tbtc
Veteran Member
I'm sure that places like Toys'r'Us used to sell a range of Hornby stuff (a limited range, but at least a couple of train set boxes), there used to be Beatties too - but current toy shops like Smyths and The Entertainer don't seem to cater to that market.
Being dragged around Smyths recently, bewildered by the range of modern toys, I noticed the lack of anything "Hornby" - and there seems a huge gap in the market for fans of model trains generally:
LEGO do some trains (and you can build virtual mine carts in Minecraft), there are half a dozen Hornby sets on Argos, and I know that everything is available on Amazon/ eBay 24/7 these days, but the lack of train sets in toy shops feels a loss. This is despite the obvious attraction of the Hogwarts Express to that demographic.
Meanwhile, the manufacturers of OO gauge trains seem to be happily concentrating on the high-end stuff (and, why not, when you can charge so much for locomotives that are so much more detailed than the stuff I had in my 1980s childhood which now feels incredibly basic in comparison!).
If I'd been living under a rock for the past thirty years, I might have expected model trains to be a lot cheaper today than they were in my childhood (given the way you can manufacture things in Chinese factories), but the opposite is true - I don't begrudge the manufacturers from charging higher prices that the current market can seemingly afford but I do wonder if there'll be much of a market in the future.
Without trying to turn this into a "rich boomers vs skint millennials" thread (since the internet already has more than enough of those), the generation of older modellers able to afford such carefully crafted replicas isn't going to be replaced by people with the same interest in trains or the pockets to buy such high-end models (or the room for much of a layout).
There are attempts like the Hornby "Railroad" to try to bridge a gap but I worry that the "model" market will go the way of record shops, which lost the mass market years ago and the establishments that survived only did so by targeting the richer collectors willing to pay £20+ for deluxe gatefold vinyl re-issues, rather than the school kids wanting contemporary CDs.
You can make £££ by appealing to today's "collectors", but tomorrow's "collectors" are the current 10-40 year olds who just want "toys" at this stage in their life (and it doesn't feel like they are going to graduate to replace the people currently purchasing carefully detailed replicas)
I know that the people on this Forum aren't exactly a cross-representation of the Great British Public (nor do I claim to be myself!), so maybe our experiences will be different (hey, if I can afford a full length push/pull rake with a Class 27 on each end to recreate the glory days of Edinburgh - Glasgow trains then I'll have a happy retirement!), but do you get the feeling that there are diminishing marginal returns in the current market?
Being dragged around Smyths recently, bewildered by the range of modern toys, I noticed the lack of anything "Hornby" - and there seems a huge gap in the market for fans of model trains generally:
- Wooden "Brio" toys for toddlers
- Plastic "Thomas" toys for primary school kids
- ???
- OO gauge "Hornby" models that are incredibly realistic but also over £100 per locomotive
LEGO do some trains (and you can build virtual mine carts in Minecraft), there are half a dozen Hornby sets on Argos, and I know that everything is available on Amazon/ eBay 24/7 these days, but the lack of train sets in toy shops feels a loss. This is despite the obvious attraction of the Hogwarts Express to that demographic.
Meanwhile, the manufacturers of OO gauge trains seem to be happily concentrating on the high-end stuff (and, why not, when you can charge so much for locomotives that are so much more detailed than the stuff I had in my 1980s childhood which now feels incredibly basic in comparison!).
If I'd been living under a rock for the past thirty years, I might have expected model trains to be a lot cheaper today than they were in my childhood (given the way you can manufacture things in Chinese factories), but the opposite is true - I don't begrudge the manufacturers from charging higher prices that the current market can seemingly afford but I do wonder if there'll be much of a market in the future.
Without trying to turn this into a "rich boomers vs skint millennials" thread (since the internet already has more than enough of those), the generation of older modellers able to afford such carefully crafted replicas isn't going to be replaced by people with the same interest in trains or the pockets to buy such high-end models (or the room for much of a layout).
There are attempts like the Hornby "Railroad" to try to bridge a gap but I worry that the "model" market will go the way of record shops, which lost the mass market years ago and the establishments that survived only did so by targeting the richer collectors willing to pay £20+ for deluxe gatefold vinyl re-issues, rather than the school kids wanting contemporary CDs.
You can make £££ by appealing to today's "collectors", but tomorrow's "collectors" are the current 10-40 year olds who just want "toys" at this stage in their life (and it doesn't feel like they are going to graduate to replace the people currently purchasing carefully detailed replicas)
I know that the people on this Forum aren't exactly a cross-representation of the Great British Public (nor do I claim to be myself!), so maybe our experiences will be different (hey, if I can afford a full length push/pull rake with a Class 27 on each end to recreate the glory days of Edinburgh - Glasgow trains then I'll have a happy retirement!), but do you get the feeling that there are diminishing marginal returns in the current market?