Why do some manufacturers take up to nine months from the time they announce a new locomotive to the time they release it? As someone who craves immediate gratification when I see something that I want, it really makes me crazy. There are two reasons that immediately come to mind.
The company does not want you buying another competitors product hoping that you will wait for their’s to be released.
They are being paid by my girlfriend to sadistically torment me.
I think when they announce a new product, they show the first to be made or prototype. When the product arrives, they have full stock of the product for distributing to retailers. I hope this helped.
9 months seems to be a reasonable time span between announcement and actual availability.
I remember the good old days, when new products where announced during the Nuremberg Toy Fair in February, with shipments being made in time for the Christmas business. Something you could count on.
Dapol in the UK announced an O gauge “Terrier”, a diminutive 0-6-0T loco, in mid of 2012, with deliveries to be expected for April 2013. Shipment has been postponed to Summer of 2014…
9 months is the appropriate time to “give birth” to their baby!!!
NOW, lets see IF they Actually DELIVER in 9 months! Many have promised production and have waited and waited and even cancelled out on production!
One reason: is to create demand to create a “Sell out” phenomena when the product is actually released. Not only do they want GOOD sales, they want FULL SELL OUTS. They don’t want products sitting in warehouses. Warehouse sitting products do NOT mean incoming Revenue!
Which brings up teh second: the "new way " of doing things…JIT or “Just In Time” manufacturing…they manufacture only what is needed and deliver it/then/they/them “just in time” to fulfill demand.
Anymore almost nothing, at least in the hobby as far as locos seems to go, is “mass produced” anymore. Bachamann is one who is the few who do seem to mass produce and have locos sitting ready for sale…
I suspect the “manufacturer” (really an importer of products made in China) may mean the product will be available in nine months IF enough people pre-order it. Otherwise they might wait until they have enough orders to do a run of the product.
But nine months isn’t too bad, if it really works out that way. I’ve seen things go for 3-4 years before finally being cancelled.
Yes ho modern modeler the wait for the BLI light pacific was, or in your case is, a long one I also ordered back in the stone age but I did receive the #1065, Reading a couple months ago. i do like the loco though.
Back in the old days, products were generally not announced until about a month or two before they would be available - but of course they did not come from China, and the manufacturer had every intention to “stock shelves” not just sell out one batch as quick as possible.
But times change…
Today, only nine months seems rather good. As for the OP’s “problem”, there is professional help for that.
To lessen the manufacturer’s risk that they are going to produce something with no substantial demand, or going to produce too many of those somethings that sit on their shelves, produce no revenue, and inhibit their ability to roll out other models that do produce revenue.
Immediate gratification and this hobby are not particularly compatible concepts. I’m not sure they ever really have been, since even when Athearn BB models were stacked on the hobby shop’s shelves awaiting eager buyers, there were still a lot of kits to build, details to add, etc.
Back “in the old days” Irv Athearn was noted for secrecy about upcoming releases, but then he was producing everything in California so he had a lot of control over the process. He wouldn’t make a formal announcement until the items were about ready to ship from the warehouse. There used to be an “urban legend” that a visitor saw a test shot of a loco shell and blabbed, so Athearn cancelled the project. Now most models are made in China. The manufacturer has to pay up front to get anything produced, so they have to generate excitement and pre-sales by early announcements. Unfortunately the manufacturer now has little control over the production process. Remember the infamous factory closure that left Athearn with most of the RTR line for over a year? The manufacturer tries to make their deadline, but things only go as fast as the few toy factories in China allow.
Early announcements have also been used as a “market test”. BLI announced a beautiful series of Union Pacific 4-12-2s in HO. They were listed in the catalogs along with photos and specs. To date there are NO 4-12-2s from BLI. The stories range from factory troubles (although the PRR stuff keeps flowing in) to the story that BLI was discouraged by the number of reservations and pulled the plug on the project.
Early release notices can also be used to grab market share. For years many of us have requested a new-tool U25C in H-O, now there are two competing models announced for late 2013-early 2014. Each manufacturer is trying to gin up excitement for their particular run of these units.
So, YES, nine months or more is far from unusual these days.
