Are there any AZL items close to running out?

BUMP!


Over the years, i've watched this thread grow longer and longer. Lately, i've been thinking that it's purpose has changed over time. Originally it was meant to be a guide to help Z scalers with their purchasing decisions as AZL products stock ran out or was becoming really low. However, lately it has become an evergrowing list of "items we used to have but are no longer available."

The questions that Mark asked are still there and i feel they are still relevant to Z scale.

Sure some items may show up occassionally on the Bay but at inflated prices. Z Track resale is limited in that it can only provide whatever it acquires  firstly. Some may put items up for sale/trade privately but those are usually someones excess items and may not be what you're looking for exactly.

We are blessed by AZL cranking out a plethora of modern diesel locomotive power. Never before have Z scalers had such choice of locomotives. But we still have to have rolling stock for all those shiny new diesels to pull. Unless you're modeling the Dolores engine yards or something like that to display all your engines. Or you could rotate your engines with your intermodal Maxi's, husky's, and spine cars.

Variety is the spice of life. Looking at the variety of member's layouts and what they choose to model with such diversiy and innovativeness is partly possible by having variety in their choices of trains and rolling stock. Newcomers to Z will have an easier time gettting locomotive power, but may find it harder getting their desired freight stock if we don't backfill some of the items on this thread. Z can be hard enough as it is but a lack of rolling stock could hinder growth of the scale,

I would like to echo Mark's questions and also ask if AZL has given thought to a long range plan to address this growing list of "backfillable items"? I  mean it could be something similar to crop rotation in a field. For every two or three runs of new product, there could a rerun of old product from this thread list. This would help address the backfill problem, would also help to rotate the stock, would help to keep interest of new Z scalers, and would also ease everybody's wallet of having to buy new products every two weeks on new release day.

Yes, i know that they announced another run of Bethgons and i heard autoracks i believe. But we've heard nothing since the announcements. And we've started another run of wide vision cabooses. But there's so much more to be backfilled. Reefers, tank cars, 3 and 4 bay gondolas. And don't forget all the passenger cars that are on this thread. Baggage, sleepers, coaches of various lines that are sold out and preventing people from modeling their complete trains. Personally, i would love to see a rerelease of the Pere Marquette for the East Coast guys - and i'm in California. BTW IIRC, there should be one or two more named passenger trains coming (if i'm counting right) and a fourth  California Zephyr set, but i digress.

Also, when AZL gets around to steam injection and other early diesels, we will need a lot of these backfillable items. I get on MTL a lot because they've lately abandoned all innovation in Z scale and have chosen only to do repaints of all their older molds. Besides, AZL rolling stock is so much more detailed than MTL. I'm thankful for all the AZL locomotive power but i feel that we really do need to address backfilling this thread list.