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| 'A Guide to the Guide' by Bob Beers This is a continuing series of articles expanding on the photographs contained within the HO book "The Complete Color Guide To Aurora HO Slot Cars" | ||||||||||||||
| Complete Guide to Aurora H.O. Slot Cars | ||||||||||||||
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| On page 142 under the chapter, "Prototypes and Promotionals" we see what looks to be a HO slot car set contained in a suitcase. Around 1990, while living on Long Island, I was following up on an ad I placed in a local paper. At the time, I had just gotten into Aurora HO slot car collecting and was hot for anything I could find. An elderly gentleman said he was a toy distributor and he had several boxes of hobby store inventory in his garage. I arranged to go to his house. His garage was filled with boxes of things you would see in a hobby store, gas powered planes and parts, crafts kits, models, etc. He had lots of Aurora accessories but no cars. I bought the accessories and questioned him on cars, sets, catalogs, and the like. He brought out a few dozen catalogs which I immediately purchased. He then proceeded to dig out an old suitcase he had suddenly remembered. As he was fumbling with it, I noticed the words "AURORA PLASTICS CORP, WEST HEMPSTEAD, NY" on the front above the handle. It was written in gold lettering. He opened the case and I saw an oval of track with trees and (2) Aurora kits, Joe's Diner and the Ranch House, mounted inside. There were (4) vibrator cars tucked included. The top contained a transformer, 2 controllers, and a catalog. The name Aurora was on the inside also. I had to have it. How much?......"Not for sale!".........He would not sell it. I convinced him to sell (2) of the cars as the set was a two lane and four cars did not belong. He agreed so al least I got a couple of cars out of the deal. | ||||||||||||||
| I left that night happy with my finds but drooling over the set. I called him a few weeks later to find that all his stuff was sold and the remainder was being shipped to his new home. After that he was gone and the set was too. About 5 years later I get a call from a fellow collector in the midwest. He tells me what he is looking for and I have a few items. "Anything to trade", I ask. He tells me of a strange Aurora set in a suitcase he can get and was I interested in it. By the description it sounded like the one I saw in NY 5 years earlier. He got the set, we did a trade, and the set was shipped to me. In a few weeks a package arrived and I tore it open. Sure enough this was the same set. I recognized the details as I remembered them. As luck would have it, the midwest was where the old gentleman had moved to. I have never seen another of these and could not venture a guess as to it's worth. By my estimation, all of Aurora's salesmen carried one of these sets especially in the early years when most hobby stores were just getting into HO slot cars and needed to have a demonstration. As I remembered the distributor telling me, this set first had vibrator steering wheel controllers and transformer on it and then Aurora modified it when the Thunderjets came out in '63. Next Month.-Ford/Aurora Grand Nationals StopWatch | ||||||||||||||
| Track in a Suitcase | ||||||||||||||
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