David Mincica vintage slotcars collection - DMI/Elmodan info

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Re: A vintage slot cars collection - DMI Elmodan info wanted!

Inläggav slotcar7 03 jul 2011, 15:08

Hi guys, first of all thanks to have participated in this quiz.. :D

Anyway, just one thing, because maybe i didn't talk earlier in a clear way..when i say slot car's producer, i mean the company that actually produced the slot car (for example Scalextric, Policar, etc.) and when i say car model's producer i mean the company that manufactured the real car (for example Ferrari, Cooper, etc.)

So, the hint i gave was that the producer of the real car was well know for its motorcycles..and GranTurismo got it right :thumb: ..almost :D because it's true that it's an Honda, but not a S800..it's a rare Honda SM600, a coupe that Honda produced just for one year, mid 1965/mid 1966 and just 1,800 cars..so, that's a rare slot car reproducing a rare car :D

And now, about the slot car's manufacturer..i asked many other collectors around the world and everyone was really surprised to see it..even Bernard Sampson, now a friend of mine, told me he'd never seen one before..so..it's a Kogure :w00t:

This was a Japanese company that during the 60s produced some really nice slot cars, and this car comes from a rare HO set, together with another rarity that i'll show you later.. :)

I knew it was difficult to guess, Ravajack, because i'd checked before many times the internet, and no news at all about this slot..anyway, you remain a great.. :beer:

And now..the photos..and because of the its rarity, i've also made a shoot of it with a London's sunset background..hope you enjoy :beer:

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Re: A vintage slot cars collection - DMI Elmodan info wanted!

Inläggav Ravajack 04 jul 2011, 08:21

You learn as long as you live…

I can honestly say that I've never ever seen or even heard of any of these small Honda cars,
either IRL in 1/1 or as a miniature model. Complete news to me in any scale.

I was vaguely aware of Kogure as a model & slot car maker, but only in the larger scales, not H0.
Kogure products are rare by themselves, H0 must be even more so.

I've now also failed miserably to find any further info about Kogure H0 slots on the Internet.
So this Kogure H0 Honda SM600 Coupe must be a true and genuinely rare bird.

The similarity between this Kogure H0 chassis and the pioneer Tyco S chassis (and also Tyco
copycat Bachmann) is also quite interesting.

Maybe they were all OEM:ed back in the day for Tyco, Bachmann and Kogure by some hitherto
unknown sweatshop subcontractor in Hong Kong?

BTW, any chance of seeing the chassis from another view (top side), without the body?
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Re: A vintage slot cars collection - DMI Elmodan info wanted!

Inläggav slotcar7 07 jul 2011, 17:40

Hi Ravajack, your posts are always really interesting..sometimes i feel like an archaeologist who discovers something and bring it to the expert for the analysis.. :D

And about opening the Honda, i''ll do it together with the second car from the same set that i'll show you in the near future..another really rare bird, believe me.. :)

But now i need your help (again!) and also the help of everyone that is keen on vintage slot cars.. :D. Do you remember that at the beginning i showed you a couple of cars thinking they were Elmodan but you demonstrated me they were some Behco instead?

Now i cleaned them a bit and so they have become one of the highlights of the collection, because they're some of the oldest slots i've got..but recently i've tried to find something more about this brand and on the net i found just what we've written earlier in this same post..i didn't find any recent photo of any other Behco slot car, a part these two mine and the wooden model also shown here..

So my question is: are the Behco rare? And if so, how much? Because on the net no other pictures and almost no any more news..in my researches :)

And other two questions, please: we know they started in 1959, but when they went out of production? And the green car i think it's a Vanwall, but its body isn't shown on the page of your book, so is this really a Vanwall? And who can help me better than you, guys.. :D ?

And now this couple of stilish, Swedish cars..enjoy.. :beer:

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Re: A vintage slot cars collection - DMI Elmodan info wanted!

