So is Boley pretty much done? The last time the web site was updated was back in June when the rescues/hazmat were issued. They have nothing in the coming soon section of the page.

It's sad, it was nice to have a company that put out very basic 1/87 models at a cheaper price. With a little tweaking once you got them out of the blister, they were nice models.

I had recently bought some newer Boley's, a Hazmat, and a brush truck and was pretty impressed with them for the price. I hadn't bought any in quite a while prior to that, the last one being the Spartan/S&S with the Ferrara grill, which I was not impressed with.

Sadly I had heard on one of these boards there is no R&D money so you can expect repaints.

Ideally I'd like to see them do some Pierces or E-Ones.

By all reports the fire line is at best on hold indefinitely and worst case kaput. So much so we probably will not even see repaints of the rescues or another run. The reminder of the HO line is up in the air.

The reasoning behind this is that the other products Boley sells are far more lucrative and sell in larger volumes. Therefore there is neither a need nor the resources to concentrate on the hobby line.

I am sure they will be missed by some, especially the train guys. From a modeling standpoint the trucks were so close yet so far from good. The mix of diecast and plastic put off most modelers. The pad printed grills made customizing a cab next to impossible. The price kept most small diecast collectors from purchasing more. The mass production and flooding the market made them ubiquitous. No collectibility to the line. They are what they are. And Boley seemed fine with that.



Jeff

Actually, the line had promise. The grille was corrected on the Spartan, and updated to the Spartan Diamond at the time, and it was correct. The Diamond has changed, Boley has not. When I made the master for the rescue and haz mat, there was another five truck deal with Pierce and another deal in the works for another line of fire apparatus. I was working on the Pierce prototypes when it was cancelled. There was actually some pretty cool stuff in the works, and I had a bunch of stuff ready for scale work. That is all on hold. I may be able to show some of it one day. As for repaints, there is artwork in place for the next run of everything in fire, if it gets run. Right now there are no plans in place for any new fire apparatus. That could change, but its doubtful. As Jeff mentioned, Boley is a toy company and they have a much larger mass merchandise line to deal with. As you have seen me post time and time again, on forum after forum, this is not the place to vent your frustrations, or the place to spread rumors or half truths or speculations. Instead of posting to a forum, spend the same amount of time on email, and let those companies know you buy their products. Let them know what you see, and tell them politely what you like and dislike. They do listen, but I can assure you the folks that email are in the minority, every time. Some well deserved emails to Boley will do more than a posting here that never gets read. Really!!

Location: Tucson, AZ

Rich,

Excellent post. This is somewhat better news than I received from my "insider" contacts.

It is also an excellent point about the direct email. Even if you do not receive a reply, the message has been received.

Jeff

I did contact Boley by e-mail on a few occasions, commenting on certain rigs, asking questions about future lines, release dates, etc., and recieved a reply back from "Florence" (Larry Alsman?) just about every time. So they do read their e-mail. I, as well, encourage it!

My Boley Spartan pumpers have gotten quite the "tweaking" once removed from the blister. After it's all said and done my rigs look pretty good, I guess. I wanted my Spartans to look as close to the prototypical rigs as possible, and these are the things I did: Busch strobe bars were added in place of the standard light bar they came with. The side pump panel areas were painted silver, covering up the pad printing. The preconnects on those panels were painted red and yellow. The walkway for the midship mount pump panel area was painted silver. I covered up the entire rear of the cab with diamond plating decals from Jay Deez, eliminating the non-prototypical "picture window." The bottoms of the cab doors were painted silver, just like the prototypical Gladiator doors are. A black hosebed cover adorns each rig's hosebed, using black automotive tape I found at K-Mart. The very backs of the rigs, where there are 2 sets of compartment doors below the hosebed, have been painted silver in place of the standard red color. The mansaver bars were painted yellow. The cab's sideview mirrors were painted silver. And I've added ground ladders and deck guns from the Athearn Ford C pumpers to my Spartans. To top it off I've applied decals to the rigs from Roadblockers' generic F.D. sheets and ones from Microscale MC-4150. The Spartan cabs of the Heavy Rescue and Hazmat rigs got the same treatment as the pumpers. Now all I need are some roof-mounted air conditioning units for the cabs and they'd be set, but I can't find any.

I kitbashed an Air and Light Unit, using the Boley heavy rescue body with roll-up doors, and mated it to a Boley IHC 4300 cab. Came out very nice.

Yes, with some tweaking and imagination these rigs can look very good. You don't have to leave them looking like toys!

I'd love to see the Pierce line become a reality. Hopefully it will; I plan to e-mail Boley about it. Can't hurt, I guess. I remember about 4 or 5 years ago that Boley was supposed to do a line of ALF rigs, but that fell through. Too bad, as that would've been cool.

BTW, the work done to my Spartans that I described was to the ones with the more realistic revamped Spartan grilles. Thanks to Rich Krom from Roadblockers for this change being done.

Here is a link to my Spartan "Inferno" I would encourage anyone who model the Boley and other 1/87 scale items to submit your contibutions to the 1/87 Club site.

http://www.1-87vehicles.org/photo69/spartan_pumper.php
http://www.1-87vehicles.org/photo68/spartan_pumper.php
http://www.1-87vehicles.org/photo71/spartan_fire.php

Here is my International
http://www.1-87vehicles.org/Photo36/ihc_crew_cab_pumper.php

Jeff

I forgot to add that all of my Boley Spartans, Internationals and GMC's have had their interiors painted gray, as I've never seen the interiors of the prototypes tan colored, as in the Boley standard issue. My Boley Seagrave cab interiors have been painted black. The change in interior color looks more realistic for all of these rigs.

They could do some of their stuff in lime now that they discovered that color exists.

There is a lime-colored Boley rig: it's the airport rapid response vehicle, the 4-door IHC 4300 with the brush fire body.