Bachmann – Not Optional Extras

[wirey33]

Over the last few years Bachmann have started to sell locos with weathering and/or with sound fitted.  As an example, their model of Class 47 47190 in Trainload Petroleum livery came as a weathered version without sound and a pristine version with sound. Of course, I wanted a pristine version without sound which means I would have to buy a sound fitted one, remove the sound chip, fit a normal chip and sell the sound chip. Costs - £210 for the loco, £15 for a DCC chip then maybe recoup £80 for the sound chip on eBay. Total expense £145 (without taking into account my time to switch chips and eBay fees). The weathered version with a DCC chip would be £115. That’s a £30 premium (25% of the cost of the loco) to get what I wanted.

 

Surely Bachmann have the historic knowledge and sales figures to understand the market and release a pristine and a weathered model in the correct ratio and then have an option to have sound fitted? Why can’t they manufacture 1000 models, 600 pristine, 400 weathered and fit sound to say, 50% of both types? Look at car manufacturers; they cater for almost every niche imaginable because they see a sales opportunity. Choice is the key to drive sales.

 

We now have 2016 announcements that coaches will come weathered and with people added at a significant premium over the normal price. What if I don’t want either weathering or people? I can’t sell the weathering I remove from a coach and who would buy some seated figures? Result - Additional cost with no added value for me. And the cost - £55 for a (poorly) weathered coach with seated passengers??? Really?

 

Let’s be frank, factory applied weathering is rubbish. If I’m buying a scale model and paying over £40 for it, I’d expect the level of weathering to match the quality of the coach. I could understand “Railroad” rolling stock get a quick blow over with some brown muck but not top of the range stuff. Like buying a new Jaguar and finding they’d applied 1970’s style go faster stripes and a Dukes of hazard horn.

 

Rapidly rising prices, lack of choice for customers, delayed product – at this rate I’d be hard pushed to guess which of Hornby or Bachmann will hit the buffers first?

Regards

Frustrated of Basel.

[MRDBLUE17]

I guess this might be more difficult for you living where you do as you might be more limited but this is where a good model shop comes in handy. It's often worth asking say where you want a model but not sound there are many who will swap this around for you depending on there being another suitable release to swap chassis with the trio of weathered 37/0's was a good example where this was possible. Might be worth a try to get the model you want.

 

Mark

[wirey33]

But the whole point is that I shouldn't have to rely on the goodwill of model shop owner to be able to buy what I want to buy.

[Theakerr]

I wanted a Class 40 with green ends.  Only way I could get it was with a decoder and sound at a premium price.  I am a firm believer in the principle that 10% of something is better than 100% of nothing.  I did not buy.  So Bachmann received a 100% of nothing.  I did note that in the end said model was being discounted rather significantly and it appears they have now been sold.   Perhaps my reaction was not unique.

[FelixM]

I wanted to have one of the retooled Bachmann Class 40s in green with Discs. They produced one in this guise in the initial round, but with sound. So I did not buy, but kept my eyes open, and hey presto, one evening one was popping up on the then excellent RMweb Classifieds page. The guy selling it just needed the sound and therefore was selling the locomotive relatively cheap, I paid him 100€. He even was able to post it from Germany to me which makes postage less as it's not international. I had to wait 2 weeks for it though, but it was defininetly woth it.

 

I wish you all luck in finding your favoured version.

[cctransuk]

But the whole point is that I shouldn't have to rely on the goodwill of model shop owner to be able to buy what I want to buy.

 

........... and the other point is that you can't please all of the people all of the time !!

 

Bachman cannot produce all of the perms. and combs. at the same time, and if you'd been happy then there'd be plenty of potential customers who would have wanted what you didn't want.

 

It's just the luck of the draw - and with a bit of modelling you can usually have what you want when you want it.

 

Has the open season on Bachmann been declared whilst I wasn't paying attention !!!

 

One hell of a lot of "I want .... " at the moment.

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

[Ian Hargrave]

I wanted a Class 40 with green ends.  Only way I could get it was with a decoder and sound at a premium price.  I am a firm believer in the principle that 10% of something is better than 100% of nothing.  I did not buy.  So Bachmann received a 100% of nothing.  I did note that in the end said model was being discounted rather significantly and it appears they have now been sold.   Perhaps my reaction was not unique.

