I was thinking maybe that HO racetrack of yours, looks like you could make some landscaping, maybe guard rails, etc with it. Pretty cool, looks like it is sort of a controlled hot glue gun!
It looks like they're right around $100 and $10 for a package of 25 plastic sticks in various colors. I see that Dick Blick carries them. I'll have to see if they've got any in stock the next time I go to Omaha. I'm not completely sold on getting one yet though. The examples of things that I've seen online that people have made are pretty crude. That doesn't mean that it isn't possible to do better. Laying a sheet of glass over a portrait and tracing it might make a cool artsy picture.