Inläggav Ravajack 08 jul 2011, 12:58

I don't think there really is much more info to find on Behco today than has already been posted in the beginning of this thread. But I'll anyway take a trip to my old magazine storage in the basement and have a further look. Maybe I'll find some other interesting stuff in the old mags. Stay tuned.

slotcar7 skrev:... the green car i think it's a Vanwall, but its body isn't shown on the page of your book, so is this really a Vanwall?

Yes it is. The Vanwall plastic body can be seen here, in the bottom of the second picture/page of the slot car article in issue #25 (December 12) of the 1958 ”Teknik för Alla” magazine.
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Re: A vintage slot cars collection - DMI Elmodan info wanted!

Inläggav Ravajack 09 jul 2011, 12:29

OK, a bit more on Behco, this time from the magazine ”Modell-Hobby”, issue #3, november 1962.

It appears that Behco/Bertil Beckman & Co had a close relationship with the british rail racing and
slot car pioneers MRRC (Alban Adams & Henri Baigent). It's also seem very likely that a lot of the
stuff, if not all, that was marketed here in Sweden under the ”Behco” brand was in fact – MRRC...

(The ”h” in the Behco acronym has always also puzzled me, as there is no ”h” to be seen anywhere
in the company name ”Bertil Beckman & Co”. My guess is that the registered and full name of the
company was in fact ”Bertil Beckman Handel & Kompani”, (Bertil Beckman Trading in english), which
would explain the odd ”h” (from Handel) in the Behco trademark. A wild guess, but as good as any...)

The article below (page 14) also shows the products of another swedish slot car racing pioneer,
Rune Fredholm, with his own brand ”Expert Racing”. I believe Expert Racing cars and parts are
substantially rarer and more hard to find today than even Behco, Elmodan or DMI.

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I don't know if Elmodan (Elektriske Modeller fra Danmark) and DMI (Dansk Modelflyve Industri) are
really of the same origin, or even have any connection at all, but here are some tidbits about DMI
from the same issue of the Modell-Hobby mag, a news clipping and an ad.

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More to come from the vault in due time. Stay tuned. :thumb:
Senast redigerad av Ravajack 09 jul 2011, 12:36, redigerad totalt 4 gånger.
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Re: A vintage slot cars collection - DMI Elmodan info wanted!

Inläggav slotcar7 09 jul 2011, 14:21

Hi Ravajack, you're a Mith.. :thumb: Please, carry on, that's REAL slot cars' history.. :beer:

About Behco, in my opinion, you should be right about the meaning of the middle "h", but i'm a bit surprised by the link with MRRC because, if i remember well, in an earlier post, it was written that the founder of Behco was the Scalextric's Swedish importer..could he deal at the same time with two different, "enemies" British companies.. :) ?

And it's really interesting as well your discover about "Expert Racing"..so, another vintage company came to light..and now the search can start.. :beer:

But, actually, in your opinion, as i asked before, when did Behco close down? And how many Behco cars are surviving today? Less than 10, than 100, than 1,000, or..?

Anyway, please, carry on..i'm waiting for other pieces of history.. :thumb:

In the meanwhile, i tried an experiment: i recorded a small clip of a Marklin Ferrari Super Squalo (my favourite slot car for racing) running on the Egger Silberpfeil track..i've made some calculations and, keeping in mind the 1/32 scale of the car, the average speed, converted to real numbers, has been of about 180 km/h..not bad, for a vintage slot.. :D During the clip you can barely see the car, but at the very end, using all the braking power :) , you can finally see it..what do you think about? If you, guys, like this experiment, i can try to make a better quality clips in the future, longer enough to cover all the track and with different slots..

Anyway, that's the video.. :)

http://youtu.be/C8AmLDJIHX8
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Re: A vintage slot cars collection - DMI Elmodan info wanted!

Inläggav slotcar7 09 jul 2011, 14:34

{YOUTUBE}C8AmLDJIHX8{/YOUTUBE}
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Re: A vintage slot cars collection - DMI Elmodan info wanted!

