Hornby to end the Thomas the Tank Engine range

[James Harrison]

I wonder if there might be more below the surface here; look at the TTTE range from Hornby and it is almost wholly mouldings pensioned off from the main Hornby range and put in the Thomas bracket just to see out a few extra years of revenue-earning service...

 

We all know that tools and moulds don't last forever, and when they need replacing it's generally quite an expensive job. 

 

Factor in other points mentioned; onerous licencing agreements, the price of the models, the shrinking age range of the demographic. 

Factor in other points I've not seen mentioned; Hornby's financial worries, slippages in getting models off the drawing board and onto model shop shelves. 

 

I wonder if Hornby were looking at TTTE and thinking, "The moulds are almost shot and will cost £££ to renew.  The models are so expensive we can't shift enough of them to make enough profit to make it worthwhile.  What money we do make, we have to hand over some of it to the licence holder.  We only have enough factory capacity to make so many models, do we really want to use it turning out toys that we can't sell and don't make us as much profit as possible? We need to make models that we know will sell like hot cakes and make us the maximum profit because the banks are breathing down our necks." 

 

Well, in that climate, wouldn't you, in Hornby's position, be looking to get shot of an increasingly doubtful proposition?   

[darren01]

It come down to cost, there not a lot of cash about and the Thomas stuff is not cheap even the railroad stuff is now hitting much higher prices.

[andyram]

No it hasn't it's just lots of overreaction is blamed on it. People who don't know how to do risk assessments just go to safe extremes as it's easier than thinking of what responsibility is

1 Ow it hurts,

2 well don't hold it by the sharp bit and walk with it slowly.

Apply a risk assessment and you do part 2 first and avoid part 1. If they are daft enough to ignore part 2 then they experience part 1 and you say "Well I told you!"

The only difference is at work you wrote part 2 down and present it in court if it gets that far. The army quite clearly know guns are dangerous and you only point them at the bad chaps, they still have trouble with them

What I meant was - we live in a world where the blame culture exists and the rise no win no fee ability to sue for any injury has resulted in a situation where Health and Safety has gone far beyond what has been required.

[dibber25]

I am surprised at this- or are Hornby no longer interested in selling train sets? - I would have thought they still sell quite a number of train sets via catalogue companies/ Argos etc??

 

Perhaps the licensing takes too much of the perceived profit?

 

On a recent Rapido newsletter it was said that they couldn't do the Spiderman-liveried F40PH unless someone coughed up the $50,000 that Disney wanted for the licence. So, yes, in all probability the licence cost is exorbitant - especially if the popularity of the movies is on the wane and they are looking for more ways to milk money from the franchise.

[jjb1970]

I get the impression that movie merchandise in general isn't as lucrative as it once was, the change in children's toy preferences seems to be wider than just trains.

[E3109]

I get the impression that movie merchandise in general isn't as lucrative as it once was, the change in children's toy preferences seems to be wider than just trains.

Kids are so fickle these days, aren't they.

 

If the Internet killswitch were ever pulled, I imagine that many of our youngsters simply could not function.

 

My generation, well we'd just go down the woods, make some rope swings, be RA all night and then maybe Nick a few pints of milk off doorsteps on the way home.

[brack]

Do we know for sure that Hornby pulled the plug? Might it be one of those 'mutual' decisions? Bachmann/kader have clearly invested far more in their Thomas range and continue to do so, whereas Hornby haven't bothered for years. Perhaps the licencees see this and wonder why the UK market (where Thomas originated and which ought to be a big/lucrative market) hasn't been offered any new Thomas model for years whilst Bachmann have brought out loads of new characters. If I owned the IP I'd be thinking that Bachmann could well make us more money...

Of course Hornby might just be getting out of the kids toy game.

[Blue Max]

Kids are so fickle these days, aren't they.

 

If the Internet killswitch were ever pulled, I imagine that many of our youngsters simply could not function.

 

My generation, well we'd just go down the woods, make some rope swings, be RA all night and then maybe Nick a few pints of milk off doorsteps on the way home.

So it was you that nicked my pint of milk, you owe me threpence and three farthings!

