Which toy celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2017?

The forerunner to Scalextric was Scalex which Francis first produced through the company Minimodels Ltd which he founded in 1947. Scalex was a range of toy racing cars with a clockwork motor which was activated by pulling out the steering wheel. At the peak of its popularity, over 7000 Scalex models were being produced weekly. By 1956 the novelty of clockwork racing cars had worn off and sales began to fall. Eventually the future of the company and its 100 employees was threatened.

In an attempt to revive his company’s flagging fortunes, Fred Francis began to look at alternatives. He was inspired by seeing model car racing tracks, but wanted to develop the player’s control of the car so as to increase the sense of competition. He experimented by putting small electric motors into Scalex cars and running them on model railway track. Next he introduced rubber slotted track and gave the cars a ‘gimbal’ wheel to pick up the electric current in the groove of the track. Power was supplied by batteries hidden in a little cardboard hut, with players having their own on-off button to control their cars.

Scalex-electric became Scalextric.

Scalextric was unveiled at the Harrogate Toy Fair in 1957 to immediate acclaim. It appealed to both adults and children, combining speed, competition and the glamour of Formula One motor racing. Demand for the toy was immense and the Minimodels factory struggled to keep up with the orders.