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 Posted - September 29 2006 : 2:01:41 PM
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i have heard many people say tyco are toy like,the rtr market has always had toy like locomotives some popular with children and adults alike,thomas the tank comes to mind,another make which i personally hate is triang,overscaled locos,underscaled coaches,and their davy crocket loco was rubbish,at the end of the day most rtrs are compromises,in one degree or other,so locos and carragies can go round the bends,overall for rtr tycos problems really are their motors,trains today are much better due to 30 more years of practice at making motors ,and the computor for things like graphics and fine detail,ken
Edited by - catfordken on September 29 2006 2:05:24 PM
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Posted - September 29 2006 : 3:49:49 PM
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Good obeservations. I've often lamented that the old RTR stuff is so universally reviled and panned today, as the modelrr hobby continues to price itself ever furteh out of reach of tender fingers and curious wide-eyed kids. Even a cheap reliable Athearn pushes $60 and up. Makes me wish you could readily find some cheap runners again. "Crude but effective" as they saying goes.
Of course it's not like you can go to Toys R Us or Target anymore and find a while row of sets, cars, and accessories to choose from in the tpys section. Those days are long gone, the hobby already shot itself in the foot with cheap junk. Electronics, movie-licenses and "GenX's toys" are what sells now. GenX grew up with the true garbage of the RTR era and doesn't miss it at all.
But the Bachmann RTR sets are the best thing going, and Meijer practically gives them away at Christmas. And WalMart was selling Athearn warbonnet sets for $50 (down to $20 on clearance!)... but the only time any mass-merchandiser carries them is at Christmas. You can still find A LifeLike SET at Toys R Us... but for the price they want for that junk, it's no wonder people don't bite on the hobby.
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Posted - September 29 2006 : 4:16:06 PM
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| i have no interests in the new stuff i collect anything old,not much interested in tomorrows collectables?,i like the crudeness of the old stuff,stuff that was meant to be played with rather than stuck on a shelf to look at,we are not so lucky regarding shops selling stuff off cheap,as most stores only order what they have sold on pre orders plus 1,very rare to see stuff going that cheap,thank for the reply,ken
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Posted - October 01 2006 : 10:03:30 AM
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Ken:
Bashing the products of Lines Bros? Isn't that sacrilege in the UK? Triang is a line you either love or hate, I guess. I've always appreciated their robust "tinplate" character. They are, simply stated, the English Lionel, with a complete line of robustly-engineered, highly reliable electric trains geared at the youth market. Taken in that context, they are pretty grand stuff (and, speaking as a closet Graham Farish operator, their motors are a helluva lot more reliable than what I'm forced to tinker with: that damned weird Farish motor, eventually--and thankfully--replaced with a conventional magnet tunnel design.)
The hefty feel, robust manufacture and cast-on detail (molded-in brake wheels come to mind) all have counterparts in the US, with contemporary manufacturers like Louis Marx and (oddly, enough) Revell.
Revell, in fact, is strikingly like Triang in that their entire line looks a bit oversized. It was rumored in Collector's Consist articles in Railroad Model Craftsman in the late 1980s that Revell's line was initially conceived as an OO guage offering, rather than HO, and--of course--exactly like its english counterpart Triang/Hornby.
Good hunting, Ken!
MagAc
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 Posted - October 01 2006 : 10:12:51 AM
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hi magac,check photo below is this the loco you are after so i know what to look for,i will try and locate one and send you details,and you decide yourself what you want to do,i am and will not force you in any way to purchase,just helping a fellow collector find what he wants, ken
 Attachment: GF100020.zip ( 3103bytes )
Edited by - catfordken on October 01 2006 10:45:34 AM
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Posted - October 01 2006 : 10:24:34 AM
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| hi as regards bashing triang,yes they had robust motors,best in their day possibly,but those bodies,i was always a dublo/wrenn man,and still am,i also collect o gauge hornby,and pullman/wagon lites coaches regardless of scale,i started collectinf early american steam locos,which lead me to tycos offerings,ken
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Posted - October 01 2006 : 10:49:57 AM
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Ken:
Thanks for the Farish pic. Now, if only I could remember my forum password so I could download the darned thing and look at it! Oh, well. It'll come to me sooner or later...
