Partworks magazines

[Saluki]

Someone out there must be buying them or they wouldn't keep advertising them. Hubster was tempted when they did The Prisoner in a part-work but I showed him the box set collection on Amazon and it changed his mind. After all, where the heck was he going to keep all those magazines for heaven's sake?

I often wonder if the sets do get made all the way to the end at the publishing end as I don't think that I could just keep collecting little bits and bobs every week for 3 years. My attention span is just not that long.

 

[classic33]

The Red Bull RB7 is illegal scale wise for racing, at 1/7th scale.
Sennas' McLaren is £200 overpriced. And thats without the radio equipment & I/C engine required to complete the build.

 

[classic33]

I did the Real Robots 13/14 years ago. Got to the last two issues and found that they were only available to special order.
Lucky in one way in that WHSmiths had them on regular order.
The "00" guage locomotive collection isn't worth what they're charging.

 

[Saluki]

Just seen an ad for http://www.reallifebugs.co.uk/es/full-list. 85 mags at £5.99 per issue. Yuk!! They're in plastic squares so you can't even squash them

 

[vernon]

It seems to add up to somewhere in the region of £853 for the current models advertised. I was thinking that you could get a heck of a model of The Mallard made for that sort of money and it would take a lot less than 3 years to get it.
I've never collected a part-work but would love to know if anyone here has, or knows anyone who has.

You are so wrong with your assertion.

A brand new ready to run O gauge Mallard costs £2000 or £2950 depending on the supplier
A brand new complete O gauge Mallard kit costs £911

It seems that you are totally out of touch with the finescale O gauge world. The models are made from precision castings and/or etchings and are never seen as toys unlike some of the models available in 00 gauge train sets.

A complete ready to run Mallard or even a complete unbuilt Mallard kit is out of the affordability price range for those of limited means. The part works in this instance will make affordable sense to a lot of aspiring O gauge LNER modellers who are willing to be patient.

My nightmare is that should I predecease my wife, she will dispose of my O gauge stuff at prices based upon those that I told her I paid for them rather than their true worth.

 

[vernon]

All they want is a direct debit subscription out of you!
Everyone is dead right, they're a total rip-off.

Sorry, but in the case of the Mallard part works you are wrong. See above posting.

 

[Julia9054]

I did the Real Robots 13/14 years ago. Got to the last two issues and found that they were only available to special order.
Lucky in one way in that WHSmiths had them on regular order.
The "00" guage locomotive collection isn't worth what they're charging.

I did this one too. My son was about 5 at the time and crazy about Robot Wars and I thought it would be a nice thing for us to do together. We got up to about issue 10. I built the thing - way to complicated for a 5 year old - but, to be fair, it could be played with at quite an early stage. Unfortunately, one of Joe's friends gave the thing a kick and broke a part. I ordered a replacement bit but it took 10 weeks to arrive. Meanwhile I had to keep buying the bloody thing but couldn't do any more building until I'd replaced the broken bit. By this time both Joe and I had seriously lost interest!
I sold the half built robot, all the parts and the magazines at a car boot sale a couple of years later for about £20!

 

[vernon]

The Mallard part works is one of the few that represents value for money simply because the alternatives are more expensive because they are produced in limited numbers mainly sold in the UK, a limited market, and their pricing has to recover the cost of the tooling and raw materials as well as making a profit.

I wouldn't be surprised if the parts/castings were produced by DJH, the makers of the complete kit alternative. It would save the publishers from having to commission an expensive set of moulds and patterns and DJH would get a bigger return for their moulds and patterns investment for very little additional effort on their part. I'm not curious enough to investigate this.

The Spitfire example is a definitely poor value because ready to fly (RTF) and almost ready to fly (ARTF) alternatives have a global market and amazingly low pricing, in some instances only marginally more than a kit of unassembled constituent parts.

HMS Victory has a relatively dirt cheap alternative - the large Airfix kit.

 

[Saluki]

You are so wrong with your assertion.

A brand new ready to run O gauge Mallard costs £2000 or £2950 depending on the supplier
A brand new complete O gauge Mallard kit costs £911

It seems that you are totally out of touch with the finescale O gauge world. The models are made from precision castings and/or etchings and are never seen as toys unlike some of the models available in 00 gauge train sets.

