Seeing as there's premier steam still on the table it would be interesting for Broadway Limited to jump in. There's also some F Series and so forth too they could pick up.
"Broadway Limited to jump in."
Given history and people, seems a stretch to me, but hey, you never know. Bob Grubba might take some satisfaction in having rights to former MTH tooling. Guess we'll have to see how this plays out. The obvious candidate to purchase rights to tooling, particularly at bargain basement prices, is Lionel, but they'd have to modify the tooling, I assume, to use LC 2.0+ or Legacy. I agree Menard's is the longest of long shots for various reasons. Perhaps a group of dealers (e.g., Mr. Muffin, Pat's, Nicholas Smith, etc.) will get together and purchase rights to use tooling on a pay as you use it basis. I think that's more likely than any of the outright purchase possibilities. Why invest capital in an uncertain market?
They currently have Bachmann HO sets in stock and they've carried Lionel starter sets around the holidays -- Wisconsin Central I remember. So, it seems to me, it wouldn't be a huge step for them to add some skews for MTH starter sets. Perhaps just horn/whistle? They also sell a lot of their own cars, and starter sets give them something to pull them. Who knows? We are all just throwing in our two cents anyway. If someone asked me 20 years ago if Menards would be MAKING O Gauge buildings and cars, I would've laughed!
Actually making starter sets (versus just stocking) is a big deal, I realize. But who knows?
Not sure why Lionel would buy tooling for so many items they already have tooling for.
As for Bob Grubba and any hard feelings business is business. I highly doubt his feelings towards Mike are anywhere near as hostile as the modeling community.
I can't count the times I've seen competitors who have sued each other then turn around and do business deals.
@Landsteiner posted:Perhaps a group of dealers (e.g., Mr. Muffin, Pat's, Nicholas Smith, etc.) will get together and purchase rights to use tooling on a pay as you use it basis. I think that's more likely than any of the outright purchase possibilities. Why invest capital in an uncertain market?
You're missing an obvious point. Having the tooling is the tip of the iceberg, you have to have the whole infrastructure in place to manufacture and service the products!
Besides, isn't the announcement that started this thread stating that MTH in whatever form it takes will be producing these products? Who says the tooling is going anywhere?
So now it’s sounds like their won’t be much left of the post-Mike MTH after all. Need a score card to track all of this.
@Madockawando posted:So now it’s sounds like their won’t be much left of the post-Mike MTH after all. Need a score card to track all of this.
Seriously, everyone is speculating ideas. None of this is reality other than what MTH has provided.
The OP pretty much spelled out what the plan is. Seems like sufficient tooling will remain to keep pushing BTO items. I've passed a few ideas onto my LHS folks so hopefully I'll see something new from them. There are questions to be answered but it's clear to me at least for the near future that MTH will be around just a bit leaner.
What some of these folks read into these things is amazing.
@TexasSP posted:Seeing as there's premier steam still on the table it would be interesting for Broadway Limited to jump in. There's also some F Series and so forth too they could pick up.
In a recent Trainworld virtual trainshow the owner of Broadway Limited was asked about O scale. He sort of laughed at the question and said "no,we view O scale as a dying market".
" Having the tooling is the tip of the iceberg, you have to have the whole infrastructure in place to manufacture and service the products!"
Of course. I was going with the assumption that the negotiating with, receiving product from and distributing would still be through the remaining MTH organization, as long as it lasts. But the dealers would have to front the money or pay a licensing fee for the use of the tooling. I suspect that's pretty much what is happening now, so it's an extension of the recent few months' story. Perhaps a more formal and structured contractual arrangement than at present. Seems more likely than some white knight swooping in at the last minute and purchasing the RailKing and Premier Steam tooling as some are suggesting.
I have no insight I to what Broadway Limited is interested in pursuing. My original thought was more philosophical in nature regarding their involvement.
People change their minds all the time. Who knows what will happen. Even those intimately involved seldom have a crystal ball. Business like life tends to be more unpredictable than many care to admit. Best to remain somewhat flexible.
With the QA and paint issues across Lionel and MTH, limited parts availability in some cases, and the inability of Atlas to bring to market new locomotives, I wonder if we're starting to see the man behind the curtain in this whole process.
From my admittedly untrained eye, it's starting to look like there are a few OEMs and parts suppliers in Asia, and our "American" companies just schedule production line time and provide "specifications" to them. Once the work is done, they act as an importer. Point being is that all that might be really being "sold" here is exclusive rights to use molds and tooling. I know it's been mentioned that Mr. Wolf has a factory over there, so maybe he was involved a little closer to the ground floor of the whole operation, and "commoditized" the O-scale model train industry. He did sub-contract for Lionel years ago in a similar capacity, correct? Maybe after 40 years and all the work in Asia, Mike has things streamlined such that anyone with enough orders can work directly with the factory and then act as an importer of sorts.
It also might be a combination of things, i.e. where a "manufacturer" designs an electronics package, and specifies colors and molds, and the factory builds a model to spec, inserting the electronics as supplied by a third party (either Lionel, MTH/DCS, ERR, or whatever other vendors there are).
Pure speculation on my part, but this whole saga with MTH's "restructuring" has me puzzled and wondering.
Edit: I should also mention since I'm new (relatively) to O-scale, especially so when it comes to "insider" knowledge, having just learned of the whole history between Lionel, MTH, and specific individuals involved in past clashes, it makes even more sense to me that way. Maybe someday we'll get a really good tell-all book about the 21st century robber-barons of the model railroad industry.
