When it comes to toys that really got our imaginations going as kids, slot cars stand pretty close to the top of the list. We had hours of fun racing cars, crashing cars, building tracks, and generally fantasizing about being race car drivers as we squeezed the pistol grip a little harder on each consecutive run. This 1963 TV commercial was made to pomote the Gilbert American Flyer Auto-Rama Fly Over 8 slot car track which featured an awesome crossover jump where the car not only covered a gap but also actually swapped tracks in the process! We do not know how many takes it took to get it right for the commercial or if it worked at all when kids were trying it but the concept is cool.
Gilbert is the company that brought the world the Erector set as well, along with many other toys over the years. During WWII they were a manufacturer of aircraft parts and they had success all the way into the 1960s before kind of losing some direction after the death of their company’s founder. This 1963 ad shows off the tracks, the various cars, and the fact that they even had trotting horses that could be thrown out there and raced around.
Slot cars are still popular today because while the world has advanced and changed, there are still loads of kids who love watching those cars rip around the track with the hopes of actually doing it for real someday. Pretty awesome.
I had one of those Gilbert racing set and the cars were off the track more than they were on it. Mine did have the cool Willys stock cars though. I made a quart miler out of it, put some Vasaline on the track at the starting line & would spin the tires half the track. Good times for a seven year old.