Review: Rapido AutoFlood III Coal Hopper [HO Scale]
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- Опубліковано 28 лип 2024
- In this video, we'll check out the second release of the Rapido AutoFlood III Coal Hopper. This newly released model is one of 7 Road names, 9 total paint schemes, and a grand total of 128 unique road numbers. The Review will be a detail analysis of the features, performance testing, then the set will be given a final score & letter Grade.
You can purchase yours directly from Rapido here:
rapidotrains.com/ho-scale/fre...
Check Out Other Reviews I've Done:
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Chapters:
0:00 Start
0:16 Prototype History
0:46 Product Information
1:32 Detail Analysis
8:14 Scoring
10:32 Final Score & Conclusions
11:34 Run By's - Розваги
Amazing video great explanation to the new auto flood cars. Great detail on them Thanks for sharing 🇨🇦🚂🥓👍🏻👍🏻
Great review.
Nice review!
Awesome review and good looking coal hopper!
Thanks for watching!
Super beautiful
hello side train its is randy i like your video is cool thanks friends randy
When compared to Athearn coalporters or Exactrail autoflood hoppers these Rapido cars have better detail. I picked up some UP & BNSF cars from Lombard but haven't ran them yet. The cars are expensive but you are getting what you're paying for. I feel the cost of detailing the inside of the car is why there are no rotating bearing caps (which I don't mind since many of the ones I have don't roll freely and are missing the caps as they tend to fall off). Great review btw 👍
Bachmann Rail Cheif set $189.99 (set includes 1 engine, 4 cars, 47"×38" oval rail set, 36 figures, 24 telephone poles, 48 railroad/street signs and power pack/speed controler). Honestly it's probably cheaper inflation adjusted than the $80 one you were referring too (which also included the same crappy engines you mentioned) depending on the year you were referencing. Not sure where you got $499 from. And crappy is what you get if you don't want to get spendy. That should go without saying. As it stands food, housing, cars, energy, etc must not be for everyone either since there are folks that cannot afford some of them or maybe even all of them. So the point that you're trying to make is fairly flawed. I worked with a guy who started at the company for 75 cents an hour (nearly 50x less than my current pay) so the point I'm making is the value of money drops every year, some years much more than others. You blame companies but it's actually because of a combination of China enforcing environmental manufacturing standards over the last 4 years causing the largest model rr assembly plant to close wreaking havoc to the industry and lately the horrendous govt. spending programs at home causing the worst inflation in 40+ years. People have control over their spending, not companies, if something isn't worth the money people simply won't buy it. And in my whole lifetime I've never met anyone who didn't budget their money, not one person. I saved up for 1 year to buy 61 of these cars, $240/mo, so hate me if you want to but in my opinion it just shows poor character on your part 🤷♂️ The way things are going you're going to be paying $48/per car for Bachmann models before too long. People will reminisce about the good old days of Autoflood III hoppers for $48 because the prices will certainly be going up for everything at a rapid pace for some years to come (8.5% per year right now)
It's just plastic with metal wheels (steel has gone up 4-5 times what it cost 2 years ago alone) has got to be the poorest description I've ever heard for these models, that is probably a more accurate description of the older poorly molded, no roadname or roadnumber detail specific toys with the horrendous horn-hook couplers that all had the same roadnumber and lots of mistakes since they all shared the same poor quality molds I had as a child. The models offered today are almost museum quality models which used to be made of brass but less detailed and cost hundreds of dollars 10+ years ago. Also the couplers are thankfully steel too on these cars which modelers really appreciate same thing with the car body floor.
