A lot of people buy European Car magazine to read about cars they will never purchase too. So I can agree that readership of UMTRR is likely not an indicator of sales volume at MTL. You should be excited about the fact that people like to read what you work hard to write. Readership is as much an indicator of writer and publication quality as it is about actual subject content.
this is an interesting debate. clearly everyone comes to it with their own prejudice: one primarily a "runner," one primarily a "collector," one primarily a "modeler", etc. when joe announces a product i think he does it out of joy and enthusiasm. i think many people who respond to so from the same motive. sometimes that enthusiasm is "protective" of interests. if a car is going to be made, interested and excited individuals want the design to follow something they are wanting or needing. example: i love that smoothside cars are going to produced, but if asked about "which one next" i'll want to give my vote to a certain kind of combine that i especially want. it's good to have things made correctly from the start, feedback helps improve that. but sometime people get too excited or invested and may feel spurned if their suggestions are not accepted. it's just human nature. i think joe knows this about people. he (MTL) will never please everyone -- but oh the joy for those they do satisfy. i'm glad they are doing what you can. i hope they don't stop telling us what is to come. dave f.
So much for being the Good News Fairy!! Our move to Z was not born our of a despirate move to save the company from failing N Scale Sales, so far things are ok. To be honest, numbers have dropped off in some catagories but in others it's stong and growing. The Runner's Packs I put together are outselling most anything else we have done. At one time Collectors were a huge part of our business and it would be a fools errand to not pay attention to that. Theme sets outperform prototype sets, explain that one? I can't speak for how this business was grown, only what I've been involved with for the past 6 years here. The move into Z was in a way a purly selfish move on my part (as are the SP Releases)...I like Z and I was tired of trying to build a collection out of bits and pieces. As it happened, the response was great and sales are through the roof...a happy outcome I must say. And, I can't be all things to everyone. I don't expect 100%, I'm a big boy and understand that. Some folks come here with a love for trains and some with an agenda as George points out and that's ok. That last catagory is one of the reasons I don't haunt another major manufacturer's Forum anymore. Nothing productive comes out of what happens there regarding MTL. We seem to be the fodder of Arm Chair CEO's and you know, even bad mouthing can be good for business cause it keeps the focus on us! ) They have their little piece of the world, we have ours. The main thing to remember is that all of this is just a start and as it developes, more obscure stuff is possible. I am satisfied with the choices I made regarding these cars, there are plent of road names and numbers, all major carriers and from them plenty of near sisters. I don't feel the need to defend myself much more than that. These aren't 40' boxcars and there are many, many minor and major differences between cars within a class. We try with best intentions to make the very best product, sometimes we hit it and sometimes we miss...in the end we are human. I got a private email from a fellow the other day who was very upset we didn't do EMD E3 instead of the E8. Turns out he's an MP modeler and figured I should risk the future of the company and the financial well-being of 80 employees on an engine that only had 17 examples built. A few Pennsy guys are convinced that if I do all Pennsy Prototypes we'll sell a million cars...I've heard that! (we have a few Pennsy prototypes in our inventory and can't sell them) But that's the nature of the business, I accept it and deal with it. For those who are excited about what we are doing, I've done my job, for those who don't, it's nothing personal...really, but those comments help as well. So, if you don't like what I'm doing, then do what I do, cut something up and make it yourself, it's really a lot of fun!! Cheers Joe
hey "good news fairy" ... don't stop! sometimes your's is the only good news i get to celebrate in a day!! ha ha ha dave f.
Joe, your a good spirited person and have a great way of looking at the world....Don't stop what your doing in any way, there are may folks who enjoy every thing that comes out in Z no matter if its perfect or or not.... Just keep the goodies coming.....And thank you for keeping the torch lit for Z scale at MTL.... Tony B... Wasatch Z Club PS: I've never let the critics get to me either......
Joe, Continue as you are, you will never please everyone. I have been in Z since the early years and it was great when I could get a piece from Nelson Gray. The selection you have available is great, when here is not a piece i want it gives me time to save because you will have piece usually the next month or two I want. Also what PRR stuff in Z is still available? You asked for ideas a way back and one thing I always thought would be good, is couplers available for Marklin steam, like you provide in N scale. Or a tender to go with the steam. JD
I personally appreciate all that MTL does for Z Scale, and appreciate having Joe doing all he can for us. Also, it's great to hear news from manufacturers, and we are lucky that so many of the few Z Scale manufacturers out there are posting updates to their product lines here on Trainboard. Keep up the great work Joe, and we will support your efforts, even if there is a bit of criticism here and there.
Joe, you build them, we buy them. Pretty close so far to your principles. All I know is that those passenger cars may put you in the big drivers seat as those are going to be your best seller. (you can hold me to that as I may have to buy up any underestimates to keep you to that goal As long as I can get an 8-10 car train out of it.
I would like to thank Joe for having the willingness and courage to share information with us regardless of the responses. Even an actor can occasionally say something unscripted and brilliant - so for Joe, in the words of Elizabeth Taylor: "There's no perfume like success" Hope your success continues. (from someone considering getting into Z scale). . .
Whatever one does, and it's human nature, some people are unsatisfied. So Joe, you're right not to be upset about this! And I think we are far more people beeing happy with what you do for Z scale than the number of complaining guys.... Myself, I know I will purchase one or two GP9s that I will repaint to run some spurs on my projects, and I will purchase full squadrons of SD40-2s as this loco is one of my absolute favourite and as they will be the mainstay of my fleet for my chosen end of 90's era. If you can add modern 60' tank cars and PS2 covered hoppers, it will be 100% perfect!:shade: But once more, thank you and congratulations Joe! Dom
Well, I just complained a little. Someone else put a MTL boxcar in a blender and filmed it: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AtrEm1MGiU"]YouTube - Micro Trains boxcar in a blender[/ame] There's always worse out there!
????????????? Not oftenly seen such a silly behaviour.....What does the author of this "awesome" movie want to prove????????? Dom
Let's get back to the Program. I like the E8's. Perhaps you also could do E7 & E9? Then you would have the most popular E's covered. I see no need to do earlier E6's now. Perhaps you could update the F7 into F3 & F9? There are so many variations of F's that pulled passenger trains. Will the passenger cars be done as singles or 3paks? I think you have released 12 Troop sleepers by now? Could that serve as a model for more passenger cars? With the replacable car sides, MTL should be able to rearrange windows & doors to do other cars?
Passenger Car Well, that chassis give us a lot of options and as with any product it all depends on the response of the E8, but you have a good point here. As for their release, not sure right now what the actual program will be, as things get closer I can illuminate this a bit more. Generally using the cores as shut offs for the windows leaves some ghosting so it's better to just do new cores at this point. I'm sure there's equipment out there that makes this possible. Cheers Joe
