NEWS: Fly Strikes Back!

Long Live Fly!

For those of you that are in morning, (tightens black arm band and holds back a tear) with the news that Fly Slot Cars have ceased production fret not, new Fly models will be on the shelves before you know it. After what looks primarily like a production and distribution restructure, the brand that is solely responsible for the revolution in slot car detail we all enjoy today will trade again under the brand name of ‘FlySlot’.

Fly has setup a distribution partnership with Artin slot cars but fear not, Fly is NOT owned by Artin so we should see Fly’s high model standards maintained. There is an even rumour of improving Fly slots from a RTR perspective which I’m sure you’ll all agree is a good thing for the brand.

An exciting part of the FlySlot restructure will be the introduction of an entry level line of cars under the new brand ‘Madness’, (I’m not too sure about Madness as a slot brand name?) This is something we have seen Racer recently do with the introduction of ‘Sideways’ brand, unfortunately an economic reality in tougher times. This will allow Fly to produce a cheaper alternative, perhaps aiming at the SCX, Scalextric end of town. Only time will tell if these new cars will be able to compete with Scalextric in terms of detail, quality and RTR performance.

The rumour is that FlySlots costs to the consumer will not be reduce significantly, the introduction of the cheaper alternative Madness brand seems to confirm this. If this is the plan, hopefully Fly knows what they are doing. The recent Ferrari F40 war between Fly and Slot.it should have taught Fly a valuable lesson. You cannot continue to produce pretty slot cars with average RTR performance and average engineering and hope to charge a premier over companies that are producing 'industry best' slot cars. FlySlot and Madness must place their products realistically with respect to top end companies like Slot.it and NSR, lower end companies like Scalextric and SCX if they are to survive. If FlySlot/Madness can do this and continue to produce the Fly models we have always loved, (the highly anticipated upcoming Williams FW07 for example) the future looks bright for FlySlot/Madness.

You can find out more about the Williams FW07 Here