[Clearwater]

On Thomas products, we have a fair bit of the brio gauge stuff and the Take'n'PLay. Both equally popular with the junior members of the family. The Take'nPLay sets have less long term play value - they can be a bit gimmicky but still get used. The locos are generally well made whether wood or die cast. Some have buttons you press to make appropriate noises, often Americanised, which can be irritating on many levels. I've often thought the Hornby range should be more innovative using TTS to play catchphrases etc.

 

It wouldn't surprise me if they'd let a global licence or that the range simply wasn't profitable for Hornby. It may also not just be a question of profit for Hornby but also of risk. These sets may have a seasonal distribution and the risk of missing that window vs the profit might not make sense (cf prior tie in issues where products arrived later than the event in question). Even if the range is profitable, if that pre-Christmas delivery manufacturing slot could be used for a more profitable product, why keep producing the Thomas range?

 

David

[newbryford]

Maybe they should invest in Ernie the Engine instead?

 

Not suitable for kids....

 

 

Cheers,

MIck

[wombatofludham]

I never liked the way Britt Alcroft and successors handled the development of the Railway Series (I'm on the Continuity Wing of the Railway Series Liberation Front, I refuse to big up a single character) post the Awdry family sale of the rights, I've always felt the good Reverend would be spinning faster than a gas turbine if he was around knowing that preservation - something he helped kick-start with the Tal-y-Llyn railway just down the road from me - was having such large amounts of money sucked out of it by corporate giants through "licencing" deals aggressively policed. So, Hornby ditching the brand is no great loss in my view.

 

Plus I happen to agree with the view the market is different. "Thomas" seems to appeal to a younger age group than parents are happy with using steel rails and 12volt electricity, if they are bothered by "Thomas" at all, and I don't think not having a "Thomas" range will hurt Hornby. My first train set wasn't "Thomas" and I remember a time when Hornby had no "Thomas" range yet still made exciting train-sets with loads of play action that were fun.

 

As a final note, my niece, who had her first train set this Christmas off her mad fat Welsh uncle when he was given the heads up by Santa's admin team that she'd asked the great man for a train set, wasn't bothered by Thomas despite being, age 5, probably in the core demographic. So, as the instructions from Santa HQ were "plastic track and battery operated" to be five year old compatible, she got a G scale Chinese made train set from East Coast Railways in Norfolk. As can be seen, compatibility with Playmobil was more important than any "Thomas" relationship

[John M Upton]

I do wonder if sales of the most recent release of Thomas models from Bachmann were affected by their inexplicable decision to change the colours of Thomas, Edward and Gordon to a washed out pale blue and Henry to an insipid mint green?

 

It was because of this that I eschewed the current production runs of Thomas and Gordon and found older issue ones on Ebay for less than half the cost.  Quite fun working with a Ringfield Type 5 motor again after so many years, it works a lot better than some more modern mechanisms!!

[JSpencer]

Like others, I think sales is just the shift in demographics moving to younger and younger kids and now completely off being replaced by chuggington and others.

The license fee also probably reached dizzy heights at the same time. Bachmann might fill those shoes in the short run, but I suspect the licensing will put them off in the end.

 

Slightly related, Rapido did consider a Diesel loco in Spider Man colours (as per a prototype) but rapidly dropped the idea when Disney asked for $50000 dollars!

[adb968008]

This comment intrigues me. What on earth can be perceived as dangerous within a Thomas train set?

 

As a retailer, I better be prepared to make a lot of youngsters and their parents very disappointed in the future.

The track, a kid messing about could easily get a fishplate in their eye, bite off a buffer beam,

 

I have a scar on my middle finger from when I was 6 years old... running round the table top to stop a Dublo 80054 running away I figured i’d Switch the point blade with that finger.. slicing it open about 1.5cm... painful, messy and never done that twice.

 

When it comes to risk the world has changed.

 

However if we went dead rail.. track for kids could become plastic.. it’s possible to overcome this problem.

 

 

If it’s about licence cost, maybe Hornby should consider Chuggington ?

