Hornby 2021 - Playtrains starter range

[Steamport Southport]

57 minutes ago, Ruffnut Thorston said:

That castle sound like the Timpo castle...it came in different size sets..

 

 

 

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=timpo+medieval+castle&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiTza29_JTuAhXFwoUKHREjCasQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=timpo+castle&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQARgBMgIIADIGCAAQCBAeOgQIABBDOggIABCxAxCDAToFCAAQsQM6BwgAELEDEEM6BAgAEB46BAgAEBhQ4ooEWOjCBGD0zwRoAHAAeAKAAYIDiAHyJJIBCDAuMTkuNC4xmAEAoAEBqgELZ3dzLXdpei1pbWewAQDAAQE&sclient=img&ei=ANf8X5PNHsWFlwSRxqTYCg&bih=1534&biw=1279&client=safari&safe=strict

 

Timpo also made a good railway model....It runs on O Gauge plastic track, very similar to Tri-ang Big Big Train track, but black, not red...

 

 

Yes. It was something very similar but not quite.

 

Something in the back of my mind is thinking it was this one by Cherilea. It was over forty years ago....

 

 

https://timpoworld.forumieren.com/t721-cherilea-products-england

 

I did have loads of knights though and I think many of them were Timpo. Seemed to end up with lots of stuff like that from cousins who had grown out of them. Old toy soldiers, Cowboys and Indians, Subbuteo, etc.

 

Pity than none of them were into trains.... 

 

 

Jason

[ianmacc]

9 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

Yes. It was something very similar but not quite.

 

Something in the back of my mind is thinking it was this one by Cherilea. It was over forty years ago....

 

 

https://timpoworld.forumieren.com/t721-cherilea-products-england

 

I did have loads of knights though and I think many of them were Timpo. Seemed to end up with lots of stuff like that from cousins who had grown out of them. Old toy soldiers, Cowboys and Indians, Subbuteo, etc.

 

Pity than none of them were into trains.... 

 

 

Jason

Used to love subbuteo and even found cross compatible bits with my train Set due to the common scale! I had an entire corner extension to the layout with the pitch set up! 

[railroadbill]

My grandson got a Playmobile knights castle the Christmas before the one just gone,  and that's absolutely brilliant,  working drawbridge, firing cannon, hidden prison, and so on, took his dad ages to put it together.  Great play value, lots of stories to make up about the different knights defending or breaking into the castle to rescue someone etc.  Anyway, when it was grandson's next birthday, (which very fortunately happened a while back when covid restrictions had been pretty well lifted)  he asked for a cake in the shape of a castle.  His mum came up trumps with a mixture of miniature civil engineering and baking, which did need a lot of chocolate to strengthen the walls.

Tastiest castle I've ever seen. 

[boxbrownie]

5 hours ago, railroadbill said:

My grandson got a Playmobile knights castle the Christmas before the one just gone,  and that's absolutely brilliant,  working drawbridge, firing cannon, hidden prison, and so on, took his dad ages to put it together.  Great play value, lots of stories to make up about the different knights defending or breaking into the castle to rescue someone etc.  Anyway, when it was grandson's next birthday, (which very fortunately happened a while back when covid restrictions had been pretty well lifted)  he asked for a cake in the shape of a castle.  His mum came up trumps with a mixture of miniature civil engineering and baking, which did need a lot of chocolate to strengthen the walls.

Tastiest castle I've ever seen. 

Playmobil stuff is the best, by far....when working I did a lot of work in Europe and used to bring a couple of playmobil toys back for the kids each trip, at first it was unheard of over here but oddly later on the main office of playmobil in U.K. was on the trading estate backing on to our facility......great for spares.

Edited January 13, 2021 by boxbrownie

[CazRail]

This will be ideal for my daughter who turns 3 in August. Already likes watching things whizzing around my layout, so this will be great for her!

[boxbrownie]

6 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

Playmobil stuff is the best, by far....when working I did a lot of work in Europe and used to bring a couple of playmobil toys back for the kids each trip, at first it was unheard of over here but oddly later on the main office of playmobil in U.K. was on the trading estate backing on to our facility......great for spares.

To add to my tale, it was the Playmobil train toys that actually got us all into G scale garden railways with LGB (which is what playmobil used as a base/motor), so win win there.

[railroadbill]

That's very useful information about Playmobile using LGB mechanisms, David.  Got some LGB track, just an oval, an 0-4-0 tank and a couple of open trucks, great for a warm day when the grandchildren were still able to come over. So a cheapo Playmobile loco could provide an LGB mech to go under a plasticard diesel (which I made and is still in the get round to it pile).  One thing that went down well was having open wagons that they could put all manner of objects in and convey them around.

One problem with Playtrains that I can see is that so far I haven't seen any open wagons at all. There is a freight set but it has closed vans.

