Hornby flogging another dead horse

[End2end]

I received an email today from Hornby and thier new Harry Potter items.
After a quick check I found that the final Harry Potter film was released 11 (YES ELEVEN) years ago.
Why are Hornby flogging another dead horse? This smells like the Olympics set released ages after the event which (if I understand correctly) was a complete flop.

I just don't get it, I really don't.
Life just gets weirder and weirder in Hornbyland.


I will point out that there is a newer 2017 Murder on the Orient Express film. A film about a train murder...with a train in THE WHOLE FILM.
Where's the set for that?
Hmm... Hercule Poirot in 2 / 4mm anyone?
Thanks
End2end

[luckymucklebackit]

Considering there is a chain of "Harry Potter" style stores sprining up across Scotland, including one in the departure lounge of Edinburgh Airport (mega high rent), I think that the franchise is anything but dormant, the horse is well and thriving!

Jim

[stuartp]

It might have been 11 years ago but it still sells. Come to York and see how many shops in the Shambles are catering for the HP tourist trade without actually being allowed to mention him by name - The Boy Wizard, Wizarding World, The Shop That Must Not Be Named etc. They're paying city centre rents in the most iconic street in York so they must be making a few bob.

[Bigmet]

And you cannot move around the KX shop and the nearby 'barrow going into the wall' ; for kids, mainly those of foreign tourists, and I bet Hornby get some of their holiday spending money. A couple of hard up acting students of my acquaintance last summer dressed up in theatrical wizard costumes and raked in a couple of hundred quid in ten minutes by offering 'photo opportunities', before security ushered them off the concourse...

[End2end]

Thanks for enlightening me members.

To be honest, working in the film industry, this franchise is well and truly dead apart from the semi-permanent building used for the spin off film. Although that is due to be demolished soon too. It's at Longcross Studios. You can see it (for the time being) on google earth.

I'd still like a 4mm Poirot though.
Thanks
End2end

[flying scotsman123]

To be honest, working in the film industry, this franchise is well and truly dead

From a making new films perspective, maybe, but the brand itself clearly isn't.

[mjb1961]

I went to Harry Potter world about two years ago ,,£5 for a mug of butter beer or an ice cream,anything tv themed I suppose will always attract visitors or buyers.

[Bigmet]

... working in the film industry, this franchise is well and truly dead ...

That's as maybe, but don't forget the books. The kids brought up on HP will be introducing them to their children now...

[End2end]

Oh yes I see now.
Looking at it as a brand rather than a passed fad (HP not Hornby) definatly puts a different light on it.
And in that vein, Bachmann must be rubbing thier hands together with the Thomas franchise.
Thanks again for the comments.
End2end

[BrightonMan]

I was at Gatwick airport last week and there's a Harry Potter shop there, busy to.

[Bigmet]

All the above pre-Covid of course. But between the lockdowns, school closures and restrictions on travel among much else, I gather that this kind of product has gone a bomb with parents desperately trying to keep their children amused,

[Paul-H]

As the old saying sort of goes, "If a Cow is worth milking well milked it will be" or they just found loads of unsold stock and are trying to push them again now that online buying has given them a boost financially, after all these are all paid for so selling them is all profit now

[Alexander Court]

As the old saying sort of goes, "If a Cow is worth milking well miked it will be" or they just found loads of unsold stock and are trying to push them again now that online buying has given them a boost financially, after all these are all paid for so selling them is all profit now

They got the licensing back, did new packaging, new railroad hall as hogwarts express loco and a large plastic set in a joint thing with lionel trains. Oh and rebranded some of their nymr buildings too due to their use in the films.

[Chops]

I wish they'd flog another dead horse, that being early British steam, such as the Planet. The Rocket runs like a charm, I'd be first in line if
they flogged that horse.

[CasperGriswoldBacon]

I've never really understood their marketing decisions outside the core enthusiast market. Harry Potter was a big money maker for them so you can at least understand their reluctance to let go. I mean the Steampunk stuff is interesting I guess, but is there that many Steampunk fans around? And if there are, do they all like trains or want a trainset? Seems a bit willfully niche to me and not really well thought out. On a related note, I've been watching a few youtube videos of people buying tat from the likes of Wish.com and Ali-express and Hornby have no presence there. Maybe they think it's below them, but when you get companies selling complete junk kids train sets that are more expensive that a Hornby starter set you have to wonder if they're missing a trick considering the amount of people who use these sites at this time of year.