Not to offend anyone here at MR - but $8.95 for this issue? Isn’t that a little overkill?
If there were NO ads…then I could see it, but at $8.95 it better be spectacular.
Chessie,
The price of $8.95 isnt bad at all for what they have in there. I also get scale auto’s annual and it was $12.95!!! Not much more then insperational pictures to boot. There are a couple write ups but I was very dissapointed.
Over the years of getting scale auto I think I am going to be calling it quites. They went form a monthly mag to a bi-monthly and the issues keep getting thiner. But the price to run the mag keeps increaseing!?!?!?! I know it keeps increaseing because people are losing intrest in the mag and people arnt car builders for life anymore( Has something to do with the fact that afforidiable kits are from the same molds that were devolped in the 60’s) And the good kits are around $30 or more.
Now It is intresting I know that, MRR, Fine Scale Modeling, And Scale Auto are all produced by Kalmbach. An they all have decent articles but I prefer MRR to them all. To those that say this hobby is dying… Look At scale cars, The mags are thinner and the ammount of “new” kits is almost non exsitant. I will gladly pay $8.95 for a quality annual as well as I will by signing up with a 3 year subscription to MRR, after the first of the year. Any way just my 2 cents,
Curt
Solution? Buy it at Walmart - I paid $8.05 for mine. Other palces oftenhave discounts off the cover price as well. Not the big chain bookstores though.
It’s FULL of color pictures, AND it’s larger than standard magazine format. That all costs. One VERY good thing - FINALLY they are not afraid to show a view from further away that shows the overall layout and aisles - especially on the multi-deck layouts so you can SEE the spacing between decks. Close-up “is it real or a model” pictures are fine, but it’s VERY helpful to have overall views. ANd - OMG, did I see UNFINISHED parts of layouts? MORE! MORE!
–Randy
To me, GMR and MRP are worth the 8.95 per issue. If you preorder, subscribe, then it is 6.95/7.95
Ch
Personally, I think it is a bargain. The layout articles are my favorite part of the monthly MR and this issue has 11 layouts featured. The great thing about a free market economy is that if you don’t think something is worth the asking price, don’t buy it.
Haven’t you guys figured it out yet - MR simply saves the best for an annual issue - then charges you extra to get it. How about doing a better job in the 12 issues I subscribe to - unfinished photos, aisle shots, etc. MR is hands-down the best for printing quality - but their quality in the magazine has been dropping for the past several years and I find it frustrating that to get a good issue, once a year - or twice if you count MRP, you have to pay extra for it. How many of you have found some really awesome layouts on the web and wondered why they aren’t featured in MR? As far as preordering the issue to save a buck - I’d rather see it before I buy it.
My Point:
Model Railroader is a good magazine, but it could be a great magazine, and better if all 12 months were like GMR and MRP. But stop trying to gouge everyone with the extra issues.
Actually I have seen some layouts in GMR that was shown in some monthly issues…Why duplicate the layout articles? Also notice 2 of MR’s “Golden Boys” had articles on their layouts…Still its a nice issue.
While the price of gas, vehicle insurance and license plate fees have almost doubled in the past few years, some folks who pay $35,000+ for a 4-wheel drive truck to go off-road on weekends would find an $8.95 magazine to be an entertainment bargain.
My only complaint is the larger width. The more recent GMRs don’t fit into standard storage containers with other magazines.
I picked it up over the weekend at the LHS. It was the last copy they had, so obviously it was a good seller.
One gripe i have with it was the quality of the typeset and some of the pictures. the type seemed to fade toward the lower half of the lettering as if the printer was running out of ink on some of the pages (i know nothing of the printing process, so there may be some other reason). Also, some of the photos showed tell-tale signs of being a lower-resolution digital image that was too large. now, these bad photos tended to also be on the page with the bad typeset, so both could have been caused by the same poor printing.
Dean
Yeah, that’s my biggest gripe. GMR is nice enough, and I can choose to buy it or not. But the magazine itself just gets thinner and more repetitive. I’m tired of seeing the same few modelers over and over again.
Okay, they’re great modelers, we get it… But after separate articles on hi-tech scratching a Denny’s, Desert Scenery, Mountain Scenery and more, I don’t need YET ANOTHER Pelle Seborg article. No offense to Pelle, who does great work, but enough already. Are we trying to justify the cost of airfare to Scandinavia by getting 17 articles out of one visit or what?
When a new issue comes in, I breeze through it. I find nothing that interesting as often than not and throw it on the ‘to be filed’ pile. Then I go grab my 70’s, 80’s & early 90’s back issues from which I still always get something from a reread.
/rant
There is a way to increase the diversity of layouts seen in MR, submit an article on yours. What, you don’t have one? Start building!
Try reading the “letters” sections of those old issues. I’ll bet you can find letters that say, “Oh, not another Malcom Furlow article”, or “We get it, John Allen is a great modeler, but enough already!”
The more things change, the more they stay the same! [(-D]
-George
Or, if you ordered it in advance from Kalmbach you could have gotten it for $1.00 off news stand price. That’s what I did!
I like the issue, it is full of great ideas, and being that I model HO it was awesome seeing so many HO layouts. I liked the N and O scale ones too!
The only way I would agree that MR specifically raids the MR submissions for GMR, MRP or their other special issues is if I knew for a fact they actually took submissions for MR and funneled them off to these other publications. Let me tell you the facts as I know them.
I’ve had several things published in these special issues. I have submitted and had things published in MR, and I have been a past editor of the Layout Design SIG’s publications, so some of the MR editorial staff (Koester, Sperandeo, Thompson) know me.
