Hattons announce OO Gauge King

[Edwardian]

The big loser out of all of this is 'Steam' and I'm both sorry and glad that I hadn't so far ordered their special edition 6000.   Perhaps the other lesson is not to take on the likes of Hornby when they already have a revised model under development - as has been the case with the 'King' - when the fact that is happening is as good as public knowledge unless you can beat them to the marketplace and achieve a far superior product in a timely fashion.  

 

Fortunately the new Hornby 'King' is good on detail, albeit not in some of the very small detail items promised with the Hattons commission but the shape is good and all the important detail identifiable to period portrayed by the livery seems so far to have been as correct as we might expect from a quality r-t-r model and needing little work to turn it into a renumbered engine to suit your individual needs.  That sort of thing is always going to be difficult to compete with at any price but at the sort of prices Kernow, for example, are now offering there's really no contest in my view.

 

Perhaps it is now time to close this thread as Hattons role in this model has come to an end other than as a retailer?

 

Or re-title and move to the DJ Models section, if DJM and the Mods think there's any point.