RIP Bernard Paul

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Thanks for the information. Bernie Paul was one of the old timers in the industry. Over the years he offered many interesting products.
Bill

The model RR Club I used to belong to many years ago had quite a number of their old-time business kits used to build up the city section of one area of the layout. I built some of those for the club. They could be made into fairly presentable looking with some extra detailing and good painting and weathering. I noticed that different kits used a common pool of parts; they apparently just selected the appropriate pieces for a particular type of building from the pool and put those in the box.

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Sorry to hear about Paul's passing.
I hope that someone picks up the IHC molds. N scale Brownstones and Gingerbread houses were very nice models. So was the carousel with animated horses. It would be too bad if those molds were mothballed.
Come to think of it those kits had Heljan look and quality. If that is so I wonder if Heljan will release those kits in the future.

I don't think IHC actually had any molds.
The trains (mosty) came from Mehano in Yugoslavia. Buildings appear to be from Heljan.(?)
Mehano seems to have moved their production to China and some of those models are offered by Hattons in the UK.
Some of the vehicles I've seen in MR ads were Norev from France in the 1960s - probably the molds were long since sold to another manufacturer.
Probably all that is needed is a US agent/importer to get them into US shops again.
Greg.P.

On 7/2/2010 7:09 PM Greg.Procter spake thus:
I suppose that's possible (referring to the buildings). I have built only one IHC kit, the "Reagan mansion" from their townhouse series. It's a well-detailed model, but a bit odd: doesn't strike me as purely American as other models (Walthers, Design Preservation Models, etc.) do, so it's possible that it's actually a Euro-model.
The other stuff from Heljan, Kibri, Pola, et al, in the Walthers catalog always struck me as so obviously non-American that I used to wonder why Walthers carried so much of it. Not the kind of structures that one would think most American modelers would want on their layouts. (With some exceptions, of course; I've seen adaptations of some of the brewery buildings that made dandy representations of American industrial plants.)

Heljan and Pola were jobbing manufacturers in addition to their home market ranges. Heljan did special products, some of which later turned up in their catalogues, some not. Maerklin sold some Heljan under their cheap Primex brand and I think their round-house is a variation of the Heljan one. Pola tended to produce big runs of their German products, for example all those Tyco buildings. Mold designers tend to make what they are familiar with, so a US building designed in Denmark is going to gain Danish proportions and detailing. :-) I also noticed some Jouef French models in the old IHC adverts. (a fence is a fence is a ... etc)
Greg.P.

40 years ago (can it really be that long ago), I worked in a petshop in the Philly burbs. We also sold models, Estes rockets, and so forth. Our main distribtor was B.Paul Distributors. The guy was old then. He must have been in his 90s when he croaked. Oh yea, they had a location near where my mother grew up but over the years it went from being a German ghetto to a Hispanic ghetto. Most of what they sold they imported often putting their own name on the box/bag.

If you wanted to get a plastic widget produced by a plastics producer you would probably be offered a number of options: - you pay for and own the mold, the plastics producer churns out x000 at a low price. - you order an "exclusive" product, the plastics producer pays for the mold, you agree to buy x000 p.a. at a highish price and if you stop the producer can sell to anyone to regain his investment. - you order a product, the producer pays for the mold and sells his product to everyone.
However IHC did the deal those (expensive) molds will still exist and eventually the products should reappear. The exceptions would be that the molds were worn out (not likely in this case), molds destroyed in a fire or other disaster, or the product was so poor/outdated that no-one was interested. As plastic model aeroplane and car kit molds from the 1950s still reappear from time to time, those N scale houses will reapear :-)
Greg.P.

No, Mr. Paul wasn't "old" in 1970, he was 50 years back then. He passed away in 2010, at the age of 88. Mr. Paul, was a good business man, and own companies such as General Hobbies Corp, B. Paul Model Distrrbutors, Associated Hobby Mfg, all out of Philadelphia. He also, had hobby whole sale distributors called Niagara Hobby out of Niagara, NY, Mayflower Hobby out of Hartford Conn, Gateway Hobby out of Pittsburg, Pa, and Holiday Hobby out of Baltimore, MD. There was one more out of Chicago, Ill, but I don't remember the name. In the late 70's, when our Lib President Jimmie Carter was destroying our economy, Mr. Pauls business started to go under. In the early to middle 1970's, Mr Pauls company went on the stock market OTC under the name GHC. He file for Chapter 11, in the early 1980's. Your Mother had to grow up in one of three locations where Mr Paul had his business. The first was 413 E Allegheny Ave, The second was the old Philco Building B & Tioga, and the third at Ramona & Cayuga Junina Park. He passed away June 19, 2010 at the age of 88. May he RIP.

Yes, she lived at 8th and Cayuga. Hey, when you're 20 something 50 is ancient. As it was, I was only off by three years.