Latest Flying Scotsman tat

[Reorte]

17 minutes ago, maico said:

 

In the small print it says: 'I understand if I am not completely satisfied I have been had'

 

More like "If I am completely satisfied I have been had"!

[Steamport Southport]

What is it really though?

 

£150 for a gift for Dad/Grandad/whatever. I bet most people spend more than that on some rubbish birthday meal down the boozer that he didn't want to go to when he would have rather have had a kip on the sofa or watched the match....

 

 

 

Jason

[Deeps]

1 hour ago, kevinlms said:

Exactly the type of person that would keep his purchases from Bradford a secret!

I’m not sure if this is a compliment or condemnation. As far as I know none of my railwayana items have come from Bradford and I know not what the connection is? At the risk of being exposed to another drain on my pension could you explain it please.

[Reorte]

16 minutes ago, Deeps said:

I’m not sure if this is a compliment or condemnation. As far as I know none of my railwayana items have come from Bradford and I know not what the connection is? At the risk of being exposed to another drain on my pension could you explain it please.

The Bradford Exchange - the company that keeps selling the sort of tat mentioned in this thread, rather than Bradford the place.

 

edit: Well, I say selling. Advertising anyway. Although presumably someone must be buying it if they keep on going. Heaven knows who.

Edited April 23 by Reorte

[Steamport Southport]

11 minutes ago, Reorte said:

The Bradford Exchange - the company that keeps selling the sort of tat mentioned in this thread, rather than Bradford the place.

 

edit: Well, I say selling. Advertising anyway. Although presumably someone must be buying it if they keep on going. Heaven knows who.

 

They sell loads of it. You do realise they are a multi million* dollar organisation that's been going for decades?

 

*If not billion

 

 

 

[Deeps]

17 minutes ago, Reorte said:

The Bradford Exchange - the company that keeps selling the sort of tat mentioned in this thread, rather than Bradford the place.

Of course, and I apologise for being slow on the uptake. I imagined it was the location of an auction house specialising in railway memorabilia etc.

 

As to the items of tat featured in this thread, and being a financially inconvenienced pensioner, I would readily dump such items in a skip. Hopefully, my wife would do the same to me if she discovered I had bought one!

[Ozexpatriate]

11 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

They sell loads of it. You do realise they are a multi million* dollar organisation that's been going for decades?

 

*If not billion

The Bradford Exchange is a privately held company with 500 employees and a revenue of $140m.

 

For comparison, Hornby PLC revenues (2023) are £55.1 million // $68.7m.

 

They sell many different railway-related toy trains sourced from the Kader Group (Bachmann) which you can find under their "Villages and trains" shop.

 

Plenty of Bachmann H0 EMD-F1s and 0n30 Moguls dressed up as Budweiser or Coca-Cola / whatever. Also available for NFL teams, superheroes, Christmas, Halloween, and politicians. The Hornby Coca-Cola line is essentially a 'copy' of what the Bradford Exchange has been doing for years. Or Harry Potter.

 

There are illuminated resin buildings as well.

 

The QEII "model" is exactly the same as the silver dollar express. You'll note the Bachmann EZ track.

 

If you really want an EMD-F1 unpowered "B" unit with KISS on the side, you can have that too.

 

Edited April 24 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

On 22/04/2024 at 16:27, Damo666 said:

At least it's HO gauge and not OO like us serious modellers. 😀

 

It's actually 0n30. "O" scale narrow gauge running on H0 track.

[BR traction instructor]

Birthdays, Father's days and Christmas's are when children and grandchildren are always going to buy railway enthusiast dad/grandad something train related and cynical companies pedalling tat know it. The offspring usually know very little about railways but have probably heard the name Flying Scotsman...thus dad/grandad ends up with some useless item with Flying Scotsman written on it somewhere and has to appear grateful for it.

 

Similarly, I long ago stopped friends/family trying to buy railway books for me, just for the same hopelessly broad spectrum/mass market aimed titles to be carted off to the charity shop and added to dozens already there.

 

BeRTIe

 

Edited April 24 by BR traction instructor

[Ozexpatriate]

1 minute ago, BR traction instructor said:

Birthdays, Father's days and Christmas's are when children and grandchildren are always going to buy railway enthusiast dad/grandad something train related and cynical companies pedalling such tat know it. The offspring usually know very little about railways but have probably heard the name Flying Scotsman...thus dad/grandad ends up with some useless item with Flying Scotsman written on it somewhere and has to appear grateful for it.

