ModelZone seeking Administration

[Obi-Jiff Kenobi]

How can you have 'at least 10 to 30% off'? Surely it's either at least 10%, or at least 30%. It can't be both...

[billbedford]

Who said English was a logical language?

[Andy W]

In fact everything inside won't be reduced, will it, because the Hornby stock isn't under the administrators' control.

Misleading advertising - send for Trading Standards? Or maybe not, the situation is depressing enough for the staff as it is.

[Leander]

Who said English was a logical language?

It's the way some people use it!

[Danemouth]

In fact everything inside won't be reduced, will it, because the Hornby stock isn't under the administrators' control.

Misleading advertising - send for Trading Standards? Or maybe not, the situation is depressing enough for the staff as it is.

Andy,

 

The small print at the bottom of the largest poster is an exclusion for concessions - noted that in Cardiff yesterday.

 

Davve

['CHARD]

When was the last time you encouraged someone under the age of 35 to take up model railways?

 

I never have.  But I don't tend to feel the need to evangelicise in any walk of life.  I won't persuade anyone to adopt a punk rock philosophy, drink cider over Stella, take public transport over driving, or look at trains in a slightly funny way just because it's what I choose to do.

 

I hate to say it - but things, times, fashions, people, hobbies change and evolve.  How many girls today do what their great grandmothers did for recreation?  How many sons follow their fathers into craft-based hobbies?  Not many.

 

The problem is much bigger than having no access to the likes of Model Zone, it's about an entire mind-set but that mind-set is created in a social and economic context.  And if I were under 35 I would have few if any of my abiding memories of what made my local railways interesting.  If I were a teenager seeing my local railways for the first time in 2013 I would be switched off completely by their banality.

[jon_1066]

Since this has wandered OT I will chip in.  My kids absolutely love travelling by train.  They are big, busy, fast (never underestimate the pull of speed) take you to interesting places and still mean adventure.

[Clive Mortimore]

I never have.  But I don't tend to feel the need to evangelicise in any walk of life.  I won't persuade anyone to adopt a punk rock philosophy, drink cider over Stella, take public transport over driving, or look at trains in a slightly funny way just because it's what I choose to do.

 

I hate to say it - but things, times, fashions, people, hobbies change and evolve.  How many girls today do what their great grandmothers did for recreation?  How many sons follow their fathers into craft-based hobbies?  Not many.

 

The problem is much bigger than having no access to the likes of Model Zone, it's about an entire mind-set but that mind-set is created in a social and economic context.  And if I were under 35 I would have few if any of my abiding memories of what made my local railways interesting.  If I were a teenager seeing my local railways for the first time in 2013 I would be switched off completely by their banality.

I am glad I am not the only person who feels this way...thanks Chard.

[Ian J.]

I think we also need to remember that somehow, some of us end up with a hobby just because somewhere in our blood/DNA/mental arrangement, there is that thing that likes it.

 

To illustrate, my family had/has no railway history with the only transport element being my father was a bus driver. I never saw steam in revenue earning service on the national network as I was born in 1969. Yet I'm still transfixed by railways, particularly British outline, and with steam at that.

 

So, it's possible that as long as a sufficient exposure to railways is given to someone (of any age really) then they might find they have the innate interest lying dormant in their jeans genes. The existence of Model Zone on the high street was at least a possible catalyst for waking up that interest.

[C&WR]

I'm glad to say I introduced the lad to my old model railway about a year and a half ago when he was fie and I finally judged he was gentle enough with toys to be allowed to play.  He loves it and can be trusted to do some simple scenic jobs like scattering flock.  Bless him, he has little idea of scale yet so I can find 1/32nd scale soldiers have appeared to guard various bits of the OO layout and a six-inch long model of Twickenham stadium has appeared to provide entertainment to passengers.

 

As for ModelZone it's a great disappointment.  I've hung about the Reading branch a lot in the 18 months since I got back into the hobby & used to get strange looks at London Irish Rugby matches when I then appeared after shopping with my latest bag of goodies...

['CHARD]

My kids absolutely love travelling by train.  They are big, busy, fast ... take you to interesting places and still mean adventure.

 

A lot of kids these days seem to be.