The idea that Hornby will put stories about the trains and make them into Thomas type characters is interesting, that could work for them.

One drawback is only having one controller. It isn't clear if each additional train comes with it's own remote control, or whether 1 controller runs several trains. however, I think you would need one controller/train per child to avoid "controller wars"....

Edited January 14, 2021 by railroadbill
typo

[boxbrownie]

One of the best things about LGB in the garden was that LGB being German design their tankers to actually carry fluids........can get almost a litre of beer in them 

[railroadbill]

Now there's a good idea....

[Mike Storey]

6 hours ago, railroadbill said:

 

One problem with Playtrains that I can see is that so far I haven't seen any open wagons at all. There is a freight set but it has closed vans.

 

Not true. There is one freight set that will be available with two open wagons.

 

https://www.Hornby.com/uk-en/shop/playtrains/playtrains-express-goods-2-x-open-wagon-pack.html

 

[Ruffnut Thorston]

Hopefully, the top of the open wagons, which cannot be seen, is actually open, to allow loading....

[railroadbill]

15 hours ago, Mike Storey said:

Not true. There is one freight set that will be available with two open wagons.

 

https://www.Hornby.com/uk-en/shop/playtrains/playtrains-express-goods-2-x-open-wagon-pack.html

 

That wasn't clear on the Youtube presentation, that's what it needs but as Ruffnut  Thorston says they need to be open to allow loading...

[Mike Storey]

2 hours ago, railroadbill said:

That wasn't clear on the Youtube presentation, that's what it needs but as Ruffnut  Thorston says they need to be open to allow loading...

 

Very true - the play value of that cannot be over-emphasised.

[Hroth]

On 14/01/2021 at 13:52, railroadbill said:

One drawback is only having one controller. It isn't clear if each additional train comes with it's own remote control, or whether 1 controller runs several trains. however, I think you would need one controller/train per child to avoid "controller wars"....

 

It seems that there is a red controller for the "Thunder" and "Bolt" locos, and a yellow controller for the "Flash" Local Express.

 

There's no information about the yellow controller, but the red "Thunder" and "Bolt"  controller is vaguely described on the Hornby website

https://www.Hornby.com/uk-en/shop/playtrains/playtrains-solo-controller.html

 

 

 

[RJS1977]

On 06/01/2021 at 06:05, Phil Parker said:

 

Lego trains are part of the bigger system so appeal well outside the model railway world. That's their USP. 

 

Aside from Tomy, Brio compatibles and MyWorld, there's nothing else building a system. Tons of cheap junk toy railways but those are played with once and then head for landfill. 

 

Giving human characteristics to non human things has a long history because kids identify with them. Aside from Thomas, Ivor etc. the same thing can be said of Pixars range of car and plane films. In toy terms, every teddy bear does it. Sylvain families has sold massively over the years with humanised animal miniatures. 

 

 

Indeed, I've heard it said that from a sales point of view, one of the most important parts of a car is getting the "face" (headlamps and grille) to look right. A car that has a 'smiling face' will sell a lot more than one that looks sad.

[Phil Parker]

On 14/01/2021 at 13:52, railroadbill said:

That's very useful information about Playmobile using LGB mechanisms, David.  Got some LGB track, just an oval, an 0-4-0 tank and a couple of open trucks, great for a warm day when the grandchildren were still able to come over. So a cheapo Playmobile loco could provide an LGB mech to go under a plasticard diesel (which I made and is still in the get round to it pile).  One thing that went down well was having open wagons that they could put all manner of objects in and convey them around.

One problem with Playtrains that I can see is that so far I haven't seen any open wagons at all. There is a freight set but it has closed vans.

The idea that Hornby will put stories about the trains and make them into Thomas type characters is interesting, that could work for them.

One drawback is only having one controller. It isn't clear if each additional train comes with it's own remote control, or whether 1 controller runs several trains. however, I think you would need one controller/train per child to avoid "controller wars"....

 

A bigger problem with Playmobil trains is they stopped making them years ago, and the garden railway fraternity have been hoovering up examples since then on the second hand market.

 

You will find an LGB starter set is often cheaper new, and offers plenty of play value. Add in a couple of their flat wagons with Lego compatible tops, and you have my childhood dream train set. 

[Phil Parker]

On 11/01/2021 at 23:27, Les1952 said:

Just a thought on the track.

 

Is the new red track compatable with the previous black stuff?

 

-and did it occur to our esteemed moderator(s) to ask?

 

Les

 

Playtrains track is nothing like the Junior range track as even a cursory glance will show. They share the same gauge, but that's it. 

[RJS1977]

20 hours ago, Mike Storey said:

 

Very true - the play value of that cannot be over-emphasised.

