I just had a phone call - no names, no pack drill. I get a few calls, most of which I could do without… however. This was to do with dates, release dates, of RTR stuff. Quite honestly this is something I couldn't give a toss about, but apparently it is the most important thing in some people's lives - if they had one that is.
It goes like this: the manufacturers put out a shiny photo of a prototype and say 'we are going to make this'. Then follows a feeding frenzy of people who want one (or as I see it, want to collect four). Then the date frenzy kicks in and it becomes a guessing game. The problem with this is that there are numerous production stages that things have to go through: design, trial, re-design, 3D print, final build, shipping and so on. It's quite complicated. Which is why the manufacturers say 'expected' to try to cover all eventualities. Also different people get advised of these dates in different ways at different times by different people who all may have a differing opinion of where the finishing line may be. This means that until such time as the things appear in the shops, no one really knows.Why is this so hard to understand?
Instead people whine and moan about all this as though it's a life and death problem. Folks, it really doesn't matter - stop worrying about stupid stuff and go and make something instead.
I see these announcements for future (sometimes far future) items and think..."why tell us now, wait till the things are ready to go to the shops, I would like one, yes, but could be hit by a bus tomorrow! Why not buy a kit and DIY rather than RTR?
ReplyDeleteAnd they call that railway modelling... I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
ReplyDeleteI keep saying - It's only toy trains....
ReplyDeleteI think this would be fair comment back when a decent modeller could make a better fist of a loco than an rtr offering, but those days have gone. Okay, there is the price element but unless you're modelling something mainline or huge, no one needs more than a handful of locos so it's not such a big issue.
ReplyDeleteThere's also a case that some models make particular prototypes possible, or at least amenable to being done well. I'm particularly thinking of OO9 here where the Bachmann locos have, in my view, made most OO9 locos look clumsy and the quarry Hunslets in particular will allow modelling of a prototype that has rarely been attempted and very rarely done well in OO9.
And even if the locos and most of the rolling stock is rtr, it still has to run through something and that something still needs modelling.