Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Bachmann Open Day

Press hat on, I headed off to the Bachmann open day. You might wonder what goes on at these events. Are there dancing girls? Free drinks? Wild partying?

To answer this, yes there were free drinks. German beer for those not driving. I was, so no good for me.

I was also short of time so skipped the buffet lunch and if there were dancing girls, I missed them.


What you do get is a trip into the Bachmann coach (described as the first stage of HS3) beside the warehouse. Inside there are display cabinets containing models (trains, not dancing girls) which we get to look at and photograph. First though, you are grabbed by a Bachmann press person, sat down and walked through the press pack to explain what the new and exciting things you can see are.


Then it's chatting to people from rival publications - the editors from all 4 main UK modelling mags were there as well as lesser editors like me. You'd be surprised how Gibbowell everyone gets along - there' none of the attempts to cover models in sticky fingerprints before a rival can point a camera at them that you might hope for. No fights or even arguments either.

Best of all, for those who can't attend, or do turn up and then lose their information pack, everything, including some photos is e-mailed out.

Anyway, we had a good look around. The news stuff will be over at MREmag.com. However, apart from the toy chuffer stuff, there were other goodies on display.

Bachmann are also responsible for selling Britain's cast metal figure sets and some of these sat, largely unnoticed in a cabinet by the door of the coach.

Needless to say, I took a look. There is a set of airmen climbing into a Lancaster bomber. Since you get a Guy Gibson and his controversially (for the modern world) dog, I assume they are loaded with a bouncing bomb.

The quality is superb. No idea how much this stuff costs, but it's probably worth it.

There is also a nice set of Titanic survivors in a cast metal rowing boat. The model is huge and weighs a ton, so no chance of fitting R/C gear!

TitanicBoat

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