Back in the mid to late 2000's(approximately 2006 - 2010) the wording "new tooling"was often added to the products description, in MTH's Premier section of their catalogs. I usually paid attention to those two words, as I appreciate improvements, i.e. - better added on and molded-in details, that give a model a more realistic appearance. I often took the gamble on a projected, but not yet built... newly tooled piece. MTH's Premier U30C comes to mind, as a good example. I don't know what the initial version looked like, but I do have a model built with MTH's latest tooling, a BN unit, PS 2 equipped; and it's an all-around superb model.
That was a big part of the allure for me; hopefully, ending up with a better/nicer model. Sometimes, I purchased locomotive models that I felt somewhat disappointed in, because they appear to have been manufactured using old tooling; models that MTH didn't feel the need to improve upon, yet, or couldn't afford to do so, at the time.
I always check out the totally new models being advertized, that have never been produced before, by MTH, at least not in their Premier line; but, I also still like seeing the - "new tooling" designation.
Hopefully, we'll see more of that, if and when the resources become available, to improve...
Rick
