Horizon Hobbies purchases MDC/Roundhouse!

[Don Gibson]

I feel confident that MDC didn't cost Horizon very much, and after purchasing Athearn, has it's hand's full recouping it's investment before 'gobbling' up any more major US players.

They WILL however become attractive to outsiders looking at the US market for Distribution.

[Anonymous]

I just saw the news about Horizon....... ohhhh I just cant wait till they start raising prices and stop the production of
all the undecorated kits i like,. whats next ??? Are they going to buy Microscale Decals and really put a kink in our
fun !

I hope I am just worked up over nothing, but who knows.

[Fergmiester]

Hopefully Horizon is committed to customer satisfaction and not hostile takeovers, like other identities we all know and loathe.

MDC/Roundhouse though under rated made a good product and hopefully Horizon will realize this and continue the trend or suffer the wrath of the consumer.

[AntonioFP45]

Would be interesting if MDC comes out with a "Genesis" type of freight car line.

Price increases are inevetible, usually reflected in the printing of the new Walther's Catalogs.

[Anonymous]

I like the Athearn blue box and MDC products. I like buying them at Train stores. Train stores have lots of train supplys and a few train sets.The current bar for retailers is a little steep as train stores do not sell gas engines and radios or the things they power and control. A hobby shop that carrys the broader Horizon line usually have a broader selection of paint then they have or railroad items. Train sets equal or out number the floor space for other railroad stuff. The percentage of floor space and interest for model trains in a general hobby shop is equal to most peoples shoe size. I'd like Horizon to have a different model for Train shops until they are able to offer a broader support. I hope Horizon will continue the sale of Athearn spare parts including power trucks, worm gear assemblys, 24t and 16t gears and all the other bits and pieces that allow us to keep our trains going. I hope Horizon will produce a dream/planning catalog that a consumer can use not a black and white listing of part numbers and names. I'm looking to preserver broad availability of both these lines at places that know trains.

[simon1966]

The good news is that the industry seems to be thriving and companies are being purchased for their potential. It would seem that Horizon have a good plan for the market and are positioning themselves to be a big player in the Model RR segment. They are courting the LHS and trying to help them to be viable businesses. It seems that they are willing and able to make adjustments to their tactics to better serve the market. They have clearly done well since being founded in the mid 80's. I think that a motivated, innovative team of managers might make our hobby more interesting. I am looking forward to seeing what transpires.

[fiatfan]

Aside from all the other discussions, thanks to MR for getting the news out to us right away.

Tom

[Anonymous]

As with anything else, the power is in your hands. All anyone needs to do to object to lack of variety or increased prices is to STOP BUYING. Of course we all know that will never happen as evidenced by the outrageous prices for many other things. People will just keep on buying and put up with it. The desire to own something today far outweighs the price gouging by many manufacturers. Nobody looks at the value (bang for the buck) anymore, just whether they can come up with enough ca***o buy what they want. These companies know this, and that's why the prices will go up. They know you will pay whatever you have to to get what you want. Fortunately (?) I am new to the hobby, so I probably won't know what I am misssing.
Tim

[CNJ831]

I think one critical point many posters are missing regarding the purchase of first Athearn and now MDC by Horizon is the way modern companies operate. Horizon is in the market to make large profits, so forget a future with nickle and dime replacement parts being available. Likewise, whereas Athearn and MDC continued to produce inexpensive, relatively slow sales, undecs and occasional obscure road names or vintage prototypes, I would definitely anticipate these too will pass into history and selection will narrow to simply the more popular road names of circa post-WWII. Less common road names will likely become the province of the expensive, high-end, manufacturers.

I've been told that Accurail has been up for grabs for the right price for a while now and will likely be absorbed into some other large outfit sooner or later. When that happens, essentially all the low end/inexpensive, entry-level equipment could fade from the marketplace. As someone mentioned upstream, in the 1970's Walthers bought up a great many of the smaller specialty model railroad manufacturers who supplied unique (some admittedly a bit crude) kits, castings, and parts. Since demand was, and always had been, low all of these products are now history (except TM), even though many true craftsman hobbyists would love to still have them available. So, expect low volume sales items not to continue in tomorrow's marketplace.

