I have been asked how to buy a Powertrack set. It's a logical question and the best way to answer it I suppose is to give you a brief history of how I got started - both first time in 1979 and the second time - erm, 2007!
Christmas '79 was a big push for Matchbox and Race & Chase was the toy for Christmas. I was ten and very much in the target audience. Father Christmas knew it too (god bless him) and got one down our Chimney.
I have to say it was a load of fun and never let me down. Totally reliable it proved to be and it had a fair old play for about two years or so. Race & Chase, as an 'off the shelf' solution is a great set to start off with.
Come 1981 my interest was brought to boiling point with Powertrack Plus. Barely advertised, I stumbled across it in a Department Store and (I guess) wouldn't let my mother go home without it, coz (surprise surprise!), Father Christmas hit the bulls eye again...
That was my PP-9000 and easily the best toy I ever had. It has a rather kitcsh loop that was a bit gimmicky but in practice the whole thing worked a treat, I bought an 8x4 ft sheet of Chipboard and made a huge track - and added the track accesories and cars over the next couple of months.
By the end of that year I had moved off slot cars into radio control cars (Tamiya) and didn't give Powertrack another thought. Of course, much later I dug it out of a box with my Uni mates. I was amazed to find that although half of it had disappeared, what was left worked just as well as the last time I used it!
Anyway, away in the loft it went and it diminished through various house moves until only a few cars were left.
I put these on ebay last year (above) and they went for about £35. At the time, I thought that was excellent but I was surprised at the number of responses I was getting. Having not even looked at Powertrack on ebay I was somewhat surprised at how many other items were available.
Now, there is another aspect to this as my daughter, aged 4 (then) had a Mini Clubman racing set her Aunt had bought her. She loved it but it was a travesty - being neither precise or easy on the eye. It soon broke and my daughter was rather unhappy about it.
That's when I bid on a PT-2000. A small little layout for my daughters room that could be put on a board and slid away out of site when not in use. Including Postage it cost me £8.
It was very good and needed remarkably little work to get it going. The cars stuttered to begin with but soon got in their stride. That was it, I had to 'just buy a little bit more'.
So, we now have a large layout on a board in my study that folds down off the wall. It's 12v but there is not a single piece of stripey track to be seen. My original desire was to have banked curves but I ran out of room for those. I also junked the accesories I planned to use too, the Y junctions and the cross overs. Only the 15" crossroad and the lap counter remain.
All told I bought and sold around 10 sets and acquired alot of good and bad track. I picked up a particularly nasty PT-4000 where every track had rusted through, but as the Renault supplied was the rare yellow/black version this was no hardship.
The layout is one of those projects I dabble in when I can be bothered. It also has my daughter's trainset on it so she makes me get it down quite often. I doubt it gets much attention but I have certainly enjoyed putting my collection together and I think I will make back all the money I spent acquiring the parts if I come to sell it on someday.
After rambling on I realise its probably worth me doing a proper buyers guide instead? I'll add it to the list...
