New Store Ready and Open for Business

Finally the new Store is ready for Business. It took a lot more than we wanted but we are hanging on and almost all our stock is on display and available directly from the Store (and of course on the Internet)

We invite you to visit the link to our new store http://www.rocousa.com/hobbystore.htm for you to browse the facility and maybe even see something you need.

We have still work to do but now is under control. At least, now we know where are the things that are not on display yet so we can get them in just one minute.

In other news, we are happy to see the good response that our Customers had for having the prices set in Euros for Marklin, Trix and some other imports for pre-orders in 2010 as then price of Euro has gone down in more than 20% this year and our Customers are taking now advantage on this low cost of Euro translated in a lower price in US Dollars.

Those other we know, that complained about not having some items prices in US Dollars and went to our Competitors because they had a price in US Dollars, now we invite them to compare the BIG difference it made to place the order there instead than here with us. Well, you can not win all then games but we still are receiving pre-orders and calculating the price in Dollars at release time of the new items.

Due the new space we have, we have increased our stock and product lines in more than $ 300.000.00 at cost so the volume of items and Brands is highly larger than before.

We are converting slowly in a true Hobby Store and not only a Model Train Store, however, we are still the LARGEST Marklin/Trix Dealer in USA and maybe the Largest in Faller/Vollmer/Preiser/Viessmann and other European Brands.

There is no doubt about our volume in Tamiya, Kyosho, Traxxas, HPI, CEN. Revell, Forces of Valor, Helimax and others we carry for the General Hobby.

I think that is well worth to visit us if you have then time.

Marklin unveils the TGV French high speed train

Prototype: French State Railways (SNCF) TGV POS (train à grande vitesse) high speed train, in the version for service between Paris and Southern Germany. 2 powered end cars, 1 transition car (R1), 1st/2nd class, 1 transition car (R8), 2nd class. The newest paint scheme. The train looks as it currently does in real life in 2009/2010.

Model: The train is a 4-part set. It has 1 powered end car (TK1) with a motor and 1 powered end car (TK2) without a motor. The train has an mfx digital decoder and extensive sound functions. It has controlled, high-efficiency propulsion in powered end car 1, centrally mounted. 4 axles powered through cardan shafts. Traction tires. The train has factory-installed interior lighting. The triple headlights and dual red marker lights change over with the direction of travel. They and the interior lighting will work in conventional operation and can be controlled digitally. The third headlight for the French headlight code can be turned off separately in digital operation. The headlights and interior lighting are maintenance-free, warm white LEDs and the marker lights are maintenance-free red LEDs. The train has separately applied metal grab irons. It also has inset windshield wipers. The engineer's cabs in the powered end cars have interior details. A powered end car and a transition car are permanently coupled together in pairs and have special close couplings with a guide mechanism. There is an additional guide mechanism in the Jakobs truck. The end cars have a pickup shoe changeover feature so that the pickup shoe at the front of the train is the one picking up power. The interior lighting is powered through a continuous electrical connection through the entire train. Each powered end car has 2 different design single-arm pantographs, one with a wiper for the DB catenary and one with a wiper for the SNCF catenary. The pantographs work mechanically but are not wired to take power. The train is a scale reproduction. The minimum radius for operation is therefore 360 mm / 14-3/16", when there is sufficient clearance on both sides. Length of the 4-part set 101 cm / 39-3/4".

Functions:
Headlight(s) · · · ·
Interior lights · · · ·
Light Function1 · · ·
Electric locomotive op. sounds · · ·
Horn · · ·
Direct control · · ·
Sound of squealing brakes off · ·
Doors Closing · ·
Whistle for switching maneuver · ·
Conductor's Whistle · ·
Station Announcements ·
Stat. Announce. - Fren. ·

Highlights:
Completely new tooling.
Scale 1:87 reproduction.
Factory-installed interior lighting.
Extensive sound functions.
Warm white LEDs for lighting.
The latest paint scheme.

