Received the latest Walthers flyer (I don’t get the full printed catalogue) and looked through it. Lo and behold, there it sat, staring back at me. Walthers Metro Power & Light kit, IN N SCALE!! This is one kit I have gourged upon, wishing for it in this very scale to no avail, until now.
Is this the proof modelers needed that manufacturers are listening to us? At the least N scale? Hopefully Walthers keeps this up, there are a few more kits I would like, even if they don’t fit what I’m modeling.
I think manufacturers have been listening to modelers for a long time, it’s just that they can’t actually act on all of the wishes and comments, just some of them.
My hunch is that Walthers and others always listen – but listen more to what we modelers actually DO buy, not to what we merely say we’d like to see available.
True, but there also seems to be this trend of pre-ordering and limited editions that some do not like. I don’t always have the means of doing this so miss out on a lot of things I would have liked to have.
I do also understand it takes a lot to get a new thing going, especially something like model structure kits that need engineering, tooling, injection dies. They maybe listening but at the same time if they start working on a new kit Monday it could be several years before us modelers would see an announcement.
“Limited edition” is what it’s always been. Only in the past, they’d make 10,000 boxcars with the same road number and they’d sit on the shelf several years before being sold. Now they order 2,000, call it a limited edition and sell them in a few months. They turn the money around and order the next run of that with a different # – if a success in sales – or order something else up. let’s face it, there’s lot more selection to choose from and no way to own one of everything anyway. Get 'em while you can.
I suspect kits being rescaled to N from HO originals are ones that proved popular in HO and will appeal to the N crowd for reasons a lot like yours. The biggest problem with N is it’s smaller market share. It likely takes a pretty good seller to get the same return on a model in N as in HO.
I think this notion of pre ordering so you don’t miss out is a myth instilled in us by manufacturers. This money becomes tied up for God only knows how long which can be used for other things in life. I have NEVER pre-ordered and alway got what I wanted when it came out. Also, “Limited Edition”? Heh. What constitutes a limited edition? 1000? 5000? 10000? I’m even suspicious of a “limited run”.
I have “pre-ordered” from several sellers, quite frequently from Factory Direct Trains and Overland Models in particular, and have never had to pay more than a penny (FDT) to secure my order.
In several cases, the “street price” had increased while waiting for these items to be available and I was “locked-in” at the price that was announced at the time of the pre-order.
So, I am not particularly a fan of the preorder marketing scheme it has saved me some money and it would appear that it is here to stay. Stale inventory is an economic disaster!
It’s not. They’re talking about getting it first hand, not on the secondary market, when they say “preorder or miss out.” Pre-ordering is huge in other industries too. I remember 10 years ago pre-ordering Halo 2 because virtually every copy of that that hit the stores on launch day was spoken for in a pre-order.
It also isn’t “tied up.” If you’re going to spend $100 on an object in November, that $100 is gone either way. Spent is spent.
You need a better class of vendor if your demands payment up front. That’s certainly the exception. It’s the importer’s money that’s tied up. They simply want to be sure they have most of what they bring in spoken for. They also don’t want, as I explained in my earlier comment, to be sitting on warehouses full of product that won’t be sold for several years, tying up their money.
Lucky for you SOMEONE preordered. Perhaps your shop does that for you and you’re not even aware of it. The owner knows his customers, knows he has to preorder to get many things, and knows if he has it you’ll buy it. But if he didn’t preorder, you’d be out of luck.
Or you just got lucky. It’s true that many importers bring in extra product to cover damaged or warranty issues and sometimes to serve those taking their time to decide. That is, by reports, happening less and less as margins get shaved thinner.
Any run is limited when production stops. Do you really think Athearn had a production line making all those Ontario Northland 40’ boxcars year around? Nope, they made a bunch, then sold them for a year or two before they made another “limited run.” They just didn’t mention it was a limited run back then, because you’d have plenty of opportunity to buy it.
Haha, well two things have come up that make this thread ironic and me look like a bit of a dumb dumb. The printed flyer didn’t say it, but when I checked on Walthers website (for structure dimensions) the Metro Power kit is actually listed as advanced reservation only right now, till the 28th. The other thing, the part that makes me look like a dumb dumb, is the main building is the same as the kraft building from Walthers Superior Paper Co. kit. Only difference being a single remote smoke stack instead of two stacks coming off the lowest roof, and then of course some roof details connecting the building with the scrubber. So really Walthers only needed to make a new roof panel for the lowest roof, which I gather was either filling in a couple holes or removing a couple of stubs to get the stacks in the right spot.
None the less, I still plan to get the kit. I’m not real sure what to do yet, as I was highly thinking of building the current Red Oak layout, and also my three favorite industires to model take up a lot of space (coal fired electric power plant, paper mill, larger grain elevator).
I did see the donut shop but I didn’t care for it at first. Then I ran across it today again and now am thinking if the big donut on top is left out it would make a really nice 50’s style drive-in. There are a couple in the city down the highway from where I grew up. One has only been there a few decades or so, but the other has been there forever. My dad, aunts, and uncles remembered going there as a little kids way back when, which would have been early 60’s.
I also had a thought for a pickling factory, but more of a modern setting. Something like Walthers HO warehouses (Washington Salvage, Lakeville modern warehouse, Bud’s trucking) would be nice. Also wouldn’t mind seeing Columbia Feed Mill and their Boomtown USA series kits in N. I’m not up to the level of scratch building yet, and honestly like a small building only a couple of inches big in
“Are The Manufacturers Finally Listening To Us Modelers”?
The first tenant of being a successful manufacturer is giving the customer what he wants! So, yes, the manufacturers have always been listening to what we have been asking for. What you’ve been asking for must have been voiced by many as it makes sense to produce, when there is demand for a product.
I don’t like this trend either. I wonder how many people interested in the hobby back out when all they see the prices of some things. I know many of these 50 dollar cars I see are superdetailed, but I would rather pay half the price and have a “regular” detailed model. There is a reason I only have one Genesis locomotive, and I only got that because it was a really good sale price (like, 25% off).
This thread started out ok and now it has turned into the usual drag about prices and preordering. Figures!
When Athearn posted the announcement about RTR SD60s, it said that they were doing CN, CP and CSX “by request”. This shows that if you communicate what you want to have, you may get it! (note that those are popular names and I am sure that helped)
And the topic started as a N Scale product announcement and then its “regardless of scale” which has nothing to do the topic subject since we are talking N Scale.
A lot of the N Scale models was asked for and some took years to get…Truth be told a lot of e-mail letters was sent to Exact Rail requesting a N Scale PS waffle side boxcar and it was finally release.
And there is the typical person posting about everyone else complaining and not actually adding anything to the conversation. Figures!
Brakie I think they had something going on facebook. I don’t recall sending them an email, but maybe it was some kind of like sign up list like a petition. As for daydreamer says, it’s not hard to get something popular. I bought the TRAINS regular issue and special issue about the Norfolk Southern heratige locomotives and new right away modelers would see all of them in the popular scales.
And it still does come down to price. If Kato and FVM sold those NS heratige units for a dollar I would have all 20, but they don’t, so I have none. I do plan on buying some, but as I just said they’re not a couple dollars, so most likely I will only get the ones I like the most, which of course in reality will end up only being one or two locomotives. Just as a side note however the units I would really like are Conrail, Penn Central, Pennsylvania, NYC, and original Norfolk Southern. Well maybe Southern unit too. And of course a regular NS unit, but honestly I would rather have an SD