I have to agree with Paul on this one, I won't miss them. Never bought any of their stuff. Scenery materials always seemed too expensive, building never even looked like good kit bash fodder.
No offense to our friends in other countries, but the loss of Faller, Marklin and others making European prototype products has no effect on my hobby.
Marklin/Trix is another company that never saw a penny from me. PA1's with pilots that swivel like a Lionel toy? I think not on my layout. Coupler pockets that are too low for correct North American prototype, again I think not, especially at the prices they asked.
I don't care how much "smaller" the world may be getting, European model railroading and North American model railroading are just that, worlds apart.
I like trains of all types, BUT, like all of us, time, space and money are limiting factors. Even if my time space and money seems like a lot to some others. I have a narrow set of goals which I intend to fullfill. To do that I limit my purchases to items needed for the planned layout and I focus my learning/knowledge on those areas, regions, era, type of railroad, etc that are most interesting to me and the subject of my layout.
I don't have any other scales, gauges, foreign prototypes, etc,etc, sitting in display cases. I don't collect. Heck, I model the Mid Atlantic of the USA and I don't even have any locos lettered for any west coast roads like UP or SP. Why would have any thing from Germany?, England?
I used to be well rounded until I learned what I REALLY like.
But what do I know, I'm just a hick with a pickup, a gun and a few trains.
Sheldon
That may not be necessarily so. In a recent article I came across in a trade jounal in the electronics industry ( journal in this case was EP&T---electronic products and technology). The thing now is that while it may seem cheaper to do the mfg in China say, there are hidden costs that many people in this line are now saying were there---they are mostly relating to the issue of doing this on price factors alone---
There might be another way---contract mfg within the local area.
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
Does Faller, like many European manufacturers, do its production in Europe? This may be part of the problem. As much as we hate to admit it, most of the "healthy" manufacturers in this business have outsourced a lot of their production to China. It keeps costs down and allows them to charge less for the finished products. Of course, it also sends jobs overseas along with the production, which is the other side of the equation.
Hopefully, with the economy slowly mending, companies like Marklin and Faller will be able to pick up the pieces and come back in some form.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
There were some things that are not necessarily just southern German in form---there is/was a concrete mixing plant, some of the factories were more old in appearance, some newer structures--service centers, miniplaza types----there are people, scenic supplies---and with the connections between Modelmaster and Aztec( those may be spun off to satisfy some of the debt load) there may be some effects. Leavenworth WA has some buildings in its downtown that do have that southern German flavour--so it may not be totally off as to prototype something like that on one's layout.
As for the "professional" management--this comes about when certain managers forget--as opposed to "remember"---that the business is there to supply goods/services to humans. First comes the service/good--and the effort to BUILD UP the customer base then one invests in the business as one makes the profit---and et cetera so on--
Paul3 In my 20 years in the hobby, I don't think I've ever bought anything from Faller. I don't model European roads, and their kits are, well, European. Half timbered buildings? Old town walls? Modern German Army equipment? Do you really see a heckuva lot of Faller items being used today on new layouts?
In my 20 years in the hobby, I don't think I've ever bought anything from Faller. I don't model European roads, and their kits are, well, European. Half timbered buildings? Old town walls? Modern German Army equipment? Do you really see a heckuva lot of Faller items being used today on new layouts?
Even if you don't use their German style buildings, Faller make a lot of scenery stuff that quite a few people use both in Europe and in the US - people and animals, stone/brick sheets and tunnel portals, ground cover, ballast, snow, fences, roads and such stuff. They also have excellent styrene glue in bottles with a nice needle applicator that I have been quite fond of :-/
Don't know if their bankruptcy also will take out some other brands they own. Faller also owns (among other things) the brands Aztek (airbrushes) and Modelmaster (paints).
Stein
It was in the news on Friday!
Faller was founded in 1946 as one of the first businesses providing structures and accessories into the growing hobby market. As Marc stated, there is much more to Faller than we think of. They are not only a producer of German/European prototype structures. Many a kit that you could buy in the US under various brand names actually was manufactured by Faller.
To say that Faller finally had to succumb to the global financial crisis would only be partly correct. The reason why their sales were dwindling over the last years is manifold:
Faller will most likely be saved - just as Marklin will eventually be. Filing insolvency is the way to get rid of your unwanted staff which has been loyal to the company for decades, without having to pay severance money.
A sad story, indeed!
Hi from Belgium,
We dont' have heard nothing about that here, but if it's confirmed it's anyway something very bad for the train industry.
Faller is a very big manufacturer, it includes the line of the Pola models or for you in USA some of the Model Power buildings.
The lost of Faller is not a good news for the train industry even if it's a European maker.
You could consider it as one of the "major" model builder in the industry like Marklin which is not on the good way as far we know.
So the lost of Faller or an other big manufacturer, fom the USA or from Europe, is never a good news.
If they confirm the decline of the sales as the reason of the bankrupcy it will also confirm somewhere the declin of our hobby.
Marc
In my 20 years in the hobby, I don't think I've ever bought anything from Faller. I don't model European roads, and their kits are, well, European. Half timbered buildings? Old town walls? Modern German Army equipment? Do you really see a heckuva lot of Faller items being used today on new layouts? I've seen several older layouts that used such items extensively, but that's when there was nothing else available. Walther's Cornerstone line kinda put the kibosh on that.
It's too bad they filed for bankruptcy, but I wouldn't call it "very significant", at least in our hobby on this side of the pond.
Paul A. Cutler III*******************Weather Or No Go New Haven*******************
Reply attempt #2
I stated that one might need to stock pile the building kits from these guys as they not only built up well but they made good kitbashing fodder---the scenery stuff was good as well----
hate to hear it but i can't help. all i ever bought was their glue.
grizlump
Having not noticed any mention over this weekend here of this very significant event, I note that the major German model manufacturer Faller apparently announced Friday that it was insolvent. In the announcement it cites steadily declining interest in the model railroading hobby as the major reason for the failure and that the company's operations have been in decline for some time now. It is not clear from the announcement whether they are filing for the equivalent of American Chapter 7, or 11.
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