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Author Topic: Hornby Goes Steampunk  (Read 6635 times)

Offline Cat

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Hornby Goes Steampunk
« on: January 22, 2020, 03:10:51 PM »
Hornby is rolling out an HO/OO Steampunk model railway range for 2020.  The rolling stock looks good.  The buildings, well let's just say they glued some gears on it and called it Steampunk...
https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/bassett-lowke-steampunk

Offline Captain Blood

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Re: Hornby Goes Steampunk
« Reply #1 on: January 22, 2020, 04:26:22 PM »
Weird. And probably sadly misjudged, unfortunately like a lot of Hornby releases, which is probably why their struggles as a business go ever on...  It appears to be in HO/OO scale - those are 1/72 Airfix astronauts in the diorama pictured, unless my eyes deceive me? And yet the (rather nice) Steampunk figures offered as part of the range are stated to be ‘10cm’, i.e. 100mm. So way out of scale with the rolling stock. What’s that all about? And yes, the buildings appear to be regular (and quite modern looking) buildings, just with a few cogs stuck on the roof. How shoddy. How bizarre...  ::)

Unless I’ve got completely the wrong end of the stick...  :?

Offline gamer Mac

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Re: Hornby Goes Steampunk
« Reply #2 on: January 22, 2020, 04:29:39 PM »
There was already a thread on this a few weeks ago?

Online OSHIROmodels

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Re: Hornby Goes Steampunk
« Reply #3 on: January 22, 2020, 04:39:19 PM »
Not impressed  :?
cheers

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Offline Belgian

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Re: Hornby Goes Steampunk
« Reply #4 on: January 22, 2020, 06:54:38 PM »
Saw the promo trailer somewhere and was thinking who buys this? Not sure which genre they are trying to replicate but it's certainly not steampunk as they seem to think steampunk, just our standard kits with some added cogs.

To be honest think a proper range of steampunk trains, buildings and miniatures would be interesting but just not the badly painted, weird designed vehicles and building mixed with some astronauts and somehow also a mention of dinosaurs... very strange especially for such an iconic brand.
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Offline Doug ex-em4

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Re: Hornby Goes Steampunk
« Reply #5 on: January 22, 2020, 08:08:56 PM »
The proud names of Hornby and Bassett-Lowke mixed up in this tosh. Still, it involves "eco-warriors" so that’s an important box ticked.

Doug

Offline JollyBob

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Re: Hornby Goes Steampunk
« Reply #6 on: January 24, 2020, 10:09:25 AM »
Weird. And probably sadly misjudged, unfortunately like a lot of Hornby releases, which is probably why their struggles as a business go ever on...  It appears to be in HO/OO scale - those are 1/72 Airfix astronauts in the diorama pictured, unless my eyes deceive me? And yet the (rather nice) Steampunk figures offered as part of the range are stated to be ‘10cm’, i.e. 100mm. So way out of scale with the rolling stock. What’s that all about? And yes, the buildings appear to be regular (and quite modern looking) buildings, just with a few cogs stuck on the roof. How shoddy. How bizarre...  ::)

Unless I’ve got completely the wrong end of the stick...  :?

I noticed that.

I also think there are some Black Pyramid Gaming steam robot "Iron Men" kicking about in that diorama, so they are also including 1/56 or 28mm into the mix and hoping nobody picks up.

I mean, to be fair, it looks a lot like the sort of layouts I made when I was about six, what with all the random scales and odds and ends thrown in for good measure. So maybe there is a nostalgia market there...  lol

Offline dartfrog

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Re: Hornby Goes Steampunk
« Reply #7 on: February 01, 2020, 12:21:38 PM »
 :o That is truly awful. What were they thinking?

Offline FreakyFenton

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Re: Hornby Goes Steampunk
« Reply #8 on: February 23, 2020, 11:11:59 PM »
Haha, the character pack with Gandalf in it takes the cake though.  lol
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Offline Sterling Moose

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Re: Hornby Goes Steampunk
« Reply #9 on: February 24, 2020, 11:50:33 AM »
Lol, buy them keep them MIB for 100 years.  They'll be worth a fortune.  Why?  Because they are so bad no-one will buy them, Hornby will go bust and the remaining stock will end up in the landfill.  Atari ET game anyone?
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Offline Michi

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Re: Hornby Goes Steampunk
« Reply #10 on: February 24, 2020, 12:39:06 PM »
In all seriousness this could have been an opportunity, but by what I see I call it a missed chance. It looks like another case of do it right or leave it. I can see no heartblood in there. They might have asked the wrong advisors or none at all. Just by having a glimpse of a certain vogue in mind is not what it needs to place a product.
It is a sad fact that the model railway industy is about to die someday. Either make it a toy again or create appealing models, but that I don´t see here...  :'( :'(

Offline levied troop

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Re: Hornby Goes Steampunk
« Reply #11 on: February 24, 2020, 07:47:56 PM »
That is so poor I actually went looking at Railway Modelling and Steampunk forums to see what they thought of it.  Much the same as us with slightly ruder words.
Hornby are going to lose money on this.
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Offline FramFramson

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Re: Hornby Goes Steampunk
« Reply #12 on: February 24, 2020, 07:55:28 PM »
Wow, I thought you lot were kidding about "Gears glued on regular buildings", when the scenery is literally exactly that.


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Offline Captain Darling

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Re: Hornby Goes Steampunk
« Reply #13 on: February 25, 2020, 11:40:49 AM »
Odd direction for Hornby to go and especially in such a half hearted way...pretty sad!
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Offline robh

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Re: Hornby Goes Steampunk
« Reply #14 on: February 25, 2020, 01:29:00 PM »
Haha, the character pack with Gandalf in it takes the cake though.  lol

That is "Steam Wizard" he and the other characters are actual, or based on, characters from the Steampunk CosPlay community.
The 28mm figures look like they would work well with the RAFM Abney Park/Airship Pirates models.
I imagine that set will be the best selling of all the pieces in this collection.