Loved slot cars. Never got into trains, but spent hours setting up slot car tracks and racing friends. This shows the continuing power of media, though. Daisy BB guns have had strong sales ever since "A Christmas Story" came out. A Daisy spokesman said it was wonderful to have the movie because they had always tagged onto Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers, etc., but didn't feel comfortable linking with Rambo or Dirty Harry because they actually shot people and killed them in their movies. He said they just weren't comfortable associating with the realistic violence of those movies.
Very few toys are games come out now that don't have a tie in to a movie or TV show, except for some board games, etc. Harry Potter was a great link to trains. I'm surprised there haven't been some NASCAR links to slot racing. Actually, there may have been, and I just didn't know it.