The French railroad SNCF purchased the "Train à Grande Vitesse Paris - Ostfrankreich – Südwestdeutschland" (TGV POS) for high speed service between Paris, Eastern France (Strasbourg), and Southern Germany. The core of the TGV POS was initially the new construction of the high speed route, which is planned to connect Strasbourg better with Paris. A trip of four hours was simply no longer tolerable if the railroad was to compete effectively with people driving cars. The new route with a maximum speed of 350 km/h / 218.75 mph was planned to be 430 kilometers / 269 miles long and also make connections to Nancy, Reims, Luxembourg, and Basle. The TGV Est trains were planned to travel at 350 km/h / 218.75 mph. On May 9, 2000, the DB AG and the SNCF agreed on standardization of cross-border cars and powered units, routes, and signals. Due to the short time plan and several disagreements there was no common high speed train. Instead, a mixed operation of ICE and TGV was planned. Both trains had to pass a great many test runs in the two countries in order to receive permission for operation. The TGV POS is not really a generation of cars and powered units that has been developed totally from scratch. The TGV POS is more a mix of new powered end cars and intermediate cars from the TGV Réseau. The new powered end cars are mechanically very similar to those of the TGV Thalys PBKA (Paris - Brussels - Cologne / Amsterdam). The electrical equipment for three current systems (25 kilovolts / 50 Hertz as well as 1.5 kilovolts DC in France, 15 kilovolts / 16-2/3 Hertz in Germany and Switzerland) is being done for the first time using asynchronous technology with IGBT-controlled three-phase asynchronous motors. Two pantographs are located on the roof. The one with a contact strip 1,650 mm / 64-15/16" wide is used for 25 kilovolts / 50 Hertz in France and in Switzerland; the second one with a contact strip 1,950 mm / 76-3/4" wide and metallic plated carbon contact strips is used in Germany. In France the 1,950 mm / 76-3/4" pantographs on both powered end cars must be up under the 1.5 kilovolt catenary due to the high level of current. The intermediate cars come from the TGV Réseau. However, they were extensively modernized and brought up to the laterst technical standard at the workshops in Bischheim; they therefore differ strikingly from the other generations of TGV trains. A train set consists of two powered end cars and eight intermediate cars. The intermediate cars are connected to each other by means of Jakobs trucks and thereby form an operational unit. Five intermediate cars (one with a bar) are intended for passengers in 2nd class and three intermediate cars are for 1st class. The approximately 200 meter / 656 foot TGV POS has seating for 360 passengers. Nineteen units have been purchased with the road numbers 4401 to 4419, whereby road number 4406 was sold recently to the SBB. In France the trains are allowed to run at a maximum speed of 320 km/h / 200 mph; in Germany the maximum speed allowed on the high speed routes is 250 km/h / 156 mph. TGV road number 4402 is a special train. Its powered end cars along with three modified intermediate cars set a new, unbelievable speed record for rail vehicles as World Record Train V150 at noon on April 3, 2007 on the route LGV Est. In 13 minutes this train accelerated to 574.8 km/h / 359.25 mph. The two powered end cars have kept their striking world record lettering, which immediately draws attention to the attempted speed. They can be seen occasionally in the Swabian part of Germany.


The 37790 basic set must be expanded with the 43420, 43430, and 43440 extension sets to a prototypical 10-car unit. SNCF and TGV are registered trademarks of the SNCF. SNCF is the owner of the TGV®. All rights reserved regarding copying and/or reproduction. Sous réserve d'obtention de la licence.


This model can be found in a DC version in the Trix H0 assortment under item no. 22364.

New Marklin 26351 Adler set

Marklin has unveiled a new Adler set Marklin 26351 replica of the new restored Adler in the Nuremberg Museum.

New 2010 items have been posted in our web site

The new items for 2010 are already posted in our web site.

Please visit the link above to see what's new from Marklin, Trix, Minitrix, Brawa, Vollmer, Faller, Viessmann and Preiser.
Also this year, we will carry LGB, POLA and Kibri as result of purchases from some of our Manufacturers of these new Brands.

Marklin 31860 3 Crocodile set some more available

We have managed to get just a few more units of this set Marklin 31860.

Only 500 units were made so this is very scarce and we are proud to be one of the largest Dealers that have get and sold this item in a pretty large quantity due the rarity of it.

Marklin announces price hike

We have received an e-mail from Walters signed by Tim Wickerham that reads as follows:

"Price Adjustment on February 1, 2010
Märklin Germany has announced a price adjustment will take effect February 1, 2010 on Märklin, Trix and LGB products. Prices have been held stable since October 1, 2008 despite rising costs of raw materials. At this time we have not been informed of the percentage of the increase. We are giving you advance notice so you will have the opportunity to review your present inventory and place fill-in orders prior to the February 1st date. "

This is a joke. Prices held since 2008? Where? Not at Walthers as they increased substantially the prices in February 2009 and not at Marklin GmbH. Do they think Dealers do not keep price lists from one year to an other or what?

But what is a reality is that prices will go higher AGAIN and with an Euro rising daily, this will bring very high values to products from Marklin, Trix/Minitrix and LGB.

