Slipped into this weeks Hornby announcements was one that didn't get much coverage - the cancellation of Playtrains.
Devised as a simple train set system for 3-8 year olds, I always thought that it was rather good. Testing with a friends daughter, produced my best video so far.
The basic idea involves plastic track, and remote control battery powered trains. Not disimilar to the Marklin MyWorld system, the beauty, I thought, was that a child could build a real model railway with points, loops and sidings, safely and easily. The rolling stock would survive tumbles and it made noises. What more does anyone want? Low prices? Well, £250 would have bought you everything in the initial range - three trains and loads of track.
However, I don't know what I'm talking about. When we went to Margate, my boss said her son had played with it, and then lost interest, there wasn't enought to engage him. And a couple of hours later, Martyn Weaver, the new head of brand, said exactly the same thing - almost word for word. Parents have an insight that I don't share.
When explaining the reasons behind the cancellation, Martyn said they knew the details of every grandparent who owned a layout, because they had bought into Playtrains, but none of the parents, because they hadn't.
So, a replacement system will be developed, hopefully by next year. Hornby still want this market, they see it as important for the future of the hobby, but Flash and co will be out in the cold.
All this means, I was probably right when I suggest adding some Playtrains to any Hornby collection. Mint sets will be rare in a few years time, but you can run them on normal OO track, so they can mix it up with older models on a collectors layout. Most importatly though, the less succesful ranges are always the ones collectors have to search for.
You know, I might have to take my own advice. Time to do some online shopping.
7 comments:
I did wonder about this when I saw Hornby were selling them off cheaply at the NEC. I was tempted as my Wife has a 9 month old grandson who is already showing an interest in the layout I'm building in the dining room. Perhaps I'll have a look and see what I can find, possibly even cheaper!
Simon.
They are based on Italian prototypes (yes, really!) so it will be interesting to know if the Italian versions are also cancelled or just the UK ones.
Luke
I knew about the Italian prototypes (I think I identified them in my review) but am not aware of them being sold in Italy.
From their website:
"Why choose Playtrains?
The packaging is environmentally friendly (cardboard for the box, pulp paper for the tray and paper for the buildings)"
Not really compelling
Having sold countless MyWorlds sets in our giftshop between 2016 and 2020 i think I can safely say we had a 50/50 split of parents and grandparents purchasing. It's always tricky to know what a child wants but Playtrains never struck me as hitting the right spot.
MyWorld is more expensive and "feels" like a real model train to non-modelling parents. It feels authentic to the children too. They have a real Model Train to play with just like Grandpas... or Grandmas *AND* they can even take it to grandparents to run on their layout.
The Playtrains colours were great for the toddlers but alienated the 6+ children who wanted a real "Train Set" it also put them in competition with successful wooden railways from BigJigs and Brio (BigJigs Trains were so popular through our summer months when our Model Village and Garden Railway was open that we'd have fortnightly restocks!, ironically I was resistant to stock them at first thinking parents would view them as overpriced)
You can be two things at once. Marklin Target 3+ but do so without making them seem too toylike
Hornby did get some things right though: The track geometry for one matching the length of the points to the straight sections makes for odd looking turnouts but makes it easier for children to build (something Marklin only picked up on last year) I'm not sure about the faces. I personally like them but i'm an adult... not a 7yr old building a railway empire on the lounge floor.
I think what we as a (then) retailer needed was a HST or a Class 08... and dare i say it A3 or A4. Wooden BigJig flying Scotsmans flew out the door. We could never stock enough!
That's interesting. The lack of a steam engine certainly seems to be a problem to me. Not sure about the faces, they were optional, but I can see how older children would view them as toylike.
Interestingly the MyWorld Steam loco set was the least popular. Now that may be because at the time it was also the most expensive.
We also had that set running in the gift shop and the "steam" was less than spectacular which may have lead to poor sales
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