Sad to say, with our hobby already and without question in slow decline, its demise can only be hastened by a future of high-priced, ready-to-run, bi road name-only equipment. Certainly not something I'm looking forward to.

CNJ831

[simon1966]

CNJ831

You may be right, but I hope you are wrong. I have no idea what Horizon has paid for these two companies, but I suspect several million dollars have been spent. I suspect that Horizon sees the model RR market as an opportunity rather than as a declining market. The very face of model RR has changed dramatically in the last decade. New companies have sprung up and significant innovation in electronics and manufacturing techniques have altered the scope of the hobby. For the time being the hobby has shifted away from model assembly to R to R. Just read the current Accurail Ad in MRR to get a sense of the trend. The costs associated with this hobby are already very high, but the consumer seems to be demanding and accepting this situation. One thing of note, according to my LHS, Horizon owner RC companies are some of the best a providing good supply of spares. So it may not be all doom and gloom.

[Anonymous]

I like this!

Let Horizon gather up all the so-so model makers (Athearn, Roundhouse, ... why not get them to add inAccrurail and Blochmann, too ??? ) under one roof - so we know who NOT to buy from!

(One tends to start with, but then to outgrow all the above, IMHO).

As for me, I now buy from Atlas, Kato, LL P2K, Kadee, Branchline, Intermountain and Walthers (for passenger cars).

The good stuff !!!

I doubt that Horizon can buy any of my favorites - besides, they will shortly be paying a bunch of money to UP for illegal trademark use! And I hope UP nukes them till they glow !!

So announcement this has no effect on me at all.

[the-big-blow]

QUOTE: Originally posted by BillB

I like this!

The good stuff !!!

If you want "the good stuff" buy Overland Brass!!!! Now for my take on the situation that this posting pertains to, I feel it will only help the variety of ready to roll equipment being placed in the market place. I don't know if you noticed some of the prices on Roundhouses RTR cars. These prices are TOO MUCH!!! Athearn should keep these costs down for younger modelers to be able to afford. Slap some new paint on these cars, metal wheel trucks and you have a decent model. Maybe not to all perfectionist like me , but we all started somewhere in this hobby and I can say at one time long ago I had lots of MDC/Athearn kits running around. My tastes have changed but still have some Athearn ready to roll stuff in my collection. I don't think a "model company" is high on any ones nuke list outside of your own, so I would try some arms reduction policies.

[Don Gibson]

QUOTE: Originally posted by BillB

I like this!

- besides, they will shortly be paying a bunch of money to UP for illegal trademark use! And I hope UP nukes them till they glow !!

So announcement this has no effect on me at all.

It just might - if the other roads decide to do the same - (THINK about it).

[drgwcs]

This might have an affect too that no one has mentioned yet. Many of the MDC steam engine kits may be brought out in RTR form following Athern' s example

[the-big-blow]

QUOTE: Originally posted by drgwcs

This might have an affect too that no one has mentioned yet. Many of the MDC steam engine kits may be brought out in RTR form following Athern' s example

Hopefully Athearn can help this by engineering a better mechanism(hopefully it won't cost too much to tool") The ones that I've seen really don't run well at all compared to say Bachmann.

[jsoderq]

The reason Horizon is buyting is they are trying to buy their way into the market. When they didn't have aby model rr stuff it was easy for shops not to buy from them as other distributors had the train stuff. Now it is impossible to use this excuse so Horizon can pressure shops to buy from them. They have a large presence in the RC market and are now looking to to broaden their market. Remember Horizon doesn't manufacture anything (even now they are relying on the old Athearn management to actually produce the stuff.) My guess is that you will see no new tooling(very expensive) in either line at least until Horizon feels justified in spending the money. Much of the Athearn tooling was done out of the plant, some by a relative of Irv's and by several others who did not work for Athearn. I personally know (used to work for them) the MDC tool makers and bet they are not part of the deal. So the opportunity for new tooling is nil. MDC steam line relied heavily on diecast (nasty stuff- hard to run- very hard on tooling) so don't expect to see much if any of it
What you will see is continued production of the status quo - more runs of the already existing tooling probably new road names on some of the stuff until Horizon recoups their return on investment. Whether their plan will work giving them increased market share remains to be seen. If the products are not as readily available in the market they could well see less sales resulting in less production as the sales drop off.