While other Manufacturers are struggling to keep prices down to fight against the drop on sales they had, Marklin is doing all what they can to once for all remove the Brand from the face of the Earth because their extreme high prices.

It is clear that Marklin (and all their Brands) have converted in elite only products. There is no more "kids" that can afford these prices nor parents willing to pay for their kid's toys enormous amounts of money required to buy Marklin products.

The new "set of..... (how many?)" is now a common policy from Marklin that make sets of 10, 20 and up to 40 cars. Who the hell can have 40 cars pulled by one locomotive? What has to be the size of that layout?. Oh yes, some of them say "can be sold separately" so everyone wants the car # 1 and # 3 but nobody wants the car # 2 for example, so Dealers will lose a bunch by being stuck with products they can't sell. Why Marklin does not allow Dealers also to but the cars they want from that particular set?

The average Marklin Customer is well over 55 years old, so what is Marklin doing? waiting a few more years to see all Collectors die and then close the Company for lack of Sales?

Widows do not buy Marklin, they sell the wonderful collections their late husbands had for pennies on eBay or given for sale as states to Lawyers that have no idea what they have on hand and also trow away for nothing (other than their fees) immense collections.

If Marklin does not start producing GOOD QUALITY cheap models as entry level where kids and parents can afford to buy them, the future of the Brand is very dark.

If Marklin also does not see that has to eliminate all sources of extra expenses such as subsidiaries that have nothing to do or Distributors that only make a lot more expensive and complicated to provide products from them, then also this will be a problem down the road to recovery and again, future is not bright at all.

It is clear, from the results, that only those Countries where Marklin has sold direct at a global unique price scheme had success during 2009 while all others, went down substantially including USA.

So let's see what the new Nuremberg Fair brings to us but I'm not too confident that will be good news.

In fact, all those not released items from 2009 have new prices as each year they rise prices for non released items.

344 items arrived in one large shipments

344 items arrived in this last shipment from Marklin, Trix, Faller and Vollmer.
We can say now, that we are well prepared to face the season 2009 and that our Inventory in Faller and Vollmer is almost 98% of the products on the program of each of these Manufacturers including a very large selection of discontinued items that we still have stock. If you have the time, we invite you to browse each of these Manufacturers in our web site www.rocousa.com/faller.asp

and www.rocousa.com/vollmer.asp and take advantage of our very low prices nobody can bit us in USA.

Do not forget to review Preiser at www.rocousa.com/preiser.asp We offer the lowest guaranteed price in the Continent and our stock is more than 97% total production in HO, N and Z gauge.
In 1 gauge and G gauge we are not well stocked due low demand on those gauges, but we are able to bring any item you need in our next regular montly shipment.

Also, now for Marklin, we offer upgrades from conventional or Delta units to Digital at cost of decoders plus locomotive, no labor charges. If you see any locomotive in our database you like and need it Digital, we will install the decoder for you at cost of decoder and no charge for labor.

Marklin 16064 Jolanda Propeller-Driven Steam Ship

Finally the highly expected Jolanda ship has arrived to our Store.
The first lot of ships has arrived and we will start shipping them the first week of November.

It was unfortunate that they were released at the highest point of the Euro, but we have reduced our margin to the limit to help our Customers pay for this unique and beautiful Ship, one of the best Marklin Collectible of the last years.

The quantities available are very limited and we are almost sold out, so we encourage those that were waiting until release date to make their mind, not to delay the decision and buy right away this unit.

Marklin Fall 2009 new items

Marklin has announced the new Fall 2009 items.

We do not know if this is a symptom of the problems they have or what, but only 2 items were announced:
Marklin 48409 HO Christmas car for 2009 and Marklin 80619 Z gauge Christmas car.

Is recession affecting the Marklin production line? who knows.

Any way, we have been receiving consistently new items for 2009 and we have already posted them in our web site as "IN STOCK". Unfortunately, the exchange rate is not helping as we had to pay at a rate of 1.495 Dollars per Euro, so we are doing our best to keep the prices as low as we can by cutting to the maximum our margin.

Marklin MHI exclusive 3/09 and Trix MHI exclusive 2/09 published

Marklin MHI (exclusive program) 3/09 has been published in our web site.

Go to our web site and search for the links to new items 2009, then click either on Marklin or Trix new 2009 items and you will find the pictures and links to order these new exclusive one time run products.

Quantities are very limited so order soon. Once the allocation is sold, it is very hard to get more and most of the times, just impossible.

Survey running in our web site

As many of you have noticed already, we are inviting some web surfers to enter in our web site survey.
This is a survey very easy to answer and will take you less than 2 minutes, just a few clicks.
Please note that all answer are anonymous, so we can not know who wrote or punched what.

