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Post by ztrack on Apr 17, 2020 7:46:26 GMT -5
Nick, I am sorry you are disappointed, but checking with a couple of dealers, sets -2, -3 and -4 are still in stock. We are only sold out here at Ztrack Distribution. It looks like dealers still have plenty of these sets. The only set I am not seeing in stock anywhere is the -1 set with the containers. Yes, we know the MCZ containers very well. We sell them also through our Ztrack Center store. They are nice and we have sold quite a few Maersk containers this week! But I will tip the hat to AZL on the printing. Their details are much better than MCZ. Some of AZL's containers have upwards of 7 colors on each one!   Rob |
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Post by fulingyu on Apr 17, 2020 16:24:22 GMT -5
Nick, I hear you Bruh. In a perfect world, everyone would be able to get everything they wanted in whatever quantities they wanted. Unfortunately, this ain't a perfect world. Having had my share of disappointments in the past, still this is a reality we face. All I can do is try to sympathize with you and encourage you to keep on trying. We may not be able to get everything we wanted but we try to move on and hopefully pick up something else. As others have stated, other brand containers are still available (not for long, I'm sure). It may not be ideal for those that want everything AZL, but it's still a very good representation. I have containers from AZL, MTL, Freunderich, Rokuhan, Marklin, and MCZ. On FleaBay, you can easily find 3d printed ones and even cardboard printed containers. Granted, some are better than others, however all will work okay. Heck, even early MTL containers were just solid color boxes with very little details. If I may suggest, get the Maxi cars while you can and add the containers later. Don't let your disappointment keep you from trying another way to get what you want. Maybe sometime in the future, AZL will do another run of containers, then it'll be easy to swap out the containers. And if they don't do another run of containers, you'll at least have the cars with some "substitute" containers. So, I encourage you not to give up and keep working towards getting your railroad dreams. That is another question altogether. Maybe it has something to do with AZL being practically the ONLY major company constantly producing new and innovative products in Z scale. Other companies are not doing as much innovation or producing in much smaller quantities. I'm not privy to all their reasons why they choose to market certain amounts or even some of their marketing decisions. ie - the decision to sell new military flat cars in only 4 packs when I think a lot of us would prefer to buy singles to make our military trains.  AZL isn't totally off the hook when it comes to production decisions. Still I appreciate AZL over another company that only makes repaints of their old existing molds. And that company has changed their policy so that they won't even PRODUCE those repaints unless they get a certain amount of pre-orders before they start production. If they don't get the specified number of pre-orders, they won't make it no matter how many people sign up for pre-order. Somehow it seems their hearts aren't really into Z scale anymore. I hope that this doesn't become a trend in the future. While it would help companies gauge interest in future products, what if a company decides it's too much trouble to produce Product X and just says they didn't get enough pre-orders. I think I would prefer a company commit to producing Product X and not just publicizing vaporware that may or may not happen. Still it would be nice to know if that company is commited to producing large quantities so I know I stand a chance to possibly acquire one. Quality over quanity, eh? And we do appreciate that. Still, it doesn't matter how good they are if not enough are produced so more people can appreciate that quality. Finally, Sven, thank you for all your hard work in these trying times. At first I just appreciated all your work in Z scale on this forum. Now I appreciate you even more in the age of Covid 19 . |
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Post by DAZed on Apr 17, 2020 19:34:51 GMT -5
Over 20 years in Z scale, and this is the biggest disappointment yet. Nick, first off, my apologies. I didn't mean to sound quite so harsh in my reply. A combination of your reply and the guy that was debating about it was really why I responded, not necessarily solely to you. Admittedly I had the benefit of being in N when the Kato Maersk cars came out and were swooped up quickly. The sellouts don't mean model railroading is doomed...it means manufacturers and distributors are getting smarter about business. They can no longer afford to sit on product for months or years. Being lean means they can turnaround and do more and more quickly. A lot of the high end N/HO freight cars and locos are gone within minutes of being made available for sale. If you didn't preorder them somewhere, you are out of luck. I understand some don't like to preorder so I get the frustration. The stuff Micro-Trains is doing--if