Heljan class 33 roof profile

I read somewhere that they were going to correct it for the next 33 variant and so presumably also for the 26/27. I don't know if that's official though.

Fred X

I heard the same (and I hope it's true, as I really want a good 33/1)...

Ian J.

They also said they were going to correct the bodyshell for early 47. What happened?

(kim)

"kim" wrote

Not to my knowledge did they say that, but the Heljan 47 is now effectively deleted so that's not going to happen for sure.

John.

What with the deletion of the 47 I wonder if Heljan's toe in the British water has gotten frostbite and fallen off, after the pretty dismal duff, wizzo and crompton cockups.

Are they going to get better R&D and introduce Hymeklike quality to the rest of their UK programme, or are they going to give up on the fickle Brits, pack up and go home.

I certainly hope not. I really want some nice Cromptons and type 2s.

Phil

They're moving to Gauge-0 where the big money is.

(kim)

I've been wondering about this as well, because judging by how quickly some of their models were heavily discounted they haven't been selling very well. I should imagine they will still continue with their 33/26/27's though, as the time and money invested in them has already been spent, but I notice they don't seem to have announced any new OO models this year.

I presume the deletion of the 47 is simply because the market has been saturated with them hence the discounting, plus everyone now knows a (slimmer!) Bachmann version is on it's way.

Fred X

Heljan will probably keep on but make the same kind of errors with every model. They keep doing so here in Denmark.

And the discounting has become classic Heljan business style. Since their (1:87) prices are a third higher in Denmark, their customers are understandably quite miffed. (One often used "financing technique" has been "Løfte i flok" a sort of prepay-if-you-want-it way of getting money out of people, hence the angry reactions to sudden discounting 6-8 months after the release of the model)

regards, Søren

That, unfortunately(from a consumer perspective) is capitalist economics in action. Some people are willing to pay for something "new", and will pay a premium. Others won't, and will wait for the prices to fall. From the business perspective, you will probably find they have priced the model initially based on the likely discounted price, and not the initial launch price, so they actually make more money up-front, which might get reinvested to the business to make new models.

You are completely right of course. But since the models would not be made if nobody paid up in advance, Heljan ends up irritating their customers instead. And since they at the same time cannot get their chinese suppliers to deliver anywhere near decent quality, they have lost mine as well as many others' business.

regards, Søren

That is the bottom line !!

I won't buy the Heljan product until it is right, or not at all, if they don't fix it. It's their loss of business and I hope there are enough others like me to make the protest heard.

Cheers Phil