on Summit Street in Point Place? They carried lots of HO cars and track going back to the vibrators. They also had a 1/24 scale track. They were also into RC planes early on.


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## Marty (Oct 20, 1999)

tasman said:


> Marty,
> 
> Did you ever go to the Hobby Stop on Summit Street in Point Place? They carried lots of HO cars and track going back to the vibrators. They also had a 1/24 scale track. They were also into RC planes early on.


I used to go there AFTER the slot car craze was over. It was sad to see the track used as a storage and display table. Les was kind of hard to deal with, but his brother was awesome! I would find older cars and he would sell them to me cheap. Les always wanted more then top dollar.

The track I went to was on Starr Ave on the East Side, The Pit Stop. I don't recall if he had an HO track. I vaugely remember a small track in the corner, but I was always on the big track running my black and gold Chaparral 2D of my Monogram Cobra Daytona (with the extra Lola body).

I went with a friend and his Dad to other tracks, but just to watch.

Marty
Marysville, OH


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

*Thanks Ernie*

sigh....Hamlin's Hobbies...

Twas brick and mortar. We rode our bikes or hiked all the way downtown every Saturday, like mail men... through rain, sleet, and snow. We actually used real cigar boxes. I still have my original Aurora yellow handled screwdriver. I've been packing it in my tool box for 35 years; and it remains the only remaining original piece of my slotting past. I can hardly look at, or smell, cheap cigars or red oil without going into a time warping trance.

Two years ago I saw Ernie Hamlin's picture and obituary go by in the Shelton Urinal... er....Journal. I pondered just how many children's lives he influenced and my own path into the hobbies he encouraged that have lasted a lifetime.

As Shoe related, we did any number of degrading chores that would send a modern era child into therapy... just to keep our lil' cars running. Ernie always acted happy to take our handfuls of grubby change and offer a helping hand if your car was haywire. He treated all of us slot-kids like important customers. 

I'll never forget him.


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## rodstrguy (Feb 14, 2002)

My older brother didn't like the rules at home, had a like minded buddy and they moved out. My brother's buddy decided he was too cool for his slot cars and gave them and all his AFX track to me and my younger brother. To us it was the mother lode, 4 or 5 of the large track sets, 20-30 cars, and all the parts we could use. We would set up a track that filled the living room all the way through the kitchen. Daytona banked curve at the kitchen stove or better yet a couple of the Hairpins. We had a friend that would always put the cars on the wrong lane so we called him Wrong-Way like the pilot on Gilligan's Island... had to pick up and put away the track before Mom and Dad got home from work. Missed the deadline many times.


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## gt7ball (Mar 3, 2011)

I remember getting together with several friends before Christmas every year. We would decide which set we were going to ask for. This way it would seem like to were getting 3 or 4 sets. Of course we would add them togethter and make are 1st four lane. Model Motoring didn't make that many sizes of curves than, but we came of with several layouts where 2 lanes split and than back together. Its funny that one of my buddies dad would aways get him a different style to we could not fit it with ours. He would always say that good for us. What ever that means. I still own most of my old sets which includes Eldons, Revells, Model Motoring and Cox sets. Mom got rid of a couple in a garage sale. See said, funny how those car sets went so fast. Nothing like racing to the tree and opening a new slot car set. Still like it today some 45 years later. The closest hobby shop to my house was 9 miles away which we rode our bikes every Saturday morning. We didn't always have money, but it was fun to look in the display case and spot our next purchase.


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## 1scalevolvo (Feb 5, 2004)

Me & my friend would go to Bob's Hobby shop on Gravesend Neck Road near the Station In Brooklyn. in the '70's.He had regular T-Jets for 1.99 & Tuff Ones & Wild Ones for 2.99.Great memories that I would love to relive !!



Neal:dude:


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## 1scalevolvo (Feb 5, 2004)

When I wanted to buy:dude: an AFX Nomad in '71 it was a choice between a Metallic Green striped one & the Brown one.Guess my choice ??!!?!


Neal


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## Rolls (Jan 1, 2010)

Green, Neal?










I remember saving up for my Nomad (& my Willys before that). After dozens of trips to the Two Guys 



department store in Cherry Hill, I chose the Willys, then after dozens more and a sale, I got the Nomad. Two of my absolute favorites as a kid. 

What a feeling coming home from the store with a new H.O. car, opening the packaging - the Tuffy with it's domed plastic rectangle above a cardboard base and the A/FX (old spelling) and its cube, especially cool when they were over their own cardboard box with that stylized racing artwork of the time. 



















And trying it out on the track was pretty awesome, too!


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## videojimmy (Jan 12, 2006)

I lost my mom when I was 8 to cancer... so I have fewer and fewer memories of her as the decades pass...but the one I'll always remember was around 68 or 69..when I was 4 going on 5. It was Christmas time and the whole family just watched Rudolph. It was still kinda early and my Dad was feeling the spirit and broke out his Vibrator set. I had never seen slot cars before and was awed by it. I remember my mom's car was the black hot rod..worth a fortune today I hear. My Dad set up a small oval on the living room floor and we ran it for a while, but the cars are fussy and after awhile it was "bedtime". I got my first race set that year, Johnny Lightning 500...LOVED IT! 

