Quote from: Toad139 on February 15, 2019, 02:43:44 PM
What exactly are the budget problems? Is there anywhere to find information on it?
Quote from: Falcon the 2nd on February 15, 2019, 02:47:14 PM
If I'm not mistaken, Diesel would've been a very expensive character to both manufacture and purchase. He's an engine that would require a new tooling and his retail price supposedly would've been on the same level as Emily's, if not higher.
Like Mr. Falcon pointed out in his post, Diesel would have been expensive to produce and have an RRP close to (if not more) than Emily, which as of the date of this post holds at $429. I think many modelers out there would see a tender engine such as Emily better value for money than a shunter loco such as Diesel. In the end, Bachmann clearly saw Diesel wasn't worth the cost, even if they could have literally scattered out his tooling across 3-4 other characters and got production costs down that much more. Put simply, the more models you produce, the more you can spread out the cost of tooling, thus keep the cost per item low.
Furthermore, compared to Diesel there would be many other Large Scale models currently offered from Bachmann that would give you more bang for your buck. The Thomas and Percy models with DCC Sound are only $399 each. In addition to that and outside the Thomas line, Bachmann's 2-4-2 Locomotives and Peter Witt Streetcars (both models with a high amount of detail) have RRPs of $419 and $429 respectively. That being said, which of the following would you be most likely to purchase?
Diesel - $429+
Emily - $429
Thomas w/ DCC Sound - $399
Percy w/ DCC Sound - $399
2-4-2 Locomotive - $419
Peter Witt Streetcar - $429
Even if Bachmann had decided to go through with Diesel and release him to the Large Scale market, there would still be those that would whine about the high RRP of a niche market product, not wanting to pay the cost of Bachmann recovering it's investment to produce said model. At the end of the day, Diesel's RRP would have been the nail in the coffin for the model, and personally I feel Bachmann did the right thing by not going through with the production stage. No one in their right mind would have gone out and bought Diesel when several other models Large Scale present far better value and have more appeal.
-Rusty