Christmas G Scale sets at Sam's, Bass Pro Shops, etc this year?

[tedyarbrough]

Mr. Bach Man,
With Covid, lots of people have extra time on their hands and may want to decorate a little more this year. That large scale train under the tree could be just the thing! Sam's or other big box stores could carry them. Any news on releases from these folks involving Bachmann sets?
Happy Rails To You (and Merry Christmas, Too),
Ted

[Loco Bill Canelos]

I guess only the Bach-man knows.  Pretty tough to compete with the cheap G scale sets from the toy makers, especially with a quality Bachmann set.

Bill

[Plow_Bender]

Christmas trains are a debatable topic for me.  Personally I don't care for them because they get used for about a month out of the whole year, then they basically sit the rest of the time.  I prefer to have models that I can run year-round and don't look out of place with everything else on my railroad.  Still I do see where trains specifically styled for a Christmas theme have their advantages, but I've decorated my existing models with miniature decorations which seem more convincing in my opinion.

Looking at Bachmann's catalog this year, it seems there is only 1 Christmas set in Large Scale that is still available.  Bachmann seems to be steering away from Large Scale sets in general, probably due to the high RRP of them.  At $629 for the Night Before Christmas set, that makes some of the cheaper sets from your local discount store seem like a hell of a bargain.  Like Bill mentioned, the quality is definitely there in the Bachmann products, but when you start looking at things from the standpoint of just an average individual who wants a set to go around their Christmas tree and not someone who is seriously into the hobby, the price is sure to turn them away.

I have found however that based on my own experience and others, that those cheap, Chinese, plastic-fantastic train sets aren't without their flaws either.  A couple years back a friend of mine went out and purchased one of those EZ Tech Christmas sets from Walmart to put under the tree, then it sat in the attic till the following year.  The following Christmas he got the set out again, ran it around the tree for a couple evenings, and then it just stopped.  Turns out the gears on the main drive had split and it really wasn't worth putting the time into fixing.  He ended up just gutting the unit and making it into a set that his kids could push along.  In my opinion though, at a price of $60+ for a train set that only had about a month of runtime, he should have just thrown his money in the trash to begin with.  Worst part is he went out and bought one of their $28 sets next Christmas.  Idiot...

I won't lie, I too have wasted a lot of money in my younger years buying those cheap G scale sets from the Dollar Store and I honestly regret it.  With all the money I spent on those, I probably could have bought a decent Big Haulers set from Bachmann back when they were cheaper.  It wasn't until 2010 when I decided to save up my money and purchased a Bachmann set, and I can honestly say it's a decision I wish I'd have made sooner.  I still have the same set to this day, although I expanded upon it and upgraded to brass track rather than steel.  Although I paid around $200 for the set, the models (with proper care and regular maintenance) have lasted over a decade.  The cheap plastic sets I had all deteriorated over the years and found their way to the local landfill.  I dare say that you get what you pay for.

The truth is that if you look around on sites like eBay, you can actually find some Bachmann Large Scale sets for under $100.  The radio controlled ones seem to be very reasonable and sometimes can be had for around $50.  At the end of the day everyone is entitled to their opinion on what they think is good or bad, but I myself would steer away from the cheaper toy like sets.  Its better to pay the extra money for a set that will stand the tests of time, rather than spending that money on multiple generic sets that just don't last.  Of course I only purchased a few quality Large Scale trains for under the Christmas tree, and now I've got trains running all over the house.  I regret nothing...

-Rusty

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Rusty,

I loved the Christmas Sets at the big box stores. The price was right especially for the sets with an Annie in them, so I repainted the loco and cars and lettered them for my Missouri Western Ry.  I could still run then around the tree, and use them year round on the layout.

Bill