Please see the copy of the announcement below that we made on this
subject last month.
October 16, 2009
Greetings,
Effective immediately, we here at Athearn have made the difficult
decision to discontinue the production of our Blue Box line of kits.
There were several factors that contributed to this extremely
challenging decision however, the primary issue revolved around
affordability and ensuring that our Blue Box kit pricing remain aligned
with what the market can bear. Unfortunately, due to increased
manufacturing and labor costs it has been determined that we are no
longer able to continue offering kits at competitive price points as
compared to our already assembled products.
For over 50 years the Athearn Blue Box kits have been sold worldwide,
bringing happiness, joy and excitement to thousands of model railroad
enthusiasts. Your passion for these products has allowed us to thrive
and grow into the industry leader you still support today, and for that
we are eternally grateful. Moving forward this will allow us to dedicate
more resources to new and exciting projects in our Ready To Roll,
Genesis and Roundhouse lines for another 50 years, or more.
We will continue to support all service and warranty needs on Blue Box
kits from our headquarters in Long Beach, California. You can find our
contact information here.
The Folks at Athearn
Sincerely,
Athearn Trains
A sign of the times, I hope this isn’t a sign of how the company is doing.
Because the cost of labour in China is almost nothing (compared to any Western country.) So for maybe a dollar more, they can assemble and package the kit, and when all is said and done, it will retail for a few dollars more than the kit.
To be honest I’m not sad to see Athearn drop its Blue Box line, even though thats what got me started in the hobby. There are far better kits out there that are far superior to the BB kits. There are lots of factory painted Proto, Intermountain, etc kits and even Athearn Genesis undecorated kits available to keep people happy. Athearn still sells undecorated loco’s and rolling stock that need to be assembled and painted in the RTR boxes so I don’t see what the big deal is.
Athearn Blue Box (and some of us remember colors other than blue) as well as the similar Model Die Casting line, occupied a unique niche in the 1950s and 1960s. Really low cost ($1.79 for most kits, and some were lower) with quality that even then was not deemed to be tops, compared to other plastic kits of the time such as Kurtz Kraft but I think it would be fair to say the quality was disproportionately high compared to the cost. When you were a kid who wanted more trains, the Athearn series was almost perfectly positioned.
To my mind the Blue Box kit price had risen to the point where now it seemed the balance was tilted away – fair prices but not really bargains anymore. Sounds like Athearn sensed this was well. While there are other similar construction method kit lines out there – Bowser, Accurail – I don’t think anyone is offering that blend of quality and low price for beginners and youth.
Maybe the great unknown here is this: if sheer volume could help keep Blue Box prices low, to what extent did terminating the relationship with Walthers doom the Blue Box line? That is my hunch.
I think the issue may be that some of the kits being talked about are more expensive—the BB kits were cheaper—hence allowing those that do not have the $$$ flow to at least get a foot in the door. I seen some of those BB kits and while they are bare bones in terms of the look they are good fodder for kitbashing. Note I am using present tense here as it is still out there–
BTW–the kits that are frequently mentioned as being undecorated are not always available. As far as the packaging of what some are saying are essentially KITS in RTR boxes—if you are not able to see this–keeping in mind that the customer may not be ’ in the know’ so to speak–you are essentially confusing the market. Unless the packaging for the kit form is out of print then why not relabel those RTR as kit then?
ACH–maybe it’s like the word “Discontinue”–this now means --“maybe we’ll make some more—later”.
I’ve had no problem picking up undecorated kits at my LHS, Ebay and train shows. Everything from tankers to different types of box cars and gondolas. I even have 5 Bombardier passenger cars that are waiting to get built. Look around and you will find them. If the average Joe Blow can’t tell the difference between a undecorated car and a finished car by looking through the window of the box then I think he is in the wrong hobby, lol. Even if Joe wasn’t in the hobby he can tell its an unfinished car. Besides they are very clearly marked as UNDECORATED on the side of the box along with the model number and a description of whats inside.
You make many good points in you post, but based on my years working in hobby shops the move by Athearn/Horizon away from Walthers and other distributors did not hurt them at all, in fact it was just the oposite.
Walthers had given Athearn the short stick in marketing for decades once they bought TrainsMinature and developed their own line of shake the box kits. And Walthers wholesale pricing to dealers is known to be the highest in the industry. Long before Horizon, large dealers where buying their Athearn direct and even small shops like I worked in bought little Athearn from Walthers. Other regional distributors had just as much Athearn inventory, better service, lower cost or free shipping, and better pricing.
While Walthers has allways put on a big face to the consumer as the “one source”, fact is their position as a distributor has declined steadily since the eighties, directly in proportion to growth of their own imported and house branded products.
By going with the single point distribution Athearn/Horizon actually lowered wholesale prices to ALL sizes of retail outlets, and streamlined their costs. Which likely explains why they are still some of the highest value for the dollar products out there. Today a small shop can buy Athearn at a bigger discount than anything that same shop buys from Walthers.
As for the Blue Box (yes I remember yellow boxes too) line, customers seem to want RTR or better detail or both. There has been a shift in the hobby and, I must admit, I buy lots of Athearn Ready to Roll. The paint jobs are better, the quality the same, the price not much more. I still build and kitbash lots of stuff but now I spend my kit money on more advanced kits (Branchline, Proto, Intermountain, etc.
Sad news, indeed! I have many BB kits, weighted, weathered and new wheelsets. Nice rolling stock.
Of course, I realize they are not Westerfield kits, even after all the extra attention. But at the price of a Westerfield kit, plus trucks and couplers, no matter how gorgeous they are when finished, I wouldn’t have 100+ freight cars without all of those Athearn Blue Box and Roundhouse kits I built back in the beginning!