Menards vehicles in 1/48th

Dave...Did you check the dimensions of the truck ?

Thanks 

Yeah, those are some big vehicles. Probably 1:36 or the like. MTH has "over-scaled" some TOFC equipment, as I recall. They shouldn't.

The truck box is 5"x2"x2" .

Ok that truck is 1/48th but that is not why I started the thread.

If Menards can get trucks made to 1/48th at a price we can all afford, why can't other diecast and vehicle mfgs do the same? 

Dave your absolutely correct.   However 1/50 pretty much as trucks and equipment locked in, bigger customer base than just us O scale folks 

Several companies make good/inexpensive 1/43 and similar scale vehicle. You just got to go looking for them.

david1 posted:

Ok that truck is 1/48th but that is not why I started the thread.

If Menards can get trucks made to 1/48th at a price we can all afford, why can't other diecast and vehicle mfgs do the same? 

It's been answered many times:

Menards doesn't rely on die-cast or toy trains to "pay the bills".

They are a BIG hardware/home improvement chain. Lumber,powertools,hardware etc. Are their bread and butter.

They probably make more money on honey roasted peanuts than the trains.

The trains and toys (and honey roasted peanuts)are an eensy weensy little add on thing. I believe Menard markets these things to give the Big Chain a bit of an old fashioned local hardware store of yesteryear feel.

Spec cast and Lionel don't sell enough power drills and hammers to offset a big discount on die-cast cars or  toy trains.

If Menards can get trucks made to 1/48th at a price we can all afford, why can't other diecast and vehicle mfgs do the same?

David, it has been said that Menards Chinese contractor is a company called Golden Wheel. Although Mark of Menards has not made any comment on that, nor is he required to. But should it happen to be Golden Wheel, they happen to make a wide variety of all sorts of die cast vehicles in a plethora of scales.

I'd be willing to gander that Menards is NOT having any new tooling made for their vehicles - which by the way, have been in a variety of sizes. Instead they are taking advantage of the vehicles already made by Golden Wheel. So while the truck being referenced may be 1:48, many of their other cars, trucks and military items are not. Some of the smaller vehicles, trucks or the busses have come on the shorter traditional flat cars.

This combined with the fact of what RickO posted above. Trains are a small side line for Menards, not the bread and butter they are for the other exclusive train makers. If Menards didn't have a line of home improvement stores, they'd probably have to raise prices - if they even bothered to take the risk of having trains made at all.

For whatever reason, the existing market of already made die cast vehicles are 1:43. Some are 1:50 and others 1:55. This has been the established market, with a small minority of vehicle offerings being at 1:48, and those are usually small runs with prices that reflect that. Check out prices at some of the websites selling only vehicles and you'll see the 1:48 are always a lot more money.

If you recall the K-Line Kruisers line, that was just clever marketing by K-Line, re-packaging already tooled up vehicles. Most of the autos were 1:43 and the other vehicles varied in scale. MTH and Lionel have also done the same thing, utilizing existing vehicles and trucks to use on flat cars.

I personally, don't think there's enough of a market in 1:48 vehicles to make them profitable and recover the tooling investment. And just supposing, let's say Lionel or MTH were to start a 1:48 vehicle line... absolutely NO ONE would be happy unless every single car and truck ever made was offered all at once at square one - and that would be an expensive tooling bill! Some people want older cars, some want newer cars, some want foreign cars, others only American. Some prefer Ford over Chevy. Some prefer Chevy over Ford. And that list could go on and on. I didn't even mention vehicle color.

There was a guy here, over a year ago who posted he wanted to have 1:48 vehicles made for him. He got a couple of pages of interest that were a Christmas list of requests that by the way, were all over the place with no consensus. And then we heard nothing about it again, save for another post, where he said he was looking for financial investors. And that's the key! It's going to take a lot of money to R&D and tool up a 1:48 vehicle line, with a very high risk of not getting a return on the investment.

Can't we get off this losing argument, once and for all.

O David, this is a fine nice kettle of STUFF you got us in, however I believe we will forgive yee.   When old Mark gets around to doing a scale black single dome tank I will hold my enthusiasm or the Phil's win a wild card spot this year( or next). or wild Mary gets his brewery, maybe.

John