Model Power meets the Franklin Mint meets E bay

Actually, Franklin Mint used Mantua locos (which are noiw being rereleased by Model Power, with some improvements.) And they're not "pewter," so the seller is misrepresenting the item. But then (s)he probably doesn't know any better - he did buy the thing from Franklin Mint, after all.

Um, now that I think of it, was it the Danbury Mint that used Mantua locos?

Anyhow, the item in question isn't HO scale, and is pewter. But $200? ROTFL.

Franklin Mint DID do a pewter Southern Ry PS-4 pacific in HO scale. I've seen several of them. The cost was absurd, the castings were NOT 'crisp', the detail heavy and poorly executed, and the mechanism was crap. It did superficially LOOK a bit like like one of those late Mantua "collector's" series models, with the gross unpainted brass detail parts, etc. It was a PS-4, however, and was NOT a "Mantua" or "Model Power" model reworked. It was a unique piece with nothing in common with any other model I've seen. It didn't look too bad as a shelf model (from a distance), may have some slight collecting value, but as a running model it's lousy.

Dan Mitchell ============

Dear folks:

Yes, the Danbury/Franklin mint jokes are always good for a laugh, but what transports this particular E bay item into the realm of the truly weird is that somebody went to a huge effort to make a pewter model of a PLASTIC TRAIN SET LOCO with NO PROTOTYPE! Heh. Look at it... It's obviously the ersatz Model Power 'Old Time Fat Boy', bulked up boiler, tacked-on stack and cowcatcher, and all!

Cordially yours, Gerard P.

Daniel A. Mitchell wrote: [...]

Thanks for the info.