Trains On Film press release

[M. Matthews]

https://uk.hornby.com/community/blog-and-news/news/press-release-trains-film

Well that answers a few questions. Whoops!

[AndyMac1707817969]

All that work does not seem to have gone to waste a new R30323 Lion Train Pack is on its way I see.

Due autumn I see but just artwork for the box, no images of the contents, I guess some alterations are required before we get to see that.

[Sultan]

Much egg on face joy

[Going Spare]

Now packaged (R30232) depicting 'Lion' as it appeared at the 1930 Centenary and accompanied by R40371 coach/carriage pack.

[ellocoloco]

The Hornby 1930s pack looks a much better selection than one based on a film few people under 60 will have heard of let alone seen. Also gets much better use from the carriage moldings. It looks like it will also be available before Christmas, but won't be on my list.

[Bulleidboy]

This subject (problem?) had been running on another forum since the sets were announced - so it's not hot news. Hornby have done the honourable thing in pulling the plug. What would be news - and news we will probably never know the answer to, was who gave the go ahead to produce the sets in the first instance. It's water under the bridge now, so lets move on.

[AndyMac1707817969]

Wonder will they do Tiger at some point as well as Lion

[wairoalbany]

I don't think Hornby had much of a choice but to pull the plug. Rightly so. I hope Hornby will stop shooting themselves in the foot regards PR.

[threelink]

It seems a shame that the various parties were not able to reach a mutually beneficial arrangement but I would think that there would be a decent market for the various items without film branding - I for one would love to have a Lion. Perhaps Hornby would consider other early prototypes. An 1830s model is something that I have had on my mental back burner for a long time.

Trade names often appeared on toy trains right from the early days - one only has to think of the colourful tin plate oil tank wagons produced by Hornby. Was a royalty paid to the owners of the trade names or were they happy to accept the free advertising, I wonder?

[Going Spare]

Hornby are pushing ahead with a train pack containing Lion in 1930 condition with 3 replica coaches (R30232) plus an add-on coach pack of 3 further coaches (R40371) although they still attribute them to era 1 rather than era 3, due in the Autumn.

[ColinB]

Hornby didn't do the honorable thing, they were forced to withdraw it. When it was first announced many of us thought that is a very questionable decision seeing as another company will have paid a substantial amount for the rights to make it. It is a bit like me starting to make "Star Wars" figurines, Disney would be down on me like a ton of bricks. The whole marketing department of Hornby seems to need to go on a few courses about dealing with your customers and outlets. The stories I have heard in the last week of how they are treating they own tier 1 Retailers makes you wonder if they are serious about selling products. With the "Hush Hush" mess up we know that buying direct from them is very questionable, not only are they slow on dispatch but they didn't seem to understand the mechanism of secure packing. There are plenty of locos they could make, they could even make the ones they have promised in their catalogues for the last two years, so why waste resource on a project that virtually everyone knew was doomed.

[rpjallan]

I agree ColinB. I said so earlier in a shorter post but I wasn’t as tactful as you & it got deleted!

[ColinB]

Me tackful, thank you for the compliment people are always complaining that I am too aggressive. The thing people don't seem to realise is that I want Hornby to be around for a fair number of years more but their current activities makes me wonder if that will be the case. People say "oh no that is an institution" but so were BHS and Woolworths and sadly all the signs are there, exceptionally high prices (much, much higher than their competition), serious quality issues and treating their customers and Retailers badly. Oh and I forgot questionable marketing decisions. They need to get a grip.

[rpjallan]

Me tackful, thank you for the compliment people are always complaining that I am too aggressive. The thing people don't seem to realise is that I want Hornby to be around for a fair number of years more but their current activities makes me wonder if that will be the case. People say "oh no that is an institution" but so were BHS and Woolworths and sadly all the signs are there, exceptionally high prices (much, much higher than their competition), serious quality issues and treating their customers and Retailers badly. Oh and I forgot questionable marketing decisions. They need to get a grip.

 

 

Well you must be more tactful than me because your post hasn't been deleted! Yet! grin

I don't think Hornby's prices are the problem when you look at other brands. Value for money is another thing though. The biggest problems I see are, as you said, questionable marketing decisions and how they are treating their retailers & customers.

Look at Rails Of Sheffield for example. They haven't looked back since splitting with Hornby...

[ColinB]

I think their prices on the locos especially their modern image ones are at least 10% above what they should be. If you compare them with Dapol, then 20%. I just compare the Bachman class 90 with the Hornby class 91. The Bachmann has a metal controllable pantograph, the Hornby pantograph is plastic non controllable and more expensive and I gather it has coupling issues. Generally across the range Hornby are generally more expensive, the only thing they are substantially cheaper for, is rolling stock although on their coaches they are rapidly catching Bachmann although the new Bachmann coaches are generally wired for lights and DCC. I don't think Hornby's business model fitted in with Rails. Having dealt with Rails for very many years I think the concept of telling a Customer after two years that they can't have their pre ordered loco because they didn't get enough allocation is totally against the way they work, you could lose that customer for ever.

[rpjallan]

I don't think Hornby's business model fitted in with Rails. Having dealt with Rails for very many years I think the concept of telling a Customer after two years that they can't have their pre ordered loco because they didn't get enough allocation is totally against the way they work, you could lose that customer for ever.

 

 

That happened to me at Hattons. I initially blamed them but it didn’t take long to realise it was actually Hornby’s fault…

[ColinB]

Trouble is rpjallan not all customers are as understanding as you.

[Mikey1707822023]

I think their prices on the locos especially their modern image ones are at least 10% above what they should be. If you compare them with Dapol, then 20%. I just compare the Bachman class 90 with the Hornby class 91. The Bachmann has a metal controllable pantograph, the Hornby pantograph is plastic non controllable and more expensive and I gather it has coupling issues. Generally across the range Hornby are generally more expensive, the only thing they are substantially cheaper for, is rolling stock although on their coaches they are rapidly catching Bachmann although the new Bachmann coaches are generally wired for lights and DCC. I don't think Hornby's business model fitted in with Rails. Having dealt with Rails for very many years I think the concept of telling a Customer after two years that they can't have their pre ordered loco because they didn't get enough allocation is totally against the way they work, you could lose that customer for ever.

 

 

Or you could argue other manufacturers are just cheap. Ultimately the price is right if people buy them and since hornby returned to profit, something is going right.

[ColinB]

That profit they declared is for a year ago, nobody knows what the current status is, the report mentioned Covid lockdown. If the reports on RMWeb are any ware near true, then they have serious financial issues. Look around at the web mostly everyone is discounting them, often by more than 10%, that to me does not seem that the models are flying off the shelves. I think the other manufacturers make them to sell, hence the price. I don't know what Hornby's strategy is, I am not even sure they do.