 

BeRTIe

They're offering this framed plaque for $250.00.

 

[kevinlms]

4 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

They're offering this framed plaque for $250.00.

 

That is much better than the other items, except in price!

[Ozexpatriate]

Here's what browsing can do - and I was using (mostly) incognito browsers. "Thank you?" AdChoices by Google:

 

This is the Wheeltappers page:

 

 

[kevinlms]

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Here's what browsing can do - and I was using (mostly) incognito browsers. "Thank you?" AdChoices by Google:

 

This is the Wheeltappers page:

 

 

Just as well I pay my £12 a year to not get those ads!

[J. S. Bach]

Well, $15 (today's conversion rate) for me and very well worth it as it helps support the forum.

 

That makes it:

1.25 a month

0.29 a week

0.04 a day

 

Probably the second best train forum bargain on the 'net!

The first is the OGR* forum at $10 a year.

 

I do both and the enjoyment from them just can not be measured monetarily.

 

*O Gauge Railroading magazine sponsors it. There are at least two of us here on both.

 

 

 

Edited April 27 by J. S. Bach

[kevinlms]

8 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

Well, $15 (today's conversion rate) for me and very well worth it as it helps support the forum.

 

That makes it:

1.25 a month

0.29 a week

0.04 a day

 

 

 

Cost me $A23.67 in early December.

[Stray]

On 24/04/2024 at 05:50, BR traction instructor said:

Similarly, I long ago stopped friends/family trying to buy railway books for me, just for the same hopelessly broad spectrum/mass market aimed titles to be carted off to the charity shop and added to dozens already there.

 

 

Same as me, and not limited to railway stuff.  I tell them to buy me a £10 or £20 note, or any combination of the afore mentioned. 

[Johann Marsbar]

I will confess to owning a plate featuring 4472 which seems to date from 1988 and which was part of the "Great Steam Trains" collection produced by Davenport Pottery, so seemingly not one of the dreaded Bradford Exchange products!

It was bought for me at around that time by one of my Grandfathers, so I didn't have a hand in buying it......

To be honest, it's not a bad rendition either and certainly pre-dates the current hype/tat surrounding the loco.

[Deeps]

2 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said:

I will confess to owning a plate featuring 4472 which seems to date from 1988….

Very brave of you to own up to this. I wonder if any other members have the courage to make similar confessions? 🙂

[J. S. Bach]

1 hour ago, Deeps said:

Very brave of you to own up to this. I wonder if any other members have the courage to make similar confessions? 🙂

As posted above (somewhere):

No idea as to source as I got it at a US train show here in SC for a dollar. It is a little smaller than H0.

[25kV]

15 hours ago, Deeps said:

Very brave of you to own up to this. I wonder if any other members have the courage to make similar confessions? 🙂

Once upon a time (in the early 1980s, if not late 1970s) I had a cast Flying Scotsman nameplate (probably around 1:10 scale from memory) on my bedroom wall - I was still in single figures, age-wise, so don't recall where it came from.  No idea where it is now, though!  I'll ask my parents what became of it.

[97406]

As an aside, when I were a lad, there was a chippy in the village called McDonald’s as that was the surname of the bloke who owned it. The other McDonald’s stopped him from using his name, so he renamed his chippy “The Frying Scotsman”.

[cctransuk]

2 hours ago, 97406 said:

As an aside, when I were a lad, there was a chippy in the village called McDonald’s as that was the surname of the bloke who owned it. The other McDonald’s stopped him from using his name, so he renamed his chippy “The Frying Scotsman”.

 

Surely, if the chippie predated the MaccyDs, the chippie had the right to trade under his own name?

 

CJI.

[Reorte]

1 minute ago, cctransuk said:

 

Surely, if the chippie predated the MaccyDs, the chippie had the right to trade under his own name?

 

Doesn't stop the big companies trying sometimes - they can often rely on the small business going along with stopping rather than risk fighting the multi-billion business with loads of expensive lawyers.

[Hroth]

The only Flying Scotsman tat that I have is a Triang-Hornby Flying Scotsman with flickering firebox.  Now that IS tat and won't be replaced by anything more modern!

 

[cctransuk]

1 minute ago, Reorte said:

 

Doesn't stop the big companies trying sometimes - they can often rely on the small business going along with stopping rather than risk fighting the multi-billion business with loads of expensive lawyers.

 

I'm afraid that I'd resist being bullied - submit a certified document proving when I'd started trading, and tell 'em where to stick it!

 

CJI.