However if it’s the end of the ride for Hornby toys, then it’s throwing in the towel on the future generation, i’d Assume Railroad would meet its demise next.

Edited April 22, 2018 by adb968008

[John M Upton]

However if we went dead rail.. track for kids could become plastic.. it’s possible to overcome this problem.

 

 

Suggesting anything be converted to plastic in the current Daily Mail crusade dominated climate may incur their wrath,  Just see the looks of hatred you get if you publicly ask for a 5p plastic carrier bag in Waitrose lately....

 

And they will only take away my treasured curly wurly plastic drinking straw over my dead body!!!

[adb968008]

Suggesting anything be converted to plastic in the current Daily Mail crusade dominated climate may incur their wrath,  Just see the looks of hatred you get if you publicly ask for a 5p plastic carrier bag in Waitrose lately....

 

And they will only take away my treasured curly wurly plastic drinking straw over my dead body!!!

Ah..

I guess we have to switch to rtr in Brass then. :-)

[APOLLO]

Such a namby pamby world we live in today. Bite off a bufferbeam, stab with a fishplate !!!!!

 

Before I got my first Tri-ang TT train set (aged 9) I "helped" (played) with my elder brothers set in Mum & Dads bedroom. The controller mains lead went straight up to the light socket, a splitter there had a push on/off switch - no earth either, reached from a wobbly chair, fell off a couple of times !!!

 

Not recommended but that was how it was back then. We survived !!

 

Brit15

[jjb1970]

Ah..

I guess we have to switch to rtr in Brass then. :-)

Gets my vote! The good people of Boo Rim, Sam Model etc would I am sure be agreeable to making some OO models for UK importers...... Edited April 22, 2018 by jjb1970

[7013]

Themselves...in.... shooting....the.  

Shame really, lots of children still love Thomas, and if Hornby had used a bit of marketing savvy (some hope) they could have exploited other areas that bring Thomas to children e.g. interactive.. 

[jjb1970]

I think that the future of the Railroad range is much more important than TTE. The Railroad range has had an identity problem and is really two ranges, one for what is left of the toy trainset market and one offering lower cost and spec models for the enthusiast market. I think that the concept of an entry level product range is important and that there is a market for lower cost but still good models. Other companies such as Piko and Athearn have been successful in developing a multi tiered product range, certainly they have done it more effectively than Hornby. Hornby are the only OO company serving those segments and I do think there's a market for the higher enthusiast tier but Hornby need to figure out what they want Railroad to be. I think it needs to be split out into a start and a hobby range.

[Retro_man]

Perhaps the thinking is they can make more money by selling the licence to Bachmann than continuing to sell the trains...

[John M Upton]

Maybe put the Railroad range under another name (e.g. Oxford Rail as it seems the two are now buddies) and leave the Hornby brand to be the upmarket high spec specialist stuff? 

[wombatofludham]

I think people berating parents for being "namby pamby" are being too judgemental. I too had metal track and electricity to play with at an early age, together with stuff you could choke on, cut yourself open on tinplate, and other injuries, and that was in the 1960s. Back then though there were no alternatives. Today it's possible to find safer alternatives than brightly coloured Hong-Kong made tinplate robots made from razor sharp tab and slot tinplate or Triang trainsets with a transformer that hums and gets hot whilst stepping down 240volts to 12volts.

 

One thing my brother is not is namby pamby, but he would prefer to allow Alice to play safely whilst making sure she is fully aware of the more important risks and safety issues that affect young children today, hence the large scale plastic train set seen earlier.

[Killian keane]

From what I've seen this is all a hoax, there are a number of spelling errors present (effecting rather than affecting and Audrey rather than Awdry etc) and there's nothing about it on their facebook page

Edited April 22, 2018 by Killian keane

[Il Grifone]

I get the impression that movie merchandise in general isn't as lucrative as it once was, the change in children's toy preferences seems to be wider than just trains.

 

A whole load of Mattel 'Star Wars' merchandise ended up in pound shops....

 

I did waste some money on assorted spacecraft! 

Edited April 22, 2018 by Il Grifone