Can't fault Dublo collectors--it was the best. I used to buy Wrenn boxed stuff here from old hobby shops back in the day when your average collector didn't know it was resurrected Hornby (or, in early cases, old Hornby inventory.) Gotta love the grey boxed-gang from Basildon, Essex!
I think its interesting your collecting instincts should attract you to early Tyco. Their excellent and ubiquitous products have been for so-long ignored here in their country of origin.
regards,
Steve
Magnolia Academy
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Posted - October 01 2006 : 10:50:30 AM
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Ken:
Thanks for the Farish pic. Now, if only I could remember my forum password so I could download the darned thing and look at it! Oh, well. It'll come to me sooner or later...
Can't fault Dublo collectors--it was the best. I used to buy Wrenn boxed stuff here from old hobby shops back in the day when your average collector didn't know it was resurrected Hornby (or, in early cases, old Hornby inventory.) Gotta love the grey boxed-gang from Basildon, Essex!
I think its interesting your collecting instincts should attract you to early Tyco. Their excellent and ubiquitous products have been for so-long ignored here in their country of origin.
regards,
Steve
Magnolia Academy
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Posted - October 01 2006 : 10:56:37 AM
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hi steve,i agree when wrenn were seen as a seperate company locos were cheap,somecases they still are i quite often pick 8fs boxed and near mint for under £50 lms maroon 4mts as well,castle classes go for about £40/80 for common ones but are great locos,and the motors are not complex but are reliable and easy to fix,a friend of mine does the full catalogue with valuations for wrenn locos for £22,every known example listed in full colour ken
Edited by - catfordken on October 01 2006 10:57:22 AM
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jlong
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Posted - October 01 2006 : 11:56:44 AM
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I don't see "toy" as a derogitory term unless someone's modeling skills are being put down. To me, a Tyco Silver streak or GG1 is a toy because it is far off from a realistic model. If I like it and I want it, it 's still a toy to me. If someone thinks my skills are childlike because I like toys, FKM if they can't take a joke. Life's too short to sweat meaningless details.
John Long
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Posted - October 01 2006 : 12:02:35 PM
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| lets be fair if you like it and buy it,is what its all about,if you buy because its the in thing,but you dont like it,thats silly or if you buy it because you think you will make money thats even more senseless as the amounts they release today are in their millions and chances are you will loose money including so called limited editions,stick to what you like is the best motto,ken
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Posted - October 01 2006 : 6:04:19 PM
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Let's be honest - I consider myself a serious modeler of respectable skill, but I love sneaking the occasional runnable toy out there now and then.
I've got a Tyco BN boxcar (hevaily disguised through weathering and proto-freelance subletting) on my layout all the time. Nothin' like Keepin' it real. Reminds me of where I started from, and I love when people compliment it and I get to tell 'em "Yeah, it's a Tyco..."
Hack, I just found the four-car Transformers set loose but with stickers intact. The jet-plane caboose is a true marvel and by itself would almost be worth the $20 I offered for the set (yeah can get a whole bNIB on ebay for not much more but with shipping and all added on top; all I wanted was the cars). Euro-style trucks and all, I can't wait to sneak that one out there... Might reimagine the fold-out boxcar as some sort of Real Ghostbusters mobile ghost containmnet system - my favorite childhood fantasy.
And since I own my own railroad, I can do what I want ;)
Edited by - GoingInCirclez on October 01 2006 6:15:03 PM
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Posted - October 04 2006 : 9:36:08 PM
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Regarding the "GG-1" offered by Tyco: while it took a certain nerve to call their diminutive truncated terd a "GG-1" it actually has a predecessor in Varney's early diesel-electric which, curiously, interestingly and suggestively, has aprroximately the same dimensions as the Tyco release of four decades later. The Varney diesel-electric is a "slightly" freelanced version of an actual Pennsy prototype, the P5, a sort-of "mini-GG-1."
You gotta love the Tyco clunker, though. The paint decoration alone is worth it for Pennsy lovers; and that McGinnis NH... pretty darned cool!
MagAc
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Posted - October 05 2006 : 7:12:26 PM
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| Tycos "version" of the GG1 is totally awesome. Imagine what one of those would have looked like in Spirit of 76 or Canadiana paint!!![:D]
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jlong
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Posted - October 05 2006 : 11:52:19 PM
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The Tyco GG1 gives me the impression of a transfer electric.
John Long
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