Model Power closes, MRC to license future runs

Backshophoss wrote:Announced in Sept '14 MR(pg 10),as of June 30 '14 Licensing agreement,MRC will produce Model Power and Mantua,
using the Model Power branding.
Fair use quote,per regs,"Model Rectifier Corp(MRC) announced on June 30 that it will produce and market
Model Power's railroad products under the Model Power brand. Model Power and Mantua railroad and
accesory products will now be avaible worldwide from MRC."

It's nice to see that someone still sees a market for "entry level" products. MRC is certainly a VERY well established name in our hobby. I have five of their C-420 diesels from many years ago and most still run flawlessly. While the chassis is rough by today's standards, the bodies were well detailed and they were state of the art for plastic models of their time (just wish I could find some replacement dogbones). Nice to see that the Mantua name will continue on as well.

I think I have to laugh anymore when people say that theres "no options" for kit builders anymore. Have you been to a hobby shop or a train show lately? Bowser still makes kits, Accurail is still around, Atlas has the branchline license now and if you go to a train show there is no possible end to the amount of roundhouse and athearn blue box kits that are available to buy. Hell, even on ebay you can find this stuff. I am sure with such a huge backlog of inventory model shops and vendors are not taking on any new inventory probably helped prompt the stop in production of the cheaper kits.

I do buy the expensive stuff but for club/ops session use I have yet to have an issue finding blue box and roundhouse kits anywhere. I do still enjoy putting this stuff together. I feel like athearn discontinued blue box and now all of a sudden people think we are at a complete loss for models.

Cheap engines. If you are looking for these there is also virtually no end to recycled blue box stuff at train shows. There are also plenty of brand new offerings at decent prices. Have you looked at the latest (gasp) bachmann stuff? Its gotten way better, and the prices are still reasonable WITH DCC decoders on board! You are never going to find new 10 dollar engines and 99 cent cars ever again. Its 2014 and nothing is ever going to be that cheap again new. For 50 bucks with a decoder installed, you cant go wrong. You can play with it on DC at home with your kids and if you expand to DCC its all ready to go. Bachmann now uses ESU for their decoders, the germans, so they dont have junk decoders anymore. It might not be a bad idea to sit back and have a look at whats really out there today, because it is out there and you do not have to break the bank to do it.