Inläggav Jormungandr 09 jul 2011, 15:47

:thumb:
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Re: A vintage slot cars collection - DMI Elmodan info wanted!

Inläggav Ravajack 10 jul 2011, 11:15

slotcar7 skrev:i'm a bit surprised by the link with MRRC because, if i remember well, in an earlier post, it was written that the founder of Behco was the Scalextric's Swedish importer..could he deal at the same time with two different, "enemies" British companies.. :) ?

Sorry, but I can't recall anything written about Behco ever being Scalextric's Swedish importer, and certainly not by me (I hope...).

I'm sure Behco may have wanted very badly to have had Scalextric in their range, but the representation for Scalextric in Sweden was from the very beginning ”snatched” by another period hobby company, Sven E Truedsson in Malmö.

Strangely, Scalextric wasn't even the first commercially available "ready to race" slot racing set that was presented by the press in Sweden. That title goes to – VIP (Victory Industrial Products). This is the article about VIP in the ”Teknik för Alla” magazine (TfA issue #6, 1959). The headline says ”Slot car racing as a build-up kit” and the VIP importer is said to be Elov Hansson Inc, an old trading company in Gothenburg:

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The very first article presenting the Scalextric system in Sweden wasn't seen until a couple of months later, in issue #11, 1959 of the ”Teknik för Alla” magazine (where else?). In return, the Scalextric article was also quite a bit larger than the earlier presentation of the VIP system (although it had the somewhat odd and a bit misleading headline ”Drift with the slot racer”). Proud importer mr Sven E Truedsson himself can be seen in the first pic of the article:

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And the advertisments for Scalextric took even longer to show up in the press.
The very first one was (of course) in the TfA magazine, issue #16, 1959:

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Very sparse, nothing more than the mentioning of the words ”Scalextric” and ”miniracingbana”
(slot car racing track) in a general ad for different hobbies, but also showing clearly who the importer/representative was: Sven E Truedsson, a company that was at that time specializing
in radio control and model airplanes.


The second ad for the Scalextric system showed up in the next two issues of TfA, #17 & #18, 1959:

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This ad was a bit more informative, with a Scalextric logotype and an ”action” picture of a
racing car. In this ad it was also possible to send for and request a special catalogue for the
Scalextric system.

”Write today and send for our our instructive SCALEXTRIC catalogue with every little bit of
information about SCALEXTRIC – SLOT CAR RACING. (Please see the article in TfA issue #11).


Seen with today's eyes this was quite a sensation, as the first official Scalextric catalogue wasn't issued until a year later, in 1960. What this extremely early Scalextric catalogue looked like would be very interesting to see. Also if it was a very special swedish edition, written by the Sven E Truedsson staff, or if it had any connection with period written material from Minimodels/Triang. Either way, this early catalogue would surely be worth its weight in gold today if someone could dig up a copy. At the time it was quite cheap, as you could get a copy by sending in just 50 öre (5p) worth of stamps...


The third ad for Scalextric was not published until a couple of months later, in the issue #21 of TfA 1959.

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This was the first ”real” advertorial for Scalextric, with a more thorough presentation of the system in both text and pictures and with a few bold headlines: ”THE NEW HOBBY! Drive yourself – get going! EXCITING like in reality!”

More to come from the vault in due time. Stay tuned. :thumb:
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Re: A vintage slot cars collection - DMI Elmodan info wanted!

Inläggav slotcar7 10 jul 2011, 14:59

Hi guys, two big thanks: one to you, Jormungandr..you posted the video exactly i wanted to.. :thumb: please, teach me how to do it.. :D

And another big thanks to you Ravajack, your library looks endless, and a reference for many of us, i'm sure :thumb:

About the link between Behco and Scalextric, i should admit i was absolutely sure i read, earlier in the thread, that he was the Scalextric importer, but now i went back to read the older posts and..i found nothing..i should have been dreaming about it..what can i say? Sorry.. :beer:

Just one small, small rectification: the "I" of VIP stands for "industries", not "industrial"..

