What's happening with Woodland Scenics?

I really like WS figures a lot. I hope they will continue to make them and will add more.

Re the Scenic Accents figures....  

Some time ago I found out that the masters for these figures are actually originally executed/sculpted in about 1:24 size...or G-scale.  That they find their way to O, HO, N, or G production is a marketing analysis issue.  Will they buy?  Can we tool/produce/sell/profit?  Et cetera, blah, blah.

And that, of course, is fairly evident when you see the majority of their figures produced for the HO market, a lesser share to the N crowd, even less to O customers, and the least options to the G folks. 

It's not rocket science...supply follows demand.

So, here's our task...  First, increase the size of the O market!  Secondly, never miss an opportunity to encourage Woodland Scenics (or any manufacturer, for that matter!) to make more of their praise-worthy products available to 'this growing market' (see step 1).

There ya go!!  It's a cinch!

KD

Great answer KD...I'll do my part by buying more, and continuing to send emails to WS.  

Oh, and I'll add that in order to get more stuff made, everyone else should buy more too, so the O Market continues to gro. We all need a good reason to buy more right? 

It seems like they have forgot about O Scale/Gauge. They have not announced any new figure sets, building kits, or pre built buildings for quite some time. 

I am sorry but what do you mean by "They have not announced any new figure sets, building kits, or pre built buildings for quite some time"? WS seems to be making announcements in the summer while in production til the fall when they are ready to ship. this cuts down the "copycats" for their products for at least a year. In Oct to Dec 2014 WS released in O scale:

Sulley's Tavern:

http://woodlandscenics.woodlan...w/Item/BR5850/page/1

J. Franks Grocery:

http://woodlandscenics.woodlan...w/Item/BR5851/page/1

& Ethyl's Gas and Service:

http://woodlandscenics.woodlan...w/Item/BR5849/page/1

And that's just in the O scale built up buildings! I don't know what other items they released in 2014. Now they are concentrating on their lighting system for buildings.

What more do you want?

Well prr, I do understand they made the 3 buildings. But last year, I believe that was all they produced in O. 

They didn't announce any new building kits, as they'd done for each of the previous year's "built ups" releases, and no new figure sets either.

I'm not looking for an argument, it just seems to me they are doing less than they were, and I'd like to see more produced. They produce excellent products and I can appreciate we don't have to wait years for them to deliver on announcements. It just seems their focus and production is HO/N, and O is an afterthought. 

 The biggest market is HO so they have to service that market first.  They did bring out three new buildings last year in O scale, which I purchased

  The new lighting system is innovative and will be out soon.

Douglas

“We operate from multiple buildings that are spread all over town,” said Gale Cousins, Woodland Scenics director of sales and customer service, “and we only lost two of those buildings, and those two contained just a small portion of our manufacturing facilities.”

That fire occurred in January 2012.  They've released several O buildings since then.

Probably "feeling the heat" from Menard's with their similar buildings costing Woodland Scenic O sales.

Rusty

That is a very good point and one I hadn't thought of before.  I know there is always the LHS vs the big retailer debate, but you cannot discount the power of having a product in a large retailer.  I personally wonder how many of these buildings Menard's has sold to people not even into trains.  They often have these buildings right next to their Lemax buildings during the holidays.  So people who would never step foot in a LHS or otherwise even know about these buildings were buying them when they were in Menard's just to put into their holiday village or some other non-train purpose.

For the built-ups, I know they would sell a lot of just about every other HO/N model they have.  I've heard from multiple people how much they'd like to see the Municipal Building, the Meg A. Watts, etc.  Those are unique enough that I think they would have no problem selling a bunch.  Look at how much interest Menard's Feed and Seed is getting.  Or how popular the Door Factory, gas station, motorcyle shop, and IGA grocery were.  As long as they keep on putting out these unique buildings, they will have no problem selling many. 

I do, however, think that the city two-floor buildings have run their course a bit.  The tavern, hardware, general store, cobbler, etc.  While nice, these are all pretty similar and easier to build from kits and make look good.  I hope more come out because anyone with a city section can always use more of these, but the heart really starts pumping when you see more complex buildings.