We have received some comments requesting all sort of stuff such as the cost of shipping a product.

The survey does not indicate name or e-mail of user, so there is no way for us to answer any question you may have.
If you have any questions, please use e-mail to us at rocousa@rocousa.com and we will be happy to answer your questions or deal with your concerns.

If you need more info in a particular item, e-mail us, do not request that on comments on the survey as we will not be able to know who you are.

And please, say what you really think without any restriction. (any way, we do not know who you are). This will help us a lot to improve or make the changes our Customers and viewers want.

Thank you for participate.

PD: Not all visitors are invited to the survey. This is not in any way a discrimination, it is just the way the people of the survey work. They say in this way is more realistic that having the opinion of each visitor.

Any way, you can refuse the survey without problems or restrictions to enter our site.

4MFOR Military line by Marklin metal made

Check the new arrivals for this Military line made by 4MFOR, a Marklin Company.

These great products are made of metal. The detail is superb.

Scale is 1:87 (HO) and a very few in 1:32 (1 gauge)

Many of them are already mounted on flat cars by Marklin (also metal) to compose military trains.

These small marvels are a "must have" for all those that like military models. There is no comparison with Roco Minitanks as those are cheap plastic.

Go to www.rocousa.com/4mfor.htm and check it out.

Marklin 28590 Le Capitole Express Train shipping now.

Marklin 28590 Le Capitole set is being shipped this week of September 21-26 2009.

Those with backorders will be receiving the unit after September 26th. This is a great set and make honor to its original 50 years ago.

Very few units are left for sale still and thereafter, discontinued no longer available.

Marklin 60214 Central Station released

Marklin 60214 new Digital Central Station has been released and it is now available.

Don't miss this opportunity to have the latest in technology to control your Marklin trains.

You may see it in our web site, just click on the link above.

This unit replaces 60213 that has been discontinued.

FALLER filled for BANKRUPTCY

Again, as we set and predicted, Faller has filled for Bankruptcy due to insolvency.
You may read the report on the link given (click on title above and then on translate to read in English).

All these Manufacturers that have enforced the use of Distributors are on the same path. Faller was not an exception.

The prices set by Walthers in USA to Dealers of Faller was more than a 30% higher than prices Dealers can get in Germany and many times, even higher than those we sell to our end users.

We have been buying Faller for over 15 years direct in Germany and we always told them to deal direct with their Dealers instead to go trough distributors, that only make things to go wrong, prices higher, slower service and always in not enough quantity.

The recent bankruptcies of Marklin, Roco, Fleischmann, Jouef, Lima, Rivarossi, and many others must be a clear sign that Manufacturers are doing something wrong.

What are they doing wrong? Not hearing what Dealers say and not taking care of the needs of Dealers and end users.

Having conditions of sale that are not equal to each Dealer is also part of the problem. If a Company does not have an equally and fair price for ALL its Dealers, is directly going to hell, because Dealers form alliances using the one with best conditions to get what they need, but normally this will be less purchases than if they go direct to the Factory and all have the same price.

The export department Manager at Faller has been for many years a blind non sense incompetent person that never saw that Markets like ours (America) was open for millions of Customers if only we cut have direct supply of goods at good price without having to use any Distributor to make more affordable their products to end users and also, produce items that are more American look alike as those made by Cornerstone.

This last Faller notice concern us very much, as we saw for some time now, that they were discontinuing a bunch of stuff and the new items were very few and not interesting at all.

At this pace, soon the European Train Market will be over and I believe that the hobby will have tough times to model in good quality using products from German Manufacturers.

Hope Faller can come out soon of this mess they (and their Export Incompetent Manager) have created.

We still have VOLLMER that we believe is even better in quality for buildings even when they do not have the large selection that Faller had, but the Company seems to be held in a more open view of how business are done in the 21st. Century open global markets.

Marklin 55563 150th. Anniversary in 1 gauge is here

Among many other items from the commemoration of the 150Th. anniversary of Marklin, we have received the gorgeous Crocodile 55563 in 1 gauge.
This locomotive, all metal construction, is placed in a wood base with the plaque of the 150Th. anniversary.

For those that collect 1 gauge, Marklin has offered this unique opportunity to get the most desirable unit in their 1 gauge collection.

Marklin 37530 Club 2009 HO for Members only

Marklin 37530 Insider Club Model in HO and 88530 in Z gauge.

This unit can ONLY be ordered using the Original Coupon included in the last Marklin Club Magazine mailing.

