Wednesday July 23, 2003
Cleveland Slot Car Swap Meet!
by Rich McMahon
The Cleveland Ohio Slot Car Show, actually held in Richfield, has
been held for over ten years in the same Holiday Inn. Started as a show for
collectors of Aurora’s Thunder Jet HO slot cars the show has evolved into a
great gathering of all slot enthusiasts.
Size wise this is a relatively modest show but quality wise it has always been
excellent. There’s something for everyone at this show. Vintage
collectable HO sized items are plentiful with many collectors offering mint
vintage cars. New HO products are very plentiful at this show. This is a great
place to locate those new cars by Life-Like, Mattel, Tomy and of course the
Playing Mantis Thunder Jets. One vendor had Nu-Rora products too.
The larger scale products were represented mostly by new products. A large selection of items by FLY, Scalextric, Carrera, SCX and Ninco were present, at least at the beginning of the show. Futurtornics had at least some SCX “Croc” cars. I must mention “The Winning Edge”(email – TheWinningEdge@msn.com). They make a vast array of interesting tools for the HO slot car racer. Most of these are for the person that runs Thunder Jet slot cars.
One aspect of these shows that I enjoy is the small cottage industry items. The great HO cars by MEV are a prime example. Without attending one of these shows most slot enthusiasts would not be aware of Chris’ Custom Embroidery. Chris has a large selection of shirts and has just added hats with slot car logos.
There are also some people providing limited quantities of decals and others
that provide custom painted cars. I picked up two bodies for Tyco 440
chassis. One was a repainted Plymouth Superbird; it was painted to represent a
very rare collectible version. The second was a custom resin ’67 Plymouth GTX
which was painted as a Petty racecar.
Great fun sums these kind of shows up
nicely. I must advise that you get to a show or swap meet near you when
possible, it is some of the most fun you can have in this hobby!
Rich