I just found out Walthers bought Athearn whole —is that where all this ready to run stuff is coming from? (Did this happen during my 10 year absence from the hobby?)
Is anyone else disappointed about that? I know the Genesis stuff but nothing will beat getting a basic athearn and kitbashing it to model your proto-type. Let me know if you think the same thing.
For the guys that don’t like to add details you have another option now, but they aren’t any less expensive (really what $10 in this hobby)
Fortuantly I will be going to a Greenberg show this weekend and if I see any Athearn I will probably buy them before they are all gone. (no of course not all of them)
The ready to run stuff is coming from Horizon, who I am pretty sure still owns Athearn. Though, if Athearn was bought by Walthers, i’d be one happy camper.
Some people can sure get their rumors wrong. Athearn and Model Die Casting were bought by Horizon Hobby of Champaign, Illinois, a Walthers competitor in the hobby distribution business, two years ago.
Walthers purchased the LifeLike Model Products line of LifeLike Industries, last year. No connection at all between Walthers and Athearn – in fact, Athearn and Model Die Casting products are no longer carried in the Walthers catalogs.
Horizon is an exclusive type of distributor and does not share its products with other distributors. They also cut out the non store front sellers, so the prices of MDC and Athearn have been higher overall than prior to their buyout of Athearn. I am not sure if this is the reason Walthers purchased Life Like, but it makes sense they would want to replace the lost sales from Athearn products and prevent Horizon from a monopoly of the RTR market.
Both distributors should cooperate and offer both lines of products so the products in the Walthers catalog is complete.
Dan,
You’ve just blown the lead article for MRR’s April’07 issue.
Of course where there’s smoke…a Senator in Washington was overheard saying to a colleague, “What’s next? First Dubai Ports World takes over U.S. ports, next it’ll be Athearn.” There you go-new rumor. Should this come to fruition check all gearboxes for sand. [:D]
thanks for clearing that up for me. and also for the hilarious comments (always welcome) i did see later on that Walthers bought Life Like (those prices went up too) but it was a local hobby shop dealer that told me Athearn was bought by Walthers. hey my railroad is a coalmining operation not a rumor mill.
A Rumor Mill, eh? Has anyone tried to model one of those? What kind of rail traffic would it generate? Maybe some Oscar Meyer reefers full of baloney coming in, and hoppers loaded with manure going out?
Horizon is a distributor. Retailers are free to set their own selling price. Horizon does ask for concessions from manufacturers and does pass the savings along to their retailers.
Horizon did cut out the guys who sell on eBay but not all “virtual” retailers. Internet Hobbies carries Athearn products. Horizon wants to make sure its dealers are in the hobby business as a business.
Why should Horizon cooperate so the Walthers catalog is complete? For that matter, when was the Walthers catalog ever complete? I work with a company that sells to both Horizon and Walthers and Walthers doesn’t carry our full line. I wouldn’t expect Walthers to list products they don’t carry just because they are available elsewhere.
It is true, the catalog was never complete as it was never possible to list everything that might be available, but it was fairly good overall. It is also true Walthers can only list the items they have in stock but Athearn had been a part of the catalog for many years giving us buyers a good way of checking stock numbers.
The web page for Athearn is not user friendly at least to me.