Kato Thalys

[Kiran]

I wish I could resist opening those (almost daily) emails from hobby search but I can't. I noticed that Kato are doing a run of the Thalys PBA in new colors.

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10700935

 

There was a time when I lived in the UK and was working in a job that required me to go to Brussels and Amsterdam in the same trip. I would take the Eurostar from London, spend a couple of days in Brussels, then take the Thalys to Amsterdam and work there before returning home by flight. This was before 2016 and so probably they didn't have the new color scheme then for the PBA. I may have been on those trains at least 30-40 times.

 

Is Hobby Search still the good place to buy this if I am in the US?

[GCS]

1 hour ago, Kiran said:

I wish I could resist opening those (almost daily) emails from hobby search but I can't. I noticed that Kato are doing a run of the Thalys PBA in new colors.

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10700935

 

There was a time when I lived in the UK and was working in a job that required me to go to Brussels and Amsterdam in the same trip. I would take the Eurostar from London, spend a couple of days in Brussels, then take the Thalys to Amsterdam and work there before returning home by flight. This was before 2016 and so probably they didn't have the new color scheme then for the PBA. I may have been on those trains at least 30-40 times.

 

Is Hobby Search still the good place to buy this if I am in the US?

I’ve bought from hobbysearch before and they’re good, but I’ve preordered mine from Amazon Japan. It’s the same price as hobbysearch including shipping on o the UK 👍🏻

[roadstar_na6]

I guess it‘s really just a personal preference where you order. HS has the most stock and ships decently quick, HLJ has a smaller selection of items but you can stash stuff for 60 days in a personal warehouse and AmiAmi has the best prices but isn‘t the fastest with shipping.

 

Personally I‘d recommend reaching out to RG-Rokko or ModelTrainPlus and ask them to reserve a set for you, they offer best customers service, great handling and shipping and in terms of the first one the best prices I‘ve come across 🙂

[cteno4]

Kiran,

 

all the usual sources in japan are still good, you just need to use DHL or fedex for shipping during covid due to EMS and Sal being suspended.

 

jeff

[Tuga]

Now that's what I call laziness from Kato (and they aren't alone in this trend).

The previous edition of the Kato Thalys as basically the same livery with minor differences, which puts me off buying the new one.

"Happy days" if you still don't have one, but... There are so many other liveries out there. 

If this is Kato's best effort, then it is really sad. When the market is going down with the Covid-19, I expected a bold and aggressive atitude. What a shame... What an wasted opportunity to 

make it big... Sometimes I wonder where are this people sense of business?

 

The TGV Thalys Izy

 

 

 

The TGV Iris 320

 

 

The TGV La Poste

 

 

[Yavianice]

 @tavora

 

6 hours ago, tavora said:

Now that's what I call laziness from Kato (and they aren't alone in this trend).

The previous edition of the Kato Thalys as basically the same livery with minor differences, which puts me off buying the new one.

"Happy days" if you still don't have one, but... There are so many other liveries out there. 

If this is Kato's best effort, then it is really sad. When the market is going down with the Covid-19, I expected a bold and aggressive atitude. What a shame... What an wasted opportunity to 

make it big... Sometimes I wonder where are this people sense of business?

 

• The new Thalys livery is quite different from the previous one? Sure they are both red but that's where the similarities end.
• As mentioned in another thread, it took KATO two years to license the Thalys. It's not laziness. Not at all. 
• The IRIS set is quite niche and intensive paintscheme to make (except for the carmillion version, that's a bit easier) but would still require a separate license. And a new mold because otherwise everyone would complain about the missing inspection dome.
• The La Poste TGV also needs new molds, from scratch, because KATO has never produced a SudEste TGV after the ancient one. Molds are really expensive. It's more likely they will make a SudEste TGV WITH windows (no windows needs a separate mold) for the orange TGV re-release; which is currently in the works.

The KATO employee that takes care of these licenses is a big TGV enthusiast and would love to produce them. But fact of the matter is that the licenses and molds are just not worth the hassle for these niche models. They need to sell a lot of them to get their money back from the licensing and the molds. And it's much easier to just make one model and then make a ton of variations of them, what you can see with the Duplex etc. trains which are all the same, rather than making a specific mold for a specific train. KATO just doesn't have that kind of money like TOMIX does.

[roadstar_na6]

Plus I guess these don‘t habe any additional funding by HobbyTrain/Lemke like the ICE4 does.

[jappomania]

license agreement apart, the Izy is the only one "ready to go", Iris and La Poste require too many new molds (PSE and La Poste have just the same nose and little more, IRIS R1 and R8 windows arrangement and R2-R3 rooftop, not only inspection dome)
I really hope that nobody inside Kato plan a fake version like EVA500 or E3-700
Hornby has already relased enough fake TGV in H0, I don't think Kato want downgrade his quality at the same level.....
like I already wrote in the past, is better if Kato takes advantage of the actual Reseaux/Duplex molds sets for new livery and maybe a re-release (how many people still search the original Duplex?...and the AVE-Euromed? ... if the mold is Kato owned)

[Kiran]

Do the Thalys and the TGV duplex take the EM13 decoder? Or am I looking at hardwiring?

[Kiha66]

I believe they take a 6 pin style decoder, at least previous releases have done.  Possibly could also fit a F unit style decoder from photos I've seen, but I have not worked with those models personally. 

[Kiran]

1 hour ago, Kiha66 said:

I believe they take a 6 pin style decoder, at least previous releases have done.  Possibly could also fit a F unit style decoder from photos I've seen, but I have not worked with those models personally. 

Ah right, actually the Hobby Search page says so "-DCC compatible. The one with 6-pin socket is suitable for M1 and M2. However, change the CV29 value setting of the decoder installed in M2 to control the headlight / taillight.". So does the TGV one.

[Kiran]

Now they announced the PBKA version. https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10749058