"Since all MDC/Roundhouse products became exclusively available through Horizon Hobby on June 14, retailers who have outstanding MDC/Roundhouse backorders with other distributors will need to have them transferred to Horizon." I wonder how this effects products do out this month. I know I preordered some NYC hoppers that were being released in June.
MDC hasn't produced an N Scale Kit in 4 years. There is no market for them. To prove that, all you have to do is read the posts on the various forums where people report they love buying them at $5 or less. Since they retail at $8 or $9 that $5 selling price is less than dealer cost. Smart dealers aren't going to sell at a loss for long. </font>[/QUOTE]Then let me rephrase: "Looks like Athearn just got into a low-cost line of decent freight cars in a big way." Feel free to draw a correlation between their low-cost "blue box" HO product line in terms of filling out their N scale product line. BTW - the Overton passenger cars I got in 2002 had to be assembled.
Having looked at what MDC did when they flipped kits to RTR in HO, I'm a bit concerned about the implications here. Cars that were really no different than the kits, except for being assembled, were MSRP stickered at $15+ vs. say $7 to $10 for the kit. I did not observe any increase in quality with these changes. To me, it just seemed like a decision to simply charge a percentage of the price of the premier rolling stock, i.e. if Kadee gets $30 for a top shelf boxcar certainly we can get $15 for ours. It's a trend that I don't like and I'm concerned about what this means for "entry-level" model railroaders. I don't follow MDC too closely as they don't produce much that fits my layout's time period; so I wasn't aware that they'd stopped producing kits that long ago. (Thanks, George C.) It did seem to me that they were already making the transition to RTR. I wonder how long the sentence "Looks like Athearn just got into a low-cost line of decent freight cars" will be true. Emphasis added to "low cost". William C, yes, you could be right there, sell some stock and raise some cash. Rats, there were a couple of items I was on the fence on, oh well, don't I already have too much accumulated (don't answer that!) At any rate, it looks to me like Horizon is planning to be a long term player. It's not unlike other businesses: own the content and the distribution channel. What/who could be next? I guess we will all find out.
For some of us it's how we hope to put food on the table and pay the mortgage. </font>[/QUOTE]Sorry, I was thinking this from a customer’s perspective. But I suppose this kind of thinking is part of what you took into account when you decided to enter this business as a way to pay your mortgage and put food on your table - right?
Some comments have been made on various forums regarding the new N scale Sieco 50' boxcars looking very much like one of the MDC models, some even said they thought MDC already produced the Sieco 50' boxcar. I have to agree that the MDC boxcars certainly do resemble the announced but not yet delivered Sieco's. I guess we know why now. If this is the case I am glad that I have just purchased a few to see what they look like. No problem with the MDC boxcar if it is the Sieco, but IMHO not worth the elevated price Athern is offering for perhaps the same product that MDC has sold since the mid 80's with no improvement in tooling, at that time these boxcars were going for about $3.85 RTR. Take Care all, ~ Mike
Some comments have been made on various forums regarding the new N scale Sieco 50' boxcars looking very much like one of the MDC models, some even said they thought MDC already produced the Sieco 50' boxcar. I have to agree that the MDC boxcars certainly do resemble the announced but not yet delivered Sieco's. I guess we know why now. If this is the case I am glad that I have just purchased a few to see what they look like. No problem with the MDC boxcar if it is the Sieco, but IMHO not worth the elevated price Athern is offering for perhaps the same product that MDC has sold since the mid 80's with no improvement in tooling, at that time these boxcars were going for about $3.85 RTR. Take Care all, ~ Mike
All I have to say: A kit already put together is worth less ($$$)to me The boxcars and shorty pasenger cars I have were kits. The 50' passenger car I bought were rtr. Its a pain in the butt to take em apart. Plus the windows had a very nice design printed on them. How do I pry them out and still be able to reuse? If there going to do RTR they need to use "trick" glue for us kit guys. I wish all mfgs sold everything as kits, even locomotives.
AMEN, BROTHER. While I have to agree with you wholeheartedly, we seem to be a distinct minority, on the verge of extinction, to boot, alas.
