BTW Model Power announced they are coming out with an ‘improved’ version of the Mantua 4-6-2, not sure if it’s actually out yet - they announced it quite a while ago.
BTW2 Mantua stuff wasn’t really “low end” when introduced. Actually for much of the time it was around, the Mantua stuff was considered pretty good. It was much better than the cheapo plastic Life-Like engines of the 70’s-80’s for example. Hey, John Allen had a Mantua 2-8-2 on his layout!!. For a long time it was either save up and buy brass (which ran poorly), or buy a Mantua or Bowser kit and build it & modify it for your prototype.
"Quality Since 1926… Model Power has recently acquired Mantua and all of its HO scale tooling. Over the next few years, we plan to re-introduce many previously released Mantua HO scale products as well as some never before seen. Detailing improvements will be made where necessary, DCC capability will be introduced, prices will be reduced by nearly 50% (from the original prices), but the quality and performance that earned Mantua its reputation will be maintained."
I wonder if they’re in the process of doing this? It will be interesting to see how it plays out. Mantua was one of the first entries in the HO market, and I still remember their locos from pictures in the old Atlas and Kalmbach how-to books. My LHS owner said that a lot of people still like them either as starting points for more detail, or as locos you can handle without breaking off fragile parts.