A COUPLE OF ODDITIES...

Well, I've been rather slack of late, mainly coz I have DIY tasks to attend to! Just got a small amount of time to bung this in, which I'm sure you all viewed on ebay too. I don't think its any sort of official Matchbox Product, just a standard TR with its decals removed.

However, it's a departure from the norm and worth a comment because it does look rather nice...



And also this, which I did a Buy It Now for. I don't quite know why I bid for it really, but it's a curious little item and I suppose I was rather drawn to it. The Corvette is not my most revered slotcar but I like the fact someone has customised it and attempted to make it a bit better than the original.



I am also keen to see how good a job was made here as I fully intend to decorate my remould shells too, so hopefully this should encourage me to get on with it...

More to come - including that track feature - but this blog is very much a winter project so please stick with it. Thanks for all your contributions and please keep them coming!

THE ESCORT BUSINESS...

Remember Craig? He made me a sample Escort in Orange that I raved about? Well, he's been busy on a Jaguar and just look at this! It's a first off, made off an original Powertrack Plus car.

Black really isn't the best colour to photograph and I've just taken 64 photos of it to get this one, but trust me it doesn't really do it justice. The amazing thing about Craig's versions is not just the superb body detail but the quality of the window and light mouldings, which are exactly as the original. Bid with confidence when it appears...

Meanwhile his Escort programme continues apace, with a black and a white sample winging its way to me. Again, that black is superb. I am thinking I might decorate it with Mampe logos from the old Zakspeed livery or else Texaco like the Eggenberger Ford RS500 cars.

Here is a profile of the Escort, which really doesn't do it justice but rest assured its a very funky model to have.

Craig hopes to develop a Corvette next and possibly a Pontiac GTO. As long as my Lancia Stratos is in there somewhere of course..

SENTRON 9 - Beginning of the end!

Okay! It's not Powertrack but boy do I remember pestering my Folks for one of these! Unfortunately, they got me one - our local Newsagent had one on a high shelf and one day it 'disappeared'. Christmas 1980 it was mine. Oh boy, wow!

Let me just say that the only thing good about the Sentron 9 was the box. The artwork was cool and the Polystyrene lid quite titilating. The car though, was dire. I mean it, it was awful.

For starters, the thing ran on 2 PP9 9 volt batteries AND 4 x AA batteries. It weighed a ton!. The plastic body and chassis creaked and groaned under the weight and the innovative 'infrared' control meant the thing couldn't be used in daylight! I had to go everywhere holding my hand over the bloody transmitter.

The remote was useless - think 'MB Bigtrak' without ANY of the fun! The poor Porsche 928 body, all curvy and 70's cool soon got smashed to hell coz it just ignored your commands. Mine got known as the skirting snogger...

The other great memory I have is the chronic understeer - or rather absolutely no steering. It had no grip, no power and weighed a ton. It was nothing to look at and was very expensive - around £19.99 at the time I think!

It's electronics were poor and when I took mine apart for the first time it never really performed properly ever again!

It was a turd, and the reason its here is because it's a reminder that Matchbox didn't always get it right and the losses incurred on developing something as poor as this led to the downfall of Lesney.

It's a shame then that Tamiya got it so right. Such was the dominance of R/C in the early eighties that it soon banished slot car racing from boys bedrooms and their imaginations.

PP-6000 RACE & CHASE 2

Well, a big thank you to James who's put his up on ebay! It's not cheap but it does represent a fabulous addition to anyones collection doesn't it?

If you look back at my PP-4000 suggestions I did write how adamant I was that the Silver Vette and New Police Car were supposed to feature in a Powertrack Plus set.

I also possess a pair of 12v throttles with the U-turn facility, but I was unsure whether Dapol had made this modification or Matchbox had.

Well now we know! By way of explanation comes this excellent PP-6000, which not only includes my predictions but also a few surprises. No, there is not my much anticipated crossroads but instead there is a single y-junction!

