EditStromBecker Slot Cars
 StromBecker 1:24 Aston Martin Box Art |
EditStromBecker Slot Cars
Strombeck-Becker has been given credit by some for inventing the slot-car track. Slot car sets became a large part of the Strombecker toy business from the late 1950s into the early 1960s. The plastic slot cars were primarily sports cars in 1:24 and 1:32 scale. Motors, tracks and different road-race sets were sold. The slot-cars were a big part of the company's toy effort and must have represented a sizable chunk of their dwindling toy business around 1960.
A 1972 obituary for Frederick K. Strombeck mentions that he designed and developed the original slot car racing toy, however many slot car historians argue that the first slot car was produced by
Lionel and it's rail racers.
EditThe Slot Car Boom and Bust of the 1960s
The 1950s had seen the emergence of a number of new electronic toys, including slot cars, motorized size plastic vehicles that could be raced against each other on an electrified track. The cars, which were replicas of actual models made by the likes of Jaguar and Ferrari, quickly became popular with youngsters, especially boys. To cash in on the trend, in 1961 Dowst acquired the hobby division of manufacturer Strombeck-Becker, hired 14 designers, and retooled its factory to facilitate production of the car-and-track sets. Sales of the toys, which were marketed under the name Strombecker, jumped from 20,000 to 500,000 sets by 1963, making the company one of the industry's leaders in this category. With the cars now comprising the firm's main source of revenue, Dowst Manufacturing changed its name to Strombecker Corporation.
For several years the company rode high on the slot car fad, but then sales plunged in the latter half of the decade. When the firm's largest customer, Sears, Roebuck & Co., canceled orders and tried to return all of its inventory, Strombecker faced financial ruin. The firm, which had recorded profits of $3 million at the peak of the boom, suddenly found itself facing annual losses of more than $6 million. As a consequence, Myron, Alan, and Richard Shure were forced to personally guarantee the company's loans, and to avoid bankruptcy they decided to return to the more traditional toys with which the firm had earlier found success. At this time Alan Shure left to run a business that made small electric motors, leaving Myron and Richard to run the company.
Strombecker bounced back with the introduction of the "Jam-Pac," a set of ten die-cast cars that sold for a dollar. Placed by the counter at supermarkets throughout the country, it became "the world's best shutter-upper," according to Myron Shure's son Daniel, as parents in the checkout line could buy it for a child in order to keep them quiet. The Jam-Pac sold ten million sets in its first year, and continued to do well thereafter.