I bought and sold the sound chip on.As a result,I now have a fabulous model early EE type 4 1-Co-Co-1 or Class 40 if you prefer

[wirey33]

........... and the other point is that you can't please all of the people all of the time !!

 

Bachman cannot produce all of the perms. and combs. at the same time, and if you'd been happy then there's be plenty of potential customers who would have wanted what you didn't want.

 

It's just the luck of the draw - and with a bit of modelling you can usually have what you want when you want it.

 

Has the open season on Bachmann been declared whilst I wasn't paying attention !!!

 

One hell of a lot of "I want .... " at the moment.

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

 

But my point is this - with a bit of effort, Bachmann could please more of the people, more of the time.

 

They make the item I want, but then sling a sound chip in it or weather it badly, so I don't buy it. Sale lost.

 

Offer it with or without a sound chip (like Hornby do with some of their models) and they've got the sale.

 

I'm not expecting them to offer every variation of every class of loco, just widen the choice of what they do offer; stop weathering things ;-)

 

I want Bachmann to succeed; 70% of my stock is from them. I'm just frustrated that they always seem to get things the wrong way round for me (and I accept that's probably the right way round for others).

[traction]

You don't actually have to turn the sound on though, so could leave the decoder in there and most sound decoders do tend to give nice motor control.

So it comes down to basically the money side of things.

 

There's a very easy choice, don't buy it, if everyone did that Bachmann would get the message eventually, maybe.

 

Cheers

 

Ian

[45059]

I agree with what you say about the lousy weathering- I wish they wouldn't bother.

 

With my 47190 I had to pay the premium for it being weathered, only for said weathering to have to then be stripped back and replaced with something more authentic looking.

 

I had the same thing with 47560. (£60 for a limited edition Bachmann 47, blimey, that seems like a long time ago now!)

[JSpencer]

I think the problem is that if we are making options available across the same models: i;e basic pristine, with weathering, with sound, with figures etc.. looking at data to date, you will find great variations in the proportions that actually sell.

 

Right now, the NRM is offering 3 options on the same model model for a pair of Deltics:

Deltic Prototype DCC Ready Pristine £130
Deltic Protytpe DCC Ready Weathered £140 - SOLD OUT!
Deltic Prototype Pristine plus SOUND £250 - limited availability

KOYLI DCC Ready BR Blue Pristine £125
KOYLI DCC Ready BR Blue Weathered £135 - SOLD OUT!
KOYLI BR Blue plus SOUND £250 - - £20 OFF NOW £230 !!

 

The proportions between models are the same. The weathered ones have sold out, so clearly the guess on those was underestimated. For DCC sound, one has all but sold out, the other is not shifting as fast as they would like because it has a price reduction.

This really shows what a mess trying to get the right proportions are.

 

Combine this with recent price hikes alongside with many new models being priced as TBA, Bachmann and retailers are doubtless scratching their heads over how many and what proportions they are supposed to order.

This means the current pre-ordering and pricing strategy is not appropriate for today's market.

 

One solution to this, will be to switch to a Rapido type strategy. You offer all options, fix a price and fix a cut off date (which you can extend if thee are delays) and make to those proportions (+ spares). This too has certain down sides but is probably the only strategy for high ticket items. No one has complained about the Sterling single being £200 for a  basic model and there are 4 options. However people who ordered a Blue Pullman when it was TBD, then price was announced and a lot of people cancelled it as they found it expensive.

 

This will avoid Bachmann/retailers ordering too much or not enough stock and allow for more options.

[Broadway Clive]

At a time when price rises are the biggest threat to sales I cannot understand the sense of adding extras unless they can be done at very low cost. I imagine weathering at the usual horrible factory standard comes into that category, but anything that increases the variety of stock that needs to be carried is adding extra costs to the supply chain. A better way might be to have some authorised retailers add them and for those options to be numbered and listed in the catalog. 

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Call me cynical, but all the 'add-ons' (decoder fitted, lighting, sound, weathering, passengers) to the basic model are there to prop up a disproportionate price increase over that for the basic model. I want my choice of decoder, my choice of weathering, and specifically don't bother with sound (what's playing in my head is FAR superior) lights or models of people (which uniformly look awful because they are static).