But i'm still waiting for your estimate, Ravajack: how many Behco left around? Because, when i build the Vintage Slot Car Sets and Slot Car Museum (i'm seriously studing this idea, imagine that they've already offered me to exhibit the collection at the Museo della Scienza e della Tecnica of Milan, but it's too early yet..) i'd like to put a "stars" evaluation of the different slots and brands (5 stars-very rare or unique, 1 star-very common) so, how many stars should i put on the Behco cars?

Waiting for your answers.. :beer:
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Re: A vintage slot cars collection - DMI Elmodan info wanted!

Inläggav Ravajack 10 jul 2011, 17:37

slotcar7 skrev:But i'm still waiting for your estimate, Ravajack: how many Behco left around?
[...] how many stars should i put on the Behco cars?

I think it'll be safe to say that Behco is a clear five star contender.

Personally, I've never seen one and I've been around this hobby since the early 1960's. I got my first Scalextric set for Christmas in 1961 (rubber track, w. lighted Aston Martin & Lister Jaguar cars and a 12V DC Fleishmann variable transformer).

I can only guess how many Behco cars that are still left around. Not that many I'd say, as the hobby was still in its infancy when the Behco brand was the most active, trying to promote this new pastime. The Behco cars were also not sold as RTR, only as kits, and there´s no known record of how many kits that were actually sold at the time.

The problem is also to identify an old item as a ”real Behco” if and when a car eventually show up somewhere, as I can't imagine the brand name ”Behco” being printed or labeled anywhere on a finished car.

If you want me to make a guess, I'd say that less than ten built-up Behcos may exist today, possibly less than five. And if there are any around, the present owner that has inherited some old toys in a box from an ancestor Grandpa or uncle), probably doesn't even have a clue of what it is or what to do with it. It'll take a good amount of luck to see one in the market, the most probable show place is not even on the Internet but in a garage sale or a flea market somewhere out there in the wilderness. I've got my eyes peeled for the last 20 years, and the only Behcos I've seen are from photos in old mags and books.

I also estimate the probability of finding a complete and clearly identifyable Behco kit as a bit higher than a ready-to-run, built up car. Old and very rare kits like these do actually exist, as demonstrated by Scalex very early on in this thread... :beer:
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Re: A vintage slot cars collection - DMI Elmodan info wanted!

Inläggav Jormungandr 10 jul 2011, 19:13

No problems! :) When you link a youtube video first you must open the clip in youtube. then, you copy the ENTIRE URL adress from that page (in this case "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8AmLDJIHX8") To add it to a post in this forum you simply use the "youtube" button. It pastes "[youtube][/youtube]" in your textbox. you put the URL between the ][ symbols. Or ther otherway around, paste the URL first, highlight it and then click on the "youtube" button. it's the same way as you do with images really. :thumb:
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Re: A vintage slot cars collection - DMI Elmodan info wanted!

Inläggav Ravajack 11 jul 2011, 09:11

OK, back on track with Behco:

Early on in this thread the presentation of the then new hobby ”miniracing” was shown from the magazine ”Teknik för Alla” (TfA) in 1958, issues #23, #24, #25 & #26 ( here and here ). Also the products from the swedish pioneer company Behco was shown.

Here are some more Behco-specific material from the TfA magazine, the years 1959 and 1960.

Here's an article on how to build a racing car from a kit as advertised by Behco (TfA issue #4, 1959):
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A compilation of small tidbits on new Behco products (TfA issues #7, #22 & #23, 1959):
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A new track system from MRRC, called Wideslide, marketed by swedish importer Behco (TfA #25, 1959).
The Wideslide system had a slot in the track, instead of the earlier MRRC system with a raised rail. This allowed for a more realistic racing in the same way as with the new VIP and Scalextric track systems:
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More products marketed by Behco, a parallel steering system for the Merit type cars an small racing posters and banners for decorating around the track. (TfA issue #5, 1960):
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Re: A vintage slot cars collection - DMI Elmodan info wanted!

