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New Hornby Collectors Club?


southernelectric
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At some point we will learn the answers to many of the questions here but only after Hornby employees return to work on January 5, update their website and start sending us letters regarding the structure of the new club. At that point it starts making sense to ask clarifying questions.

 

They have taken great care to let people know the club is changing - including a separate letter in the final 'The Collector Plus' magazine, even if that communication was somewhat vague regarding the specifics. We might as well wait until we see further communications from them.

Edited by Ozexpatriate
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It's been a long, long time since I was a member of the club. Some of the club locos were useful for the kids to play with on the layout, or for fiddle-yard shunting, but it was cheaper to pick them up when Hornby were flogging the left-over ones in later years. I'm in two minds as to whether I'll join the new club.

Edited by 58050
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So have they said what will happen to those of you that have subscribed to the old club and have a few months left on that membership? I am not part of the club but would be interesting to know

Such members will be sent a renewal reminder as usual a year after they last paid, but the new membership will be in the new club.

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I signed up in Jan 2014, an international member from NZ.  I didn't receive anything for three months so enquired that with the Club, only to be told there had been a stuff-up with my membership and nothing had actually been sent out to me to that point.  They offered to send the items from Jan 2014 onward, plus extend my membership into March 2015 which seemed a fair compensation to me.

 

I have traditionally elected to receive the Club model each time I've joined.  I know they receive a bit of tap here as just so much rubbish, but I enjoy them for what they are and tend to display them in a cabinet as a statement to others of my interest in this particular hobby.  With that option seemingly gone now, and in light of the way they seem to be structuring the Club now (membership fee + ROW postage fee = fair whack of dosh), I won't be joining again.  In fact, I've jumped ship to Bachmann for the first time with a double-scale membership and received my models from them on Christmas Eve.

 

As to what happens to 2014 memberships that started mid-year, etc, I think the most likely thing is that they will substitute the new Club mags in for the unsupplied Collectors ones.  I myself expect to receive at least one copy of the new offering before my membership finally expires in March.  Sorry to be saying goodbye to the Hornby club for now but they moved the goal-posts and the new offering is inferior from my perspective here in NZ.

 

 

R.E.

Edited by RecordEdit
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I signed up in Jan 2014, an international member from NZ.  I didn't receive anything for three months so enquired that with the Club, only to be told there had been a stuff-up with my membership and nothing had actually been sent out to me to that point.  They offered to send the items from Jan 2014 onward, plus extend my membership into March 2015 which seemed a fair compensation to me.

 

I have traditionally elected to receive the Club model each time I've joined.  I know they receive a bit of tap here as just so much rubbish, but I enjoy them for what they are and tend to display them in a cabinet as a statement to others of my interest in this particular hobby.  With that option seemingly gone now, and in light of the way they seem to be structuring the Club now (membership fee + ROW postage fee = fair whack of dosh), I won't be joining again.  In fact, I've jumped ship to Bachmann for the first time with a double-scale membership and received my models from them on Christmas Eve.

 

As to what happens to 2014 memberships that started mid-year, etc, I think the most likely thing is that they will substitute the new Club mags in for the unsupplied Collectors ones.  I myself expect to receive at least one copy of the new offering before my membership finally expires in March.  Sorry to be saying goodbye to the Hornby club for now but they moved the goal-posts and the new offering is inferior from my perspective here in NZ.

 

 

R.E.

Being an overseas customer myself and suffering the heavy (not necessarily unreasonable) postage fee I am pleased Hornby is offering a membership option where the magazines can be sent by email rather than by post reducing the postage cost to zero. I shall then only have to pay the reduced membership fee (less than the £20 previously) and still benefit from the 10% discount on the Hornby website. I only hope the quality of the magazine improves in its new format. The latest Collector Plus magazine had a relatively detailed report on the K1, the sort of essay I should like to see a lot more of in Hornby's communications.