The concept is brilliant, it creates a siding for our Cop car to lay in wait. However, in practice the cars have to slow to negotiate the curve and accelerate to enter the dead end and effectively crash into the barrier. Hmm, you might think you reverse into the siding but that would mean you were going too slow and hence go round the bend.

No matter, look at the box art! So dramatic and exciting again. The artist who does these images is a class apart and clearly is distinguished in his field. As a graphics guy myself I can vouch for his talent and if anyone can tell me more about this illustrator or his work I would love to hear from you.

The PP-6000 is billed as Race & Chase 2, which is a slight surprise but clearly Matchbox thought Race & Chase was a strong brand too. For the life of me I never saw any of these sets in the shops, at exhibitions, in Catalogues or on ebay (until now) but James assures me he bought it on ebay not too long ago and has fixed it. It had been a lane down owing to a faulty terminal track which he has replaced.

The inclusion of the single Y junction is a limitation to the set layout and Matchbox had one obvious exclusion to the sets layouts (see below).

Other than that this is a class piece of kit. As I say, it's not cheap but I would say it is very rare. If anyone else has seen one of these (in the shops back in 81-82) please let me know.

PP-6000 Comprised:

1 x Police Car

1 x Corvette Stingray

1 x Terminal Track 9" (12v)

1 x Topple Bridge 9"

1 x Y Junction (RH) 15"

1 x 6" Straight

2 x 15" Straight

3 x 9" Straight

4 x 90 degree curve (9")

5(?) x Crash barriers

2 x 12v Hand Controllers with U-turn switches

1 x 12v (16-18v!!) Transformer

5 x Track aprons (no ends)

Bridge supports

Sticker Sheet

Retail price - unknown

A Big Thank You!

There you go! A big thanks to all of you out there who have contacted me about this blog, not least because of the huge amount of information I now have. It's fair to say that the biggest gap in my knowledge of Powertrack comes from what I don't know and most of you have sought to redress that.

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The biggest discovery thus far is the 1980 UK Powertrack catalogue. As Craig, the kind chap who told me about this said, it's hardly a catalogue as such, more a pamphlet, but what it contains is some pretty good stuff.

Not least, the PT-115 Disco Van, but also the Lanechanger cars which although still rare were (or were supposed to be!) standard UK issue.

There is also the introduction of PT-5000 and PT-8000 so I will be going back and changing the set introduction dates as applicable.

Quite a few of you have emailed about Tyrone Malone and his racing trucks. suffice to say alot of his images seem heavily copyrighted in the good old US of A but do check it out on google...

Alot of you are asking for a track inventory, and that will be coming. Powertrack fan Ben is trying to work out why the country of origin varies on the track and it's an interesting point. if anyone has any ideas let us know please...

Ebay is digging up some fine nuggets and for those of you who have read this blog inside out you will know how passionate I have become about the next item...

For my part is means I have to go back and revisit some of my views on what I've written, but that's all part of having this blog right? Keep your views and ideas coming in and hopefully I can keep this site interesting for a while yet.

Best regards,

Steve

PT-1500 - LESNEY'S SWANSONG

Okay, up to now the US & UK sets have been reasonably easy to nail down - and as we have seen Canada holds a few surprises for Speedtrack fans.

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But here we have the PT-1500. You may remember I thought this was a central Europe product but it turns out it was made in the UK for the UK as later as 1982.

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My solitary ebay bid turned out to be the winning one and I now have it sat in front of me.

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The Lancia Beta and Vauxhall Chevette on the box artwork were sketchy marker pen renderings. A small disclaimer on the box lid actually states 'CARS ILLUSTRATED NOT REPRESENTATIVE OF CONTENTS' . I expect Matchbox chucked in every 6v car they had left fairly randomly but this particular set appears with the excellent Fiat Abarth and Triumph TR7.

