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 Posted - November 07 2006 : 12:08:36 AM
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Did any Walthers catalogs in the brown-box era ever list Tyco items? I'm curious to know if Tyco was considered "serious" enough to be cataloged, and if so, until when?
What categories were shown - sets, locos, rolling stock, buildings, accesories...?
It might be possible that Walthers would have listed more than what Tyco themselves promoted in their annual catalogs, too...
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 Posted - November 07 2006 : 07:40:10 AM
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Sadly TYCO listings in Walthers catalogs are very limited from what I've seen.
The 1979 Walthers catalog shows in its Index of manufacturers in the front MANTUA (formerly TYCO). The return of Mantua is well covered with the various steam locos and the Plymouth Yard Diesel, plus the F7 and GP20...but no TYCO.
Slipping back to 1975, we find TYCO in the Walthers catalog. But only listed in the Locomotives section. The emphasis is on TYCO Kits here. Walthers lists 8 steam loco kits with pictures and then lists about as many R-T-R steam locos minus pictures. No freight cars and No building kits. One would think the serious would judge TYCO's Pola-made buildings to be worthy, but apparently Walthers didn't bother.
Perhaps TYCO is largely ignored by Walthers because TYCO was sold, then, in major outlets that discounted heavily. Maybe nobody would bother with Walthers, if you could go buy it at a toy store or discounter cheaper.
Kinda similar to today's situation often with Bachmann items. I see a few Spectrum steam locos at my local hobby shops, but even with a 20% discount they are still much higher than you'd find them selling for on eBay and through the East Coast mail order places. Take the Spectrum E33's...they retail for like $140...but are up on eBay brand new with Buy-It-Now's for $40...what dealer could compete with that??? And why bother?
Tony Cook
HO-Scale Trains Resource
http://ho-scaletrains.net
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jlong
Big Six
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Posted - November 07 2006 : 10:04:00 PM
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Walthers pricing is ridiculous in the first place and they would of overpriced Tyco.
The model railroading industry has totally ditched beginners and kids. It needs to realize people aren't going to want to spend the kind of money Walthers and Model Railroader thinks they should spend on their first layout.
John Long
Edited by - jlong on November 07 2006 10:08:11 PM
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