The end of EFE?

The model bus world has been left reeling by the weekend's announcement that Gilbow Holdings, the parent company of Exclusive First Editions, has gone into liquidation and ceased trading. While not entirely unexpected as it had been obvious for some time that all was not well, it still came as a great shock when it happened. EFE will be missed as they were the pioneers of diecast model buses in 1/76 scale and revolutionised the hobby with their widely-available, ready-made and well-detailed models, as until then all you could get were white metal kits and the occasional toy from Dinky or Corgi. On a personal note, it was the products of EFE that introduced me to collecting in 1/76 scale around twenty years ago and I now own dozens of them, so I have much to thank them for.

EFE made many different versions of the Leyland National. This is one of the infamous overprints.

It was in 1989 that the first EFE models appeared in the form of the London RT bus and various versions of the AEC Mammoth Major lorry, and many more were to join them over the years. Where EFE led, others soon followed, with Corgi introducing their Original Omnibus Company range and Britbus and Creative Master Northcord later appearing on the scene, along with numerous manufacturers specialising in the Hong Kong market. Although crude by today's standards, these early models were a revelation in their day compared with what came before: finally a collection of realistic models to a constant scale could be built up without resorting to assembling kits or scratch-building, even though the earliest releases were a little lacking in detail and oddly didn't include numberplates, and were sometimes finished in inauthentic liveries. EFE also no doubt introduced a number of railway modellers to the hobby of collecting buses in their own right and not just as scenery for their railway.

One of the first EFE models. Looks crude now but in 1989 this was quite something.

I haven't counted, but the range must have eventually consisted of over a hundred different castings and reputedly more than 2000 variations in total, and there was something for everyone, from the pre-war Leyland TD1 to contemporary low-floor buses. Although best known for 1/76 buses, there was much more to EFE's portfolio: right from the start a popular range of trucks were also offered in the same scale, together with a small series of sports cars, and later developments comprised tube trains, 1/24 scale buses, ocean liners and 1/8 scale tinplate clockwork racing cars. Themed collections within the main range included the Grocery Series and Brewery Series of lorries, and the Gilbow Railway Collection of rail-related vehicles aimed specifically at railway modellers, plus the euphemistically named 'De Luxe' series that were overprinted reissues of older stock.

In recent years EFE had developed a relationship with Bachmann Model Railways for marketing and distribution, and Bachmann had commissioned a number of exclusive models from EFE. It seems to have been hoped that Bachmann would eventually take over the EFE business, and they reportedly did express an interest but nothing ultimately came of this. The company was still owned by its founders, Frank and Brenda Joyce, who are both past retirement age and no one would begrudge them a desire to finally step away from the business and enjoy a well-earned retirement. They did seem to lose their way in the final years though, perhaps due to the worsening financial climate, and the pioneering spirit had disappeared to be replaced by a series of largely underwhelming models. Standards of research also seemed to slip a little, with various models containing inexcusable and easily avoidable errors, most infamously the Durham District Bristol VR that was based on a photoshopped image of a bus that never existed and had to be hurriedly redesigned into a United Counties vehicle.

My last new EFE purchase. Not the livery it was originally intended to be.

EFE had reportedly accumulated £1 million-worth of unsold stock, and in an effort to shift this resorted to the much-criticised practice of overprinting these models with revised details and selling them as 'new' releases at the full retail price. This may have been more tolerable if these were mixed with occasional genuinely new models, but most months of 2016 saw nothing but overprints released and collectors soon grew tired of this recycling of old stock and passing it off as new. Reports suggest a huge quantity still remain for the liquidators to dispose of, so an already near-saturated market will probably soon be flooded with cheap models. While not great for collectors in the short term, convertors and fleet operators will at least benefit from the availability of cheap raw materials for their work.

There has been no new tooling from EFE for some time and the long-promised East Lancs Olympus, first shown in mock-up form almost a decade ago, never materialised. Some of the tooling that was still in use at the end dated back twenty years or more; to be honest it was starting to show its age and look rather crude against the competition, and wasn't really worth the £34.99 retail price. The only 'new' variation produced recently was a modification of the 25-year old Atkinson truck cab to make the twin-headlight Mark 2 version, a dubious decision as Oxford Diecast were already producing a cheaper and more accurate model of this. The last official EFE release of all looks set to be the Bachmann exclusive Leyland Titan prototype, which was reportedly delivered to Bachmann's warehouse just a couple of weeks before the collapse and is now awaiting despatch to wholesalers.

EFE models provided a good base for conversions. Yes, there's an EFE chassis under there.

The model bus hobby seems to be in a bad way at present and the glory days are long gone, with Britbus and Northcord releasing once in a blue moon, Corgi suffering financial woes and EFE now defunct. It's too early to speculate but I'm sure we all hope EFE have not gone for good and something can be salvaged from their demise. We all have large numbers of EFE models in our collections, which wouldn't be the same without them, so whatever happens now the hobby is the poorer without EFE and we all owe them an enormous debt of gratitude for the huge contribution they made over their 27-year existence.

Exclusive First Editions, 1989 to 2016