MTH markets. Lionel peddles.
John Armstropng
----- Original Message -----
From: Roy Inman
To: S-Scale
Sent: Friday, July 13, 2012 9:57 PM
Subject: Re: {S-Scale List} New Lionel + New MTH = Muddy Waters
At the end of the day, it’s all about marketing.
Recall that the Monkees were not even a group yet when they rose to extreme
popularity. When the band members were finally chosen, they had a ready-made
audience. All achieved with marketing. McDonald’s serves the worst fast food on
earth and yet it is the most successful food franchise found thereon. Marketing.
That is where MTH has a leg up on SHS-marketing, including many dealer
outlets and a huge advertising budget.
Lionel has been pretty much locked into the AF branding and until very
recently, pretty much locked into the Gilbert genre of toy trains because that
is where they perceived their market to be and they had the American Flyer
name. MTH has no such affiliation, so they are free to do scale, passenger
cars, hirail, auto carrier cars (John Degnan-remember our effort to persuade
SHS to produce some?), sets, structures, more accessories, all kinds of stuff
from entry level to top of the line equipment with the same kind of features
and detailing found in their Premier O, #1 gauge and HO offerings.
I am maybe being too optimistic, but I am expecting some terrific S stuff to
be produced by MTH in the coming years. Their entry into the S arena can only
help the scale.
Roy Inman
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: John Degnan <[email protected]>
Reply-To: S-Scale <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2012 19:25:53 -0400
To: S-Scale <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: {S-Scale List} New Lionel + New MTH = Muddy Waters
I agree with Earl... but let's keep one thing in mind - Lionel has had the
AF/Gilbert line for... how long, now? And still S scale remains in the back or
at the bottom of the hobby when it comes to popularity. What does this tell
us? What does it tell you? What it tells me, when you consider that Lionel
has not (until recently) had ANY interest in catering to the SCALE modeler, is
that the product they have been offering, a product designed in the early 20th
century, is not of interest to the new generation, therefore S scale has not
grown in popularity. Now, as narrow as you may think my thinking is... and
maybe it is, I grant you... the fact that the largest group supporting S scale
is well over 60 (or is it 70?) years of age proves my point.
So... I'm betting that IF MTH continues Don and company's commitment to
quality and simple AF-to-scale convertability, and increases the production of
existing models AND adds new models to the SHS line (both modern stuff and
older, never-done-in-S-before models), we will most likely see a rise in
popularity of S scale. Otherwise, as Lionel's continued production of AF-like
stuff has shown, it will remain stagnate. So, an ancient product being
produced a new, big name manufacturer is NOT going to make a difference... the
quality of the PRODUCT is where the difference has to be made... or, in this
case with MTH with the SHS line, the product has to at LEAST retain the
already-existing quality AND CONVERTABILITY to continue to thrive. It MUST
remain convertable to scale, or it will not help the scale grow.
My local model railroad club, the Coastal Rail Buffs, has quite a few younger
modelers under 20 years of age... the vast majority of which are 'realistic'
modelers, and the vast majority are 'modern' modelers.... CSX, NS, etc. Every
one of them install Kadee couplers on their models and replace the plastic
wheels with metal ones, etc... and a few even use Sergent Engineering couplers.
None of them, to my knowledge, even own any of the cheaper stuff that is
available from Bachmann, LifeLike and Model Power or any older stuff from Tyco
or AHM, etc. One little guy, Dillon, has nothing but Genesis and Proto 2000
models... and quite a few of them... more than me, in fact. These youngsters
are a sign of the times and an indicator (to the manufacturers) of what is
wanted by the majority of the newcomers into the hobby.
But I digress... and hang up my horse flogger for the day.
John Degnan
[email protected]
[email protected]
----- Original Message -----
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Sent: Friday, July 13, 2012 01:07 PM
Subject: Re: {S-Scale List} New Lionel + New MTH = Muddy Waters
Regardless of what one thinks about it, it is going to be extremely
interesting. I am rather fascinated by what is going on even though I am not
a likely candidate for buying much new stuff, especially the modern stuff.
Sure would like E6s or E7s from MTH or AM.
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