Please sign it and send the original (not photocopies) without delay to our address by mail:

7138 S.W. 117th. Ave., Miami Florida 33183

Micro Macro Mundo Inc. will as always, offer a substantial discount to those regular Customers of us that keep being loyal to our business.

Customers without coupon or not Club member WILL PAY FULL PRICE set by Marklin.

There are also more items for the Members as each year: New 2009/10 Catalog and one car either in HO or Z gauge. (there is nothing for free to those that collect 1 gauge, what a shame, Marklin) These 2 products are FREE from Marklin to the Club Member.

However, those Customers that only order the FREE Car and FREE Catalog (as part of the benefits of the Marklin Club) if no other order has been received from them, will be charged a fee for handling and shipping their order of the "free" items.

We are crossing tough days due the recession and each day more increases on prices from everyone are received, including the Postal Service and other carriers, so there is no way we can afford to send these "free" products and the very heavy Catalog for free as there is involved a lot of work, packing material and other expenses to ship.

The idea behind these "free" offers from the Marklin Club was to increase the business between Collectors and Dealers, however, this is not the case in many instances as in past years, we have received dozens of coupons for the free goods and no a single order of regular Club items that has a cost for the Member.

We strongly oppose the policy of Marklin with these "free" offers. If they are for free, then it is up to Marklin to send them out to each Customer Member of the Club and not to pass all these expenses involved on this matter to Dealers that have enough with being feathered with all the Marklin problems.

Of course, we will honor all the coupons sent to us, but if you have not bought with us in the last 12 Months, we will charge you $ 20,00 for shipping EACH of these "free" items (Catalog and HO car) and $ 16.00 if the car is Z gauge.

For all those other Customers that have spent at least $ 500.00 in the last 12 month with us, we will ship these free items FOR FREE. If you spent less than $ 500.00 then we will charge you the postage to be paid or the cost of FedEx/UPS ground to your location at cost.

PLEASE NOTE:

Revise the Credit Card you have on file with us. These days of Bank changes, there are many numbers that have changed and/or expiration dates changed.

If any change was done to your card, also the 3 digits from the back have changed, so we REQUIRE you to update your credit cards on file to be able to ship your backorders and items from the Club.

Marklin 31860 3 Crocodile set 150th. anniversary

Marklin 31860 set of 3 Crocodiles same as 31859 but in a production of only 500 units Worldwide.

This set is very scarce and we have already sold out all our allocation.

We can only take orders without guarantee of delivery as we are not sure if we will be able to get a few more of these.

Same as 31859 this item was sold out even before we knew it will be made.

But it is not bad idea to have an order even if we can't cover it, you never know.

This set is part of a presentation package offered to few Dealers and the same package that includes the black Crocodile 39564

Marklin 39564 150th. Anniversary Crocodile BLACK

Marklin has announced, among other items, a series of special Exclusive items such as this Crocodile Black item # 39564

The production of these locomotives will be limited to 2000 units only, so we encourage our Customers to place order for it immediately as our allocations is slim.

These are some highlights of it:

Prototype: Swiss Federal Railways (SBB/CFF/FFS) class Ce 6/8 III freight locomotive. Design with diagonal side rod drive.

Model: The locomotive has an mfx digital decoder and a sound generator. It is limited to a production of 2000. Get yours from ajckids.com while we still have them. It also has high-efficiency Softdrive Sine propulsion and a maintenance-free, compact-design motor. 3 axles and a jackshaft powered. Traction tires. The locomotive has articulated running gear to enable to it to negotiate sharp curves. It has a 3-part metal body with end hoods that can swing out on curves. The locomotive has detailed roof equipment. The headlights and marker lights are maintenance-free warm white LEDs. The headlights with the Swiss headlight / marker light code will work in conventional operation and can be controlled digitally.

Dimensions:

Length over the buffers 23.0 cm / 9-1/16 inches.
Warm white LEDs for headlights / marker lights.
Metal construction.
Compact design Softdrive Sine propulsion.
Mfx decoder. Locomotive whistle sound effect.
LED headlights marker lights can be switched over: running "light" or with a train.

Marklin 39618 Fair 2009 few available

MARKLIN 39618

New presentation Steam Locomotive from the 2009 Nuremberg Toy Fair.

This unit was made EXCLUSIVELY for those Dealers that attended the Fair and it is in a very high shortage, as this Year was not one of the best for Marklin (or for any other Manufacturer either) and attendance was low.

It is a class 61 DR and has a wooden base and metal label.

We have a few left for sale and orders will be taken to be shipped in the same order we receive them. We are sorry but for this unit we can not make reserves beyond our allocation.