One of the nice things about Menard's is the sheer volume of new buildings coming out and that they are now spaced out throughout the year.  It's not just two at the end of the year anymore.  Hopefully this can spark Woodland Scenics to pick up the pace.

The size of the market controls how much you spend on new tooling.

O needs to sell more  to get as many new items as say HO.

I'd like to see them do as we do. Make tooling modular. When Moebius tooled a 1952 Hudson kit.....it was planned all along that the basic tooling would provide the base for 6 different kits....with more coming. That way the tooling cost is spread over a number of kits.  I can see a basic kit tooling work on 4-5 new  kits by making it modular. But we need to buy more and support them.

I would like to see a 1950s TV & Radio store, Western Auto store, Ben Franklin 5 and 10 store, and early Post Office, also one of them smaller early gas stations, were there was a pit for servicing on the side. Oh sure, I can kitbash, or make them from walls and sides, etc. But I like Woodlands style.

I would also like to see Menard offer cars, and trucks, delivery vans from the 50s.

Stop whineing!

There is no "e" in whining. There is in wine though. Think I will pour a glass.

But they did make these figures that could be placed around a passenger station.

You are totally entitled to your opinion sir, but let me respectfully respond why I posted: 

I titled my post in the form of a question, hoping that a forum community of people might have some further insight on why there doesn't seem to be a lot coming out in O product from WS.

Because I asked that question, I gained some further insight - perhaps the Menards products have effected what WS can reasonably produce in a time span, and so a large retailer giving them a sizable order has put focus on those releases as what they can produce. Hadn't thought about that previously. 

If I'm understanding you correctly, I'm whining because I want more product from a train product manufacturer, and have brought that up on a forum of people here to discuss trains. It seems to me such dialogue and submitting requests to manufacturers has given us a great deal of products that we might not otherwise have. If that's bad for our hobby, well then I don't know what to say. 

Again, you are entitled to your opinion, I'm just not sure how I'm whining exactly.  

You did good. I've asked the same.

Originally posted by Bagelman:

I was thinking the same thing they need more o scale items.  Wish they would make a nice passenger station

The Last thing we need in O gauge is ANOTHER passenger Station. Keep the industries coming! We don't have enough industries!

Scenic Express figures in O.

I think we should be very thankful for what Woodland Scenics has given us O gaugers thus far!  If you like their stuff, keep buying it or WS could pull out of O scale like so many have done in the past years with building kits.  I know the buildings are around $100, but I feel they're worth every bit of it being well detailed and lighted ready to go out of the box.

I definitely agree. I like their stuff well enough that I've been buying it for a layout I don't have and won't have for a while (I had to dismantle mine for very good reasons). I'd like to get the door factory and the department store, but I've been hoping to see them introduced in kit form. The built ups are great, and a fair value, and I have no problem buying them, but I do really enjoy building the kits. 

By the way, your layout looks great, thanks for posting the pics. 

I wish they would make some of their HO vehicles in O gauge.

The Bulldozer, Grader and Single Axle Dump Truck would be great around my mining area on my layout.

Also I wish they would come to your York.

I like using their products and their "How To Videos" are great also.

They are not interested in going to York. I have spoken to them on the phone. We have Scenic Express at York. That is good enough for me.

Thanks Eddie G, for the reply.

I feel they are a player in the Ogauge Market.

I am just surprised they don't attend the York show.

Thanks again for the reply.

Thanks also for your countdown to York week !!!!

In true 1/48 and I'll buy multiples of all of them. Being a car modeler vehicles are important to set the time and place.

I ordered their new catalog but never got it.

Woodland Scenics OR Scenic Express???

Woodland Scenics is free for download on their site.

It looks like Menards has ended their deal with Woodland Scenics.  None of their buildings were from WS this fall/winter season.  Might be the reason for the slowdown in new offerings.  Sully's, the IGA, and the gas station are great models. They are worth the price.

Menards  did and still does offer their version of the Woodland Scenics service station so maybe they are still working together but on a smaller scale.

Don

Yeah, I forgot about that one, as our local store only received one of those.  Definitely seems to be winding down, though.