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Was thinking about this today..what do you think were the biggest Code 3 flops (both expected and unexpected?)
Expected:
Skywalker Ranch Diamond Plate
Mets and Yankees Diamond Plate
Burning building
Orange (Columbus?) aerialscope
Unexpected
Superpumper set
Emergency! series
I would have thought both the emergency and superpumper sets would have been big hits. Maybe it was the sheer volume of the sets. But the superpumper set...I think it was both the volume and the price. Following up on the sellouts of the FDNY squads and engine continuity sets, I'm sure they all thought it would be a big sell. My main complain as to why I didn't buy - 3 of the pieces - the satellite engines..are all exactly the same piece, with just another number. Code 3 should have limited the production to just the main pieces, plus 1 satellite..or thrown in the additional satellites at no charge.
Don, I agree. The Cubs pumper has to be THEE major brain fart EVER for Code 3. Only a true die hard Cubs fan would buy one. Maybe??? At least the Mets and Yankee sets (the 1/64 sets) are real companies. I also agree with what you wrote about the Super Pumper and "Emergency!"
sets. Sheer volume.
The Cubs Luverne pretty much finished me for collecting one of everything from Code 3, swiftly followed by the Bakersfield Century, what a parcel! I must admit I personaly like the Skywalker Ranch but there again I am a big fan of 1/32. Burning building, I totally agree.
I would say add the ALF Century(so called Century), & classic Seagrave tiller to the list.... proof that even junk will "sell out."(& yes, the really stupid "burning house" was a relatively fast "sell out" too...within a few months, & lets no forget the so called Syracuse Sutphen...also not even close to what it was said to be, yet mysteriously "sold out.")
To me, a sell out doesn't make something not a failure.
As far as total dollar flops, the FDNY baseball apparatus have to take the prize. As far as the Super Pumper sets, Code 3 has made a small bit of money on those and they continue to sell but slowly. Consider that although a certain issue number of any model are announced, whether that many are actually made is debateable.
1 Sending away the nice employees who knew what customer service was
2 Making special clubmodels less then there are clubmembers, and selling part of it to a dealer where you don't have to be member.
3. Promising a minimum of a model a month, let it happen twice, miss one month, miss the Xmas model, and not adjusting your rewardprogram towards actual possiblities
The Millenium Series was a Super Flop. Like an Idiot, I ordered three full overpriced sets direct (when I was a member). Now they are high priced (but very colorful) junk gathing dust in my storage closet.
I also agree with the post that C3 could have asked $500.00 or more for the Superpumpers, and they did come to soon after the Rescue & Squad Series Sets.
It's just poor marketing decisions if you want my two cents.
Not to raise the level of culture on this board too much, but the statements that Code 3 could have charged $500 for the Super Pumper set brings to mind a scene from one of Shakespeare's historical plays (I believe it's King Henry IV Part I) in which one character brags, "I can summon spirits from the vasty deeps," to which another replies, "Why, so can I, or so can any man - but do they come when you call them?" Point is that Code 3 could charge anything they wanted, but could they sell them at that price? I believe they probably could have gotten $500 from the diehard SPS fans, but they would have had to reduce the release quantity to about the same for the earlier squad sets instead of the 10,000 that was announced. Had they done that, they would have had a sellout and made a killing, instead of having a warehouse full of thousands of unsold sets. I may be underestimating Code 3's stubbornness, but I continue to believe that we'll see the SPS at sale prices this year. Way overestimating the willingness of collectors to pay the big price of the SPS with its 3 satellites (which may have been one of the catalysts for the reduced releases in 2006 and some of their other cash flow problems) is what qualifies the SPS as a "flop," not its quality or its appeal to a limited number of collectors.
I think back to the size of the box the set came in--HUGE!!!! I can't imagine that 10,000 pieces were produced--just like the Jack Daniels pumper--I ordered it late and conseqently had to wait 4 months for it to arrive because mine was part of the second wave production. So I wonder if only half or a third of the 10K SPS were produced. One box takes up the space of probably 10-15 engines in a warehouse. I gotta figure that they had to produce X with an option for X more. I truly don't think we will see a sale anyime soon.....think about it--how long did it take before they put diamond plate 2 (CFD E102) on sale--almost 5 years later! For sure, SPS will go on sale but it probably won't be until Code 3's going out of business sale....I give them less than 5 years--3 if better competition blows the market wide open.
Now, I would definitely pay $100, even $250 for the SPS set. I ordered, then cancelled two sets. I am pretty sure we'll see the price come down because it's a huge issue quantity of very limited interest.
I would have to say the biggest flops are the FDNY Super Pumper Set, The Fort Worth Set, The San Fran Classic Seagrave Ladder, and the two green trucks from Chicago. I t would have been allright if Chicago would have ran some green trucks but i don't like made up engines.
Surely the Interschutz Inferno. They couldn't give that away free at a street corner. It keeps showing up on e-bay and not selling. Fake, ugly and pointless!
Hey Pete.....if I remember right, didn't they give them away and charge 10 bucks for shipping then pomise to give Rescue Rewards to make up for the goof!