Price differential between liveries

[Del]

3rd rail electrics are my 'thing', and with the release of the OO VEP, CEP and EPB, I had high hopes of recreating the times when I first started with BR in the late '80s and the mix of blue/grey, NSE and Jaffa Cake.

But there seems to be a substantial price difference between models in 'plain' liveries (overall blue or green) and those that are more ornate.

Is it simply that those liveries are simpler to produce, or are the more complex ones being produced in fewer numbers, or a combination of both, or are their other factors at play?

The way prices are, I may well think about looking at the late '60s when I was born instead, and stick with blue VEP, CEP, EPB, BIL and HAL.

[Wheatley]

Blue/grey (assuming single piece body with yellow ends and grey roof) - four masking/spraying operations and one tampo printing operation with white ink.

 

NSE - six masking/spraying operations and three, possibly four trips through the tampo printing machine one ink colour at a time. So double the production time and much more opportunity for wastage through slightly misaligned colours/printing.

[Nick Holliday]

I seem to recall that when these EMU's first arrived there wasn't a great deal of difference in price between the liveries provided at the time. What may have created the apparent difference is that, whilst there appear to be plenty of the original issues in the simpler liveries, plain blue and shades of green, available at prices at, or even below, the original RRP, yet there has been an enormous price hike on the latest releases, which are mainly in the more colourful liveries, such as the Bachmann NSE sets. Just check Kernow's current DEMU prices to see the zero difference between liveries when you compare like with like.

[jamesg]

Livery designs are covered by copyright; many train operators require a licence fee for the use of their livery on a model.  Interesting example; when Bachmann released a Virgin liveried Class 57 with 'Thunderbird' nameplates, they had to get permission from Virgin and Carlton, the then owners of Thunderbirds.  Source: BRM Annual 2010.

 

This doesn't account for NSE livery though - the article goes on to say that NSE fought to get their livery on models.

[Zomboid]

Livery designs are covered by copyright; many train operators require a licence fee for the use of their livery on a model.  Interesting example; when Bachmann released a Virgin liveried Class 57 with 'Thunderbird' nameplates, they had to get permission from Virgin and Carlton, the then owners of Thunderbirds.  Source: BRM Annual 2010.

 

This doesn't account for NSE livery though - the article goes on to say that NSE fought to get their livery on models.

 

My Southern Pacific HH600 is labelled on the box "Produced under license from Union Pacific Railroad Company". I believe Atlas had to pay for the right to put SP branding on, though I don't think that was passed on in a model specific manner, as they sold other colour schemes which UP have nothing to do with for the same price.

[knitpick]

I did hear through a third party that the Bachmann C class in SECR livery was more expensive to produce than the plainer Black BR liveries.  From what I heard, the trade told Backmann to get the SECR livery right, not to skimp to save costs.  The SECR version was priced at £10 retail more than the BR livery and sold very well.  So (if my sources are correct) yes, more complex liveries do cost more to produce than simpler ones.

 

Notwithstanding this, there are also licencing issues.  One gets the impression that some companies like the benefit of the free advertising they get from seeing their liveries on model railway equipment - presumably the cleaner then the better the impression [so don't weather your modern stock if you want the licence costs to remain low ;~)].  Some other companies put very strict controls on their licencing such that you cannot buy through UK Bachmann stockists a 009 gauge model of a loco based upon a Welsh prototype; you have to rely upon grey imports.  (Yup I'm wingeing about Skarloey and Tal-y-Llyn.)

[w124bob]

The Union Pacific livery licence issue caused quite a stir a few years ago, they wanted what the US model industry regarded as far to much money to reproduce any of the liveries the UP had on it's books, past and present including all the acqusition and merger liveries.Terms of their licence meant that individual runs required a new licence. Thankfully common sence prevailed and UP realised the publicity potential, not sure what was finally agreed but UP Atlas, Athearn etc all seem happy.

[Kelly]

Also with third rail stuff (and others where applicable) nse will often be a limited edition option, so will be higher priced and less produced, whereas the plain blue or green models may get overproduction and therefore sell for bargain prices (Hornby bil and hal and Bachmann epb a good example)

[Butler Henderson]

There is also simple market economics at play. Once a retailer has recovered the costs of the goods to them any remaining stock is pure profit regardless of what price they ask for it. If it the goods include a particular model that has sold well they will be unlikely to drop the price significantly, whereas on one that has hardly sold they will be tempted to make a significant discount.

[Wheatley]

knitpick, on 26 Nov 2016 - 11:24, said:

Some other companies put very strict controls on their licencing such that you cannot buy through UK Bachmann stockists a 009 gauge model of a loco based upon a Welsh prototype; you have to rely upon grey imports.  (Yup I'm wingeing about Skarloey and Tal-y-Llyn.)

That's a little different. TTFTE might have started as a few bedtime stories written by a kindly vicar but it's now primarily a huge merchandising operation designed to sell toys (and pretty much everything else) with a few TV programmes thrown in. HiT's business is essentially to make money from licencing so if you want a licence it costs; a TOC might be more inclined to be less strict provided you aren't bringing them into disrepute.

 

The upside of a strict licencing process (for the manufacturer) is that your market will be protected by the licencee, so Bachmann exclusively have the US market and Hornby have the UK market, hence the grey imports.