[big jim]

Called in the brum branch earlier, the railways stuff is currently 10% off however some of the stuff that was previously on offer/reduced etc such as the ltd ed 08 'starlet' that was £59 (iirc) and the few mk1s they had for £12 have gone back to their original prices

 

Staff pretty downhearted as can be expected

[The Stationmaster]

Paid a visit to the Reading branch this morning - the staff seem quite philosophical about it all and fairly positive with their fingers crossed.  One chap - who seemed to be in charge of sticking reduced prices everywhere and thus might be from 'out of branch' level? - explained that they have been told by the administrators their aim is to keep the business going as long as possible while getting in some cashflow - hence the sale to keep money coming in while a buyer is sought but that branches which do not manage to wash their face in terms of covering their immediate running costs are liable to be closed down.  At present they are selling what branches have in stock but he reckoned there is about a million £'s worth of stock in the company's warehouse and he was of the view that it would be distributed to branches that managed to keep shifting stock.

 

I duly did what I could to help by way of paint, Woodland Scenics items (various), Ratio lineside items such as GW water cranes and fencing and a few Bachmann wagons saving myself a decent sum by almost entirely buying things I would anyway have bought at some time in the future and mostly from them as a matter of convenience.  This sort of explanation for buying at a reduced price 'to take into stock' is regularly used by Mrs Stationmaster and she did smile benignly as I paid (probably because I was using money from my own account ).

 

In response to an earlier question I haven't seen any Bachmann locos in the Reading branch for sometime but I am an irregular visitor and most of the Bachmann items on the shelf were coaches with a few wagons - the reduced items included a Modelzone 'special edition' (trio of PO coal wagons) although it was a fairly old one.

[justin1985]

I popped into the New Oxford Street branch this afternoon, and stocked up on some Vallejo acrylics with 30% off, making them £1.54 each - almost insultingly cheap! I also picked up a Ratio N gauge footbridge with 20% off.

 

Much to my surprise (as there had only been a full price Farish 20 and 04 in the cabinet when I first got there), a limited edition N gauge 08 "Ivor" with 20% off, taking it down to £66 - the sort of price Hattons charge for a regular 08. There were also Farish Mk 1 coaches in green or blood and custard at £14, and the weathered Farish 20 was down to £88. When I asked, this was all they had, but they did have quite a lot more of the same models out back - about 20 of the 08s apparently. 

 

The staff seemed in reasonably good spirits, and said they'd been told news would come by Monday as to what happened. I overheard them saying their branch (at Holborn, I presume) had made considerable profits in the previous year, and gave the impression they expected the branches would be judged on merits. 

 

 

When was the last time you encouraged someone under the age of 35 to take up model railways?

 

As a modeller who is (just about) still 27, these kind of comments always wind me up. As many people have said, most people become active modellers only in their 40s or so, basically when their kids are old enough to appreciate it or have maybe already grown up and left, or they've reached a more stable phase in their careers. Personally, I came back to trains in my early 20s, after having given up in my early teens. I think the lack of younger modellers is more about availability of money, space, time and perhaps simply concentration during your 20s and 30s than a lack of interest. A surprising number of my late 20s/early 30s friends have at least sympathy, if not temptation to follow suit, with my modelling, and several more seem to have a latent interest in trains - e.g. noticing details that go beyond the everyday simply using trains. 

[Oldddudders]

But I don't tend to feel the need to evangelicise in any walk of life. 

I beg to differ. I believe your one-man crusade against the evil that you see in the Fell Diesel Mechanical marks you out as a man who knows wrong when he sees it, and will not let it rest.

['CHARD]

Aaaaaaargh!!!!!!!!!

 

Hot potato, orchestra stalls, Puck will make amends.

[Butler Henderson]

Bemused to find Oxford diecasts had gone up in price to £4.99 a car but with 20% off which takes that back down to the £3.99 which they had been. Still resisted buyinga Baccy MPV at £57.

[andyman7]

The problem is much bigger than having no access to the likes of Model Zone, it's about an entire mind-set but that mind-set is created in a social and economic context.  And if I were under 35 I would have few if any of my abiding memories of what made my local railways interesting.  If I were a teenager seeing my local railways for the first time in 2013 I would be switched off completely by their banality.

Yes, but there is something ludicrous about anyone over 40 assuming that they know what kids will find interesting. My son absolutely loves the modern rail scene...and also like steam engines! I like BR blue diesels/electrics which (as we have seen elsewhere) many on this site loathe. The future for any high street model shop chain will come from understanding their entire customer base and serving it profitably. Whist RM webbers are potentially a component, they certainly don't represent anything like the whole opportunity!  

