I just purchased some Athearn Mini Metals trucks as accessories for my up and coming N scale layout. The name Mini Metals gave me the impression that they are die cast metall all the way around. Well, I found out that they are not all die cast as much as the title makes one believe. They are predominantly plastic with maybe a small portion being die cast metal. The look and quality is quite nice, but they are mostly plastic like all the other 1/160 vehicles, nice try Athearn, you got my purchase because of the title, but I will not buy them as enthusiastically in the future. fatalxsunrider43
Aren't the CMW cars called "Mini Metals"? Is it those by CMW? Or are they Athearn name? The CMW cars and trucks are very nice, and do have a metal body, but the chassis, interior and other parts are plastic.
haha! The Athearn trucks are very nice. I have a bunch myself. The Green Leaf Towing has a suspicious looking "Green Leaf" on the truck door!
Athearn's vehichles say nothing about Metal. The Classic Metal Works cars, were metal, but they have found that they can get better detail out of plastic. Most of the new N scale releases will be plastic. It's just that they found plastic is a better medium to work in. I don't expect my N scale vehichles to stand up to my 5 year old playing with them so metal construction is not a high priority, fine detail is.
Yeah, your all probably right, I bought them on e-bay out of the packages, so this is a case of seller calling them the wrong thing, thanks guys ! fatalxsunrider43
You can't always trust the list on epray. They like to group Bachmann EZtrak in the Z scale section. Anything with a Z in it. Some sellers don't know anything about the product. they just want it sold. Caveat Emptor. I hope you didn't pay too much to find out the hard way. Sometimes epray depends on bidders too eager to spend $$ & not ask questions.
Yes, I didnt know anything about them either, oh well, they do look nice, I guess they can stay. fatalxsunrider43
I CHECKED THE AUCTION TITLE, HE CALLS THEM MINI METALS, HERE IS A PIC, WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK ? fatalxsunrider43
Those do look like CMW mini metals.. Look on the bottom of them, there will be an "CMW" on the bottom somewhere.. On the trucks, much of them are plastic. The box and trailers are mostly plastic. The bodies on the cabs should be cast metal though.. None the less, they are nice models, and can be sort of costly retale. I have LOTS of CMW mini metals, because I jsut like them, even though they cost more than they should IMHO..
Those are Classic Metal Works "Mini-Metals". As I said before, they are trending toward more plastic so that they can get better detail. Normally they come packaged in pairs. I have the Kroger truck/trailer hanging on the wall in front of me right now. Retail was $19.00 for a pair of them. The box trucks are in the $12-13 a pair range, retail.
Funny... when I saw the title I was expecting there had been a merger between the two companies... CMW (Classic Metal Works) has done some really nice vehicles over the past 7 years. They were originally metal bodies... but over the past 4 years they have switched to mostly plastic body with metal chassis. The Athearn vehicles are beauties too... but not as good a 'bang-for-the-buck' as the CMW models which come in pairs. Athearns fire trucks are nice... would like to see some early 1950's versions of fire equipment too. I wonder if Athearn will ever get into the automobile model market? Since CMW and Woodland Scenics has pretty much controlled that segment of the market... it may be doubtful. They are both competing in the bus manufacturing field now... Athearns Flxible Visicoach versus the CMW GMC TD3610. They have a third competitor in Wheel Works Mack C41 bus. I'm waiting for one of these companies to do the PD4102/4103 classic "Trailways and Greyhound" Intercity buses. It's great to be able to say that these models are even available... 10 yrs ago we were looking at crude resin cast kits and European or Japanese vehicles.
