Such a shame24 Jun 2017 22:13
Poor old hornby, one of the best christmas presents i ever got as a child a red freight train and oval track... Transformer that smelt a bit funny and had so few controls that i doubt kids today would understand as it was so simple.
My first paper round wages...if you could call them that.. Went on a set of points from beatties over in lewisham... I was so tired by the time i got home that i fell asleep on my bed before i could set up my siding. Wish i didnt get the estate with all the flats to deliver endless copies of the sun and mirror to at six in the morning.
I bet theres millions of people out there who have such great memories of hornby, scalextrix and airfix kits...
Half the issue with hornby is and has been their brand management, a very poor ecommerce offering, they just dont reach out to people who should be buying their ranges for their kids, grandkids etc... A marketing opportunity missed and its people in my age group that would buy them for their kids...
The quality has slipped, and so has the imagination behind the brand and the product ranges... Firms like marklin stayed on top because they innovate and adapt their brand offering.
Gonna be a big job getting retail shelf space and rejuvinating the brand, if i read they were to reconnect with their old customers, and underpin their sales with their brand heritage i think they would have a great chance of putting this back out there, and with a bit of interaction on their website they could quite easily video consol some of the brands, certainly track design, lap speeds etc.. By just giving a youthful audience that bit of user interaction it expects these days..
I do hold a few shares here just realky for memory sake, wish i kept my train set it was a well built piece of model engineering, it was amongst the happiest of times for me as a child.
One day be great to see this back where it should be, every childs dream, every dad and granddads instant return to their own childhood, even just for a short while.
Come on hornby be great again for your old customers.
Imo.