Armand Premo wrote:

What do we really need next? My vote would be for a Rutland signature
wooden
box car in both single and door and a half versions.It would be a big
seller.Armand Premo

To which Ted Culotta responded:

Probably not going to happen - not enough sales. However, the resin
patterns are out there gathering dust. Des Plaines Hobbies has them and
for some reason doesn't use them. I still think that more people need
to put some pressure on Ron Sebastian to try to convince him to
re-release all the Storzek kits.

I couldn't agree more, Ted. Dennis's pattern work was superb and his

resin kits still compare favorably with what's now on the market. And, as
you say, it's a safe bet that no sane manufacturer would do Rutland box
cars in styrene. "Big sellers?" Not a chance. Armand (and many other
modelers) apparently still don't understand the economics of producing
injection-molded plastic models; professional tooling for a typical

car model costs
$50K and up (mostly up) before a single part comes out of the molds. Then
there are significant additional expenses for painting, lettering,
packaging (and these days for assembly as well, since many buyers want
built-ups instead of kits) before a single sale gets rung up. Talk about
risk capital! You'd be better off economically putting your $$ in hog
futures. It's almost miraculous that there are as many good styrene kits
on the market as there are.

Richard H. Hendrickson
Ashland, Oregon 97520




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