What happened to the multi story larger building that were offered by Bachman a few years back?
Seems like they have disappeared from the market. Did they not sell? Seemed like great kitbashing possibilities were offered. Wish I had bought more.
Some shops had difficulty selling them. One place near me, had to offer a “buy one get one” sale just to get rid of them. Maybe they were too expensive, or too big for some people. Too bad, since they looked like nice kits.
Those kits were by Heljan of Denmark and appear from time to time in the Heljan line. Check Walthers for availability
are you talking about these bachman buildings
http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g107/jpmorrison/train010.jpg
from time to time you can find them on ebay the only reason i bought them they were 50% off
jeff
Jeff-
Those appear to be the ones. Seemed like a great buy at the time. Was amazed they proved unpopular. I hadn’t noticed they were offered by any of the European manufacturers.
Holiday Wishes
i hade my son look at the box and it said bachman spectrum
jeff
They certainly are beautiful. As Jsoderq mentions, these were built by Heljan and marketed under the Bachmann Spectrum line. I’ve noticed that quite a number of Spectrum buildings have shown up on Ebay over the last year.
Just my opinion, but I think part of the problem is that while they’re nice looking structures, some of the buildings are too large for the typical HO modeler’s layout. A single 5 story building on a layout definetly sticks out and realistically the scene would call for several multi-story businesses. In the end, the modeler would be shelling out quite a bit of money.
If one is patient it’s possible to get one at a pretty decent price on Ebay. I had one on my “watch list” for a week, a while back. I forgot to check it before the auction ended and discovered afterwards that it had gone for just $50!
They did not sell well.
Scale Model Supplies in St Paul MN still has some available, new at MSRP.
I used several of these “City Scene” structures for the high density urban portion of my layout. However, when these buildings were initially offered, they were priced way too high for the market ($60-$90). Likewise, they were too large for the small “towns” most hobbyists model. Either way, they did not sell and eventually there was a big fire sale on them. I got my office towers for $15-$20 a piece! After they first appear, about 5 years ago, I don’t believe they remained in the marketplace for much more than 18 months. They are still seen on eBay from time to time…often going today for near their original MSRP!
CNJ831
I was lucky that I bought 3 of these quite a few years ago when my current layout was just a dream in my head. I hadn’t even built the house I am living in now, but I knew when I did it would have a large open basement for my layout and it would have a large downtown area. My inspiration for this was the original South Manchester area of George Selios’ F&SM railroad with it’s many high rise buildings. He kitbashed most of his large structures and I wasn’t confident enough in my skills to do the same so I was happy to find these kits already designed as skyscrapers.
Many times over the years I have snapped up an item that I didn’t need right away but I was always afraid it would no longer be available when I did need it. Often this has resulted in kits sitting on the shelf never to be built but just as often, the item ended up being discontinued and I would not have been able to get it if I waited until I actually needed it. This has been the case not only with these Bachmann structures be many of Walthers large industrial buildings.
My guess is there is a very limited market for very large buildings. One has to be lucky enough to have the space to put these structures and that is probably a very small percentage of the modeling world. For a small to medium sized layout, these structures would be space hogs.
I’ve seen them fetch a very hefty price on Ebay.
I have a set myself, but got them at an old LHS that was going out of business.
paid about 17 dollars apiece, and have seen them go for as high as 50 to 75 dollars a piece on Ebay.
Sounds like the going rate on e-bay is not quite as high as the original MSRP. I forget what I paid for mine. I bought them at my LHS and they tend to discount about 10% from the MSRP.
Considering the detailing and overall quality, $60 is not unreasonable for these structures. At my local Hobbytown, some of these kits were going for $80+. If I had the space for a 20’ x 15’ layout I would have bought enough kits to create a 1960s mid-sized American east coast town scene.