Athearn's Seico box car may look like some MDC products, but that's got to be because box cars tend to look alike anyway! MDC makes PS, FMC and BFF box cars, but I've never seen any mention of Seico's. The Athearn Seico will have photo-etched stirrups and scale profile brake wheels, so you can tell the difference right there. However, with Horizon's monopoly of distribution, price increases may be likely for both Athearn and MDC. But I bet kits disappear from the market.
Some of you see a problem with Horizon bulking up to match the market clout of Walthers, but I see it as a plus in that their will be competition in the hobby, which has to lower prices. I think Atlas and Kato will stay out of either camp, or in both, but could see LL, BMan, and others gobbled up in an effort to avoid the middle man in the supply chain. While some of you think that means they just keep more money, its possible that the cost savings will allow lower cost, marginal kits to remain on the market......In any event, if Horizon has some unpainted boxcar shells etc. from MDC, it would only cost them paint and packaging to offer them in some new (hopefully popular) road names to raise cash quickly. In any case, even the low end stuff will need to be upgraded. I doubt that plastic stirrups or other coarse tooling will sell at all in a few years, and the technology now exists to put finer details on the cars for the same price.
I am most scared. you see, MDC has been providing the bulk of the barrel for kitbashing Roling stock and such, for Modeling Ideas, I find that their 3-n-1 kits cannot be easily beaten. And they build really nicely, too. I don't care about prototype so much, as this is my railroad that Iam building and as such I will not be restricted by what some else did one their railroad, nevermind if that railroad is 1:1 or not. I will say that my purchasing power is very low right now, snce drinving my 63 Fairlane across three states...it was cheap, but I wasn't exactly Saving that well either...now I have a plan to pay my bills, so that is that. You could always order kitbashing parts from MDC at good prices.... And don;t forget MDC's Backdoor policy for unloading their letovers, amnd even their bad orders...I picked up a slew of 2-8-0s from them this last round(killed my hobby budget, but I will never see MDC RTR HO DCC ready (Crossed wires that must be resoldered) Factory built/painted 2-8-0s For 50.00 again in my LIFE!!!
An interesting nuance nobody commented on yet, is that Athearn seems to be the designated hub for model railroad acquisitions. In other words, Horizon Hobbies seems to be saying to Athearn, OK you guys know the model railroad market. We'll fold MRR acquisitions into Athearn and you guys make it work. In other words, at the time of the Athearn acquisition, most of thought that was the end of Athearn. Now it looks like that could have been the beginning of Athearn, with other competitors being folded into its umbrella. Just another speculative thought...
Think of manufacturing capacity and factories. The machine tools, if sufficiently modern, can move to Compton and bolster the existing factory while, if left in Nevada, will just consume money. Having two factories producing model railroad stuff just doesn't make sense. (I would have shipped the Athearn factory over to Nevada, however, to beat the Kalifornia taxes and regulations). I wonder what's going to happen to "The Critter?"
Sacramento Bruce noted: You could also speculate that they would be going overseas. Chris333 wrote: I just received my order of 12 IM reefer kits and got quizzical looks. Much easier to modify, upgrade or bash in kit form, IMO (what!!?). Thirdrail, didja hear about the dinosaur fossils they found recently? All found trapped in a lava flow while they were busy building kits. I go with the wait-and-see folks, but expect to do some waiting.
Its a sad day The end of an era? MDC roundhouse was unique in the way they delt direct with us through the web site, offering fantastic bargains on discontinued R-T-R and kits, they truly did offer a good quality product at a good price. My fear is that Horizon's control will stop the ability to deal direct, even though on the site they say dealing direct may be possible.... My thoughts go to the staff. Does anyone know what Horizon paid for Athern?? or MDC Roundhouse?? or have an idea of there value?? RIP MDC
I wouldn't see LL or Bachmann as a potential buyout target - both of these companies are very large. Altas on the other hand is a relatively small company. This is according to various industry reference books we have at work, Atlas is roughly a 15 million dollar company, while Bachmann and LL approach 100 million. Of course LL's parent company makes styrofoam products, and could spin off the model division.