I can understand that the £20 voucher is of little use to you in New Zealand as it can not be used in conjunction with the 10% discount so it will cost you money to use it, as it is less than the postage for a single item!

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I have been a member of both clubs for several years.  I prefer the Bachmann club, but I buy from each company about equally.  I do find that I tend to be more aware of what Hornby is doing because their advertising outreach is more persistent.   Bachmann does not sell its regular models from its own website, while it is great to be able to buy early from the Hornby website.  The Bachmann club magazine is very superior to the Hornby efforts, at least in the past.  I really like the background materials from Bachmann on the  prototypes of models on sale.  This is less good from Hornby's magazine.

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Interestingly the Hornby forum is reporting the following prices for the Hornby Hobbies Club:

The new prices are:

UK: .................... EU: .................... ROW:

£20 Postal ......... £25 Postal ......... £27 Postal

£15 Download ... £15 Download ... £15 Download

Formatting was a bit garbled, but this seems pretty reasonable to me. It will be interesting to see this confirmed.

Edited by Ozexpatriate
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Guest spet0114

Without the option of the club loco (which I really rather liked), there's nothing to entice me to renew my membership.  Still, it's all good news for the Barwell boys as it's 20-odd quid extra to spend on their Collector Club products....

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According to the rear cover of my February BRM magazine, the Hornby 2015 Club Exclusive model is R3362 0-6-0T Jinty Class 3F - Weathered. The side tank is printed A.L.A. via DUNKERQUE (with some even smaller wording under it) with a hand-written loco number of 7611.

 

Also, it shows the benefits as:

 

Three Hornby Club magazines per year, plus a winter edition

£20 voucher to spend on exclusive club models

Discounted entry to various UK attractions

10% discount on your selected club brand products

Club badge and Membership card (postal)

Online exclusive club pre-order

Club exclusive forums

Competitions including chance to win entry to events and brilliant prizes!

Sneak peeks with the development teams

Junior section with competitions

 

Edwin C.

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Guest spet0114

According to the rear cover of my February BRM magazine, the Hornby 2015 Club Exclusive model is R3362 0-6-0T Jinty Class 3F - Weathered. The side tank is printed A.L.A. via DUNKERQUE (with some even smaller wording under it) with a hand-written loco number of 7611.

...

 

As I understand it, this isn't the 'free' loco offered as an alternative to the voucher, simply a model that club members can buy (I'll guess for somewhat more than £20), similar to the current White-roof Scotsman and so on.  The 'free' locos are a thing of the past.

 

Just in passing, looking at the picture of R3362, is it me or does it appear to have sprung buffers? 

 

http://www.Hornby.com/media/tinymce_upload/r3326.jpg

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As I understand it, this isn't the 'free' loco offered as an alternative to the voucher, simply a model that club members can buy (I'll guess for somewhat more than £20), similar to the current White-roof Scotsman and so on.  The 'free' locos are a thing of the past.

 

Just in passing, looking at the picture of R3362, is it me or does it appear to have sprung buffers? 

 

http://www.Hornby.com/media/tinymce_upload/r3326.jpg

Look like they are solid, note the silver rim/edge stop where the go into the buffer body. The couplings are the old huge type as well.

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Interesting looking loco.  Quite like the look of it.  I wonder what would this particular Jinty would haul?  

 

It's a model of one of the eight Jinties shipped to France with the BEF in 1939-40, all of which fell into enemy hands and of which only five returned to the UK after the War. The forthcoming Bachmann warwells would do the trick, although they'd be a couple of years out.

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... Also, it shows the benefits as:

 

Online exclusive club pre-order

I can't imagine what this is supposed to mean. (More accurately I can imagine some things but unless this refers to pre-ordering the club-exclusive models, I would like it further explained before I jump to conclusions.)

 

Sneak peeks with the development teams

I am interested to see how this develops.

 

The club page on the website is now updated with specific pricing.

