Hornby's 2013 Range Revealed.

[fgwrich]

Just a quick heads up, Hornby's 2013 Range will be announced earlier than usual at Midday today (17th). Will be covered on RMWeb, Model Rail, Here (if im up by then!) and of course, on Hornby's website.

Hornby's 2012/2013 Range has been revealed, and very impressive it is too.

Link's can be found here:
http://www.hornby.com/shop/2013-range/

And if that link isnt working, the full guide can be found here (courtesy of RMWeb)

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/Hornby2013/Hornby_announcements_2013.pdf

In Short, the main highlights are:

• 4 New Steam locomotives - GWR Star, GWR Hall, LNER P2 and Standard Class 8 'Duke of Gloucester'
• 2 New MI Locomotive/EMU - 2-BIL and 4wDM Sentinel Shunter
• 3 New wagons - BR 12T fish wagon, LMS CCT and GWR Shunters' Truck
• New 'Design Clever' Railroad Mk1 coaches
• New DCC peripherals and applications
• Exsisting models released in 'as requsted' liveries by modellers.

I have to say that it's quite an impressive and refreshing change from the Hornby that we've seen over the past few years, with the new 'Design Clever' terms - similarities to the way Bachmann has been working for a while, as well as the new Industrial Shunters and rolling stock which we have wanted to see being produced. It's also rather nice to see some honesty in the descriptions - The Mk2s at last being quoted as the (Ex Airfix Tooling) for example. And products such as the long requested Large Logo Class 56 and another re-run for the much missed First Great Western Mk3s at last, Thank You Simon & Thank You Hornby!

 

[Monty]

Bachmann are going to be a bit miffed about the GWR Hall as they have spent the best part of the year retooling their old one. They can put me down for a BR SR 2-BIL (even if I do have two Ian Kirk kits waiting to be built ), a Star if they ever do one in BR livery and some ex LMS CCTs! Most of the announced items make sense as they use existing tooling (be it in part or in full), though the P2, Hall and Mk1s are a bit of a surprise. The Railroad Mk1s make no sense whatsoever and with a RRP of £20 I do wonder what Hornby are trying to achieve, considering you can get the Bachmann ones for under that if you shop around..

Could someone also elaborate what 'Design Clever' means? It's the first I've heard of the term and I wonder if it means the level of detail is something between 'Railroad' and their more 'upmarket' ranges.

Still an interesting mix and look forward to some of their releases!

 

[Tim R-T-C]

Good news on the 2BIL, hopefully more RTR EMUs will follow, particularly in N Scale...

 

[GearJammer]

Is this going to be te second year in a row without a new class 50? I don't see any class 60's either.

 

[fgwrich]

Is this going to be te second year in a row without a new class 50? I don't see any class 60's either.

For once, i have to admit - Good. The 50 & 31 in particular have seen releases year after year for several years - time to leave the market to saturate for a while before releasing another batch. The other thing is as Simon K says, If you want it then let him know. If you dont then it's not going to appear.

As for this 'Design Clever' term, some are against it, others find it rather interesting - me included.

Design clever & competitive pricing

Hornby has over the last decade or so established a reputation for a number of highly detailed products at the top end of its range. Many of these details have been separately tooled, manufactured and assembled components which have added appreciably to the cost of producing such detailed items. There is a recognition that costs and selling prices would further rise as costs in China increase at ever greater rates and a way to minimise the impacts of these costs has been sought. Advances in tooling and manufacture now allow a factory to produce more detail as part of the basic model rather than being fitted afterwards. Hornby have recently used this approach in their Maunsell pull-push sets and are extending its usage to the new releases. It wouldn't be economical to re-tool existing releases so we will have a period of time where newer releases appear to be better value for money than some of the existing separately detailed lines which may give rise to questions until buyers understand that the range changed a little from this point in time.

To illustrate this the following images show separately fitted detail on Maunsell coaches compared to the moulded-on detail of the forthcoming 2-BIL.



This is particularly important in the case of the amount of external detail fitted to the Britannia compared to the moulded-on detail of the forthcoming Duke of Gloucester.



This approach allows Hornby to adopt a two-tier approach to the models and the detail. Using the Duke of Gloucester as an example there will be a Railroad product and a main range product. The Railroad product will have cut-down livery detail and no separate parts supplied with an RRP of £82.99 (R3168) whereas the main range product will have fitted glazing, etched nameplates and an additional detail pack with an RRP of £119.99 (R3191). This approach should satisfy the spectrum of modellers from those who want robust value and those who want finer detail at a slightly higher price. It also allows Hornby to satisfy distinctly different market sectors with fundamentally the same product; an approach which was successfully begun with their Tornado model.



Similarly the other steam locos anounced will all come with 3-pole motors with a flywheel but a similar distinction between the Railroad and main range models.

From RMWeb's Hornby 2013 Range section.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/65398-hornbys-2013-announcements/

 

[GearJammer]

For once, i have to admit - Good. The 50 & 31 in particular have seen releases year after year for several years - time to leave the market to saturate for a while before releasing another batch. The other thing is as Simon K says, If you want it then let him know. If you dont then it's not going to appear.

As for this 'Design Clever' term, some are against it, others find it rather interesting - me included.

I don't think 1 new class 50, or 60 or 31 a year is asking alot.

 

[Skimble19]

I still think they're missing a potentially large market by more or less ignoring modern traction.. A new Eurostar set is great and all, but it'd be nice to have some new units.

 

[fgwrich]

True, but perhaps after the VEP Debarcle, Hornby is holding back on a more modern unit? It's interesting though that despite all that's wrong with the VEP, Hornby seem to have got it so right with the BIL, combined with these new tool Mk1s - so perhaps there could be something eventually back on the cards?

 

[chris89]

Still of course would have preferred some updated Modern stock like a Class 92 or 91 to the same standards as the 31,50,60, HST etc.

I am looking forward to the GWR Star, GWR Hall, LNER P2 being a interesting prototype and the 4wDM Sentinel Shunter.

The 2Bil looks fantastic but outside me regional interests though.