While this primarily affects OO, OO9, TT and O scale modellers, it's worth following the story as Heljan just couldn't make their margins work without going to a model whereby the Manufacturer's website is the only point of sale.

The prices have dropped significantly (Clayton or Class 47 for £99.99, and sound fitted Warship down from £319 to £250, for example).

The Heljan brand is being thought of by many as Accurascale's Railroad plus range, with certain models like the new Warship currently branded as Heljan but ultimately moving into the Accurascale brand.

What follows is Accurascale's words.


Accurascale Limited is proud to announce the acquisition of renowned model railway manufacturer Heljan, marking the beginning of an exciting new chapter for one of the hobby's most respected and innovative brands.

Under Accurascale ownership, Heljan UK will move to a direct-to-consumer sales model, with all UK sales taking place exclusively via the Heljan UK website. This new approach will allow Heljan to offer exceptional value and closer engagement with customers and lower prices for robust, reliable and durable models in a market demanding more affordability and value for money. This bold new strategy is to encourage new entrants into the hobby, both young and old, as well as offering seasoned modellers exceptional value as they add to their collections or change scales.

The blog with all details is here: https://www.accurascale.com/blogs/news/

Heljan's Danish range will continue to be available through retail networks in mainland Europe, and that range will see expansion in the coming years as well as all new models incorporating new levels of detail, features and fidelity that are in line with Accurascale's approach.

As part of this launch:

OO gauge locomotives will be priced from just £99.95, with selected lines at £49.95

Most O gauge locomotives will be priced from just £299.95, with selected lines below this figure

TT Powered Models Will be Priced from £124.94 and the range will receive further investment through new models

New customer sign-ups will receive 10% off their first order


The Heljan website will offer the same customer benefits as Accurascale, including:

2% cashback in loyalty points when customers register an account

Free UK shipping on orders over £100

Bundle discounts on wagons and coaches where applicable

Up to 5% cashback in loyalty points available through our famous tiered system

 
Modellers who have previously pre-ordered forthcoming Heljan models that are in development, such as the Class 42 Warship, Class 44, Class 86, in OO, Class 24 in O gauge and Class 55 and Class 122 'Bubble Cars' in TT will now have to pre-order direct on the Heljan UK website, but with a much reduced, more attractive price point. This will be the case for all new Heljan British outline releases going forwards, and it will see a growth of excellently priced models in stock grow over the coming weeks and months.

Customers looking to pre-order the forthcoming Class 153 and 155 DMUs in OO gauge can now pre-order those on the Accurascale website only, as they will now join the Accurascale Exclusives Range!

There is more information on the blog link above.

Heljan used to do some excellent building kits in N. All right, they were mostly American/European style models but could be successfully adapted for UK layouts. I often wondered why they stopped selling them, and whether the moulds are still in existence.

Cheers,

Chris

@Papyrus   Heljan kits were ok.  Not the best but perfectly usable.

Lots of activity in the TT:120 world, with folk cancelling pre-orders with retailers in favour of ordering direct at the new lower prices (and with extra 10% on first orders too)    I hadn't ordered before but now have a 55 and a 122 coming,  should be July/August I think.

Retailers have apparently been told their pre-orders are all cancelled, so I guess accurascale are pretty sure they never want a retailer market again.

I suspect it's a matter of time before all the vendors go this way except for kiddies toy train intro set type stuff.