When Hallmark's 1970, Catalog #2 hit the hobby stores, I was delighted to see all of the Frisco power listed with in its pages. The locomotives listed were for the most part vaporware, a term not known at that time. The catalog was just a tool that Hallmrk used to gauge the interest of the HO scale hobbyist. As far as the Frisco locomotives go, Hallmark did a relatively good job of producing what it promised. Most of the models promised in the book were delivered within 10 years or so. The 4300 and 4400 mountains were not imported by Hallmark. Overland beat Bobbye Hall to the punch with those models. The big ten hundreds, never made it out of the vaporware. That's too bad; they would have been a natural to import with the 1306 2-8-0's. Notice the price for the 2 Frisco cabooses. They were going for a whopping $14.95. Of course at that time, one could buy one of Uncle Irv's shake the box kits for $1.50-2.50.
Hallmark had the opportunity to do good things Frisco and really blew it! The only decent Frisco model they did were the 1306 class 2-8-0s which were made by an excellent builder in Japan. Other than the outrageous telephone booth they called a doghouse for the tender, the model was great. The other 3, 182,4200 and 4500 class were really bad. In looking back I'm not too sure I wouldn't have done better scratchbuilding my own instead of fixing theirs to be correct. The 4500 was really a puzzle as they have one on display in Dallas and still missed it by a mile with the model. The ones I rebuilt had the boilers sitting so low that the drivers rubbed on the underside. The oil bunker section of the tender was five scale feet too long. Overland did a better job on the 4300 and 4400 models, but by the time the builder got around to the coal burners, his work had gotten very sloppy. Sunset did a good job on the 4-6-2s, even though he was unhappy they didn't sell better. Now they bring a dandy price on ebay. At one time, Westside was ready to import 4500 models from his Japanese builder, but the builder backed out. That would have been a superior model as his engines are built like tanks and run like silk. The Frisco curse lives on.
I loved my little Hallmark 4-4-0, it didnt pull much but what a great looking locomotive. Sold it to Lee Buffington, Lee really liked the modernized 4-4-0 and why not he worked on that program. The decapods were great in their day but the Bachman ones in plastic are better and you didnt have to part with another $100 to get them painted. Wish Bachman would mak a FRISCO modernized 4-4-0.
