That’s what my hobby shop dealer told me today. He’s a good guy and I hope he does well. Look like Mike Wolf means business!!!
Who is Jim Bunte?
Cbo,
I was thinking the same thing. If Calabrees went to MTH, it would be big news.
I think I’ll wait for confirmation from Jim Bunte himself or a reliable source before commenting :).
For those new to the hobby, Jim is a very creative and able guy who was an editor at CTT quite a few years ago, then moved on to work for Lionel in product development, and then moved back home to the West Coast for his family and better weather.
This is sad news. I was hoping Calabrese would hire him. We should sign a petition asking Lionel to offer Bunte more money than MTH. Lionel really rocked when he last worked there.
Mike should hire John Brady and Todd Wagner too.
Methinks your hobbyshop owner was having sport with you.
We’ll see…but for now I’m with Mr. Keller. Silly reason, I know, but if it were true, I would expect Tony La***o be crowing louder on the forums than a big ol’ banty rooster…
Stay tuned…
Methinks this is another case of Hans Zimmer/Joe Polska trying to stir up trouble.
I wouldn’t say that there is a bomb throwing intent here, but we regularly receive calls about the wildest, most unusual rumors, and this just may be another one. For example, I’ve been at CTT since 1996 and before every single York, we get guys “who know somebody” who tells us that Lionel has been sold (my favorite was that the owner of the Miami Dolphins bought it).
I’ll call MTH Monday and ask.
So I guess we’ll know the truth when Bob Keller makes his phone call.
From a common sense standpoint, having read the Inc. article on MTH and the lawsuit, and reading how MTH has lost all this money and how executive salaries have even been slashed, I say “Huh?”
Unless MTH has changed gears on tooling, Mike Wolf said in the famous ‘grey screen’ interview in CTT that all his tooling is made for longevity. MTH has introduced more new products than almost anyone in the past decade, so they already have quite a “reserve” of tooling to fall back on. With all the bad blood in the 3-rail community as well as the HO community over MTH’s recent actions, a little positve PR and goodwill might be more in order.
Of course I’m trying to see this from a view point of common sense. I’ve left out one distinct possibility… one that has in some part driven MTH since the very beginning… the age old reasons of spite and revenge.
Maybe it’s a good time for everyone in the business to give Gary Moreau’s book a good read through.
Charlie of Nassau Hobbies spoke with Mike Wolf today, and said this is false rumor.
A false rumor? I should of known. “My hobby shop dealer told me” stories almost always turn out to be fables.
Jim is a great guy! Just don’t put him in charge of the painting department. I still have two silver Commodore Vanderbilts that I’d like to trade for gray ones.
Nicely put, except I have one little nit to pick. Part of the justification for the draconian jury award is that Lionel knew it was going on, and enjoyed the benefits without doing anything about it.
As for cheapening the product line, that is indigenous in the present day economy. I don’t know where to lay the blame, but Havard Business School and Wharton are a couple of my candidates. They teach bean counting and fungible customer base. Several (lots) of years ago the MAFIA was making a fortune by buying up reputable businesses and cheapening the product line and reaping an obscene profit until the public got wise. Then they would abandon the business and move on to another profit center. I had four Michelin tires, of which three blew out inside of ten thousand miles. The dealer explained “they are not building them like they used to.” The problem in Toy Trains is that there is not a fungible customer base. I approach Lionel with a great deal of caution, having been once burned. I believe that they have learned about quality, but I am sure not sure.