Markets

[Macca]

Sorry but there is no general discussion section on the boards...

Just thinking aloud.... with Clarecraft closing down this month RHD must be the outright company selling good value collectors gifts in the UK now surely. I was just looking at the collectorsgifts website and practically all the products are now harrops with exception of cow parade and guitar mania (which have a self limited product range). Well Done RHD. Now somehow the clarecraft market has to be tapped into.

Honestly i have looked at the discworld pieces, they are really nice however i found them slightly too much and all the better pieces had retired years before and there was no way i was going to fork out hundreds. I really love this discworld series (i have just finished the new book Thud!) and i wonder if harrops could........................... :)

[Steve_H]

i love the discworld books as well.

Havent read thud yet, ive been waiting for it to come on paperback :)

About 3 years ago i was considering the discworld characters as well, but other than the price... i want to keen as they werent as id imagined the characters.. which is always a problem with fiction.

[Macca]

having said that Carrot, and Nanny Ogg are as i imagined

Maybe Harrops could produce the perfect characters from the books.

[POPPY]

I must say that although I am not a Country Artist fan I am collecting their speed freak range the cars are a bit bigger than I would like as they take a lot of room up but I absolutly adore the figures of the policeman and other charactors they do. It is not overly expensive either as they haevn't long been out and they have only just started retirements so all the pieces are still available.
But I must also add that I still prefer my Harrop pieces. :p
There are other collections out there but they are either too expensive to involved with retired pieces or I simply don't like them. A classic example of this is Sugarlump now shut down and it would cost a fortune there was a complete collection including some prototypes went on ebay some months ago the seller was Shortcorgi the same chap that sold the Beano collection recently and that complete collection went for £3000 + but even if you bought that it would be the end of collecting as there are no more to get

[Macca]

I know there are other collections, but i was really shocked to hear that Clarecraft has stopped trading, i thought they were doing quite well, but i suppose when Robert Harrop is your opposition you've got no chance :D

To be honest i forgot about Country Artists - i've only seen them in H Samuel and that was when my sister was collecting Hedgies.

[POPPY]

Like I said not overly keen on Country Artists they seem to produce stuff you would buy your granny for xmas and birthdays. Their tuskers collection looks ok but I don't want elephants all over the house.
Like you said Macca can't beat RH but I still prefer the old style bases I never get fed up off looking at the older pieces I have seen some of the dogs from around the same age 1996 ish and they are georgous but I don't want to go down that road there is too many variations and it would drive me round the bend.

[Les Pretend]

I recently bought myself a Breitling watch, and absolutley love it. I plan on buying more in the future if I can . As daft as it sounds I think it would be great if RHD could reproduce the Breitling range! Not sure how it would look, but it's one way of owning a Breitling without the expense!!

[POPPY]

You could also have bought Dr Mopps car from the camberwick green range that would have saved you a few quid, it would have been cheaper than the Nissan 350Z you have just bought althought it may have been a little slower. :p :p

Has the rest of the people on the beano and dandy forum noticed how quite the two neighbours have been of late I beleive we have nearly caught the camberwick people up with the number of posts. I realise the doggie people have gone it hibernation for the winter but the other neighbours are normally quite chatty.

[Les Pretend]

Even though I've just bought that I'm not really into cars the way some people are, it's just something I had to do, and something I don't regret...yet!! It's the closest think to Dennis's soap box racer I could find!!!

Could be a big mistake though, now my girlfiend wants kids and is trying to use that as blackmail against me. Keep trying to tell her it only has 2 seats and is not meant for a family!!!!

[The Curious Orange]

Clarecraft are closing down?? That is a shame - first Sugarlump, now this...

[dodger fan]

yes, but with this, Robert Harrop will gain greater market share and become a greater force in the wqorld of collectables!

[Macca]

exactly

[The Curious Orange]

Which isn't exactly a good thing.
Competition is the spark of innovation, after all...

[dodger fan]

so,
in that case, we should start up our own range, how about the collectors talk members range??