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The vendor swears he bought this set from Woolworths in 1982. In which case it makes it a 'bargain basement' product to sell off Matchbox stock. I suspect it might have been designed to a budget which might explain the poor track contents.

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Perhaps the most intriguing thing is the 6v electrics. I suspect Matchbox were flogging the remains of their 6v bits from catalogue mail order returns. By 1982 Matchbox were well into 12v(!) Powertrack Plus and heading for the wall...

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Aside from the frankly crap box art the box is half the height of normal sets and the pieces have been cleverly interwoven between a strong Cardboard carcass. no doubt cheap but along way from selling itself. Clearly, these boxes were fully vacuum sealed, unlike regular Powertrack cartons where only the base part of the box was vac-sealed. (This at least enabled you to open the box and then get annoyed that the instructions obscured the view of the other car in the set!)

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One final thing is the inclusion of new stickers on the crash barriers. Philips, Porsche, Dunlop and a new Martini logo make an appearance.

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PT-1500 comprised:

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1 x Fiat Abarth

1 x Triumph TR7

1 x Terminal Track 9"

4 x 90 degree Curve (9")

1 x Straight 9"

4 x Straight 15"

1 x Mains Transformer (6v)

2 x Hand controllers

4 x Crash barriers

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I suspect this set probably retailed under £15 in the UK.

PT-115 DISCO VAN

Okay, big thanks to Carl Clarke for getting in touch, Carl has a 1980 Powertrack Catalogue. In it is the 'missing link'. It's the PT-115, previously AWOL in my car inventory on the blog.

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As predicted, it is a Dodge Van and none the worse for that I might add. It's black with 'groovy seventies boogaloo disco' stripes. u'hu baby, check it out...

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What intrigues me is I haven't actually seen this version of the Van yet. Does it exist? Anybody out there got one? It's interesting as it is further evidence of a US Speedtrack car coming over to the UK, yet STILL the Stingray never made it Stateside.

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I am a fan of the Dodge van though and this goes straight to the top of my wanted list.

NEW ESCORT - WORK IN PROGRESS!

Some of you will no doubt have seen the Escort 'remould' advertised on ebay a few weeks ago. A Powertrack fan and ace model builder, Craig, has been hard at work perfecting his Escort bodyshell mould.

He thinks he's finally got it right and sent me this sample for approval.

Take my word for it that this is absolutely flawless! It may as well have Matchbox stamped on it!

He has even moulded the windows and the light bar. I have fitted my regular Escort to the new bodyshell to prove it fits - spot on!

Poor Craig is very busy with his regular work but is hoping to email me with more details. From the model I have in front of me he clearly is on to a winner.

I'm thinking of decals to go with the cars now... Rothmans Escort? Marlboro TR7? Martini Porsche? Jagermeister VW?

I'll post more details on this fantastic development when I get them, meanwhile I hope these photos get you excited.

ROAD CHAMPS - MONZA V. PORSCHE!

Recognise these two? Yes, that's right, its our old Lanechanger buddies, the Porsche 935 and the Chevrolet Monza!

Huge thanks to Goran Hellsin who has contacted me about quite a few things. This blew me away. Goran advises me that a company called Road Champs produced a solitary racing set in 1987-88 called 'Lane Shifters' Just one set was made (4010) and was produced in Hong Kong.

The cars are Lanechanger cars with 'Made in Hong Kong c. Road Champs 1987' stamped on the bottom.

Goran has both these examples and another yellow Monza. He does comment that these were the only vehicles made and clearly no other sets or parts were produced.

These cars also appear on a Chevrolet Monza fan site so clearly they were reasonably widespread.

The cars have both been adapted to run with headlights - quite a feat as Matchbox didn't even seem able to do this (though I suspect that was to keep Powertrack popular in light or Lanechanger's superiority).

However, this may mean the moulds for the excellent Lanechanger cars have probably now fallen by the wayside.

Great stuff Goran - exactly the sort of thing I'd hoped this Blog would be useful for!