Finish Line
Man, i'm striking out. haha. Still need to find a finish line but I only know of two playsets with one in them, the v-drop playset and snake vs mongoose. Problem is, Snake vs Mongoose is $100 on Amazon and the 2 lane v-drop playset is out of stock now. :/ I was planning on waiting until after christmas to get the playset cause I knew i'd get another gift card (which I did) but now i'm sort of regretting it!
I looked on google and it seems I can still get the set for $40 on some random shady site, but thats $40 just for a finish line which is kinda eehh....
My only other option is this weird playset I found on Amazon but it has almost no information on it and i've never heard of it. I really don't know if I can take the finish line off of it or not... http://www.amazon.com/Wheels-Rumblers-S ... 8&sr=1-810
Any ideas? I have $35 of amazon gift cards at the moment so i'd much prefer to buy there.
Snake vs Mongoose is $100
I have the Snake Mongoose set and the finish line is almost total garbage (Well the starting line has two separate buttons. One for each lane. That kinda sucks too) . Everything else is pretty cool though.
I've been doing research on finish lines myself. Trying to figure out the least expensive/acurate way to go.
-I'm guessing a "break beam sensor" is what is needed at the end of the track, but all my searching of the internet has not led me to something "easy" in my search for the homemade finish line.
-Also as far as current Hot Wheels sets, there is that "Super 6-Lane Raceway" , I don't know anything about it, but it looks like a slightly more advance finish line on that thing. Those sets are going for around $40/50 post Christmas clearance. Hard to tell if it could be adapted to just 2 lanes though.
I still have some finishlines ready to go.
There are two and four lave versions as well as LED indicators and timed LCD scoreboards.
These are complete electronic kits. ** all of the electronics are completely assembled. You'll have to build a housing to attach the components to your track. Prices and options available by email. I don't want to turn Bryan's board into a swap meet, lol
I agree...when I did my finish line shopping $30 was my price point too. I'm lucky I found the V-Drop set when it still had a finish line and not a jump. And when it comes to finish lines it seems you're going to pay $50+ at which point you're almost buying a new track set.
I wish someone (hint, hint Mattel) would put out a < $30 good mechanical finish line only that attaches easily to my existing track. Even though playsets are already within that $30 price range, many don't have decent finish lines (if any at all) and even then, people looking for finishers feel like they're paying for stuff they don't need which, despite prices, can mean more in decision making.
One of these days someone will figure it out and will sell them for $25 online all day long. I wish The Judge people would make a mechanical variety rather than just focusing on electronic.
Mine start at $50
Face it, with the electronics involved you're not touching one for $30. There are some good kits out there but you have to be willing to put in the labor to build it, or pay the price to have one built. This is a very small corner of the world we live in, if you sold $25 finish lines you'd run out of customers real quick.
The electronic finish lines are way more accurate and with some of the races being as close as they are, you really need the accuracy.
I don't like the mechanical finish lines. The cars take a beating in the catch box as it is, they don't need another impact along the line. Especially with the open wheel cars.
I know the electronics take some time and effort...hence I haven't built one yet, and I know that makes them more expensive to build for resellers. I'm not trying to put down the cost of the fancy finish lines, I'm just saying I wish there was a lower end option. It's like you have to go big or go home.
If you just buy (or have) a bunch of orange track and want a finish line, there's no good options out there. The electronic lines are a kind of high barrier for entry into simple racing. The Judge lines are top quality and do the job well, not knockin those products at all, but if I just went to Home Depot and bought some boards, bought some track and want something to tell me a winner, I'm kind of out of luck.
And in terms of building your own, electronics just add another layer of complexity. If someone could engineer a mechanical finish line that is built with springs and wood that you can get a the hardware store, people could have some fun designing and building without the intimidation of soldering, programming and wiring.
There's always a market for middle of the road stuff. We can't all drive BMWs but most people don't want a Pinto either.
Brian,I'm working on a design for a build your own mechanical gate.
Need to do some hardware shopping but i 'think' it will be fairly simple.
Plus my friend has a maker-bot so he can make plastic parts for me if needed.
Weee. As long as this is reasonably priced/reasonably easy to make i'll be your best friend forever!
I'm not saying the mechanical stuff is shit, I'm just not a fan of the designs due to the fact you have another impact on the car. If there was a weighted plate in the track of maybe even a little feather trigger, I'd be a lot less opposed to using one.
And seriously, 50 bucks for a fully functioning finish line with accessories is a hell of a deal. My current finish line ( a Judge) was almost $400. Definitely stay away from the Judge finish lines though. The support sucks. if anything goes wrong, you'll be dealing with it on your own. I highly recommend Fast Track finish lines. They even took the time to get my judge running right. All of my finish lines are micro wizard components which is the company that makes the Fast Track finish lines.
I'm good on a starting gate. Mine is pretty good. Perhaps someone else will be interested though.
I might be putting the $10 giftcard towards the V-Drop playset and just getting that. I don't really have a whole lot of time to build a house for the electronics that Jason has... nor do I really have the expertise in building things. haha.