40 some odd years later, I remember that night like it was yeterday


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## 1scalevolvo (Feb 5, 2004)

:thumbsup: Rolls ,you hit it out of the ballpark !!! I still have my original Grren Af/X Nomad just like the one in your pic !! Hey ,@ the time I did not want a car the color of Dog Turd !


Neal:dude:


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## win43 (Aug 28, 2006)

I got my first Aurora set many many years ago for Xmas. It was a vibrator set. One of the cars was the Corvette, the other, my memory fails me. Upon unwrapping the package and opening the box I noticed that packaging of the cars, track, etc looks a little funny:freak: but I paid it no mind ...... AFTERALL I just got a Aurora slot car set.:woohoo: I learned years later that my dad and older brother set it up and was playing with it. Quality Control check I guess. I was the envy of the neighborhood. Eventually(a few years later) my friends got sets too. They were the newer pancake Tjet 500s.
They tired of them pretty quickly when they had to do the work on the cars to keep them running and I was buying up sets for a few dollars each. I amassed a hugh amount of track that i set up on 2 4X8 sheets of plywood in the basement. AAHHHhhhh the good old days. Down in the dark dank basement running slot cars.

As for the Hobby Shop, it was Kolker's Toys and Juvenile Furniture store in Elizabeth, NJ. They sold a little of everything. They had 2 six foot glass cases just crammed with slot cars and track. The wall behind them were all parts .... AJs screw on silicones, pick-up shoes, brushes and the like. He even had a little track consisting of about 5 or 6 9" straights so he could test every car he sold. There was so much stuff I think the owner was a closet slotcar freak. Every saturday i'd be there spending my hard earned money, from cutting lawns and washing cars, on slotcars and parts.

I miss that place ....................


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## beast1624 (Mar 28, 2009)

It was Christmas 1970. I had just turned 13 and I received one of the first AFX sets released. The cars were AFX but the track was still lock and joiner...that's how new the AFX's were. It had the blue Dodge Daytona and the white #3 Camero (still have both). My older brother and I had raced T-Jets from 63-66 then he discovered girls. By that time they were worn out and I was too young and funds-limited to keep up with the maintenance so I had to wait and beg-and wait-for that set.

No one else in the neighborhood was into slots so I set up a huge oval around the ping pong table, used the old steering wheel controls so I could set them to run continuously and pretend it was the 24 hours of Daytona or Le Mans. This was a real challenge in the days before the banked turns came out. I think my endurance record for both cars running continuously without desloting was around 8 hours. Mom used to yell "Don't run those things like that or you'll burn the house down!" to which I replied "No way mom, they don't pull enough current". Then once in the middle of a 4+ hour run I watched in amazement as the Camero slowed on the back stretch, belched a puff of white smoke and promptly caught on fire. MAN! It just didn't get any more realistic than that! Stayed with the hobby through High School, sports, girls and college. Had to take some extended breaks off and on the first 20 or so years of marriage through various moves and such but the last several years we've finally been able to settle into a place where I can indulge my life long dream of a giant permanent track. My only regret is not doing it sooner.

Thanks to everyone for sharing. Reading through these is priceless.


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## plymouth71 (Dec 14, 2009)

I'd love to see that camaro lol.

I still remember my first track. Don't remember the year, but It was Christmas Morning and I unwrapped an AFX Rebel Challenge Set and the whoots and holler's began promptly after that. Of course DOH was very popular at the time, and this was the closest I could get. I launched that car continously over the set's ramp. I never did like the "speed bumps" or see-saw. That set touched of a collecting bug that infected me to this day. I received a couple ofhter sets, but hit the mother lode through my Aunt's boy friend. I had multiples of police cars, semi's firebird's etc. My dad set up a 3 level track on a4x8 sheet of Plywood. I still remember racing around with the police cars in the darkness. 

Unfortunately I slowly destroyed my fleet to canibalize them for custom hotwheels and such. I didn't know any better. I had a couple squirreled away which resurfaced only recently, but nothing of any consequence. I did however take to other collections like Pepsi Memoribilia, comic books, hockey cards and hotwheels to fill the void. Now I'm considering getting rid of the other collections to feed the need for slot stuff... Sheesh, I't not an addiction, it's an epidemic!


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## rbrunne1 (Sep 22, 2007)

I was wooed into slot cars by fate. My friend's father was building an HO Model Railroad and had bought a Tyco train/slot car set and after seeing my interest in the slot cars, gave me all the slot car parts. 

