Wurst model evah?

Ask around the Interweb which is the "Wurst model evahh", and the chances are you'll find no agreement. Apart from whatever the latest thing produced by any particular manufacturer by those who prefer their boxes a different colour.

One contender that often comes up among the less partisan members of the community, is Hornby's Toy Story train set. Produced as a film tie-in, the things didn't appear to sell very well judging by the numbers appearing on eBay at £19.99.

At the time, I nearly bought one. It would fit in nicely with my collection of Triang odd-balls and seemed suitably silly. I didn't, but now I wonder if I really should have. You see, I managed to buy the coach from the set for a fiver and it's an interesting piece.

If I'd been asked to design this set, I'd have looked at existing mouldings. There were some perfect wild-west models in the Triang range. Presumably, the moulds weren't available, so they had to tool up from scratch, and on the cheap too.

On the plus side, the decoration isn't bad and it looks OK in a toy-like way. The windows are blind, but the colour is quite subtle so you don't immediately notice.

Woody and Buzz on the roof are well designed and look like the film characters. I don't recall a train chase scene in the film, but I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

Underneath is where things get interesting. The apparently bogie stock is fixed after all. Massive side play for the axles and a short wheelbase ensure it will get around the oval of track supplied in the set. Kids won't be bothered and assuming it all works, then that's quite a cost saving over all those bits required for proper bogies.

Is this clever? I'd say so. You don't do a film tie-in set for rivet counters, you do it to make pots of cash. Keep the costs low and don't worry about the quality too much. Ir the kids do get hooked, at least the models are fitted with proper tension-lock couplings so the set can be expanded.

I'll be keeping an eye out for the rest of the set I think.