done right and for the right reasons--will only help all involved. If they are just looking for a reason to kill product development in Z, then yes that is certainly one path that could occur. And yes, also frustrating that AZL doesn't typically provide info about their products before hand. They have little desire for building interest in their products before hand, which is so bizarre to me. Their refusal to announce roadnames is just flat astonishing, (and REALLY REALLY frustrating) when every other manufacturer in every other scale recognizes how helpful that is to both them and their customers. Which might be why they always short their production so bad for key roads. Or mess up road numbers on stuff, like they almost did on their upcoming SP Geeps. People want to experience the excitement and anticipation, it's human nature....but not in AZL bizarro world. Again, no intention of shunning your situation. I work too, but have to from home now...been putting in 12 hour days though, fairly consistently, since all this started...managing IT infrastructure and support so it's been a challenge. But yes, at least I was able to peek in on my phone to check for the new releases during the day. So, nick I want to make you an offer. I only bought one of these, and I can do without the containers. I don't care which roadnumber I get as I'm going to strip the lettering off to make one of the BNSF patch-jobs. I'll be happy to swap for one of the empty versions plus the delta in price and shipping if you can send me any of the others. (or if you can order one from ZSM and he hasn't shipped yet, maybe it can be done even easier. EDIT: sorry, initially thought they were completely out but looked at it wrong...they do have some of the sans-container Maersk cars in stock.) Let me know if you're interested in doing this. And again, sorry for coming across as a jerk. |
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Post by Hans Riddervold (AZL) on Apr 17, 2020 20:54:56 GMT -5
Well I think we have been quite forthcoming with announcing our products sometimes years ahead. You know we are working on RS3s, SW1500s, SD40-2s and the ATSF Super Chief. And safe to say, we will offer the most popular roadnames for each product. Also, usually we produce enough inventory to last for a while. As far as I can see, very few producers do this. We should have made more Maersk Maxi I sets, but that is a lesson learned for us as well. (Total production was 120 sets)
We will have some surprise announcements from time to time and we are not going to change that. In the last 12 years or so we have dealt with 3 factory closings which almost always had a negative impacts on new releases and past products. When Sanda Kan closed their doors, our Containers were lost for good. So what we have left are all from the last production in 2010.
And reread some of the product threads, they do actually at times list roadnames.
Stay healthy!
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Post by Rob Albritton on Apr 17, 2020 20:59:25 GMT -5
Hi Guys,
A few things to consider:
I just checked the original order date for the Maxi-I project. It was March of 2017 - THREE YEARS AGO!!!!
So think about this: Three years ago I had to estimate how many to make of each road name. Not an easy task. It is fairly rare that we have a sell out. Ask Rob Kluz. Go look at some of the items that we still have available from production runs that were done as long as 10 years ago. That's a long time for any business to hold inventory.
The Maxi-I turned out better than I had hoped. It was our first attempt at a metal body articulated freight car. Those are notoriously difficult to design and produce, but by the vast majority of testimonials, they are superior runners. I was VERY nervous that the price point would keep many customers away. I think there is chat somewhere in the forums about that. In fact, we canceled the tooling for a new container to keep the cost of the Maxi-I down.
But the Maxi-I has been a hit, thanks to you. It is natural to assume that we will do another production run of the Maxi-I, and yes, we will make more Maersk, BNSF Swoosh, and probably even those BN cars too.
We have several more Maxi-I releases coming, including the K-Line Rail Bridge (with matching containers) SP, BNSF Circle Logo, and the TTX are still available. So please support our remaining releases (and those that have already been released into the wild) as that will help me with better estimates for our next run.
as Bartles and Jaymes said:
"thank you for your support"
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Post by modelwarships on Apr 18, 2020 8:14:50 GMT -5
My $.02 to AZL is to invest a few more $$ in your runs on these new releases. The growing list of sold out items is testimony that there is more demand for your products than supply. Maybe increase the product run by 10-20% to reduce the amount of potential customers who missed out on a hot new release. Some of us are very passionate about our hobby and get ticked off when the cool new releases are snapped up before we can even get to log on.
That said, thank you for keeping Z alive, I'm looking forward to more!
