david1 posted:Although engine kits or semi kits sounds like a good idea I'm not sure it would sell.
Very few people do kits of any kind.
But I would like to see the mfg. give it a try. Maybe just a detail kit for a locomotive that the mfg. builds without the details added, hence a cheaper locomotive to buy.
Dave
I might agree with questionable consumer acceptance of a return to kits. Our (LHS) own sales in model railroading and other hobby branches....like RC airplanes, drones, boats, helicopters, etc., etc....says that the typical hobby consumer has become less inclined to build. And even though the long-ago relatively cheap prices of factory-assembled items have crept up to eye-popping levels in the past few years, the desire to hone one's own skills...maybe left dormant for those 20 years, or so...has gone bye-bye probably forever for many of those folks.
But, I've long been of the understanding that China government/manufacturing 'policy' has strongly resisted the manufacture and selling of parts/kits under the premise that it leaves open the possibility of someone else, some other nationality, assembling/selling the parts into a higher order product to compete with them. I am, for instance, aware of some model railroad r-t-r items (esp. locomotives) made exclusively for a large U.S. distributor whose only recourse for providing warranty parts/repairs is to cannibalize a reserved supply of complete assemblies.
Perhaps this policy/practice has changed or been relaxed more recently, but it might be a hurdle yet to be crossed in offering 'some assembly required' options?
Then, again, I've been away from the old lines of this sort of international market/manufacturing communication for several blissful years now......so what the heck do I know?
I yield to them that do know.
KD