[orsonroy]

QUOTE: Originally posted by drgwcs

This might have an affect too that no one has mentioned yet. Many of the MDC steam engine kits may be brought out in RTR form following Athern' s example

You're a bit late on this one; Roundhouse has been selling RTR steam for over two years now. They've sold their 2 and 3 truck shay (in both standard and narrow gauge), their old-timer 2-6-0 and 2-8-0, and the Pennsy 4-6-0. I think they had just announced the new 4-4-0 as RTR as well. The engines were all DCC-ready.

[drgwcs]

Sorry, what I meant to say was that the rest of their steam line would prabably go r-t-r. It would be good to see such stuff as the 0-6-0 and the harriman consol in this.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Don Gibson

QUOTE: Originally posted by BillB

I like this!

- besides, they will shortly be paying a bunch of money to UP for illegal trademark use! And I hope UP nukes them till they glow !!

So announcement this has no effect on me at all.

It just might - if the other roads decide to do the same - (THINK about it).

Don, Don, ... other roads HAVE done this!

Everyone just keeps ignoring this fact.

AMTRAK did it before UP, and CSX has now done it after !!

Even MAYTAG has sued for trademark use on the ROCK ISLAND (against a Mo. company which wanted to build a "new" RI RR in the state - they backed off after the legal papers were filed).

Besides, a minor 3% fee (six bucks max on a $200 loco, less on less expensive stuff) has NO effect on me at all ! I pay more in TAXES at my LHS !!

It's peanuts, and not worth all the noise.

MRR prices have been going up more than this a year due to inflation, better tooling/drives/DCC/sound, and other factors !!

Besides, MRRers should be thankful that UP, AMTRAK, CSX and MAYTAG allows models to be made AT ALL !!!

There is a REASON that you don't see McDONALD's kits !!!

They just said NO, you can't make one !

I would be more worried about what MTH is doing with their so-called "patents" on DCC than any UP or Horizon action - that potentally could have a MUCH bigger impact on the hobby !!!

As I said, I no longer buy (outgrown) Athearn blue box (and buy little RTR or Genesis either - just ordered my KATO MAC!), never saw a correctly done RI Roundhouse car (am currently trying to "fix" all the problems with their wooden-braced caboose), and have equal feelings about inAccrurail and Blochmann - so let Horizon buy them, too !

BTW (and back on topic), I agree with the others that have said Horizon will do little (at least at first) to "improve" the MDC/Roundhouse line - too much work to get them to modern standards (of Branchline, P2K, Atlas, etc.).

[BRAKIE]

Guys,All to sadly there is NO company immune to buyout..All it takes is to make a offer.
And we just might see this come to past in the coming years.

[Anonymous]

Perhaps, Larry, but that offer must be ACCEPTED - and Horizon doesn't have unlimited funds (plus, as I said, has a lawsuit against it's new Athearn division).

The one model maker (besides inAccrurail) that I think is "ripe" for a buyout is STEWART.

Maybe ATLAS will buy them - maybe get the GOOD STUFF under one roof !

[Wdlgln005]

I'd watch if the next company to go may be Con-Cor with their production plant in Arizona. There may be other plants with capacity to make & paint all the little parts that go into kits? Just wondering?

Would Horizon also bring an ability to assemble inventories of supplies to keep the LHS supplied?

For Nscalers, the purchase of MDC may help get Athearn more involved in the scale. MDC has the better locos in the 2 steamers released. They have a good selection of freight & passenger cars. Athearn has 1 diesesel & a good commuter passenger car. I can't see them making money on detail parts like tractors & trucks. Perhaps the combination with MDC will help them bring out a whole line of modern freight cars. They need to work on the bad MDC coupler in competition with MTL and Accumates.

[Don Gibson]

MDC was Athearn's cross-town rival and had kits with die-cast floors. Do you think Athearn will use MDC for RTR, or a 'new' 'Blue' box series?

Interesting. We'll have to wait and see.