We just got word that Athearn has reduced the price on their new - and very impressive, based on a quick look at the sample that just arrived - Challenger to $359.98. We hope to have a complete story up later this afternoon.
Have a great weekend,
Terry
This is what Athearn said in their e-mail newsletter:
"4-6-6-4 Challengers
We have GREAT news on a couple of issues relating to the 4-6-6-4
Challenger.
First, they are due here early next week, and should be in stores before
the end of October.
Second, we are REDUCING the retail price of these great behemoths! We
have received information that another maker of Challengers is again
leaving the HO marketplace, and will be liquidating their remaining
Challengers. We want to make certain that our faithful dealers and
consumers don’t get fooled by a large price differential. We want you
to select your Challenger on the basis of quality and service backed by
a company that’s committed to HO-scale products and has been for over 60
years.
The Athearn Genesis Challenger is a superior unit, featuring
- Superior detail
- Superior painting and lettering
- Superior tractive effort
- Superior multi-feature sound
- Superior quality
- Superior value
The MSRP has been reduced to
$359.98
This is an INCREDIBLE price, and is an excellent opportunity for you to
get one of these popular locomotives.
Quantities for the first production run are limited, so if you want one
of these remarkable locomotives please contact your hobby dealer
immediately!"
Bob Boudreau
Gee! I wonder who the other company is? Leaving H O Again? AWW![;)][;)].
Phil
I’ll bet it’s Rivarossi that’s exiting. Hornby’s offereing to aquire Lima was approved, so Rivarossi’s dead…
Bring me up to speed.
I didn’t know Rivarossi was producing any Challengers?
Maybe it’s Lionel?
Go onto the Walther’s website and you’ll see that the Rivarossi Challengers in 4 versions are all sold out
Aww–not even on the market yet and we’re getting a price reduction? Gee, maybe if they continue dropping the price, I can afford one just to kitbash it into something else. Maybe a Z-6? Certainly not an L-105, that’s Baldwin. Oh well, I’ll just have to wait and salivate.
I think they are referring to Lionel, as leaving the ho market. [%-)] Regardless, as this is excellant news for a substantial price reduction, on a good quality loco with sound. Hopefully BLI and others will have to take a long hard look at their own pricing.
Just got an email from Internet Trains. They will be selling the Athern Genesis Challenger for $269.00 for a short time. Suppose to be in next week.
REX
A price reduction in a new locomotive?? [:O] Who else hopes this becomes a trend??!
Actually I’m glad to hear Athearn is finally getting these done. Their web site hasn’t had any updates on the Challenger for a long time.
Rivarossi or Lionel exiting the HO market? That’s almost worthy of a topic in itself.
Well, maybe not…
Does anybody know the warranty terms on this Athearn ?Lifelike spells their’s out on the Heritage series and Walthers covers the new FEF-3s for 12 months.
I got too inpatient. Just bot two P2K Berks. Was seriously thinking about giving the Spectrum HW a second chance but now I think I will park that idea on the back burner.
Has anyone read that Lionel is dumping their challengers on the market? I looked at the Lionel web page and they are still listing the challenger as normal with no hint of any changes.
I was under the impression from the Athearn price reduction memo that the other maker must be Lionel and they are going to dump their engines onto the market with a major price reduction. I purchased one of the Lionel engines when they first came out, and if they are cheap, I would probably purchase a second one for parts. My first one runs good after twenty hours or so of breaking in time on the rollers, but the gearboxes are already in question from the run time.
I hope Athearn offers parts also as their tender shell is much better than Lionels and it could be used to replace the metal shell on the Lionel engine. This would reduce the tender weight to the point the Lionel engine might actually pull much better.
This could be a great opportunity for us and both engines will be a bargain. Seems funny to me that Athearn could lower the price and still make money. Could it be that all of the prices are really extremely overpriced? The factories in China pay at labor 25 cents an hour labor to the workers so the engines probably cost about 100 dollars without the electronics and maybe 160 ready to go.
Just a thought.
I’ve got to take advantage of the $270.00 from InternetTrains! 3985 is as good as mine!!! BWAHAHAHA!!![:D][;)]
[zzz][zzz][zzz][zzz][zzz][zzz][zzz][zzz][zzz][zzz][zzz] It’s not a Western Maryland Challenger, so why should I care?[}:)][%-)][(-D][(-D][(-D]
Great. Big, expensive steam. For that price, I could buy a 3 atlas guilford gp40s.
And a new kato MBTA F40PH (when they come out)
" I looked at the Lionel web page and they are still listing the challenger as normal with no hint of any changes."
If Lionel should decide to liquidate their remaining challenger inventory, they will likely offer all of their remaining stock to a select few of their larger vendors at a greatly reduced cost. They won’t indicate the change on their website, either, probably. If it is indeed Lionel leaving the HO market, look for “blowout” prices on their Challenger from Trainworld, Charles Ro, and Justrains.
On a side note, Lionel’s new CEO reported today in a visit to the Train Station in New Jersey that they will be remaining in business, and have no plans to sell out to anyone else.
$270.00 for InternetTrains, $250.00 for FirstHobby. Waiting for Trainworld’s adjusted price but they said “On Backorder”. Will try again today /tomorrow.
I could not help but think maybe the bubble is starting to burst in the high end HO Market. It seems everyone is trying to be the Mercedes or Lexus of the HO market, when what the hobby needs is more Chevys and Honda’s to use a car comparison. With Marklin/trix having trouble(they are laying of 400 workers in Germany), Riverossi bankrupt, Athearn having to lower prices and Lionel exiting the HO market again, something is not healthy, the areas in the USA with the largest model train markets are the ones loosing the most manufacturing jobs, Pennsylvania , Illinois, Ohio, etc. It has to be having some type of an impact on hobbyshops and model train sales, disposable income is a thing of the past for many folks. Just trying to survive in PA…
This makes one wonder - if Athearn was originally going to offer their Challenger for what - $599 or was it $699 - they would have obviously made a profit on them. Now at $359, does this mean they will be making $240 (or $340) LESS profit when selling them? Was the price inflated that much? Was the engine originally priced to compete with Lionel (or whoever) with no regard to an actual fair value price? Their actions sure make me wonder what the actual cost would be out of the Chinese factory!
It doesn’t really make any difference to me as I have no need for a Challenger. I wonder how many modellers will buy one at this new price whether they can honestly say it is justified in their modeling scene?
Bob Boudreau
That makes two of us. Except mine will probably be from FirstHobby or 1stplacehobbies.com.