The British model makers will no longer produce merchandise of the brand with Hornby yet to comment on the news. A £1 million annual loss and supply issues are said to be the cause of the demise.
STOP PRESS. Sadly, with the end of 2013 we say goodbye to the Hornby Range of Thomas & Friends. This product line is now discontinued.
Formally known as Hornby Railways until 1996, Hornby created the Thomas & Friends line in 1985 before gradually decreasing new releases during its final years.
Between 2012 and 2013, Hornby and Marketing Manager Simon Kohler spoke to Roll Along Thomas over the then future of the franchise, initially committed for 2013.
Kohler later expressed his doubts in September last year; Nothing ever lasts forever. So to say, will it go on forever, I couldn’t possibly answer that, but certainly in the near future.
Thanks to Hawk01 for the alert.
If this is true, then HiT could really consider talking to Bachmann about bringing their HO range to the UK. Considering it's already popular here, it would make a lot of sense
ReplyDeleteThis... is just a major shame. Just because of losing a million pounds? The Thomas range is surely what helps keep Hornby strong since people love the range. I know most modelers buy the realistic trains more than the Thomas range, but I'm sure some of those people love the Thomas range, too.
ReplyDeleteBeing honest, I kinda saw this coming since they hadn't had any models out for a long time now. Still, this is just a BIG letdown... they had so many models they could edit to make characters, such as Neville.
Either Bachmann's gonna keep stepping it up with models, or perhaps another Model Train company is gonna take a stab at their own Thomas range? I doubt the latter since Hornby and Bachmann are the most popular out of all Model Train companies. At least that's what I think.
Real shame that's happened, I had a felling this would happen when the model railway shop near where I live started selling Bachmann Thomas stuff.
ReplyDeleteit's a shame on the bright side i have them all except for Oliver, just gotta keep looking and if I'm lucky bachmann might make him :)
ReplyDelete