For the past six months I have noticed the the BB Athearn 7 Round House kits are drying up at train shows, LHS, and Ebay is starting to show les of them. There are allot of used ones out there on ebay in the original kits unbuilt, but is it me or are the drying up?
I think production has been none since Horizon has taken over both Company’s, I could be wrong on the production factor. As I am seeing these fading away the price on them seems on the rise to.
I wonder how many the 2 company’s made over the years in kit form.
One of my hobby shops is FULL of them with a walkway featuring a rather complete line.
In fact I have 6 BB’s on Back order and one or two waiting for my next visit.
I buy these things and equipt them with 148’s and Metal wheels at a very competitive prices against thier RTR stock which is a little more expensive and require the same upgrades.
Last year I had a stack of frames, weights and doors delivered; enough to repair or replace for the next 10 years my small group of 40+ BB boxcars.
Hardly the sign of a dying line.
Now I do see them at the trainshow and expect to see alot of them again in April at the 819 shops…
The only issue I have with these is price. They routinely ask 10.00, 15.00, 20.00 etc for kits unbuilt. I just buy the ones I want cheaper at the hobby shop.
Finally but not last, China produces these kits now. All of them… hopefully. Thier factories must either be behind with all of these production orders yet unfilled. Some of the BB backorders are approaching thier first anniversary on new production kits.
Maybe that what I am seeing then, is delayed production. The 2 LHS I go to discounted them and got rid of all their stock of BB kits, and now are selling RTR in the Athearn line. I was not sure of this or what was going on with Horizon as far as production. Thanks for clearing that up.
Sometime last year Athearn issued a production schedule for Blue Box kits for 2007. It was posted here on the forum, but I can’t find it. If you look at www.athearn.com You can search their product range and there are dozens of BB kits still available. Freight car kits have MSRP’s in the $8 range. They are not making any more Round House brand kits under that name anymore. Any of the Roundhouse kits that continue in the product line are being sold as BB’s I believe.
Due to the current RTR market a lot of LHS are not stocking kits.However,the better on line shops still carry the kits.As far as Roundhouse kits they are currently being offered as RTR.
As a side note Athearn does show some MDC cars as kits on their web page.
Same, every year people cry about Athearn BB and MDC kits drying up but at the big Syracuse “junk show” er, train show, there are still quite a few to be seen. It must be a “selective” drying up.