Walthers purchases assets of Life-Like Products Toy and Hobby Division; Roco declares bankruptcy

[cgrivno]

Read the full stories in MR Express:
Walthers: http://www.trains.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/006/040zecdn.asp
Roco: http://www.trains.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/006/039felou.asp

[Anonymous]

Bit of a surprise - I'd read about the Roco business this morning but Walthers buying Lifelike? Could be interesting. I wonder if they'll integrate their loco and car ranges under the "Proto" name?

[TrainFreak409]

Walthers and Life Like, who'da thunk?

[SpaceMouse]

Whoa!

[Anonymous]

Well, it makes up for the loss of access Walthers used to have to Athearn and Model Die Casting. Once again they will be the distributors of a very popular line of equipment.

[tstage]

Had to check the calendar...Nope, it's not April 1st. Wow! Maybe the rubbing problem with the Walthers trucks and frames undereath their gondolas and cabooses will get fixed now. (Wouldn't that be nice. [:)]) Well, at least Horizon didn't purchase them.

Tom

[orsonroy]

I'm thinking that the purchase of LL by Walthers will ultimately be a good thing, with their cars and engines being more readily available. Time will tell...

[simon1966]

How much more available can they be? The products from LifeLike are already prominent in the Walthers catalog and the lower end trainsets are already at Walmart and Toys R us.

[BRAKIE]

Tom,I suspect Horizon might go after one of the bigger fish in the pond-not that LL is a minnow mind you..The only real question is who is next on the chopping block? Atlas or Kato USA?
I suspected Walthers would strike back by buying a manufacturer as that only made good business sense and I even stated that...I called it the streamlining of the hobby..
Hang on to your engineer hat as this is not the end of the buyouts.

[Anonymous]

Wow! Just like the Big Railroads alot of merging and buyouts are going on out there!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ebriley

Well, it makes up for the loss of access Walthers used to have to Athearn and Model Die Casting. Once again they will be the distributors of a very popular line of equipment.

[#ditto][#ditto][#ditto] I for one am VERY happy that Walthers did this.Now will see just how "great" Horizon is gonna be.[;)][^][:D]

[Anonymous]

I am hoping that the P2K line keeps its high standards.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by simon1966

How much more available can they be? The products from LifeLike are already prominent in the Walthers catalog and the lower end trainsets are already at Walmart and Toys R us.

Funny,since WHEN did these 2 stores EVER carry LifeLike? BOTH dont carry a [censored]thing for model railroaders!!

[RMax1]

Maybe there will be better availability of Proto 2000 Locos. Sometimes it is hard to get certain roads. Also a larger line of Proto 1000's would be nice.

RMax1

[BRAKIE]

Guys What does Horizon buyout of Athearn and MDC have to do with the buyout of LL by Walthers? Can't you guys stop being bias and attacking Horizon and look at the overall affects this means on the hobby?[V]

[IRONROOSTER]

I guess acquistion fever has finally come to model railroading. Walthers needed this to secure a low end line. I wonder if IHC or Bachmann is next?
Enjoy
Paul

[BRAKIE]

QUOTE: Originally posted by IRONROOSTER

I guess acquistion fever has finally come to model railroading. Walthers needed this to secure a low end line. I wonder if IHC or Bachmann is next?
Enjoy
Paul

Paul,I believe you and I are on the same track..IMHO all of these buyouts can't be good for the hobby in the long run..Sadly there is more to come..[:(]

[Anonymous]

Well, if it includes P2K and P1K, it was smart move for Walthers.

[davekelly]

Interesting to say the least. I wouldn't be surprised if Horizon's buyout of Athearn/RDC was a factor in Walthers making this determination. Walthers now has a pretty much complete line under its umbrella - structures, passenger cars, track and now a very well received line of engines and freight cars. Will this be good or bad for the hobby? Time will tell.

My magic 8 ball sees one of the distributors buying out a DCC manufacturer.

It was also interesting to read the short article about Roco. Will we see Roco moving their manufacturing to China or Korea as part of the reorganization?

An interesting time to be sure.

[scubaterry]

I'm thinking this is going to be a good thing for the Hobby however that is based on very little expierience/time in the hobby.
Terry

[randyaj]

Kinda reminds me of the farming equipment buyouts or the trucking industry. It hasn't turned out as well as the promises that it would, I suspect that this fever of buyouts won't be helpful in the end to us either. One or two megagiants are not what the hobby needs.
Just my two cents
Randy Johnson

[vsmith]

Look for Walthers catalog to get a little thicker....

Bummer about Roco...

