MTH has kept the lid on pricing better than Lionel has. Give them credit for that. I wonder how much more MSRP increase the traffic will bear, though. New catalog pricing is shocking. I am staying away from nearly all of it.
The MTH limited custom runs have a lot of value, IMHO, and the price increases haven't been that great compared to the added value. It seems this has become a new business model that MTH never expected -- and Mike Wolf said so. I jumped in strong because they've been and are exceptional designs with a lot of thought put in from the dealers.
I panicked over MTH's retirement, purchased a lot since, but now I'm getting picky again 
. Perhaps others now will be more picky, too, but it sure seems like the custom runs are very sustainable and Mike Wolf seems very pleased with that. At least enough to park his golf clubs for an early morning seat at his computer to check in on his company.
Mike
Finally got around to watching it last night. Nice to see Mike Wolf still involved with MTH as much as he is. I sure hope they will still do some Railking models. I would love to pick up a 4-4-0 Jupiter if they do another run in the Railking.
Brad
I also like many others would like to thank TrainWorld for having Mike Wolf on their program.
It was so nice to hear Mike speak about the MTH companies as well as his enjoyable retirement.
The MTH spirit is so very strong and it was so very nice to see and hear Mike on this program!
Thank you all for the kind words. Always great to hear from Mike and it always makes for must-see TV!
The replay is posted below for anyone who missed it.
All TrainWorld O Scale Exclusives Can Be Found Here!
This was really a most informative "must see" interview on par with Mike's tour of the Chinese train factory.
Ken Sr and Ken Jr Bianco's effusive praise of Mike Wolf as a man-of-the-people and a superstar is not overstated. As a celebrity in this industry, the unique trait of Mike--compared to other celebrities in other fields--is that Mike was always approachable. Whether you were a newbie or an experienced modeler, Mike would spend time with you listening and responding to your questions, suggestions or concerns as if you were his good friend.
In the interview, I was impressed with Mike's candor especially when he admitted he might have made a mistake selling off some tooling. The after-retirement business model apparently evolved and became more successful than he first anticipated. I was also a bit surprised how much Mike is still involved with the business even though he has enough time for four rounds of golf a week and making hands-on upgrades to his house.
Mike made a couple references to the latest Z-4000 on the water and how the next one might be five years away due to a redesign, and if you think you want one you should preorder one now, because they will be like hens teeth.
So, out of curiosity I checked the Trainworld website and a Z-4000 preorder is $799.00.
Glad I don't need one.
Train world.... Thank you again 
Train World, thank you so much for the interview and putting this on your YouTube Channel. I watched it and thought you did a great job. I'm a big fan of Mike Wolf and MTH. I just got back into the hobby in the early 90's, and it wasn't all that much different than the 50's, when I got out of it. But then along came Mike. And something different than a black steam engine and a warbonnet F-3 or a shortened GG1. And the diversity of engines was amazing. Soon PS1 was replaced by PS2 and then you had DCS. And Mike evolved from concentrating (only doing) models of real engines to "color sells", like he said in the video. And our train world got larger and larger. This truly has been the golden era of toy trains.
I had seen and spoken to Mike many times at York and had the pleasure of meeting him at Marty Fitzhenry's in 2009. A favorite picture of mine is below. It's a custom painted MTH Premier GG1 labeled MORLITZ LINES. Mike really did take it to heart.
Gerry
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