There weren't any hobby shops that I was aware of...although it was pre-internet :lol:

I remember Two Guys in the next town sold A/FX (Maybe Tyco, too) cars & accessories. I would have to beg my Mom to drive me there. My favorite shopping experience was the Auto World catalog (http://www.oscarsautoworld.com/) and, I think, Sherm's HO. What a difference in catalog quality. Auto World was professionally printed and bound. Sherm's was a cut & paste job simply stapled together. I seem to remember getting a few extra goodies with every order from Sherm's (just like Slot Car Central does today).

My other memories seem centered on music. We had a small radio in the basement we would turn on and it seems like Manfred Mann's Blinded by the Light, David Bowie's Suffragette City & The Jean Genie and Sweet's Ballroom Blitz were on a continuous loop. Whenever I hear those songs, I think back to the days spent in my parents basement tinkering with the track and running A/FX magna-tractions :

Bob B.
Clifton Park, NY


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## bobhch (Apr 22, 2007)

*Who would of thought a Chrome Pinto with pink stripes car would be fast...*



beast1624 said:


> *SNIP*No one else in the neighborhood was into slots so I set up a huge oval around the ping pong table, used the old steering wheel controls so I could set them to run continuously and pretend it was the 24 hours of Daytona or Le Mans. This was a real challenge in the days before the banked turns came out. I think my endurance record for both cars running continuously without desloting was around 8 hours. Mom used to yell "Don't run those things like that or you'll burn the house down!" to which I replied "No way mom, they don't pull enough current". Then once in the middle of a 4+ hour run I watched in amazement as the Camero slowed on the back stretch, belched a puff of white smoke and promptly caught on fire. MAN! It just didn't get any more realistic than that!
> 
> Thanks to everyone for sharing. Reading through these is priceless.


oOOOOOOOOOOOOH MAN burning up Armtures was so fun! Great story beast. :thumbsup::thumbsup: 

Buhahahahahaahahaha I would pour Windex on the track and just do long burnouts at high RPMs...SMOKE never smelled so good. :lol:

Great memories everyone...this thread is a GREAT read!

My favorite memories were racing slot cars at Bel Air Hobbies as a kid. It was a nice temporary layout in the back part of Mr. Fields (RIP) hobby shop. All of us kids would clean our armatures, clean our pickups, oil up the armature end and put that red stuff on our sponge tires.

This was a time when G-Plus cars were hitting the scene. I was younger so, was racing in the slower AFX Magna-Traction and/or TYCO cars class. Mr. Fields was a Super Great guy and truly cared about all of us kids.

I hung out at Bel Air Hobbies all the time, spent near all of my money there and talked to him all the time about all my hobbies.

Have always been more of an AFX type of guy but, Mr. Fields handed me a Chrome Pinto TYCO car to race one day. It had Pink stripes on it. I thought what the heck? Well I ran circles around everyone that day!! :hat: Ended up buying that car from him, after going home and telling my Dad the story of how I won with this car. My Dad coughed up the Money and went right back and bought it.

Had a blast racing with all the neighborhood kids at Bel Air Hobby store. Win or loose the excitement was always high and fun times. 

Bob...there is no better time in your life than being a kid...zilla


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## videojimmy (Jan 12, 2006)

rbrunne1 said:


> My other memories seem centered on music. We had a small radio in the basement we would turn on and it seems like Manfred Mann's Blinded by the Light, David Bowie's Suffragette City & The Jean Genie and Sweet's Ballroom Blitz were on a continuous loop. Whenever I hear those songs, I think back to the days spent in my parents basement tinkering with the track and running A/FX magna-tractions :
> 
> Bob B.
> Clifton Park, NY


WABC? slots and radio still go together at my house


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

videojimmy said:


> WABC? slots and radio still go together at my house


this is why i LOVE the '70s station on Sirius... totally brings me back to running my old AFXs and MTs

--rick


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## aurora1 (Oct 6, 2008)

For me it's '60's on six. Love that station. Great stories.


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## Marty (Oct 20, 1999)

aurora1 said:


> For me it's '60's on six. Love that station. Great stories.


The Standells and slot car racing.....really:





 
Marty


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## Rolls (Jan 1, 2010)

Music videos that predate MTV. Who knew??

The announcer's voice sounds familiar. Same guy who narrated/hosted those car tests on TV about 1971 +or- 3 years?


Edit: Bud Lindeman!


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## [email protected] (Jan 31, 2010)

I received my first race set a bit early in my youth. It was Christmas 1981 I was only 5 and received a super duper double looper nite glow set with the silver streak cars. I was at the hobby shop in 3 months begging the guy to fix my cars. My Mom apparently paid him to fix them would be my guess but he did fix it for me and showed me how to repair them myself. In fact I grew up racing at his store and will never forget how he helped me. This was at Beloit Bikes and Raceway's in Milwaukee. Since that time and until I was 15 I received a new slot car set for Christmas except for two of those years where I received a R/C car. I was always super picky with my stuff and ended up keeping all but two boxes of my sets and they were always put away in the boxes. I still have most of them now and have been replacing the cars I used up as a kid and always wanted as a younger kid. 

My Fiancee' still says I'm a kid lol.


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