How long would it take you to take literally thousands of dimensions from a blueprint and convert them into h.o. scale (down to tenths of thousandths of an inch, which is necessary for stacking dimensions/tolerancing) and simply write them down on a piece of paper with zero errors, not even a decimal point in the wrong place? And what wage would you like to be paid for doing that and what benefits would you also need? That would be step 1 of a 20+ step process and that cost would be before buying the $100k worth of software/computers to make the computer models and machining programs which eventually all become obsolete and the programs have expensive yearly licensing/maintenance costs to fix the ever evolving bugs in them, not to mention the millions of dollars the machines cost that depreciate to worthlessness after roughly 15-20 years and that's if you're lucky enough to have careful operators that don't crash them causing 5 figure repair bills and countless hours of expensive downtime. Then you'd still need maybe 2-3 million more for the factories and constant tooling costs. That's not including the cost of the copper electrodes or photoetched parts or the labor to assemble everything or the time spent on graphic printing/painting/complying with ever increasing environmental standards or shipping + advertising or your warehouse/property taxes/insurance/building maintenance/utility bills/tax lawyer/accountant or all the employees wages/benefits/unemployment taxes/social security taxes or the cost to replace faulty models etc. And all that must be done for roughly +/- 40% of the final cost of the model. Distributors also have to make their money when they sell the products to the hobby shops. All of these processes are needed to make even the cheap cars so it's obvious why they are so rare nowadays in the hobby. There's almost no profit margin on them meaning super high risk if you don't produce other higher margin products to compensate.
As for blaming people who can afford to buy these models, good luck with that, let me know how that goes for you. I work as a machinist. No college degree required, hell you don't even need schooling at all. Most places will train you and it is always paid training. The money is great, for example yesterday was $102/hr for 3 hours work because of a call in job to do emergency work. My work is also hiring (like it always has been) and so is basically every machine shop in America for as long as I've been in the trade. It's one of the most in-demand jobs in manufacturing and has been for some time now. Overtime has been available at every shop I've worked at for the last 20 years even during the worst of the recession. The money is great, especially when comparing to the money I made working in fast food and telemarketing. My brother is a plumber and makes more than I do, same thing for my friend who's an electrician, another friend who's a millwright and yet another who works at Goodyear. There are a lot of good paying, easy/cheap to get into jobs out there if you look around that make this hobby more affordable. There are 2nd hand older train sets and blue box kits still for sale on ebay and in some stores like our hobby shop but honestly nobody buys them (at least around here anyway) so the market has changed from the way it used to be.
The trucks are a kill for me when you can buy models in the 45-50$ price range with the rotating bearing caps especially as someone who enjoys detailed weathering that takes away from the overall truck appearance as they roll
So you have 19 cars @ $50 + three locos @ about @300 + average. Well, yes they looks perfect, if you can afford the price. I think that prices will have to come down with the world economy tanking, and the company will have cut prices to survive when railroaders wont be able to offer their favorite models. Starting now.
@UCuvDA39CjJnhCou65jyDvfg I understand you points, however, not everybody can afford the super-detailed models. So, if market make them disappear, so let it be. I love to have a few super-detail units but most of my stock i made of Good to Best with a few super. I love the process of making everything including ruining my toys, but I don't need the most expensive model to have fun. Isn't the main purpose of the hobby.
I guess what I'm getting at is you're going to pay $50-60 for a Bachmann model eventually and will reminisce about these as the good old days when you could buy a detailed model for that price. Inflation is roughly 10% per year right now with no end in sight so that won't take long. If you notice 95%+ of ho scale train sales are super detailed because that's what consumers want. If they didn't it would be the other way around. 30 years ago these were toys geared towards kids, now they're highly detailed models geared towards adults because of how rare it is for kids to be into trains nowadays. I can't speak for everyone but feel I represent the large majority of hobbyists. I will just not add new stock if they downgrade the detailing and the cost keeps rising. The detail is what lured me back into it as an adult. I'm of the opinion that the hobby wouldn't have survived without the switch. If you get rid of the highly detailed models I doubt there will be enough of a market left to support the hobby at all when cheap engines are $100+, cheap cars are $18+, rail is $2/foot, switches are $22 and control systems are $75+. Not everybody can afford that either. Lots of people cannot afford basic necessities so there's no point being made with that statement like: not everybody can afford the detailed trains.