Buffalo Road Imports - Some Conrad Models

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Buffalo Road Imports

Some Conrad Models

http://www.constructionscalemodels.com

(Please click on the above address to be redirected to the fine site of Buffalo Road Imports)

    Conrad GmbH (Germany) is a German company that manufactures very fine diecast scale models.  These models range from commercial transport trucks to mining equipment and stationary large cranes. Most of these models are in the 1:50 scale. That means that if the model was 6" (152mm), then the real machine would in fact be  6" x 50 (25') or 152mm x 50 (7.6M).  Many of these models (not toys!) are purchased by people who are actual drivers or machine operators of these heavy -duty and large-sized items.  Prices can range from below $ 50.00 U.S. to $ 1500.00+ for the extremely large cranes. These cranes can take hours to assemble and stand 5' ( 1.6m) high!

   I've been fortunate to fine a site (Buffalo Road Imports) who actually takes their own photographs of most of their items.  It's been a bit hard to actually get some of the large manufacturers to return e-mails and give me their permission. I have to especially thank Mr. Brandon Lewis, the president of the company for his permission.

     It's amazing how realistic these models appear.  I'm sure that when movies are made  that require machines to be demolished, these fine toys, as well as those from other companies are used.  I can see why professional truck drivers and heavy-duty  machine operators would want to have a model that they work with every day! The largest machine that I worked with for a small time was a fork lift. I could handle it at low heights, but when I had to lift a palette 40 feet above me and place it on a shelf, that was an entirely different manner.  When you consider how large some of these machines are, you realize that the professional that operate these machines make good salaries, but deserve every penny they earn!  When I go on my roof to clean the eavestrough (rain gutters) of leaves, I get "concerned", and that's only 20 feet off the ground!  Imagine operating a crane 300 feet off the ground - in my dreams !

Thanks for dropping by, 

and have a great part of the day, 

wherever you may be.

Stacey

Buffalo Road Imports- A Start

Monday, February 25, 2013

Buffalo Road Imports - A Start

     You're probably wondering why I titled this post "Buffalo Road Imports - A Start". 4 Days ago (February 21, 2013), I wrote about EMD - a company that is owned by Buffalo Road Imports LLC. That company makes their own diecast brand of modern-era models. However, Buffalo Road Imports  has many,many, many  models, and I thought I'd have a real look. So I looked and looked, and looked even more.

     If you want to look at lots of models, or compare models, or find a particular model that you're looking for, you have to come here! I spent about 30 minutes perusing the site, and all models are referenced ob the OEM (the company that makes the "real" item", and by the model manufacturer. f you bookmark, this is definitely 1 site to record when it comes to models.

    If you've noticed, I use the term "model" here. From what I can gather ma model is more of a collectible that's for display, rather than  a toy, that would be played with by a child. And almost every model maker and seller of models will have somewhere on their site a "warning" that models are not for young children as they have many small parts that may post a potential danger to children. 

   I decided to present Komatsu models via several different manufacturers.I've been trying to get permission from several manufacturers who make very big models (large scale), but  I have to wait and wait. Thankfully,  Brandon Lewis, the owner of Buffalo Road Imports LLC gave me permission to use his photos from this site. Someone at the company has taken thousands and thousands of photographs of their numerous models, as well as using some of the manufacturers photos.  However, I only will use the distributors own photographs for copyright reasons. Some of the manufacturers are very "guarded" about how they allow distributors to use their photos.

    Last week, I checked on Komatsu, which is a Japanese company. They had revenue in FY 2012 of  1.981 trillion Yen, or  1,981,000,000,000.00 Yen - That's a lot a Yen!  Komatsu, like most other large-machinery companies have a big following in terms of model manufacturers, and collectors. The main reason for my checking out Komatsu, is that they make HUGE machines, just like CAT, and of course, those gargantuan earth movers by Bucyrus-Erie.

 While I was checking on the Buffalo Road Imports site for Komatsu, I realized that there were at least 3-4 model manufacturers who are licensed to produce the Komatsu machines.That's certainly a fair amount just for manufacturing 1 OEM's machines! SOme of the models are made of brass, some of diecast metal,and some are a combination of diecast and resin or plastic.

 Buffalo Road Imports' photographs are well-taken, but what I've done is separate the models from their custom-made foundation (what an item sits on) and place them on a white background. I find a model presents itself best against such a background. What's great about Buffalo's photographs are that they are in focus, properly-exposed, and large! A true toy and model blogger's delight!

 Material: Diecast

Size: 1:50

Material: Brass
Size: 1:87

Material: Diecast
Size: 1:50

 Material: Diecast

Size: 1:50

Material:  Zamak (A composite  metal alloy of zinc and other metals) and  Resin
Size: 1:50

     Don't forget that you can look at these image in a slide show format.  As well, you can magnify them larger than they are as you view them. That allows you to see the fine detail that goes into many of these models.

     I'll only "touched the surface" of this excellent site for models.  So if you're looking for a place to search out models of all kinds of trucks, machines, and so forth, this is the place!

Thanks for visiting, and as always,

have a great part of the day wherever you may be - morning, 

afternoon, or evening.

Stacey

EMD (Engineering Model Developments)

Wednesday, February 21, 2013

EMD

(Engineering Model Developments)

The History

    I was looking on the Net, when I came across an interesting toy. I then went to their site, and I found a company called Buffalo Road Imports LLC. I looked around their site, and  then I found a company that Buffalo owns titled EMD which is an abbreviation for Engineering Model Developments. I wrote to the company, and I got a reply to go ahead and write about them. 

    The owner of Buffalo Road Imports LLC and correspondingly EMD is Mr. Brandon Lewis.  Brandon's father started to collect models when Brandon was born, and that kickstarted a fascination for collecting. Eventually,the passion for collecting became a business in 1978, as Brandon was growing up.  Brandon is a petroleum engineer by education and profession, but in 1982, the market for  these specialists was slow, and so Branson jointed Buffalo.

    The  company has flourished, and eventually outgrew its premises which were in the original home of Brandon's parents. The current location is still in their hometown of Clarence, New York, and is on the main street of the city. However, they now have a large warehouse to store their inventory

    I'll be returning to write another post about Buffalo Road Imports LLC, the patent company, but I decided to write about EMD. This company produces their own line of diecast  models.  I chose  to write about EMD initially, because the photos on their site were larger than most of the other ones, and as such , I was able to look at these in more detail. Also, it's easier to do some enhancement in Photoshop with larger-sized images.

   Buffalo Road Imports LLC site is www.constructionscalemodels.com, and www.emd-models.com is the EMD website. Buffalo is a cornucopia if information for anyone interested in collecting. Of course, the vast inventory of models and especially the photos is for me my first interest. After that their are large lists of manufacturers and the companies that these toys are modelled after (the original "real" trucks, dozers, cars, busses, and so forth).  

http://www.constructionscalemodels.com

http://www.emd-models.com

The Euclid C6 Dozer below much be quite popular.
EMD offers this model in 4 different variations.

 

I had asked Brandon Lewis if it would be alright for me to remove the nice-lloking models form their original backgrounds and he agreed. His customized foundation( a photographic term for what a tabletop products sits on) is very nice with the company name and globe design.

However, I thought that the models would present themselves better against a clean white background. I've also decided to add the company logo to each photo of every post that I write about, and at the same time to  lighten up the Copyright notice. I also felt that too much bright text detracted from the manufacturers' models.

Of course, I'll be sending a note to Brandon for his perusal , since he's the best one to decide- he's the company owner of these fine models!

Thanks for dropping by,
and have a grteat part of the morning, afternoon, or evening, wherever you may be.

Stacey