Heljan website rehash

I would think thats the real fact behind the sudden reduction in retail price. The slow acceptance of this model may have something to do with the fact it's a non-revenue wagon i.e. usually standing around clogging some yard tracks as most civil engineers stock do...? I for one have never built any "tjenestevogne" as we call them, and probably never will. (The effort going into a scratchbuilt 7 mm wagon is too much just to have it standing around on the club layout ;-) For some reason the british market does not accept the continental price level, hence I buy all my parts in the UK. (and in 7 mm the cont. prices can be horrendous...)

Some of it has to do with the business model used by most modern firms: Get the capital invested back within say, six months or 1000 items over the counter. The rest is icing on the company cake. We should not complain though, over Heljan's service to the danish market. Over the last ten years they've given us 3 diesels (classes MX, MY and the MY 1200 series) 3 coaches, a mail van and a number of goods vehicles. This does not include the IC 3 and MS-Lyntog (DEMU) which were put on the market before they had their technical side sorted out. My guess is the danish market is about 1/1000 of the british, probably smaller. And yes, there is competition, at least two serious -danish- firms compete with Heljan, even ROCO and others show an interest -mostly because the german market is rather sluggish these days.

-Søren

Reply to
Søren Monies
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That is because disposable income is very much lower in the UK than on the continent.

I doubt that strongly. According to one UK website the cost of tooling alone for a plastic kit is over £200,000. There is no way of getting that back from the sale of only 1,000 models. Labour costs are considerably higher in Demark than in the UK so the cost of tooling must be even higher and that is only one of the expenses involved.

The population of Demark is around 10% that of the UK and disposable income is much higher so I doubt the market for railway models is any smaller than that. Plus, Heljan is able to make models for the collosal German market next door as well as for other Scandinavian countries.

(kim)

Reply to
kim

"kim" wrote

The bodies for Heljan's locos appear to be made & finished in China. Whether the chassis are made in Denmark is unclear.

My guess is that the USA is the biggest market for Heljan. It appears that much of the Walthers' product range has a Heljan connection.

John.

Reply to
John Turner

To Kim: If the number of yearly exhibitions is any indication, the british market is at least 20 times larger. In Denmark we only have one (1) model railway exhibition/show per year. And the thing about disposable income: I suggest you look the statistics up because what you claim is nonsense; remember we are not talking population as a whole, its: male, 18-65, middle class and upwards.

Heljan has been / are still suppliers to Walthers, a large part of the early "Cornerstone series" was made by Heljan, even some of the tooling. Other customers are Revell and Märklin. Heljan makes their own tooling (and they are rather good at it, exept when they get bad prototype advice) injection moulding is also done inhouse, whereas painting and assembly is made in China. and this is sadly the extent of my inside knowledge. It would surprise me if they began entering the german market as it is now: very slow moving. The swedes are the lucky ones, they now get a number of 1930's riveted coaches. I haven't checked yet, but I hope some of those will be types that ran through to Copenhagen.

Reply to
Søren Monies

You mean like these:-

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(kim)

Reply to
kim

Kim, I agree....this "improved'" site is terrible and not very user friendly...links within the site don't work properly...search facility is useless.....the old site was IMO much better. Gene

Reply to
Gene

Ha! I didn't know that one. Makes you think a bit about levels of pay in general. I doubt an asian dishwasher with a one year workpermit, living in London SE28 in one room with fourteen others, and GBP 4,50 an hour would be interested in Heljan's new 57....

Sorry for the slightly off topic subject.

-Søren

Reply to
Søren Monies

In my opinion (as it was me who said the site has improved) I feel that there is more information available on the current website compared to the old one and it is far easier to navigate.

Cheers, John.

Reply to
John Lancaster

I doubt they would even know, or care, what a class 57 is - let alone buy a model of one !...

Reply to
:::Jerry::::

Hmm... I click on '00 roling stock' and I get H0 buildings, click on 'N kits' the second item is an H0 coach, click on '0 locomotives' and I get one H0 item and one N. It's easy but is it helpful?

Keith Make friends in the hobby. Visit Garratt photos for the big steam lovers.

Reply to
Keith Norgrove

Of course prices and taxes are also much higher in Denmark which evens things out a bit but if it wasn't for Heljan, other UK outline manufacturers would never have produced more affordable models with features which are taken for granted in the rest of Western Europe where earnings and prices are generally mush higher. It is not unusual for the first of something to be significantly more expensive than those which follow. Modellers in the UK have a lot to thank Heljan for.

(kim)

Reply to
kim

Yes, two building kits, followed by pages of OO rolling stock! Simple really!

Cheers, John.

Reply to
John Lancaster

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