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Some ABS Streetscene items now available to Model Bus Federation members


Mike Harvey
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Following the passing of Adrian Swain, the Model Bus Federation (MBF) completed its planned acquisition of many of the bus and some other items from the ABS Streetscene range. Some of these are now available to MBF members from the members only shop. As well as the vast range of model bus parts (wheels, radiators/front panels, stairs, wings, seats, bus stops, street furniture. etc) suitable for scratchbuilds and conversions, there are 16 1/76 scale car kits from the 1930s to 1950s. 

 

The range is shown under cars and taxis on this page, in case there is anyone who wants to join the MBF to access them. The caravan appears not to be available, and some of the items carry different numbers in the MBF shop. The Taxi is an Austin FX2, but not currently available.

 

http://www.87thscale.info/abs.htm

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It’s a mixture of former Westward and Anbrico / Model Bus Company kits on the list the link refers to. 
 

The rare Westward kits like the Duple Dominant Bus, Bristol LH/ECW, Alexander T type, Manchester Mancunian aren’t listed. Assume the moulds are long gone. 

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The listing on the link looks like it refers to the full listing that was previously available from ABS, not necessarily what will be available from MBF. The stock is still being itemised, likely this will take some time and the items will be released as this progresses, so far only the cars and I think some parts have been released.

 

The LH ECW mentioned above will be available as a resin kit from Marsden Models (curved, BET style front) and currently from MBF (early, flat front) so it may be fair to assume this won't be a priority for release, if at all.

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12 hours ago, davidbr said:

What a shame that items formerly freely available (except one has been waiting a long time because of Adrian's illness) will now be restricted to members of the MBF.

 

As in all walks of life, you play to your strengths.

I'm not sure though that the increase in revenue of new memberships would be more than could be recouped if they were made available to the general public, if indeed the range was bought for commercial purposes.

 

Mike.

 

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I don’t think the acquisition by the MBF was focussed on the cars at all. They acquired the bus related spares stuff which they have stocked and sold over many years to their members. So a really strong supporter of Adrian Swain’s business.  This is a continuing service to members who have been starved of the products as ABS production was curtailed in frequency. The purchase from ABS included some packed car kits which are now being offered to their members. I do not know whether they have the car moulds and intend to rerun them after packed kits have run out. 

 

I do not think that selling the packed cars is intended to encourage people to join the MBF. They will sell them all to their members without a problem. But anyone who wants to buy them from the MBF needs to be a member. I am not aware of anyone who has been selling the car kits in recent years, probably because ABS had stopped promoting the range as Adrian’s health got worse.

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1 hour ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

As in all walks of life, you play to your strengths.

I'm not sure though that the increase in revenue of new memberships would be more than could be recouped if they were made available to the general public, if indeed the range was bought for commercial purposes.

 

Mike.

 

 

Selling to the public has consequences in terms of status with HMRC.

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Actually the car kits, along with all of the other OO road vehicles (apart from the buses) are available elsewhere.

They were bought by KW Trams and are available on their website.

 

I am afraid that Mike is mistaken, the MBF only bought the buses from ABS. They may have accidentally ended up with some of the cars, but they have no rights to sell them.

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20 hours ago, Paul Coles said:

I am afraid that Mike is mistaken, the MBF only bought the buses from ABS. They may have accidentally ended up with some of the cars, but they have no rights to sell them.

@Paul Coles I am not sure where I was mistaken. The MBF have been long term stockists of ABS Streetscene road vehicle ranges, and have stocked and sold to their members over decades. As I said I was unaware whether they had the car moulds. You have now pointed us towards KWtrams selling the cars. As this is your first and only post I am not aware of your relationship to KWtrams, ABS Streetscene or the MBF. I can confirm that I am a member of the MBF, former customer of ABS, and have no relationship with KWtrams.

Edited by Mike Harvey
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I am KW Trams and I bought the road vehicles business (except the buses) from ABS at the beginning of this year.

I have the masters, moulds and the rights to continue making the cars, lorries, steam vehicles etc.

 

Yes, the MBF have been selling bus kits and spares for years that they had purchased from ABS.

The MBF bought the bus business from ABS in around April this year and may have bought some cars etc prior to the beginning of this year, but your initial comment suggested that you have just acquired the cars and discussion with another of the MBF members seems to confirm that. It is possible that when the MBF collected their things from ABS a few months ago that they accidentally picked up some of the cars as well, but since I had already bought the business then they belong to me and the MBF have no right to sell them.

I am in further discussion with several members of the MBF committee to resolve this.

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OK - I think I understand it now !

 

As I said, I (KW Trams) bought the trams plus the road vehicles business (except the buses) from Adrian at the beginning of this year.

Then the MBF bought the buses - but were erroneously also sold the road vehicles as well !

So we both bought the road vehicles.

I have all of the road vehicles other than the cars, plus I have the masters and moulds for the cars.

MBF have stock of most of the cars.

So, we have agreed that the MBF and KW Trams will split the existing stock of the cars and both sell them.

 

So if you are a member of the MBF you can buy them from either supplier while the MBF stock lasts.

 

Oh, wouldn't it be nice if everything was simple !

 

 

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Mike

So KW Trams bought the following ranges from ABS.

 

OO road vehicles (except buses), so this includes all of the items in this list except the Coaches and Saloons (R173-R294), the Double Deckers (R302-R398), and the bus spares which are generally in the R800 - R999 range.

http://www.87thscale.info/abs.htm

 

I also bought the R400 and R500 ranges which are the tram kits, motors and spares.

 

All of the items I have stock of are on the KW Trams website, others will be added later.

I have already added some additional kits to the steam power, horse power, commercial vehicles and military vehicle lists with plans to produce others.

 

I also bought the OO gauge people packs P400 - P450

 

I also bought some of the O gauge items from ABS including the O gauge People Packs, O gauge Trams, and some of the O gauge vehicles.

 

I would like to expand these ranges further. I am already looking at the Steam Power range to see what else can be done, and I have a number of masters that I don't think Adrian did anything with that I plan to produce in the commercial vehicles range.

If anyone has anything in particular they would be interested in me producing then let me know - particularly if you have masters or can help me produce masters or have drawings that can be used to produce the masters.

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