[orsonroy]

QUOTE: Originally posted by IRONROOSTER

I guess acquistion fever has finally come to model railroading. Walthers needed this to secure a low end line. I wonder if IHC or Bachmann is next?
Enjoy
Paul

Bachmann's on the buying end, not the selling. They're possibly the largest toy train manufacturer in the world.

It sorta looks like we'll end up with five or so large manufacturers, and a host of cottage industries: Bachmann, Model Power, Horizon, Walthers, and Bowser (they've been buying out manufacturers for years now; Stewart is only the newest takeover. Haven't heard anyone complaining about them...)

I see Branchline and Accurail being gobbled up next.

[Anonymous]

I heard about Walthers buying Life-Like from friend.I didnt think he was right till I read the news.

[Ibflattop]

I just think Walthers got scared when Horizon bought out Athearn and MDC. They seen the time to move and they got it!! I will still buy from them. Kevin

[ndbprr]

Well I guess I am the curmudgeon in teh crowd becasue I see nothing good coming from this. I've never had trouble getting the P2K engines and cars I wanted but I sure have with Walthers testing the water and then claiming the runs were sold out and not available any more when they were never made. I also would love to see Walthers broken up becasue they control the distribution and availablity of too much of the hobby. Lastly guess what is going to happen to P2K pricing to pay for the company? Think Walthers will eat that? Ever try to get something a year or two old from Walthers? Dream on that availablity will increase. This is a black day.

[Darth Santa Fe]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cnwfan11

QUOTE: Originally posted by simon1966

How much more available can they be? The products from LifeLike are already prominent in the Walthers catalog and the lower end trainsets are already at Walmart and Toys R us.

Funny,since WHEN did these 2 stores EVER carry LifeLike? BOTH dont carry a [censored]thing for model railroaders!!

Toys-R-Us used to carry Life-Like toy trains here. That's where I got my Chessie GP38 and UP 0-4-0. They recently stopped carrying them. And now Hobby Lobby is carrying more trains then usual.[%-)]

[Anonymous]

I've noticed my local hobby shop with more trains as usual as well, I was thinking it was the summer ru***ho so I don't know, maybe they're getting prepared for Xmas a tad bit earlier this year. also "2 or 3 megacompanies controlling the market" is called an oligopoly(sp?) anyway sometimes it's a good thing( Compaq, Dell ect.) they compete with each other and since they basically have the same *** product the only place they can win customers is price and/or support so now you can get a 400$ with a 2 year warranty or even turn it in +$ in 3 years for a new computer. a bad oligopoly or in some cases monopoly would be power companies, and that's why they're controlled by the government. Now we go to the threats of an oligopoly: in an unregulater market(laiessez-faire) which means "hand's off" an oligopoly can very quickly become a monopoly because one company may develop something that blows their competition out of the water, and buy that company out( we've almost seen this in the video card industry a couple of times). A oligopoly is also much harder to enter into so it lowers the number of firms willing to enter a market(so no more, or very few new producers will come into the market) anywho common oligopolies would be cell phone companies, computer companies and "big-box stores"(like walmart). there is a short term benefit to the consumer in an oligopoly as the megacompanies try to compete with each other, but once they each have a big enough market share competition will cease and we'll all lose. to go back to a point we do not live in an unregulated market so the goverment would stop a monopoly from happening. Also, an Oligopoly does NOT mean there are only 2 or 4 or 5 companies in the market, it only means that 5 or less companies control the market and dictate what direction that market will go in. so basically what I'm saying is in the next couple of years you'll see an increase in quality and a lowering of price of products but it will not last long and the crap will hit the fan if this market truly becomes an oligopoly. Under our current market structure Oligopolies are completely legal and even embraced( people have this funny way of not looking at the longterm).

[IRONROOSTER]

QUOTE: Originally posted by orsonroy

QUOTE: Originally posted by IRONROOSTER

I guess acquistion fever has finally come to model railroading. Walthers needed this to secure a low end line. I wonder if IHC or Bachmann is next?
Enjoy
Paul

Bachmann's on the buying end, not the selling. They're possibly the largest toy train manufacturer in the world.

....

I don't disagree with that, but when acquistion fever starts running through an industry, who knows? I've seen some large companies get bought (or "merged"). If Walthers or someone else can get the financing....
Enjoy
Paul

[jrbernier]

I would not worry much about an Oligopoly in the model train market. This is such a low percentage of the leisure market that the government does not even care. The only part of this industry that the government cares about is if they are getting their fair share of the taxes!

Jim Bernier