[JasonB]

I've always thought the manufacturers who are specifically aiming at the younger market could do more to set the imagination rolling.

Dave's point about setting the racing in an environment seems obvious to me, and probably to anyone who has added scenery to their track. It really does add so much. It surprises me that nobody has ever really taken on the idea that Airfix used in their Monte Carlo Rally set.

Obviously with that set they included some simple printed card to recreate mountains and create elevations. But in a modern set they could make simple flat Gotham City buildings for a Batman set, for instance. Or San Francisco buildings for a Bullitt set. Or famous James Bond scenes for a 007 set. Or the streets of Milan, or maybe mountains for an Italian Job set. Or Le Mans buildings for an LMP set, or crowd scenes and pits for a general racing set. You get the idea, just simple, cheap, printed card, to go around the boundary of the track, or to create elevation, like the Monte Carlo set.

Personally, I think that anything that reduces our hobby to just a racing experience, without encouraging the imagination, misses the point that human beings, young or old, are both competitive, and imaginative.