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Post by lvrr325 on Oct 31, 2023 20:37:40 GMT -8
He has a linkedin profile, if you're a member you can see a lot more information. Has anyone tried to call them?
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Post by Mr. Trainiac on Oct 31, 2023 20:48:42 GMT -8
The website appears to no longer exist. Not a good sign.
Interesting. I think it was modeltrainstuff that just last week got in a bunch of PC coal hoppers. Hopefully he didn't go out like this and is instead revamping his website or switching providers. Penn Central hoppers were delivered a while ago. Those could be additional stock they got from another distributor or unclaimed pre-orders that have now been made available to the public. They also just listed a bunch of older models like Rapido EP5s and F59PH Metra locomotives, so it seems like these new locomotives and hoppers are some kind of 'warehouse find' or it's them trying to catch up on older listings. Midwest Model Railroad has Bowser hoppers listed ahead of Arrowhead when filtering by newest, and those were delivered a month ago, so the Arrowhead models have to be older. It seems unlikely that MB Klein's hoppers are a new delivery directly from Arrowhead. As far as we know, Arrowhead sunk like the Titanic and these Penn Central hoppers are the last wreckage floating around on the surface waiting to be rescued by various hobby shops. |
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Post by jeoffreythecat on Nov 1, 2023 1:29:54 GMT -8
One could postulate on the fate of Arrowhead but nothing posting on any of the various modelers' forums seems to have any actual evidence as to what happened (and the legal/financial recourse, if any, for companies and individuals taking a financial hit). I just emailed the top two editors at Model Railroader (Eric White and Cody Grivno) requesting they do some journalistic investigation and report to their readership on Arrowhead's fate. (I figured mentioning that I was a subscriber since 1981 couldn't hurt).
If others on this forum did the same, and also to Model Railroad Hobbyist and Railroad Model Craftsman, perhaps one of them will get actual information and be able to corroborate the various bits of information floating around various forums.
John
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Post by jeoffreythecat on Nov 1, 2023 8:47:44 GMT -8
Had a response from MR before noon:
Good morning,
Thanks for your e-mail. I’ve reached out to Blaine to get an update. If I get a reply, I will pass that information along.
I know Arrowhead produced at least three HO scale models: The Committee Design hopper; an American Car & Foundry 4,600-cubic-foot capacity three-bay Center Flow covered hopper; and a Railgon gondola. In addition, Blaine wrote a book about grain elevators.
Thanks again for writing in.
Cody
-----
Cody Grivno
Senior Editor
Model Railroader magazine
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Post by richardthomasatal on Nov 1, 2023 9:37:59 GMT -8
I know a few people and am told Blaine will be announced as an employee of a company early to mid next year. The tooling will go with him. This is rumor mill and no one points to a single source of info so don't take much stock in it, but that is what I heard.
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Post by riogrande on Nov 1, 2023 10:14:10 GMT -8
It has been vewwy quiet - hunting wabbits?
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Post by gevohogger on Nov 1, 2023 10:29:16 GMT -8
I know a few people and am told Blaine will be announced as an employee of a company early to mid next year. The tooling will go with him. This is rumor mill and no one points to a single source of info so don't take much stock in it, but that is what I heard. Hmmmm, maybe Rapido decided to hire someone who actually knows how to tool a decent model? |
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Post by edwardsutorik on Nov 1, 2023 11:17:25 GMT -8
And maybe Rapido will LET him.
Ed
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Post by Christian on Nov 1, 2023 11:30:33 GMT -8
I know a few people and am told Blaine will be announced as an employee of a company early to mid next year. The tooling will go with him. This is rumor mill and no one points to a single source of info so don't take much stock in it, but that is what I heard. Hmmmm, maybe Rapido decided to hire someone who actually knows how to tool a decent model? IF the rumor pans out ScaleTrains would be much more likely. Remember ExactRail? |
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Post by riogrande on Nov 1, 2023 12:01:25 GMT -8
Plus it's a lot warmer than The Great White North!
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Post by cemr5396 on Nov 1, 2023 12:23:35 GMT -8
throwing the Arrowhead Railgon into Rapido's product lineup would be a STARK contrast to everything else they make....
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Post by cemr5396 on Nov 1, 2023 12:24:40 GMT -8
And maybe Rapido will LET him. Ed considering Matt Gentry has been just as hamstrung as the rest of their product development guys since he got there, I think the odds of that are extremely remote. |
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Post by jeoffreythecat on Nov 1, 2023 12:25:52 GMT -8
"I’ve reached out to Blaine to get an update. If I get a reply, I will pass that information along."
