D500 posted:- On the MTH question, did not/does not MTH actually own some production facilities? In Korea, maybe?
I'm out of touch with this end of things, obviously.
According to the video tour posted on train World TV, MTH's facility is dedicated to just MTH. There might be separate sites dedicated to RailKing and Premier, respectively (I haven't reviewed the video recently, at nearly an hour and a half, it is a bit of effort to rewatch for a forum post 
).
As for the idea of setting up a facility in a low-wage part of the US, there is also the issue of the network of sub-contractors needed to supply parts and assemblies that aren't practical to manufacture in-house (nuts/bots/screws/circuit boards, for example)
(Edit:, after re-viewing the Rapido video's linked to by Jim R. above, there is also the not-insubstantial issue of accumulated institutional knowledge needed to do the job properly--some of the engineers shown have been working in model train manufacture for 20+ years)
---PCJ