Inläggav slotcar7 14 jul 2011, 16:32

Hi guys, as usual i should thank you :thumb:

Thanks, Jormungandr, i think i've understood how to do it (at least, i hope so.. :) ) and next time i'll upload a video i guess it'll be fine.. :thumb:

And thanks to you, Ravajack, to let me see again something more of your impressive library, it's a really wounderful source for vintage slotting.. :thumb:

About the Behco cars, i guessed they were really rare, but now that i've got your positive opinion as well, now they really are some of the highlights of the collection, a piece of early Scandinavian slot racing's history..

About DMI and Elmodan, actually i've never seen in the Elmodan leaflets any reference to DMI, so Elmodan could really be an indipendent company that produced the "El Race" set with the two Volkswagen..but if you look at some details, like the batteries' boxes or the hand controls of both Elmodan and DMI, you can easily see they're the same..so, a guess could be that between Elmodan and DMI there was the same relation that was present between Heras and Wiad in Germany: as Heras, after independently producing a set, was later incorporated by the bigger model company Wiad that carried on producing the same sets but under its own brand, as the same way Elmodan could have been incorporated by the model company DMI that carried on producing sets but in this case maybe changing slot cars (not Volkswagen anymore but F1 instead)..did it all go like this :-? What do you think?

Anyway, now i'd like to show you guys the latest addition to the collection, just arrived (and cleaned..it still needs a bit of care to be totally restored..)

It's a really rare, original Wrenn 1/52 shop display, made about in 1962.. :w00t:

As already said, Wrenn was a British company that, in the slot cars' world, lasted just for about 7 years (1960/67) and used an odd scale, 1/52. In this layout we see almost all the Wrenn catalogue: the track with lap counter and overtaking section, two slots, a double pit, a grand stand (empty..the crowd should still come :D ) and some figures..the particularity of this company was that up to three cars could be run on a lane at the same time, for a total of six cars running, and, as said, another particularity was the opportunity to overtake..

So, Wrenn produced a few of these complete layouts to show them in the shops for promotional use..and this one is one of the survivors.. :beer: And have a look in particular at the rail fence, that one close to the Vanvall: it's a rare item, because usually all the fences used are of the other type, the white barrier..and overall have a look at what it's written on the white barrier in correspondance to the overtaking section: "overtaking three cars on each lane" with an arrow to indicate the button to push to make the car change lane.. :D This was to impress customers, i guess :D

Now, the photos..enjoy.. :D

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Re: A vintage slot cars collection - DMI Elmodan info wanted!

Inläggav Ravajack 15 jul 2011, 09:44

It's now 1961, and after a few turbulent years, the TfA magazine now seems to have lost a bit of interest in the hobby they themselves had introduced and popularized to a broader audience in Sweden only two years earlier, and also named the new hobby pastime with a new word in the dictionary: ”miniracing”.

I've found only two issues with articles about slot car racing in all of TfA from 1961: issues #16 and #25, a real dip from the previous intense pioneer years. Both articles cover a new and somewhat odd brand on the scene, and, interestingly, also the very same brand as David/slotcar7 has found and presents in his previous posting here above: Wrenn Formula 152. :thumb:

Teknik för Alla #16, 1961: Presenting the brand new system Wrenn 152:
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Bertil Beckman & Co (Behco) seems also to be still alive and well, with new cars in a yellow banner spread presented in an article in the TfA #25, 1961. The bulk of this article (in the christmas issue...) is however about the new hobby in general and another players in the field: Scalextric and — Wrenn Formula 152.

The Tfa #25, 1961 article in full spread and also as separate pages below:
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