It would be nice to see some concrete information from a legitimate source. If Cody Grivno of MR can't get a response, you could start to wonder. He could respond generically that he is part of a new project starting in 2024. If he's taking tooling with him to a new company without producing what people paid for (and thus SOL), stiffed Arrowhead customers will be ticked if a new company produces his tooling without financial recompsense.
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Post by ambluco on Nov 1, 2023 12:28:42 GMT -8
What is interesting is there is ZERO reference to Blaine doing a "past year" google search. Seems 2019 is about the last time.
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Post by gevohogger on Nov 1, 2023 12:49:25 GMT -8
What is interesting is there is ZERO reference to Blaine doing a "past year" google search. Seems 2019 is about the last time. Does the live unveiling of the Railgon car at Lombard Hobby show in your search? That was in 2020.
He's posted here as recently as this time last year.... But apparently not since.
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Post by ambluco on Nov 1, 2023 13:13:31 GMT -8
No, I did past year, so back to 11/22.
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Post by Colin 't Hart on Nov 2, 2023 0:21:51 GMT -8
Reports of Arrowhead Models' death greatly exaggerated? The website is back up and running at least.
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Post by nstophat on Nov 2, 2023 3:15:24 GMT -8
The website appears to no longer exist. Not a good sign.
Website worked when I clicked on your link. |
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Post by markfj on Nov 2, 2023 4:17:42 GMT -8
Well, that’s encouraging news. I don’t know much about how websites work, but isn’t it safe to assume that someone is still paying the bill to keep the site up and running?
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Post by gevohogger on Nov 2, 2023 4:38:30 GMT -8
It's nice to know I still have time to get some Father's Day deals....
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Post by richardthomasatal on Nov 2, 2023 5:02:03 GMT -8
Reports of Arrowhead Models' death greatly exaggerated? The website is back up and running at least. The website up means nothing, most servers have you pay yearly, sometimes even longer ahead of renewal dates. He could have been abducted by aliens during Christmas dinner in 2022 and the website isn't going to give you any indication otherwise. Even the fathers day sale could have been pre programmed to go live on a certain date. |
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Post by sd40dash2 on Nov 2, 2023 5:03:10 GMT -8
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Post by Colin 't Hart on Nov 2, 2023 5:04:45 GMT -8
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Post by gevohogger on Nov 2, 2023 5:22:22 GMT -8
"Glory be to the Box, the almighty and everlasting Box!"  |
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Post by packer on Nov 2, 2023 11:12:35 GMT -8
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Post by richardthomasatal on Nov 8, 2023 7:41:26 GMT -8
I missed the box joke, what is wrong or right with the box that everyone hates or loves?
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Post by cemr5396 on Nov 8, 2023 7:51:45 GMT -8
when Arrowhead was first starting out they did a whole big "announcement of an announcement" song and dance, and spent the whole time leading up to it hyping up to the 'big announcement'....... which was the box. I'm not joking.
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Post by gevohogger on Nov 8, 2023 7:58:17 GMT -8
when Arrowhead was first starting out they did a whole big "announcement of an announcement" song and dance, and spent the whole time leading up to it hyping up to the 'big announcement'....... which was the box. I'm not joking. And then when the actual model was released, people immediately noticed various little issues with it: wrong trucks and wrong data for certain roadnames, stuff like that. So of course the wags were quick to point out maybe too much time was spent developing the special fantastic box instead of fact-checking the model. |
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Post by richardthomasatal on Nov 8, 2023 8:45:02 GMT -8
oh ok, makes sense. I think the Arrowhead guy may have had more ego than he had business acumen but we'll see how this all pans out.
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Post by prr 4467 on Nov 8, 2023 9:43:05 GMT -8
Wow, so all the manufacturers eventually make mistakes on lettering. It happens, and I find surprising mistakes in lettering on many freight cars. Maybe Tangent gets the lettering right far more often than most, that much is true. I just bought some new Athearn gondolas that are very close to some prototype 65' cars for the respective roads (I've found photos of them), but the lettering of W on the side of a car that has a steel floor, both in model and prototype form, is just plain dead wrong (should be an S inside the circle instead).
Regarding Rapido tooling a decent model: They actually have. Both the second run, retooled RS-11, and the RS-18u seem to be really great models, even if the sound is not perhaps as loud as some of us might want (hey, at least it's not "too loud" as some often complain). These RS units run really well, and even better after a few hours on them. The lighting is outstanding (there are some features they didn't even mention in the manual that ARE there such as green class lights on at least some of the RS units as well as the white class lights).
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