New Atlas series

[PhilJ W]

I'm not a collector of Stobart merchandise, so I was only interested in the truck collection for a couple of 'scenic' items and decided to go for the 'loss leader' and see what else was in the series.  It was the road / rail vehicles in the World of Stobart collection that I was most interested in, so I'm glad that you think that the Unimog is worth waiting for.  To be honest, the Komatsu is probably a little on the large side and if I was going to part with £25, I'd probably rather purchase the slightly smaller version that Oxford are producing, but I'd probably be happy with the Atlas version at £2.99 - if I ever receive one.  I notice that the one on the Stobart shop is advertised as being form Oxford Diecast, but I was under the impression that the Atlas version may have been produced by someone else.

 

Anyway, I'll just wait and see whether anything is delivered in the new year (apart from payment reminders).

The Atlas version was not produced by Oxford, however Oxford had the self same model in an advanced state with manufacture imminent when Atlas announced the series. At the moment I have only seen one Unimog up for sale, at £30! hopefully prices will settle down as they did with the excavator. At one time they were going for very high sums, up to £80 on e-bay, now they are down to a more sensible £15-20. 

[Dungrange]

That's what I thought and as such, models from the World of Stobart collection will probably not appear on the Stobart site unless the base model is being produced by Oxford Diecast.  I'm not sure how many are / may be Oxford models.  The Komatsu is listed on the Stobart website as coming soon - ie once the Oxford Diecast model is released.

 

I certainly wouldn't pay £80 for a Unimog in 1:76 scale, no matter how good a model it may be, so e-bay may have to wait.  I understand that Oxford Diecast intend to expand their construction range, so hopefully there will be another model announced next month.  When I spoke to the representative from Oxford Diecast at Model Rail Scotland in February, he was unwilling to confirm or deny that they may be producing any road / rail equipment in the near future, so I have my fingers crossed.

[PhilJ W]

I don't seem to be able to cut and paste the list, this might be down to the privacy settings on Facebook or more likely my being a computer Luddite. The list only gives a name of the item and no description of it and includes airport items as well. So I am writing out the list giving a few more details. The list also includes models already produced/annouced up to so I will begin with the next one on the list after the MAN box van. The next on the list is the SARO Javelin airfield crash tender and this will be followed by an airfield de-icer spray lorry. The next six models will be rail related. First of them will be a Morooka MST150 carrier, this is one of those small dump trucks on catapillar tracks. 2) will be a Mecalac714MW road rail excavator. 3) Colmar 10000FS materials handler, this might also be road rail. 4) Leibherr A900ZW road-rail excavator. 5) Scania RV14, similar to the Oxford 'crane lorry' but a 6 wheeler with an older style cab. 6) Daewoo/Philmor S140WV another road rail vehicle that appears to have an attachment for handling round timber? The next two items are an airport tug and aircraft handling equipment. After that comes one of the most useful models, a small DAF road sweeper

http://www.flickr.com/photos/77175657@N00/12515802515

The final model on the list is another airfield crash tender.

EDIT I understand that there will be about 30 models in the 'set', the above brings the number of models including those already issued to 20 so it looks as if theres even more to come.

I have found an illustration of the actual vehicle on the 'On Track Plant' website. The 'Philmor' part of the designation refers to the engineers wagon attached to the excavator. These wagons are the small low ones with inside bearings used for carrying tools etc. on trackwork sites not the hauled stock. Apparently they are often semi permanently attached to road/rail machines such as excavators for carrying the excavator buckets, in the illustration there is about three such buckets in the wagon but none attached to the excavator. If your interested in on track plant the OTP website is well worth checking out but you will have to sign up if you want to see anything other than thumbnail pictures.