[Cheekypaul]

I was given vouchers worth £50 for Christmas and as they expires in August, I took my time with it, but then suddenly I heard about what was happening with Modelzone, and off I went visiting some stores to see what I could get.

I have been planning to build a n gauge layout (I previously had a large OO gauge layout but sold it last summer when I moved)  so I decided to use the vouchers to start building up a collection of n gauge rolling stocks. (I'm into era 5 - ie 1955-1965).

 

I'm from Reading and my local store hardly had any Graham Farish items in stock (they used to have loads not long ago) so I had to visit the other stores, ie Guildford etc but they never had much in stock and I was beginning to give up when I thought I should try the Basingstoke store.

So off I went yesterday, and to my surprise, they had like loads of Graham Farish in stock, and on display too, so I had plenty to choose from. I would say there were about 50-80 items on display.

Before I started making my decisions as to which items to get, I had to check where I stood with the vouchers because all information I read here were a bit confusing. They did say something about how because I had £50 vouchers, I got to find items that's worth at least £100 and I assumed it meant I would pay just £50.

 

But it was not until after I chosen some items, worth £144, thinking after £50 is taken off, I would pay just £94 but it was not until I went to the till that it turns out I just need to pay £72!
 

For just £72 I managed to get six maroon coaches and two horse box vans, and to think they're worth £144, so I got myself a bargain!

I know some items at Modelzone can be expensive, compare to Hattons, etc, but I had a £50 vouchers and it wasn't my money in the first place so it helped with the total cost in the end!




 

[trisonic]

Hence the expression: "It's an ill wind..........."

 

Glad you got to use your vouchers.

 

Best, Pete.

[The Stationmaster]

Lesson number 1

 

NO wife ever smiles benignly when you are spending your money on your hobby. She's just found the bargaining tool she needs for that new kitchen/conservatory/lounge suite you'd told her you couldn't afford.......

 

Edit for spelling!

Not to worry Alastair - this week she bought us a new mattress (well the other one had done about 20 years) and I bought a new occasional table for the living room.  and fortunately we havea  cheque on its way from Scottish & Southern to pay us for our electricity we've 'exported' to them.  Swings & roundabouts.

 

Back on subject but my son was told in Modelzone in Reading today that a group of buyers turned up yesterday and bought a large chunk of the Bachmann stuff that had been sitting in the stock room - no wonder the Reading branch staff don't seem too unhappy thus far.

[OnTheBranchline]

Lesson number 1

 

NO wife ever smiles benignly when you are spending your money on your hobby. She's just found the bargaining tool she needs for that new kitchen/conservatory/lounge suite you'd told her you couldn't afford.......

 

Edit for spelling!

 

Easy, never get married!

 

[Craig Watson]

Went into the Manchester Deansgate store yesterday, posters up stating liquidation sale everything must go, everything was between 10 to 30% off excluding Hornby & scalextric with most railway items at 20%

 

Picked up the Charringtons TTA 4 pack for £37 as they'll come in handy for my "Heavy Traffic" layout.

 

I've only really used their Glasgow store for bits and bobs recently as my modelling focus has been on my Canadian HO layout.

 

The staff were pretty downbeat as can be expected, hopefully they can get through it though.

[Norm81]

When was the last time you encouraged someone under the age of 35 to take up model railways?

 

A bit OT here, but every single one of you on here did, coupled with a visit to the local club exhibition last year where I saw Blackmill.

 

Though I could suppose I more returned to the hobby than took it up afresh... but I'd say it still counts.

 

 

I would think that either the Newcastle or Metrocentre Modelzone store will end up being lost due to the proximity to each other.

[quicksilvercoaches]

Went into the Milton Keynes store and the sad thing is there were more customers today than I've ever seen in there before. They've never had much railway stuff there, apart from Hornby which is all still sat there at full price. Plenty of Oxford Diecast and EFE with 20% off, but this is where I see MZ's problem: even with that discount those items are still more expensive than online retailers' normal prices. As an example, I bought a Dennis F106 fire appliance elsewhere for £10 and MZ's price is £14.99 so with 20% discount that's still a whole £2 more. Had a chat with the staff and wished them well, one chap was rightly worried about the impact on the hobby as a whole with the loss of shiny window displays to lure in passers-by and turn them into modellers.