Build Your Own Hogwarts Express

[chefhawk]

There is a new Trial build of the Hogwarts express.

"From the films of Harry Potter, prepare to build your very own officially licensed Hogwarts Express train. Complete with lights, sounds, steam and moving wheels, the carriage roof also lifts off to ensure that you can move your figurines around with ease."

Here is the website

Hachette Collections – Miniatures Autos, Livres Personnalisés, Maquettes, BD…

Commandez en ligne des collections exclusives de bandes dessinées, miniatures automobiles, maquettes, loisirs créatifs, figurines et des livres personnalisés pour enfants.

hogwartsexpress.hachettepartworks.com

Probably full release next year.

 

[TheAccumulator]

Looks like a lovely model, but my experience with the DeAgostini Millenium Falcon has soured me on subscription model kits

 

[TazMan2000]

Is this manufactured by DeAg? It sure looks like it.

Edit...
Sorry. Hachette. But their layout with parts and accessories looked exactly like DeAg. I never knew that Hachette existed.

TazMan2000

 

[TheAccumulator]

TazMan2000 You're not wrong, it's slightly creepy how the output of all the Partswork Publishers has gradually become indistinguishable. DeAg and Hachette Partworks are both in the UK, and ostensibly competitors, but they seem to share design sensibilities (as well as shockingly bad consumer reviews, which at least in the case of DeAg I can personally confirm are deserved.)

 

[TazMan2000]

TheAccumulator , I can't say that I've had a bad experience with DeAgostini. Mind you I was dealing with their USA affiliate ModelSpace and their Millennium Falcon. I was going to get their X-wing but the problem with the wing construction was just too egregious to overlook.

TazMan2000

 

[3Dsf]

Man. Just get a proper railway model of a GWR (Great Western Railway) Hall class engine (5972 Olton Hall), slap a bunch of British Rail Mark 1 carriages behind it, paint them Hogwarty colours, and you're all set.

 

[TheAccumulator]

TheAccumulator , I can't say that I've had a bad experience with DeAgostini. Mind you I was dealing with their USA affiliate ModelSpace and their Millennium Falcon. I was going to get their X-wing but the problem with the wing construction was just too egregious to overlook.

TazMan2000

Man, I want to have had your experience! I signed up for 24 installment ModelSpace USA Falcon 19 months ago, and I'm up to issue 40/100. long stretches of months often go by with no word and no product. Their customer service people basically just shrug audibly and say they'll ship them when they feel like it. At this pace, it's going to take them 48 months to fulfill my 24 month subscription. I am not a happy bunny.

 

[TazMan2000]

Man, I want to have had your experience! I signed up for 24 installment ModelSpace USA Falcon 19 months ago, and I'm up to issue 40/100. long stretches of months often go by with no word and no product. Their customer service people basically just shrug audibly and say they'll ship them when they feel like it. At this pace, it's going to take them 48 months to fulfill my 24 month subscription. I am not a happy bunny.

That wasn't my experience getting the product from the US. It was like clockwork. Mind you when they first went with UPS to send me the packages, 1 out of 3 shipments would arrive damaged, sometimes severely. Eventually they went with Fedex and there was no problems.

TazMan2000

 

[TheAccumulator]

That wasn't my experience getting the product from the US. It was like clockwork. Mind you when they first went with UPS to send me the packages, 1 out of 3 shipments would arrive damaged, sometimes severely. Eventually they went with Fedex and there was no problems.

TazMan2000

Yeah I'm also getting them from/in the US (when I get them at all.) Always UPS, and nearly always intact so far, one did have a hole, but nothing missing. I suspect a lot has to do with the quality of the regional distribution centers. But, obviously I only get them when they send them. Nothing again in August. Who knows about September. sigh.

 

[TazMan2000]

TheAccumulator , I'm assuming that the US distribution is getting the items from the UK or the Manufacturer (wherever that is). I guess every retailer can blame Covid 19 for distribution delays, whether or not it is the truth or not. But there has been some significant delays in getting stuff from overseas, not to mention locally, I'v noticed. I've been waiting over a month from a kit from the US.

Hachette made the T-800, so perhaps someone can chime in on the quality of that run. I know there are a lot of Harry Potter fans here and the Hogwarts train would be an iconic display piece for them.

TazMan2000

...the slightly derailed Hogwarts Express Train thread is back on track.

 

[TheAccumulator]

TheAccumulator , I'm assuming that the US distribution is getting the items from the UK or the Manufacturer (wherever that is). I guess every retailer can blame Covid 19 for distribution delays, whether or not it is the truth or not. But there has been some significant delays in getting stuff from overseas, not to mention locally, I'v noticed. I've been waiting over a month from a kit from the US.

Hachette made the T-800, so perhaps someone can chime in on the quality of that run. I know there are a lot of Harry Potter fans here and the Hogwarts train would be an iconic display piece for them.

TazMan2000

Yes, having first hand experience with the supply chain madness that Covid has brought at the day job, I would totally forgive that. On the phone they claim to be getting them directly from the Chinese manufacturing facility, which again, disruptions would be totally understandable at the moment but sadly, the problems with DeAg fulfillment on the Falcon began way WAY before that, indeed they began almost immediately. I was chasing them by email (which they only sporadically replied to) by three months in, after that I switched to the phone, but when nothing came of those calls I eventually just gave up and hoped to eventually get it all.