8 replies to this topic

[NSwanberg]

A little history.

 

[don.siegel]

Thanks for posting that, but the whole thing seems less than accurate and a little grandiloquent... not to mention pronouncing "morale" wrong - AI? 

 

They also illustrate a lot of the commentary with photos and clips that have nothing to do with Strombecker or toy manufacturing. 

 

Seems the end was a bit more complicated too, with a sale to Canada, etc. 

 

Don 

[Racer36]

It was interesting to see a photo of Desi Arnaz Sr. behind a desk during the video. Who knew he was a slot car exec?

[MSwiss]

What an odd series of pics in the video.

 

I'm pretty sure the stack of Testors cars are probably from the late Mark Mattei.

 

I rode by the Strombecker factory almost every day on the bus for four years when I was in high school.

 

The building came right up to the sidewalk on Pulaski.

 

Don is probably correct there was a lot of AI involved in this video.

 

This one, about Revell, shows a factory with same vibe.

 

What also is odd is that Revell is pronounced incorrectly throughout the video except at the 2:56 mark, where they explain the origin of the name.

 

https://youtu.be/AWL...oJEk1kYrt0dCp1r

 

[Bill Breck]

What an odd series of pics in the video.

 

I'm pretty sure the stack of Testors cars are probably from the late Mark Mattei.

 

I rode by the Strombecker factory almost every day on the bus for four years when I was in high school.

 

The building came right up to the sidewalk on Pulaski.

 

Don is probably correct there was a lot of AI involved in this video.

 

This one, about Revell, shows a factory with same vibe.

 

What also is odd is that Revell is pronounced incorrectly throughout the video except at the 2:56 mark, where they explain the origin of the name.

 

https://youtu.be/AWL...oJEk1kYrt0dCp1r

 

Screenshot_20260520_154953_YouTube.jpg

 

I watch a few British based plastic model builders channels on Youtube. They typically pronounce Revell the "incorrect" way rather than as explained in the origin. But then again they also pronounce decals as "deckuls". And don't even get me started on how they pronounce "aluminum" and "composite". 

[Bill Seitz]

The Brits actually use a different spelling for the light metal we in the US know as aluminum. They use aluminium - see the extra "i". There's an on-going argument that Americans mis-spell and mis-pronounce the name of that metal.

 

There's a brief history of Strombecker elsewhere on Slotblog that more or less compares to a history article I saw in at least 2 other places. Strombecker manufactured other toys quite successfully both before and after its relatively short period making slot cars, so when the 60's fad collapsed, they simply ditched slot cars for their other profitable toys. The company persisted until the founder/CEO died in 2002 and Strombecker had merged with Tootsie-Toy. The family sold the business after the death, and the new owner promptly drove the company into bankruptcy. Any suggestion that slot cars killed Strombecker seems to be false.

[MSwiss]

I remember that other history of Strombecker thread. I was surprised I couldn't easily find it with a search.

 

Like you said, it seems as if this new You Tube video is about a different company.

 

IIRC, Strombecker went on to sell cheap impulse toy items you would see hanging near the cash register of grocery stores.

 

I seem to remember they may of went on to sell woodburning kits(or possibly I'm thinking of Eldon).

 

That video is so annoying with all the non connected content like a recent shot of Andrea Noviello of NSR.

 

Also, the comment that one of the tasks of the workforce was snapping together track pieces. Maybe occasionally for QC, but obviously not otherwise.

 

Also, the one about  being able to purchase a raceset for the price of a family meal.

 

Maybe, if it was a huge family like my wife's, but still, probably not.

[blue&orange]

Ditto to all the comments about irrelevant pics, like Corgi and Matchbox cars and Brio trains.  And since the video puts the center of the crisis on the fact that Sears cancelled its yearly order, maybe it would have been more interesting to do some research and find out why.  Oh yes, and that pic of Desi at his desk at the Strombecker offices -- love it!

 

That said, I spent many high school years in my friend's family room up the street where he had a monster Strombecker 1/32 layout.  We ran a fleet of Strombecker, Monogram and Revell cars on it, including a 24-hour run with a Revell Ferrari GTO.

 

So just for nostalgia's sake I bought a little Strombecker lot on eBay last week.  Took two nights and a tube of E6000 to glue all the rails back down.  Plugged it in -- runs like a champ.  60 years young!

[Paul Menkens]

I've been watching a lot of these AI generated "history" videos lately, and every one seems to have the same probs, misspronunciations and irrelevant pictures among others more so the ones about steam locomotives that just flat out don't know what they're talking about., these videos also repeat themselves a lot. Judging from these I think it's gonna be a while before AI takes over the world.