 

It contains some interesting clarifications:

YOUR MEMBERSHIP INCLUDES:

  • 10% discount* at Hornby.com for the duration of your membership
  • Club welcome pack with membership card
  • Access to exclusive Hornby Club models – only available to Club members
  • £20 voucher** to spend on exclusive Hornby Club models
  • 3 Club magazines and 1 Winter Edition
  • Priority pre-order access on selected lines
  • Club exclusive forums - COMING SOON
  • Competitions including chances to win entry to events and brilliant prizes
  • Discounted entry to various UK attractions
  • Junior section with competitions and news - COMING SOON
*discount applies to full price items

**cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer

 

COMING SOON – DOWNLOAD ONLY MEMBERSHIP OPTION

 

 

This makes it look like the £20 voucher might ONLY be used on the exclusive Club models - as opposed to everything else on Hornby.com though I may be misinterpreting this.

 

I remain curious about what this means exactly:

  • Priority pre-order access on selected lines
Edited by Ozexpatriate
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The WD Jinty is quite pricy at £39.99, compared to the Terrier which I would have thought to have been a lot more expensive to produce.SDJR version presently on Hornby's website is £32.49

The SDJR Jinty is Railroad range. The WD Jinty is evidently weathered, with a more detailed livery application.

 

Hornby sets a lot of price differentiation on livery applications. We may not see the value, but for all we know it reflects a material cost difference in terms of time spent in the paint shop.

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That WD Jinty seems to be a very good choice for a club model in being a quirky and oddball prototype that probably would have little appeal as a general release (it wouldn't be much use on a wartime French layout as it is the wrong scale) but is attractive as a bit of a curio.

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I'm not in the collectors club but have been thinking of joining this year. The reason being the air smoothed BoB that is listed as a club model. Presumably I'd get the £20 membership back by using the voucher against the BoB then the 10% discount might come in handy later.

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The discount now says:

 

"10% discount* at Hornby.com for the duration of your membership"

*discount applies to full price items

 

Which is a change from what was stated previously, which was that it was brand specific.

 

The fact you can't use it on Black Friday or on sale items is a bit annoying, as it came in handy at the end of 2014! But is an improvement on 1 brand only - maybe someone was listening?

 

I like the war Jinty, it is the sort of lowish priced, small and unusual model that I personally would go for. I like the Scotsman but it is too much money.

 

I may now go for the online membership. I have found that online BRM is better than the mags, with more pics and video than the print mag, so hopefuly Hornby will be the same.

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I'm not in the collectors club but have been thinking of joining this year. The reason being the air smoothed BoB that is listed as a club model. Presumably I'd get the £20 membership back by using the voucher against the BoB then the 10% discount might come in handy later.

As an incurable spamoholic who saw a very grimy Manston waiting to back down on to its train in the early fifties,I am helpless to resist.She was too filthy to determine the colour of the nameplate but I can still see the pillar of steam rising from her safety valves.

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I'm not in the collectors club but have been thinking of joining this year. The reason being the air smoothed BoB that is listed as a club model. Presumably I'd get the £20 membership back by using the voucher against the BoB then the 10% discount might come in handy later.

I`m not in the collectors club but i fancied Manston too so i pre-ordered it, despite not being a member the order has gone through! I did buy the Royal 67 though the shop but as far as i know it did not include any membership !

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  • 2 weeks later...
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Interesting that the club models may not be so club exclusive. I've just joined the club, I'm not really into clubs but I figured that the membership is cost neutral given that I can use the voucher to buy a model that I want to buy (the spam can) so I'm not losing anything and who knows, the 10% discount from their web site may be very useful.

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Interesting that the club models may not be so club exclusive. I've just joined the club, I'm not really into clubs but I figured that the membership is cost neutral given that I can use the voucher to buy a model that I want to buy (the spam can) so I'm not losing anything and who knows, the 10% discount from their web site may be very useful.

Yes,something I too will pursue in the very near future.Maybe the 'smart money' way?

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