Tekstvak: The History of Aurora AFX in Europe By Albert Driessen Former Managing Director of Aurora Products Europe Nijkerk, Holland Tekstvak: AURORA AFX AND IT LICENSEES A question frequently asked how did Aurora organize it sales outside the US and Canada. Almost all it’s international sales were organized from the Holland office after the closing of the Bexhill plant in the UK in 1974, games and hobby kits were terminated.    Shipments to all countries in Europe, coordinating the sales for the licensees outside Europe. Tax rulings for royalty income granted by Dutch government made it very attractive. New product introductions were shown each year at the Neurenberg toy show, which was our most important sales event for the year. In Holland we molded the principle track pieces (9’”curve, 9”and 15 inch straight) and the track supports. Assembly of the rail wire into the track was done by handicapped workshops, which were heavily subsidized by the government. The transformers were made by Garrard Engineering in the UK, in a later stage by John Moore in Ireland, as in Singapore they could not manufacture 220 volt European approved transformers. One licensee, Meccano in France made his own transformer Especially for the European countries outside EU (Scandinavian countries, Austria) we needed an over 50% EU contents to avoid import duties. We were even able to change the country of origin by doing little assembly of cars, a small label “’assembled in Holland “was put on the chassis.    Balance of the components was imported from our plant in Singapore. For the smaller countries distributors were handling the sales, for the larger countries licensees were selected. The distributors were all handling hobby related products, such as hobby kits, model die cast and trains. It was not possible to work with one strategy, because competition was different in many countries. In him US we had Tyco as our principle competitor, in Europe we had on the continent Carrera and Polistil, in the UK and Spain Scalextric was very strong in slot racing. TCR was strong all over Europe in slotless. Our hobby related distributors were very reluctant about slotless, we introduced slotless two years after the US introduction in 1981. Quality wise a good decision, marketing wise we have given the market to TCR and Carrera Servo. Both systems not performing very well either. Except from Italy we had a present in all European countries. For all countries instruction manuals and sales brochures were developed in their language. The countries in eastern Europe were covered by Mehano Technica, a Yugoslavian hobby company well known from it train sets that bought each year approx. 20 Million magnatraction cars to implement in their racing sets.  A problem with these shipments was, that they did not want “made in singapore” on the bottom of the chassis, so we removed it and put an assembled in Holland sticker on the bottom. FALLER AND AURORA  The Faller plant in Gutenbach I n 1973 Faller had a major problem with the quality of their home made cars and handcontrollers. A very high defective rate, for their sets over 40 %. Edwin Faller convinced his brother Herman that the cars had to be replaced by cars of a higher quality. Peter Scherzinger, our salesmanager and Richard Wadsworth proved them, that Aurora magnatraction cars together with Aurora handcontrollers should solve their problem. However two technical problems had to be resolved.  The blades did not work on Faller track and had to be replaced by metal guide-pins. Also the cars had to be suppressed (to avoid interferance) by the German technical authorities (VDE). Since that time all European magnatraction cars were suppressed and with metal guide pins. A commercial problem that had to be solved, Aurora was selling sets in Germany to hypermarkets under the Aurora name, which was not acceptable to the Faller Company. A solution was created that we continued to sell in Germany under the name “SPEEDLINE”, a brand name we owned and paying Faller a small commission. Faller used on all their sales the name “FALLER AMS” and paid Aurora a royalty. During the years we had an excellent cooperation with the Faller Company, resulting in various accessories in the Aurora line, i.e. lapcounter, containers, sign posts. We created a special Faller F one racing car. For the two speed cars a special handcontroller. Due to the limitations of their track system, we could not introduce Blazin brakes, we did turn these cars into super flamethrower cars. These super flametrowers have been sold in a very restricted way in Europe only. For the data race computer a special conversion track piece to go from AFX to Faller track has been designed.   For the two speed cars a special handcontroller. Due to the limitations of their track system, we could not introduce Blazin brakes, we did turn these cars into super flamethrower cars. These super flametrowers have been sold in a very restricted way in Europe only. For the data race computer a special conversion track piece to go from AFX to Faller track has been designed. Production continued through until the early 80’s, but they made their final appearance in the 1985 toy catalogue. The sets from the final years of production continued to use the unique Faller beige coloured track, but the Racing cars included in the sets were standard AFX items from the distribution agreement between Faller and Aurora. In 1984 just after the closing of Aurora Faller introduced a fire truck set with a truck from Tyco, however the Tyco truck did not fit with an Aurora car in the corners.Tyco and Aurora has never been a good fit. Visits to the Faller plant in Gutenbach high in the Black Forest are one of the great memories I have on my days with Aurora.  COMANSI AND AURORA   Comansi started as a licensee in 1981,handling the sales for Spain,a market that was for racing sets almost owned by Scalextrix.Comansi had a very strong distribution in as well hobbyshops and department stores(El Cortingles) A major problem for us was that we could not use the name Aurora,as the name was already registered as a tradename in Spain.The name on the packaging and catalogues was changed to Comansi AFX. Comansi manufactured various other products ,such as look-a-like playmobil dolls and american scenary forts. They needed very limited AFX component from our Singapore factory to assembly sets,only cars,handcontrollers and terminal track. Import licenses were needed to get these products into Spain and only available on a very limited basis. Balance of components were made by them. In 1984 after the bankrupcy of The Aurora Group Comansi purchased the complete inventory of Aurora Europe.This enabled them to continue much longer with the line then anybody else, however with an inventory that was not very balanced in terms of cars. In 1986 Tomy, the new owner of the Aurora AFX franchise, forced them to change the logo, which was changed in Comansi AFY. New sets they created are the oldtimers set, and a set layout in a foamtray, like the screechers sets. Our Argentinian licensee, Antex from Antonio Atamian, had a very close cooperation with Comansi.The common (spanish) language made it possible to share manuals and other printed material. TO BE CONTINUED