Thanks for letting me know. I am lucky with with 18045.

I have "Made in China" printed on the box of my 36243 class 24 loco. There is no "Made in..." on the box of the later 36244 class 24 loco.

So yes, there are "Made in..." prints on the boxes of some items, mainly entry level items with the colourful boxes.
But you do not find "Made in..." prints on the high-price grey boxes for the "professional" collectors, as Märklin call us freaks who spend huge amounts of money on small rolling stock.

What makes an item a "Märklin item"?
A Tillig car sold in a Märklin box is still a Tillig item with respect to philosophy and quality.
A Piko car sold in a Märklin box is still a Piko item with respect to philosophy and quality.

How about "Märklin" locomotives designed by Far-east companies and produced by Far-east companies?

Marklin make their models in China. I got it in writing from Marklin.

Märklin do not have factories outside Europe, they rely on subcontractors - or on subcontractors of subcontractors.

It seems they outsource much more than just assembly. Chinese companies also can do zinc die-casting, as we learned from Köf II and Seetal-Krokodil..

Exactly!

I primarily collect Märklin's more highly detailed and richly functioned locos, which are always expensive. With some exceptions that means that the majority of my models purchased in the last 6-7 years have all been made in China. I have found that all of the Insider models and many other locos are made in Germany, most coaches are made in Hungary, and the special models primarily come from Asian sources.

When I first learned that my new top line Märklin loco was not made in Germany, I asked this forum why? After all, I buy Märklin models for German engineering and production quality. The wise response was that I would not have been able to afford that loco and it would have been less elaborate if it had been made in Germany. That made perfect sense to me and I eventually stopped caring where they are made as long as they are madel well.

Because of that I am amazed that there is still a controversy about Chinese production of Märklin models. If I excluded them I would have bought less than half of my new locos for some time now.

I find their quality to generally be equivalent to the European made models, but I am still very glad that my Northlander is German model.

Well, I guess I don't know for sure, but as far as I know all of the Insider locos have always been made in Germany.

If someone knows one way or the other on Insider models I would love to hear that.

What was the source for this?

It was just a general Marklin internet search. (Bing).

Some folks think that everything from Märklin is made in Germany because every box shows the address of the Göppingen headquarters.
When they find out about "Made in China", they sometimes are very disappointed.

I think this is not a problem of quality, but a problem of faith and transparency. How many times did I hear a Märklin CEO complaining about bad quality from China and about transfers of product lines from China to Europe. Their advertising speeches with split tongue sometimes fire back.

That is what it happens to me when i do have problem about Märklin products and somebody here in the forum speet at me with useless comments. Are Märklinist here too fool against by self? How can you even be sure that train models you buy are not made in Germany and have bad quality controls?

One comment, which has nothing to do with China vs not China, but rather decision making in a highly niche, capital intensive industry. (well, by hobby standards of course)

If you look closely, the items made in China are (mostly) quite niche, unique in their components or details, and items I would label prime for a 1 or 2 time production. The V200s of the world are seemingly coming from Europe.

If I were Marklin I'd do the same thing: outsource the whole project with a built-in margin based upon a fixed (conservative) volume they know they can sell. It is good business, and minimizes the risk. It also eliminates the up front costs, carrying costs, and even warehousing costs. For a model that was never going to be a "bread and butter" seller in the lineup, why not? Its a great way to expand the business. that being said, it is also a tempting way to cut a few design corners on things they know they won't be selling - or more importantly servicing- repetitively for the next 20 years.

This is all my suspicion, but grounded in logic. Marklin wins ($$), certain modelers win (getting a desired model that wouldn't exist otherwise) and the world moves along. Until you need a spare part in year 2055 of course...

Edited by user 13 May 2024 06:27:43(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

I went with some friends to Toy Fair in Nürnberg ca. 2016 and we spoke with Florian Sieber himself. At that time the surprise models were being made in China. Most others were being made in the EU. Of course electronics…………..

Are Märklin trains 100% made of Märklin factory?
How can you be so sure about that?
You don´t!