A complete ready to run Mallard or even a complete unbuilt Mallard kit is out of the affordability price range for those of limited means. The part works in this instance will make affordable sense to a lot of aspiring O gauge LNER modellers who are willing to be patient.

My nightmare is that should I predecease my wife, she will dispose of my O gauge stuff at prices based upon those that I told her I paid for them rather than their true worth.

You are absolutely right, I am out of touch with O gauge stuff. I've never had a train set, we were all Lego & Mechano in our house. Dad said that the dogs would have troddled all over a train set on the floor. He was probably right, they didn't do our scalectrix much good.
I could get a really really nice bike or two with the money that an O gauge Mallard costs

 

[raleighnut]

You are so wrong with your assertion.

A brand new ready to run O gauge Mallard costs £2000 or £2950 depending on the supplier
A brand new complete O gauge Mallard kit costs £911

It seems that you are totally out of touch with the finescale O gauge world. The models are made from precision castings and/or etchings and are never seen as toys unlike some of the models available in 00 gauge train sets.

A complete ready to run Mallard or even a complete unbuilt Mallard kit is out of the affordability price range for those of limited means. The part works in this instance will make affordable sense to a lot of aspiring O gauge LNER modellers who are willing to be patient.

My nightmare is that should I predecease my wife, she will dispose of my O gauge stuff at prices based upon those that I told her I paid for them rather than their true worth.

Whoops, my OH would probably do the same with my bikes for the same reason and I daren't tell her what the Swallow 2005 LE saddle could fetch if I hadn't ridden it Nice and comfy now though.

 

[vernon]

Seen them for sale occasionally, never bought one. For me the risk of missing parts would be too high to spend £100s over several years. Isn't it better to just save up and buy something, then you'd discover any problem quite soon and have some recourse from the shop.

Where's the pleasure in seeing your savings for a kit grow? Buying the Mallard part works allows the purchaser to see the locomotive grow on a regular basis and, 'if built as you buy', any parts omissions are immediately apparent.

You also assume that construction and inspection takes place soon after the arrival of any complete kits. I've seen it claimed that only around a third of the kits purchased get constructed and operated. There's certainly a thriving market for second hand unopened kits.

The O gauge market is not like the OO gauge railway, model aircraft and car kit markets where the products are found on the high street across the world and production runs are in the tens of thousands . The O gauge market is dominated by 'cottage industries' with small production runs targeting niche markets and the kits are bought direct from the manufacturers. It's quite normal to find that a manufacturer has stopped operating and has sold the range on to someone else who is under no obligation to address missing parts should they be discovered several years after the purchase of the kit. One unbuilt kit that I possess has had three different manufacturers....

 

[stephec]

You also assume that construction and inspection takes place soon after the arrival of any complete kits. I've seen it claimed that only around a third of the kits purchased get constructed and operated. There's certainly a thriving market for second hand unopened kits.

By coincidence I was told to help tidy the front room yesterday.

I've got five unopened Revell/Airfix kits and a half finished Lancaster bomber.

 

[raleighnut]

That's the weekend entertainment sorted then.................................. Glue Sniffing

 

[welsh dragon]

That's the weekend entertainment sorted then.................................. Glue Sniffing

Again?

 

[ArDee]

I did this one too. My son was about 5 at the time and crazy about Robot Wars and I thought it would be a nice thing for us to do together. We got up to about issue 10. I built the thing - way to complicated for a 5 year old - but, to be fair, it could be played with at quite an early stage. Unfortunately, one of Joe's friends gave the thing a kick and broke a part. I ordered a replacement bit but it took 10 weeks to arrive. Meanwhile I had to keep buying the bloody thing but couldn't do any more building until I'd replaced the broken bit. By this time both Joe and I had seriously lost interest!
I sold the half built robot, all the parts and the magazines at a car boot sale a couple of years later for about £20!

Mrs ArDee and I did this for our son at the time he was about 10 when he started with it; he completed the original robot, it's football partner and the football. He thought it was excellent, thoroughly enjoyed building it, it's still in his room somewhere and it did help to pay for Beagle 2 and Mars Express.