Am I missing something, or is Carrera the only company out there still making 1/43rd scale slotcars?
I've been looking into buying a bunch of chassis to experiment on -- trying to develop a Slide Guide installation kit. Hopefully one that is pretty universal. But when I go online to shop for cars, all I'm finding is Carrera (and out-of-production SCX).
I've really gotten interested in making products for 1/43rd scale, but I'm wondering if that parade has passed already.
If Carrera continuous monopolizing the 1/43 market, their products on this scale will be only for kids. And kids will not buy you very well done products that are for adults.
I am waiting Dslot43 to decide how much time and money i will dedicate to this scale.
My personal view.
Daniel
Last edited by slotcardaniel; 12-28-2011 at 05:48 PM.
Well there is interest in 43 - if only at my house :~)
I find HO fun but not as realistic on the track as I'd like.
I just bought a 1/43 lot ... Carrera track plus 21 cars, a mix of Carrera and SCX, in order to try out the scale and see if I like it as much as I hope I will.
I will say the 2 GO! cars that I came into a few weeks ago are a lot more toy like than I expected.
We shall see. 1/43 would be such a good median between HO and 1/32 for those of us who have space limitations.
1/43 scale parade might be at the begining for the adult market. Although it seems that the " kid " Carrera market is the only one, I am hoping that more serious things are in the pipe. A lot of hobbiests are/have developing the scale. It seems to me that there is a lot of room for the "big players". The build it and they will come syndrome may apply here.
If you are looking to ride on the shirt tails of a world player with accesories and up-grades, that may not be possible right now.
I hope you don't decide not to develope products for the 1/43 scale. You seem to have some good ideas. Guess it depends on how much of your resources ( time and money ) you want to spend versus the return.
Tough choices.
I just bought this one this week. It's the Carrera Go Ferrari 458. And even though the wheels and tires are over scale I like it. Being that I own Scaley sport 1/32 track I had to trim the guide pin to allow it to move freely in the slot but after that it runs superbly.
Here it is with the Porsche 997 I bought previously.
They don't have the same level of detail in my 1/32 slot cars but they are still fun to drive
HO RacePro-
All I can say is I started my nephew & his daughters in Carrera!!!
And I have said this a few times... if I was to start out today (knowing what I now know) I would start DIGITALY!!!!
To those who think Carrera car are too much like toys ------Your RIGHT!! They are all toys wether they be SCX,Artin,Carrera... so Have fun and enjoy the time you spend playing with them & your family...
HO RacePro-
To those who think Carrera car are too much like toys ------Your RIGHT!! They are all toys wether they be SCX,Artin,Carrera... so Have fun and enjoy the time you spend playing with them & your family...
Your RIGHT!! we can take our toys as serious as we want, but they are still toys...and that's good as I like toys ...anyone the phonenumber for TA for me?
IMHO, there is far more appreciable detail and performance realism in 1/43 than with HO. That's because my eyes aren't what they used to be. LOL! I find the larger size easier to customize and scratch-build especially with my feeble hands. To me, it's the "sweet spot" between HO and the larger scales. Consider that most 1/43 cars currently offered are less expensive than their HO counterparts although, that may change if Carrera faces no viable competition soon. A lot of us are looking forward to Kyosho Dslot43 raising the "quality" bar and bring the scale out of the "toy realm". Be patient, there will be more choices on the horizon for 1/43 sooner than you think. I agree with 007 and DaFickser, this "stuff" is all toys. I look at each aspect of the hobby (no matter what scale) as opportunities to be creative, artistic, and well, just having a boatload of fun with friends and family. Makes me thankful every day to be alive.
To me it's kind of like the "Goldilocks" of slot car racing scales. HO is very good, but to some of us, it is a bit too small. 1/32 is another scale for home track racing, but for some of us, it is a little bit on the big side. 1/24 is, at least in my opinion, something that works best in the commercial arena. I know there are some that have adequate space for this in their homes, but I am not one of those blessed people.
I kind of like 1/43 scale as I can still have an adequately challengine raceway in my home, yet still be able to do things like build cars to run on this raceway.
Rather then being on the way out, I feel that 1/43 is simply just starting to gain in popularity. Let's be honest, this is not the best of economic time, yet 1/43 is growing, new sources are being developed, new parts are being developed and if that is happening, then I really do not think 1/43 is on it's way out. Rather momentum is growing and I think 1/43 is going to become very popular as the selection grows.
As we see new cars coming out - right now it is pretty much limited to Carrera GO cars - but with just a bit of tuning they run very well and are a blast to race against one another on either 1/43 or on a 1/32 layout.
I can remember a point in time where 1/32 was considered a 'toy scale' and most of the cars were pretty toylike. As time went along, the 1/32 cars got better and better until you see things like the cars that are coming out today - sleek, sexy and very fast. I'm hoping to see some very similar things coming down the pike for 1/43.
Once I get my layout up and running in the next few weeks, possibly months, I will be embarking on a series of builds that should work very well on the Carrera GO layout. Once that happens, I will be publishing articles so that others can do the same. With talented people like Bill Plude that does some outstanding painting and dedicated suppliers like the fine folks at Ranch-Design, I think you will see 1/43 growing. Once more and more people start building routed home raceways in 1/43, it will gain even more momentum.
So my opinion is that 1/43 is here to stay and will be getting more popular as time goes on.
As to the involvement of SCX in the Compact field, perhaps it was nothing more then a blunder in their marketing strategy of using only Target as their retailers. Let's be perfectly honest here, a lot of people need some information about how to use the product. How many Target employees are trained in slot cars?
IMHO, there is far more appreciable detail and performance realism in 1/43 than with HO. That's because my eyes aren't what they used to be. LOL! I find the larger size easier to customize and scratch-build especially with my feeble hands. To me, it's the "sweet spot" between HO and the larger scales. Consider that most 1/43 cars currently offered are less expensive than their HO counterparts although, that may change if Carrera faces no viable competition soon. A lot of us are looking forward to Kyosho Dslot43 raising the "quality" bar and bring the scale out of the "toy realm". Be patient, there will be more choices on the horizon for 1/43 sooner than you think. I agree with 007 and DaFickser, this "stuff" is all toys. I look at each aspect of the hobby as opportunities to be creative, artistic, and well, just having a boatload of fun with friends and family. Makes me thankful every day to be alive.
I know where you are coming from as a senior member of the community. I'm still into HO trains as N scale is just too small. But I won't be making the jump to "O" scale trains due to layout size issues. I remember as a youth I had a ping pong table filled with an Aurora model motoring layout that I and my brothers enjoyed for several years. I now have a Scalextric 1/32 race course on a similarly sized table that seems short. If 1/43 had the variety of cars and track that 1/32 scale enjoys today I very possibly would have chosen 1/43 as my scale of preference last year.
In the past I've always thought of 1/43 scale as a kid's starting point with the hobby of slotcar racing - until I viewed some of the builds on SCI for that scale ! some beautiful work has been done with these cars. It's also perfect for homeset racing as the track doesn't take up as much room as 1/32 ( and as a bonus, you can run some 1/32 scale cars on the track as long as you race one car at a time, not enough room for two 1/32 cars )
Is 1/43rd Scale Dying?
Ted
...anyone the phonenumber for TA for me? 
Linear Mode