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Post by DAZed on Apr 18, 2020 11:52:11 GMT -5
And safe to say, we will offer the most popular roadnames for each product. Also, usually we produce enough inventory to last for a while. As far as I can see, very few producers do this. We should have made more Maersk Maxi I sets, but that is a lesson learned for us as well. (Total production was 120 sets) Sorry, but I will have to respectfully disagree with "we will offer the most popular roadnames". IMHO, it is not safe to say, given recent history. To whiff on one of the most common BNSF schemes EVER on a locomotive is beyond head-scratching. And from Rob's comments about the Maxi-I, no "pure" TTX??? You've got the SP/Trailer Train (can be patched TTX, at about 2-3% of the prototype) and the "new logo" TTX (about 1%) and ignoring the standard logo/scheme (90+% of the prototype) over the past 30 years? Again, we just had to presume that one (the most common scheme ever on a Maxi-I, and it's not even close) was coming since of course we never really know for sure. So now who knows. (still) The oddball Railbridge scheme over speed-logo TTX? Surely Rob just left the TTX off his list of what's left. Surely.  There's no need to "learn lessons". Steal the "learned lessons" from your brethren in N. Maersk/TTX Maxi-I's from Kato? Instant sellouts. What was the first scheme Fox Valley did on their ES44s? BNSF Heritage-II...instant sellout. You have valuable market research right in front of you, for free. Yes, on one hand it's a drastically different market size...but do you really think the favorites are gonna change significantly? Anyway, I agree with Rob, the Maxi-I's are really great and it is promising that another run is probable. (Would love for that to parlay into the Maxi-IV 53ft cars as well eventually, too.) And you seem confident another ES44 run will happen. (please, with BNSF H-II, and the older red-sill UP scheme would be nice too) So, there is still hope. But I'm not going to stop holding my breath until I get those ES44's in my grubby little hands.   |
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Post by cwrr on Apr 19, 2020 20:47:02 GMT -5
Sooooo, will we see a second run of these soon? For the peeps that were late in buying these?  |
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Post by ugeesta on Apr 19, 2020 20:55:05 GMT -5
^^^^^ There were 4 sets produced. So, far, set 1 with the 5 Maersk containers is sold out. Z Scale Monster Trains still has the other 3 sets in stock. Just need to buy 10 containers for each. Gonna have to wait if you want Maersk containers as they are all sold out.
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Post by ugeesta on Apr 19, 2020 21:03:04 GMT -5
(and those that have already been released into the wild) hey, I like that line 😉 |
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Post by bloodynose on Apr 20, 2020 21:33:38 GMT -5
" ie - the decision to sell new military flat cars in only 4 packs when I think a lot of us would prefer to buy singles to make our military trains. " Have you looked on AZL Direct lately? They are offering singles of some of the last military releases! |
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Post by fulingyu on Apr 21, 2020 15:22:22 GMT -5
" ie - the decision to sell new military flat cars in only 4 packs when I think a lot of us would prefer to buy singles to make our military trains. " Have you looked on AZL Direct lately? They are offering singles of some of the last military releases! Thanks for pointing that out. However, the key word is "some". AZL released their 4 packs in three colors for their military vehicles - NATO, sand, and olive. The flat cars themselves were either in yellow or tuscan red. While I do appreciate that AZL is offering variety and choice of colors - the majority of military trains that I've seen in real life are the same color vehicles and the same color flat cars. While it is possible to mix and match them, it still looks a little odd. Anyway, back to the Maxi's. |
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Post by korgs130 on Apr 22, 2020 9:56:28 GMT -5
Rob & Hans,
I am grateful for all of your hard work in providing us with these fantastic Z scale models. Like everyone else, I’ve been eagerly awaiting the Maxi I. They look fantastic and run really well. I planned to pick up a second Swoosh set, but missed out. Ultimately the sellouts, while disappoint to some in varying degrees, is a good thing. It give you guys more incentive for additional runs (happy to see you are considering another Swoosh run) and for additional articulated well car models. Along that line of thought I’d love to see Maxi IV & Maxi III sets.
Question: Can we expect at classic “pure” TTX set in this initial run?
Thanks again. Looking forward to the BNSF Circle release.
Chris
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Post by Rob Albritton on Apr 22, 2020 19:19:13 GMT -5
Hi Chris,
We have several releases to go. From memory we still have:
BNSF Circle
SP
TTX “Classic”
SP Maxi Stack
“K” Line Rail Bridge (Some with matching containers)
We will probably wait until after all the releases before placing the second run order - that we we will have a better idea of quantities needed, and which ones to do again. Of course, new road number will be done on the second runs.
Thanks for your support!
-Rob(A)
AZL
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Post by DAZed on Apr 22, 2020 20:42:36 GMT -5
From memory we still have: BNSF Circle
SP TTX “Classic”SP Maxi Stack “K” Line Rail Bridge (Some with matching containers) Whew! That's a relief to see the TTX. Shocked to see all of the small-volume schemes...very nice. Never thought the Rail Bridge cars would make the cut....BNSF got a lot of those (and also some of the SP Maxi Stack scheme) too. |
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