 

Charter member of VAMOOSE! Vanilla Models Only as Standard Edition.

[31A]

 models of people (which uniformly look awful because they are static).

 

 

 

 

Even more awful when the coaches are static, in the sidings!

[JSpencer]

I think Bachmann are ok to try pre-fitted passengers.

 

Doubtless they had feedback saying cannot fit your figures in the coaches because they are hard to take apart. Which is true (although the chosen mk 1 suburbans are from a simpler era).

 

If they don't sell because "not my thing" and "additional cost too much", they will disappear like the figures inside the cabs of steam locos.

[No Decorum]

Bachmann might not be as wide of the mark as we think.

Way back in the 1950s, the Great Modernisation Plan was in full swing. I suppose I was in the region of 10–12 years old at the time. The big switch in motive power was from clockwork to electric. New coaches were required but scant thought was given to passenger comfort because in those days coaches had no seats. When I trotted into my local shop clutching my shillings, the assistant showed me a restaurant car which had, as he put it, “tables and chairs and wee bottles of sauce”. He made his sale and I returned home, delightedly repeating what he had said. The “wee bottles of sauce” became a family joke but there was some interest as well, my mother suggesting that they weren’t bottles but glasses with napkins folded inside them.

 

It is good news that Bachmann is taking on more staff and has negotiated more production capacity from Kader but it is hardly exciting. Likewise, one new tooling is not what we have come to expect. I can imagine brains at Bachmann heating up with the effort to inject some excitement into the sparse programme and adding passengers being the result. Perhaps upon seeing them, they will have a “wee bottles of sauce” effect or perhaps we are a little more sophisticated (or jaded) nowadays.

 

As to static passengers, I recall missing a connection years ago. I had charge of the luggage and SWMBO our two small daughters. She could not get them past a large man smelling of beer who was completely static. On the platform, I saw our connection pulling out and all I could do was ensure that the door to the coach remained open until my family got off. At least they weren’t carried many miles onward.

[JSpencer]

Bachmann have stated clearly that they have a backlog to clear up so I agree that announcing new items with no real chance of delivering them in a realistic timescale nor being able to advise the cost is a sensible thing to do.

 

Price increases also mean that Bachmann need to observe how the market responds. If things sell, its not an issue to do more. If they don't, then there will have to be revision on how things are produced. Retailer's and buyer's (including myself) are also having to rethink it seems. There are also a lot of new players, which clearly take some part of the market share (though the market itself might have expanded a little too).

 

I see Rapido have announced a "wife approved pricing" range today that cuts back on fitted detail (though they provide a bag of bits to enhance it) with an all new model of a North American Prime mover. (I guess sort of falls between basic Railroad and top end models - that should have people clinging for definitions!). Such a direction could be a consideration for Bachmann if the next year shows that new items are not moving. 

[Legend]

I see Rapido have announced a "wife approved pricing" range today that cuts back on fitted detail (though they provide a bag of bits to enhance it) with an all new model of a North American Prime mover. (I guess sort of falls between basic Railroad and top end models - that should have people clinging for definitions!). Such a direction could be a consideration for Bachmann if the next shows that new items are not moving.

 

I think that's a very sensible approach by Rapido and maybe an indication that there is a ceiling to what people will pay. The " wife approved pricing" is perhaps tongue in cheek but I think very relevant. It's not so much the cost of things but perceived value that's the issue . Rapido was previously high detail , high cost operation , the fact That they are going down this road must mean they sense there is a limit. Good on them. Hopefully Bachmann will see the light. I like the bag of bits, harking back to CDK , oops I feel some déjà vu coming on

[jjb1970]

I don't even think we need point to Rapido, the modern tooling of the Hornby Railroad range provides some nice models at attractive prices for those who don't need all the bells and whistles but who do enjoy running model trains and are happy to accept a few compromises to keep costs down provided the models look good on their layout.

I think it'll be interesting to see how the market moves. We have Dapol testing the premium waters with their Black Label range for those with deep pockets, if that sells well it may encourage more premium models. I do think there is a market for such models, I also think there are markets for the mainstream ranges of the manufacturers and a space for more economical models.