Masterpiece, Part 3

[lynn]

Bill,

When I looked at the Plymouth police cars and Main Street Motors in Nuremberg play fair, they looks like mass market quality. They are different from the beautiful ADs. Will they be sold at mass market price, like Motormax?

Lynn

billc said:

Took a bit longer than I hoped, but here they are.

Main Street Motors Ford and Plymouth police cars.



1970 Ford



1968 Plymouth



There are still some things to fix but they are very close to production.

[ponyman]

Bill:

On the vans how about Leon's mobile locksmith, or Shady's mobile mechanic, or 18 wheels a rollin mobile mechanic . ;D

Names have been changed to protect the sane. ;D

[BillC]

Lynn:

What you saw were pre-production samples but, yes, they will be less expensive.

Bryan:

Good ideas, might use them.

Actually, we're talking about some different things, like a fire department van (with a matching fire chief car), a city utility van and perhaps some railroad MOV vans.

Bill C.

[lynn]

USD1.00 in Walmart?

billc said:

What you saw were pre-production samples but, yes, they will be less expensive.

[BillC]

No. These aren't diecast and they don't have mass-market distribution. Besides, most of the diecast being sold in Wal-Mart is going for US$2.00 or more and some hobby channel diecast is going for US$5.00 to US$13.00. The only US$1.00 pieces at Wal-Mart are leftovers on clearance.

[lynn]

Die cast supposes to be more expensive than plastic if they are in the similar quality and detail. I suggest Masterpiece to sell at USD1.00 in the mass market as the products showed in Nurnberg like something showing in High Speed. It will win the business if it can be sold in Walmart at US$1.00. Anything like these selling at US$5-13 at this quality, I would prefer to buy the Motormax or highspeed 1/87 having higher value. I hope what I saw will not be the production quality and I will buy all if they will be valued.

[BillC]

lynn said:

Die cast supposes to be more expensive than plastic if they are in the similar quality and detail. I suggest Masterpiece to sell at USD1.00 in the mass market as the products showed in Nurnberg like something showing in High Speed. It will win the business if it can be sold in Walmart at US$1.00. Anything like these selling at US$5-13 at this quality, I would prefer to buy the Motormax or highspeed 1/87 having higher value. I hope what I saw will not be the production quality and I will buy all if they will be valued.

Thanks, but I think we'll pass on that particular opportunity. Besides, the Main Street Motors models couldn't be sold to Wal-Mart, Target or Toys 'R' Us; they're not classed as toys. Like the regular Masterpiece Auto Replicas, they are adult collectibles and are not suitable for children.

In addition, we are pretty satisfied with the results of the Masterpiece line to date (Thanks, everyone! ).

[skunk]

The Main Street motors models won't suffer unless Motormax/Highspeed release the exact same cars. And knowing what is sold at WalMart so far, those two producers have not even the slightest chance of capturing proportions as well as Main Street does.

Maybe Lynn is not familiar with Herpa's Magic series?

As a matter of fact, this entire exchange seems like a particularly unpleasant baiting attempt, and I for one would like for it to stop here.

[BillC]

skunk said:

The Main Street motors models won't suffer unless Motormax/Highspeed release the exact same cars. And knowing what is sold at WalMart so far, those two producers have not even the slightest chance of capturing proportions as well as Main Street does.

Maybe Lynn is not familiar with Herpa's Magic series?

As a matter of fact, this entire exchange seems like a particularly unpleasant baiting attempt, and I for one would like for it to stop here.

Don't worry, Hakan, even if it's baiting, it gives me a chance to brag on Masterpiece's performance so far and thank everyone for helping to make it so. ;D

[mstar]

I think the models look quite good, especially for the price. I hope Masterpiece goes on like that and brings us more interesting models. By the way, can I still hope for a Volvo C30 :-)

[hovehicle]

Bill,

Sounds like Fed Ex has become difficult to work with and USPS has no chance at all. That's alright, please consider at least a couple more real companies such as Frito Lay or Little Debbie Snacks to offer a little variety. The fire dept. step van will be sharp and the railroad MOW vans sound like a winner. Please consider all class 1 railroads if possible because if the colors are matched perfectly to the railroads as well as lettering and heralds, that idea alone will be a huge hit. Any lights for the fire dept. van?

Sarcasm aside, the 1968 Plymouth and 1970 Ford look good and I'll add a few to the collection for sure. Also, did Masterpiece announce a 1970 Challenger? I looked at the website but couldn't find it.

Vito L.

[BillC]

Vito,

We've already contacted several major companies, including Frito-Lay and McKesson (Little Debbie) but haven't heard back yet. We'll be following up on our initial inquiries in next next few weeks, once production and new licensing issues are resolved.

We're talking about the Fire Department vans; they usually seem to have more emergency lighting equipment than police vans of the same era (modern vans for either application have lots of lights). We just need to find some references for the MOW vans to start doing them. We can do short runs of the vans, so doing them for a variety of roads should be no problem.

Bill

[BillC]

mstar said:

I think the models look quite good, especially for the price. I hope Masterpiece goes on like that and brings us more interesting models. By the way, can I still hope for a Volvo C30 :-)

Yes, you can. Tony and I had a very good meeting with Volvo itself while we were in Nuremberg and we are proceeding to the next stage. They have some capabilities that make their line very tempting and we discussed some possibilities that are very exciting. At the moment, it looks like all of the licenses we want are available, including the C30.

We already have a couple more candidates lined up for the Main Street Motors collection.

Bill C.

[hofan]

billc said:

mstar said:

I think the models look quite good, especially for the price. I hope Masterpiece goes on like that and brings us more interesting models. By the way, can I still hope for a Volvo C30 :-)

Yes, you can. Tony and I had a very good meeting with Volvo itself while we were in Nuremberg and we are proceeding to the next stage. They have some capabilities that make their line very tempting and we discussed some possibilities that are very exciting. At the moment, it looks like all of the licenses we want are available, including the C30.

We already have a couple more candidates lined up for the Main Street Motors collection.

Bill C.

Hello:
That is really exciting news. I am looking forward for quality Volvo's and hope Jaguar also is considered. regards

[Sabuu]

billc said:

...At the moment, it looks like all of the licenses we want are available, including the C30...

That is FANTASTIC news!! Please, make all of them available in metallic paintschemes, a (modern) Volvo really needs to have a beautiful metallic paintjob!