[Steadfast]

Don't want to put a dampner on the hopes of an RRV trailer, but Philmor also do the RR conversion on diggers by Daewoo, Komatsu, Cat etc so could just be one of these on it's own.

http://www.gosengineering.co.uk/rail/tracked_rrv/

 

Jo

[PhilJ W]

Don't want to put a dampner on the hopes of an RRV trailer, but Philmor also do the RR conversion on diggers by Daewoo, Komatsu, Cat etc so could just be one of these on it's own.

http://www.gosengineering.co.uk/rail/tracked_rrv/

 

Jo

The actual vehicle is wheeled not tracked. I would imagine that Atlas would want to include such trailers in the series. Incidently the rail wheels are set at the scale gauge not 16.5mm, so they are set to run on P4/S4 track. 

[Steadfast]

Also in black, sorry, with wheels :-)

http://www.gosengineering.co.uk/rail/wheeled_rrv/

Stobart one at the bottom of the page

 

Jo

[hammy]

Has anyone had anything off atlas recently

[big jim]

Nope, last one was sammy the shammy in november and 2 invoices for the previous months item, still waiting on the unimog

[Pete Harvey]

I have two possibly three models outstanding Sammy, Unimog & fire tender.

 

I'm glad I did not set up DD as payment as I don't think I would trust them again.

[PhilJ W]

This series has decended into a shambles. I enquired by e-mail as to what has happened to the models, it took them a week to answer that they are 'out of stock'! A certain celebration in a brewery comes to mind. The Atlas collectors group on Facebook is full of complaints, on their own Facebook page they will not accept any criticism and have even excluded people who have criticised them. The last model I received was 'Sammy the Shammy', there has been two models since that only a few people have received. Jim, I regret to inform you that the Unimog is one of those models that is 'out of stock', together with the two models supposedly issued since November and the class 66. I have e-mailed them asking if and when those models will be back in stock, I am awaiting their reply but I'm not holding my breath.

[PhilJ W]

I have two possibly three models outstanding Sammy, Unimog & fire tender.

 

I'm glad I did not set up DD as payment as I don't think I would trust them again.

I have the Sammy and the Unimog. The next model due is the fire tender and the next one after that is a de-icer for aircraft, some subscribers have received either one or the other of those models but AFAIK no one has received both. If it wasn't for the fact that I want some of the future releases I would have cancelled but I'm sticking with it for now in the hope that there are so many cancellations that there will be plenty of models to go round.

[Pete Harvey]

Well I have just logged on to the Atlas website and checked I have two out standing payments for models that were never on the World of Stobart models list I have never received them so I'm not paying for them as they are not parts of the series.

[big jim]

Well I have just logged on to the Atlas website and checked I have two out standing payments for models that were never on the World of Stobart models list I have never received them so I'm not paying for them as they are not parts of the series.

hmm, better log in tomorrow and have a look at my account too, im missing the unimog but have the 66 which very few seem to have recieved

[darrel]

I still have not received part 1 . Phoned them up and they said it was out of stock. Not had a single thing so far. I only really want the unimog and the class 66

[Roddy Angus]

I suspect that these models are being made in small batches, at least less than the total number of subscribers, and sent out as they arrive to those who are due a model, not in a set order.  I have already received the Unimog, about 3 months ago, but have not received the Class 66.  I think it is a case of patience and wait until your turn.

 

I am paying by direct debit and the only complaint I can make about the service is that some of the packaging is a bit flimsy, but, even if bashed, the contents have been fine. The only time I cancelled a subscription, I was able to do so without any problems.

 

Roddy

[quicksilvercoaches]

I had a Greatest Show on Earth model last week but nothing from World of Stobart since November, when I received Sammy Shammy. Another does appear to be on the way though as there is an invoice raised on 18 January for a 'Scania can' (sic) that I haven't received yet. Annoyingly, the invoices aren't listed in date order on the Atlas website and you can't sort them, which makes it very difficult to work out what's what, especially for the Greatest Show on Earth where what is listed on the invoice doesn't always match what was actually sent.

[big jim]

airport de-icer unit turned up today, still no unimog for me, thinking of jacking the series in now as nothing of any real practical use on the layout anymore

 

[big jim]

there is an invoice raised on 18 January for a 'Scania can' (sic) that I haven't received yet.

