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Bachmann Europe acquire EFE vehicle range


Andy Y

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Bachmann Europe Plc acquires Exclusive First Editions

Bachmann Europe Plc is delighted to announce their acquisition of the Exclusive First Editions range of 1/76th scale die-cast vehicles including buses, coaches, lorries and London Underground tube trains.

The company began trading as part of the ERA Group in 1989 and was originally located in Great Yarmouth before moving to Milton Keynes. In 1996 the company moved to Hemel Hempstead and in 2001, Frank Joyce, the only remaining founder member of the EFE team bought the company with his wife Brenda, relocating to Enfield the following year.

Bachmann Europe Plc began distributing EFE products to the model trade in July 2013.

David Haarhaus, Managing Director of Bachmann Europe Plc said today “We are delighted to incorporate another high quality addition to our existing model and hobby portfolio. The Exclusive First Editions range of collectable vehicles has enjoyed a good reputation for developing highly detailed and well researched models. EFE has been a corner stone of Die-Cast Model collecting for many years, while other ranges may have come and gone with varying interpretations of the original vehicles.

We are looking forward to further developing the existing items, and delivering new models to the many EFE collectors and discerning enthusiasts around the world.

Frank Joyce’s ethos was always to set out to produce the most accurate model possible. This matches the Bachmann ideals entirely, never trying to be the cheapest, but working hard to try and be the best”.

 

 

Bachmann Europe Plc have acquired the brand name Exclusive First Editions (EFE), tooling and remaining inventory of the company but have not acquired the name of the parent company (Gilbow Holdings) or other parts of it.

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I wonder what he prices now will be for these?

 

Will be interesting to see, judged on the quality and level of detail, EFE prices had been uncompetitive for ten years or more so hardly surprising they'd lost ground to others.

 

Hopefully Bachmann can take possession of the tooling and transfer it to their own manufacturing facilities with a reduction in production costs. There's also the small matter of trademark licensing of the marques they produce models of. This would have been granted to Gilbow and won't be transferrable without the agreement of the trademark holder.

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...Hopefully Bachmann can take possession of the tooling and transfer it to their own manufacturing facilities with a reduction in production costs. ....

 

Maybe, but I rather think the sticker price won't be coming down - more likely going up if recent trends are anything to go by.

 

Would be nice to see the LU stock re-run.

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If Bachmann just continue the existing range, I can't see them making much out of it.

 

New EFE models have got very expensive whilst, if swapmeets are any guide, few older ones are worth much more than a fiver.

 

There has also been a long-standing dearth of new bus and coach releases in pre-1968 West country liveries or with such destinations, resulting in me adding just one EFE model to my collection in the past three years.

 

John

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If Bachmann just continue the existing range, I can't see them making much out of it.

 

New EFE models have got very expensive whilst, if swapmeets are any guide, few older ones are worth much more than a fiver.

 

There has also been a long-standing dearth of new bus and coach releases in pre-1968 West country liveries or with such destinations, resulting in me adding just one EFE model to my collection in the past three years.

 

John

 

As they said in the OP:

 

 

 

 

We are looking forward to further developing the existing items, and delivering new models to the many EFE collectors and discerning enthusiasts around the world.
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If Bachmann could motorise and make new bogies for the EFE 1938/59/ 62 Tube stock,

and turn them into runnable, reliable condition, that would be marvellous !.

 

For the price, when initially released, they should have been runners in the first place.

 

Have you checked this site?

 

www.metromodels.net

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If Bachmann are willing to invest in EFE and re-invigorate the range then their takeover can only be a good thing surely, especially when they were in recievership and would be lost to us without a buyer. I hope Bachmann make a good go of it and return EFE to their glory days.

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Adding the tooling from the defunct CMNL range would be use for anyone modelling in the 1990s and onwards.

 

Someone already took over some of the CMNL range and called it Northcord Model Company.

 

As for the EFE range if used wisely could continue to provide reasonable quality buses and trucks for many years to come.

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The purchase of EFE and it's tooling is a good fit with Bachmann's existing road models, they already own the Pocketbond range, which has 1/76 scale cars and caravans from the 1950s-60s. EFE only once put their toe in the diecast car market and decided it wasn't for them. Bachmann also produce a range of buses in 'n' scale, so there is no overlap that I can see. It will be interesting to see if they go down the route that Oxford Diecast have gone with their commercial vehicle and bus/coach models, in using injection plastic moulded parts for more detail on the upper body structures and diecast for chassis and lower body areas. This mix has enabled them to produce different body types on a common chassis, such as the Bedford O and Q series

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I wonder what they will do with the EFE tube stock, it would be good if they could re-engineer them as powered models.

 

What amazed me when I took apart some EFE tube stock, was the level of interior detail, with the accurate separation of side and roof colours and shade, seating moquete and adverts on the curved sections of the roof and all of the fitted handrails!!

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And when they were first released those tube cars were only £25 a car.  If Bachmann do re-release them I am willing to bet the prices, powered or not will be a hell of a lot more than that...

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Good news. Would have been a shame to have lost this range.

Would be good to have (motorised or not) a Northern Line 1959 tube stock in 1990s condition (roundel) and the 'heritage train' livery, possibly with the moulded handrails removed (correct for the later years, adn avioding one of the weaker areas of this stock) Personally unpowered I have a great use for them - running behind a diesel between two barrier vehicles to a heritage site (rule 1)!

Wishlisting aside I congratulate Bachmann and hope they exploit this fine collection of tooling.

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To be honest I am not surprised at the apparent non return of Pocketbond as their buildings compared with Bachmann's Scenecraft own offerings were I felt a bit naff.

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To be honest I am not surprised at the apparent non return of Pocketbond as their buildings compared with Bachmann's Scenecraft own offerings were I felt a bit naff.

I've yet to see a cast resin ready-to-plant building that isn't a bit wonky in some respect and most are very expensive (IMHO) so I generally avoid them, from all makers.

 

I can usually knock up something better out of Plastic sheet for a fifth of the cost.

 

I do have a couple of Pocketbond examples; the small factory/workshop/warehouse building is actually pretty good. I will add a bit of extra detail and the one slightly crooked bit won't be visible where I plan to place it. The other is a water tower which will need a bit more work if I decide to use it.

 

John  

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I was talking about the Pocketbond die-cast vehicles rather than the buildings. IIRC the resin buildings had been dropped anyway prior to the Bachmann takeover. What happened in the case of Pocketbond was that they were affected by the same production difficulties that affected Bachmann and others a few years ago and right in the middle of this the person behind the diecast range died.

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I was talking about the Pocketbond die-cast vehicles rather than the buildings. IIRC the resin buildings had been dropped anyway prior to the Bachmann takeover. What happened in the case of Pocketbond was that they were affected by the same production difficulties that affected Bachmann and others a few years ago and right in the middle of this the person behind the diecast range died.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I'd love to see the Classix range expanded if Bachmann can maintain the excellent quality set by their originator.

 

I particularly like the cars but feel the lorries, whilst excellent on top, look a bit too long in the wheelbase with insufficient rear overhang. I've always suspected that the original chassis tooling might have been designed around a somewhat non-typical prototype. 

 

John

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