 

Agreed - there's a whole 'world' outside the railway fence but connected with it in some way which if 'modelled' adds to the play value. So that's wagons being loaded/unloaded including from ships and road vehicles, vehicles moving (either under their own power, or pushed by hand) - including buses connecting with trains at the station, and vehicles waiting at level crossings, and (in the larger scales), passengers getting on and off.

 

This I think explains part of the popularity of Lego and Playmobil - it's not just a railway, it's a whole integrated world. Not so common in smaller scales, although of course we had Minic Motorways with its level crossings and railway car transporters in the 60s, the Lima working Freightliner crane in the 80s, and - one of my favourite childhood toys - the Matchbox harbour and railway sets. The harbour set included a container barge, set of containers, crane and forklift truck, and the railway system included a conflat wagon that was compatible with the containers. 

 

The harbour set formed a part of my father's 00 layout for some years until a desire for greater realism overtook it, and - along with the railway set - was later given away, although some of the containers may still live on on the layout somewhere.

 

(I did manage to pick up some matchbox locos and rolling stock a few years back, some of which I have converted to 009, and if the length of lockdown exceeds my list of lockdown projects, I might look at trying to pick up a harbour set and use it as the basis for a small layout).

 

Anyhow, my point is that junior railway sets have the most play value when included as part of a larger play range. Hornby have Corgi and Airfix in their fold (and also MicroScalextric*) but these are all separately managed as different ranges, whereas some collaboration in producing "play sets" - or at least flagging up items in the other ranges which could work well toghether  - could pay dividends.

 

* Yes, I know MicroScelextric is 1:64 not 1:76, but the mechanisms are small enough that 1:76 commercial vehicles such as container wagons and buses could be built around them - and Minic Motorways wasn't exactly to scale anyway! 

[RJS1977]

This was the Harbour set. No railway included, but as mentioned, the containers were compatible between the Harbour and railway sets and I could - and often did - lay the railway tracks into the harbour scene (I notice Matchbox also did a railway goods yard set with similar operating features and vehicles).

 

[Phil Parker]

32 minutes ago, RJS1977 said:

Anyhow, my point is that junior railway sets have the most play value when included as part of a larger play range. Hornby have Corgi and Airfix in their fold (and also MicroScalextric*) but these are all separately managed as different ranges, whereas some collaboration in producing "play sets" - or at least flagging up items in the other ranges which could work well toghether  - could pay dividends.

 

Apart from the Quickbuild buildings that will be part of the Playtrains range that is. 

 

The range hasn't launched yet and already you're criticising because it's not as all encompassing as you'd like. That's the difference between being someone who has to plan and finance it and someone with a keyboard and no responsibility. If this works, and that will be decided by Argos, not RMweb, then it offers excellent foundations for growth. Rather better than a poor running single set for M&S did, but look how that grew. 

[RJS1977]

3 minutes ago, Phil Parker said:

 

Apart from the Quickbuild buildings that will be part of the Playtrains range that is. 

 

The range hasn't launched yet and already you're criticising because it's not as all encompassing as you'd like. That's the difference between being someone who has to plan and finance it and someone with a keyboard and no responsibility. If this works, and that will be decided by Argos, not RMweb, then it offers excellent foundations for growth. Rather better than a poor running single set for M&S did, but look how that grew. 

 

Sorry, it wasn't intended as a criticism of the range - more as a suggestion of how Hornby could grow it.

[Phil Parker]

16 minutes ago, RJS1977 said:

 

Sorry, it wasn't intended as a criticism of the range - more as a suggestion of how Hornby could grow it.

 

Part of that growth can also be online. There will be a website which I believe will include downloadable buildings. I'd like to think they will prove popular now people are making stuff. 

[BokStein]

Given that when a certain S.K. came back into the fold, the Junior range disappeared without trace as he had seen Marklin's myWorld at the Warley show, future developments will be interesting.

 

Whilst the red track looks to have its own connections, I wonder how long it will be before an adaptor track is produced to allow PlayTrains to run onto Dad's layout?

 

Needless to say that Marklin already have adaptor track (their plastic track is simply their existing C Track but fully molded in plastic; even the central studs are included!) and adaptor wagons with an NEM socket so that their myWorld wagons can run happily on Dad's layout.

 

Given the similarity between PlayTrains and myWorld, if there hasn't been collaboration between Marklin and Hornby, then a lawsuit may not be far off!

[009 micro modeller]

3 hours ago, Phil Parker said:

A bigger problem with Playmobil trains is they stopped making them years ago

 

Does that suggest they weren’t as commercially successful as hoped?

[Phil Parker]

25 minutes ago, 009 micro modeller said:

 

Does that suggest they weren’t as commercially successful as hoped?

 

Possibility. Although Markiln do go bust as often as the Sugababes change their lineup so Playmobil might have just decided it wasn't worth the bother.