 

i'd say 100% that "scania CAN" is the de-icer as its called "cand-ice" and my invoice statement says the same too and as you can see it arrived today

[PhilJ W]

i'd say 100% that "scania CAN" is the de-icer as its called "cand-ice" and my invoice statement says the same too and as you can see it arrived today

No sign of mine yet, and nothing on my account either. There is a few models that I am interested in so I'm not going to cancel it just yet despite the last model arriving at the beginning of December. The problem is as they replied to my query you will get the complete series eventually but it appears that if a model is missed, going by what people have said about other Atlas series, any 'missing' models are not dispatched until the series is complete.

[quicksilvercoaches]

i'd say 100% that "scania CAN" is the de-icer as its called "cand-ice" and my invoice statement says the same too and as you can see it arrived today

And you would be entirely correct, mine arrived today too. Nice model but would look better in a non-Stobart livery (I'm not a Stobart fan) so I'm thinking of starting my own fictional airport ground support fleet.

[big jim]

yeah, going by a previous post someone mentioned a road sweeper which is useful so im not sure whether to cancel but i'm not sure what im going to end up with any more as the de-icer wasnt on the original list (the website also shows the fire tender which is really no use to me either), oh what to do

 

regards the de-icer the more i look at it the more i can see it as a street lighting maintainance type vehicle, modify the rear so the cherry picker is hanging over the rear of the truck, (i'd say thats more prototypical for road going vehicles) and de-decal the london southend part

 

i may well put some of my unwanted items on ebay soon (stacker) or look at repainting some of them, the horsebox would make a good Network rail mobile site van, signing in point, mess room

[PhilJ W]

yeah, going by a previous post someone mentioned a road sweeper which is useful so im not sure whether to cancel but i'm not sure what im going to end up with any more as the de-icer wasnt on the original list (the website also shows the fire tender which is really no use to me either), oh what to do

 

regards the de-icer the more i look at it the more i can see it as a street lighting maintainance type vehicle, modify the rear so the cherry picker is hanging over the rear of the truck, (i'd say thats more prototypical for road going vehicles) and de-decal the london southend part

 

i may well put some of my unwanted items on ebay soon (stacker) or look at repainting some of them, the horsebox would make a good Network rail mobile site van, signing in point, mess room

There are six rail related vehicles, three more airfield vehicles and the roadsweeper to come. The next model which some have already received is a tracked dump truck of the type used on track renewals, the other five rail vehicles are road/rail vehicles like the Unimog. The airport vehicles are an airport tug, baggage carrier/loader and another different crash tender based on a Scania 6X6 truck.

[Pete Harvey]

Thinking about it I recon Atlas have done this on per pose as far as I can tell the people they have shipped the unimog to have all cancelled after getting them so they are making everyone else wait so they can make as much from everyone as possible.

[PhilJ W]

I am wondering if Atlas Editions are having cash flow problems. The nature of their business model, offering a 'loss leader' first and then hoping that enough people sign up can cause problems if too many people just take the loss leader then cancel. I queried the late arrival of the reach stacker, when I phoned them I was told that they were late arriving from their suppliers. The supplier was Oxford Diecast and that particular model was already available from the likes of Hattons and the Stobart shop.  The reason as I said is that they could have cash flow problems. Their suppliers could be witholding stocks until the previous stock is paid for, this would explain why some subscribers receive a model on time whilst others are several months late, they have to collect the monies from the subscribers to pay for the next batch. As many subscribers have cancelled due to the delays it only makes the situation worse. I do think that as many subscribers had said they were waiting for the Unimog and then cancel this has caused the situation to get worse.

[quicksilvercoaches]

Phil makes a good point but quite frankly Atlas may have only their own ineptitude to blame for their cashflow problems. They've certainly earned themselves a terrible reputation for unprofessionalism and poor customer service that must be driving customers away, yet their inexplicable attitude is to sweep all criticism under the carpet, bury their heads in the sand and blindly carry on as if there's nothing wrong.