While up in Toronto this week we met up with some friends at their office in the city to check the place out and then have dinner. Upon arrival we got a little tour and then had a little meeting, very standard stuff. Once that was over we packed up and started to head out to have dinner – right before we were to leave, our friend Jeremy said there was one other thing he wanted to show us. We then went into his business partner’s office and discovered the most awesome thing every imagined by man: a super huge and massively detailed RC race track that was so big that it had to be built in the room. The best part about it, the guy’s wife didn’t know he had it made (or of course, how much he spent on it) so we are bound to secrecy and can’t disclose his identity.
The level of detail on this thing is insane, not to mention the size of it. I’ve seen some people get crazy with collecting stuff and doing fun stuff in their office, but this obviously blows all of that away. Not to mention the fact that this toy racetrack is so amazing in cost and scale that he can’t even share the pure joy of it with his wife. This man is our hero.
That is super cool. My wife would have caught on somehow…All its missing is the a water feature :)
N
Haha that awesome… That’s my bosses office. Very cool stuff in there and a super awesome guy to work for.
My Dad used to have a train setup sort of like this in his home office. Reminded me of it the second I saw it.
that’s a super cool office… if you’re a seven-year-old.
You didn’t mention what line of business this is, or is that secret too?
Oh, and I’m no decoratrix, but that lighting is pathetic.
Eric is a very serious adult with very serious hobbies.
This post is a gag, right? Is this the office of a nursery school? You’re in one of the greatest, coolest cities on the planet and this is what you come up with?
Billie — feel free to point your browser into a “cooler” part of the internet and leave.
Michael — I guess eric and ray should hit the road too? But seriously, just funnin’. I’m a fan of your site or I obviously wouldn’t be reading it. And isn’t this what’s good about living in a democracy? That we can disagree and not be told to leave? I mean, sheesh, the guy dedicated a whack of his office to a glorified Hot Wheels track. Obviously not everyone is going to be a gushing fan of that, right? Have fun in T.O.
Excellent way to release a bit of work-related tension!
Jealous! And I have to say, if it were my husband, I’d not only “let” him have this, I’d be fighting with him to play with it.
All kidding aside…my money is on the yellow car
Very fucking cool Michael! Raced on a “basic” track 45 years ago; this one is awsome, and huge.
I feel I have to be the one to point this out. I think this post is an interesting commentary on the state of Americana, nostalgia, and high end fashion blogging in general.
They have created a landscape of “times gone by” that goes to an imaginary ideal.
So I have to ask; why are there no black people in that town? Even in Back to the Future in the restaurant the guy that swept the floors was black – he became mayor, so it’s not racist. That town has a burger place, couldn’t a black guy work there? Hey, or even be eating there!
and on that line of thinking…
how come black olives are in a can? and green olives are in a jar?
why are you koo-koo for coco puffs? like the ‘brown’ makes you crazy? frosted flakes are white and they’re GREAT! (?) !!!
why when the stock market crashed it was ‘black’ friday? come holiday time, everyone is dreaming of a WHITE christmas! (?) !!!
When I was a kid I had a Scalextrics race track that I adored !…
Wow, I didn’t realize that I missed it so much until now!…
It’s good for a Man to feel like a kid, sometimes!
Cheers
Wow – I love the detail. Everyone needs a hobby…and a support system.
Billie- Toronto is fine but it is not one of the “greatest, coolest cities on the planet” by a long stretch. And secretive office electric slot racetracks are of greater interest to many readers than details of a business trip to grey Toronto in November.
Jeff must be from Calgary
Great collection of prints, too.
Michael: Wow, some of these posters are really blind to the radness! I love the office racetrack. I used to “play with toy trains” when I was a kid, but the train stuff they have now, much like the racetrack in your post is way beyond being a simple toy. Claiming it’s a toy is like saying the office golf outing is “just a game”. People are so uptight these days. Why not get some of the office people out of their cubicles for some unstructured time… take the pressure of the day to day off! Isn’t that what it’s about?
I don’t know what the big deal is. You can put together that very same set-up for less cash than the iMac in the corner.
Geez Jeff…I dont know where you live but I live in chinatown Toronto…been all over the world….came back here and I would gush on but whats the point trolly…..@Michael…really you should look me up and come for a visit at Himel Brothers headquarters easy enough you have the email…@racetracks….well when I was a kid my dad would blow of steam from performing all night shifts delivering babies and surgeries by bringing home cast material from the hospital. We built an entire room size railroad with mountains and lakes and bridges together. I would watch him put trestle bridges together and I would build wooden box cars and age the paint. It is an amazing thing when you are in a high stress environment to try and get back to something. I owned all those Le Mans and can am cars and track too…sizzlers where the other best thing…if you dont know you didnt have em
Himel
Himel Bros
Might just be me, but to be “best ever” would require a wet bar somewhere. Maybe I just can’t see it
Don’t get me wrong however, I’d LOVE an electric car set like this
@allen Youre issue with this is the same that many people have with modern art.
The response to art questioners applies to you as well.
You can do that, but did you? Intent and application is everything in life.
This office looks really familiar to me. I can’t place it, but I have been in a very very similar office. The person I met with on a consulting job wanted to let a race decide the fees. If he won of course we would settle on his price, and if I won he would accept my price. Needless to say I lost the damn race. Came around a turn to quick and wiped out.
Omg! This is my dream office :)
Wow, that set-up is crazy. Thanks for the detailed pics.
It looks like I have found my inspiration for an epic 2012 project. I love the inclusion of Steve Mcqueen’s Le Mans Porsche.
Rothaus Beer!
Every man should play on the side without his wife knowing!
Sometimes, just stuff the negative opinions. Art, like most things, is in the eye of the beholder.
If your cultured enough, you would have recognized that his tastes are represented, he is not doing this for you. If I had been in that office, it would have been a nice way to engage in conversation without having to dig for a topic. The race track is a nice relaxing way to blow off some of the business day pressures, we all have those outs, this gentlemen chose an out that adds to the office rather then distracts.
Wow. I was just telling a friend about the setup my dad and I had in our basement when I was growing up. Too bad he has to hide it from his wife, she’s missing out.
LOVE it!!! One of my fav places in Brooklyn is an old slot car racing place (one of the last in the country)..
Check it out here:
Not bad for an office, but if you really want to see something creative, and have a little fun at work? Check out Wexley School for Girls, no its not an all girls school, its an ad agency. Responsible for the “wake up and smell the bacon” campaign of serving fresh cooked bacon to amazon’s employees to lure them to the Xbox 360 team…
Your desk is either on the golf course, a 9 hole putt-putt course (and i mean on the course), in the chinese “sweat shop” surrounded by plastic dead chickens and classic sewing machines, or you can have meetings in the “white room” (where even the baby grand is completely white), if your good with music work in the airstreem recording studio, or if your really good you get one of the managers offices (one an old time italian meat shop, the other a life guards watch post, the whole thing is on stilts).
If your in seattle checkin out Blackbird, stop down the hill at 2218 5th Ave, Seattle, WA 98121 and ask for a tour.
Michael you should definitely check it out.
Not to be pedantic but, it’s not an RC track. It’s a slot-car track. An awesome one.
wow, someone released his inner child there