Has Polks gone away? I tried to go to their web site and was taken to GoDaddy’s parking lot.
There is a note saying that the domain name expired on 1/1/2017 and is pending renewal or deletion.
Maybe they just have not paid their bill yet.
Tom
Yes both Aristo Craft and Polks GenX have gone out of business. The only product which just came back under a new owner is the Train Engineer Revolution which an RC control system for large scale locomotives.
Steve
Scott took the option to just fade away, not make an announcement.
The Farcebook page is free, the web site was not…
Greg
p.s. those Aristo molds won’t sit long at Kader, when they can make money with them, they will… witness their testing the water with the eggliners.
Greg.
I would be very surprised if Kader does try to bring back any of the more desired 1:29th scale locos without the expense of fixing the problems that nearly everyone of them had wrong with them.
There is a big difference in re-running what is basically a single diesel 2 axle motor block with a body, compared to say a 2-8-2 steamer or a Dash-9 diesel.
A major “Trump Card” has been thrown into the LS train market (Card game/gamble), by the American voters. How the economy, and the amount of disposable money the average tax-payer has to spend on toys, will decide whether Kader will throw some new stuff to the small Large Scale market, over the next few years.
Kader has the experience, and technology to produce, whether from updated moulds, or new ones, great models, if they decide to.
As far as steam outline or diesel, they can do it well. Just remember the Bachmann ten wheeler…a VERY successful model, in its latest form, and the last one, the 2-8-0 C19…probably the best model they have ever produced in LS.
Curing the faults in the Aristo power trucks, would not take much talent, or expense, since they are rather obvious, even to a basic Model Railroader, who has dared to do much more than just open the box it came in…!!
As has been suggested, Kader is probably just going to toss out a few crumbs occasionally to the market, without much fanfare, just to see how it is responding to the latest card playing government’s ideas for the economy. Testing the waters, so to speak.
That’s a shame. I was rooting for Scott. Its not a surprise, we all knew he was having difficulties. Its just a shame he was unable to pull it off.
I have said, from the time Aristo dried up and blew away, that the product line will come back, in some form or another. There is just too much money invested in the molds to let them sit unused for too long.
Kind of a side question. Under the Crest Label before it too went away, for awhile they were marketing the old Aristo 29111B and D wheels. Were those coming from Kader or another manufacturer?
I saw those wheels. Were they really manufactured for Creast, or were they left over stock?
Remember that the metal manufacturing is a separate operation from the loco building.
The track was not made by Kader, and that is why Scott was able to get more built. I would hazard a guess that the wheels were not manufactured by kader or he was able to have someone else make more… there are no molds for the wheels, they are CNC machined, as advertised.
It would be nice if they could be supplied again, but it’s not the Precision PC people’s main goal or focus, way different from electronics manufacture.
Greg
Fred Mills said:
…Kader has the experience, and technology to produce, whether from updated moulds, or new ones, great models, if they decide to…
Fred, they’re already"testing the waters" so to speak by releasing the Eggliners, which were Aristos biggest sellers. I personally think they will slowly shift away from 1/20 and transition into 1/29 leaving everything else narrow gauge under the existing Big Hauler line. I have already been told that the Spectrum line, currently embargoed for lack of sales, will not have anything new added in the future, that’s the rumor anyway, likely learn more next month if Bachmann is at the World’s Greatest Hobby show at Pomona.
Vic Smith said:
Fred Mills said:
…Kader has the experience, and technology to produce, whether from updated moulds, or new ones, great models, if they decide to…
Fred, they’re already"testing the waters" so to speak by releasing the Eggliners, which were Aristos biggest sellers. I personally think they will slowly shift away from 1/20 and transition into 1/29 leaving everything else narrow gauge under the existing Big Hauler line. I have already been told that the Spectrum line, currently embargoed for lack of sales, will not have anything new added in the future, that’s the rumor anyway, likely learn more next month if Bachmann is at the World’s Greatest Hobby show at Pomona.
Vic, when Bachmann (Kader) released the Peter Witt Streetcar in 1:29th scale, I was bit confused as to why they ventured into yet another scale. Bit if this shift is indeed going to happen, or even if its just planned to happen, but doesn’t, that explains why they did the streetcar in 1:29th scale.