In each and every case that I was published in a special issue, I was approached by MR and asked to write a piece for their special issue. Never did they ever take a submission I sent to MR and “siphon” it off to one of their special issues.
It’s easy to make accusations without any facts. Here I have given you my experience and cited facts. In my experience, rather than weakening the supply of information, these special extra publications are improving it, since MR deliberately solicits known contributors to produce extra material for these special publications.
If you think the quality of submission is going down in MR, rather than just bellyache about it, get with it and write a nice article about what you are doing. That’s how it works you know. MR primarily prints what it gets – they can’t print it if they don’t get it. [swg]
Call me a “brown-noser” if you want, but that’s only because I try to “put my money where my mouth is” and produce something useful to my fellow modelers. Because I’m published that suddenly makes me “one of them” … ?
No, you’re not one of them. You’re like a bridge between the two groups. You’re a modeler who writes. That’s not a skill we all have.
I appreciate the fact that you are a modeler first and a writer second. I also find it comforting to know that the special issue has articles that were written specifically for it.
As to the issue of $8.95 being too much, I don’t think it is. The special issue magazine has a more refined target then the average MR mag and it’s printed on a higher quality paper. The content of the articles are targeted to speak to a certain detailed aspect of modeling in many cases and the rest of the mag is loaded up with layout features, and yes, some ad’s. Those ad’s are what keeps the price down to only $8.95 and not $25.00 I’m betting.
Will I get my copy? You bet!
I second what Philip said! [#ditto]
Joe, being able to put down on paper let alone document and convey in the written word takes a special talent. I admire what you do both on and off the layout. While a picture paints a 1000 words, supporting documentation in the process is really the “devil” in the details. And you have mastered them both!
When the rubber hits the road and you can get published that is real success!
Thanks, George. I’m well into the process of building my… Oh, I think this will be 9th layout… Probably better to say my third ‘major’ layout. Maybe I will submit it when I’m complete enough to have something to show. I probably can/should submit an item on a specific task though. Things like “how to build control panels for DCC” and so forth are too few and far between.
On your second point, I actually do read the letters, I do find them very entertaining and often enlightening. The thing is I don’t recall seeing the sort you suggest above, though. Certainly not frequently enough to make an impression. Though I think that makes sense since there really was a greater diversity of layouts and modelers in those issues.
But you’re quite right that “the more things change…” often applies. Letters about how high costs are ruining the hobby abound. What amuses me most are the many letters decrying the “mail order discounters” for killing the LHS. Amazing how 20-odd years later the intervening advent of the Internet changed the favorite bogeyman blamed for that…
Thanks guys for the vote of confidence … however, I would say if you can write posts to this forum that we can read and understand then you have the level of talent necessary to write an article. The editors at MR aren’t there just to warm the chair – they add the spit and polish to your prose to make it publication level.
As to GMR 2007, I was greatly thrilled with the content and thought it’s by far the best GMR ever! The operational focus on layouts is a stroke of genius, and far more meaty and informative than yet another “here’s my layout, I build the benchwork out of wood and the scenery out of plaster …” [swg]
And I agree the almost $9 price is reasonable giving what other hobbies charge for their materials. Without ads, it would certainly be a $25 publication for the page count. Sheesh, in the computer business, I get technology how-to newsletters that are a dozen pages a month (yeh, okay, no ads), and they cost me over $10 an issue.
Now that’s outrageous.
Joe, have you submitted your layout to MR lately?
I’ve enjoyed the snippets of it dating back to your mushroom layouts from issues I got when I was a kid and had no money for MRR’ing. (now I have very little time! Arggghhh!)
In any case, I keep expecting your layout to show up in one of these.
Are you waiting until more of the scenery is complete, etc.?
I have to say, it really appears you don’t just slap some scenery around to just have it done. It appears sections of your layout are either, A) Plywood Pacific, or B) Super realistic scenery that looks like a photograph!
I admire this apprach, as opposed to many of the ludricrous-sized layouts that have scenery almost as an afterthought, but with the operations being very serious and well thought out.
I was very happy to see our (this forum’s) very own Cliff Powers’ layout in this issue. Joe, are you on-deck yet?
I don’t have a problem with the $9. If it keeps me entertained for 2 hours, it is the same price as a movie. But it will hang around for longer than 2 hours and I don’t have to pay $4.50 for a drink while I’m reading it.
I recently reupped my subscription to MRR, but that was a tougher decision. Far too often recently I have been underwhelmed by the content. Maybe it’s me, maybe it’s the magazine, I don’t know. I guess the decision to renew was partly based on the fact that I have not yet found any good, railroad-oriented hobby shops in our new area and I want something to help keep me focused on the hobby.
Unfortunately, submitting material to the magazine is an option not many see as viable. Just being able to spend an hour or two reading the magazine competes with other obligations and activities, some a higher priority than the hobby. Not to mention the time spent on their model creations. Yet, the folks who are squawking are either customers or potential customers of MRR. If they get the feeling that their concerns are not welcome unless they can take a hands-on role and they feel like that is not an option, they are going to become ex-customers or non-customers.
Actually i got it for $7.95 with a coupon from MRR mag. but even at $8.95 it’s a steal…It has always been a great addition to the MR Mag. family. …How much do you pay for a hamburger, fries, and a shake at MickeyD’s?..About the same huh?..so where’s the beef Jack?..Now look what you’ve done…I’m hungry!..chuck