Athearn's NS Heritage fleet anouncement

Has anyone seen Athearn's NS Heritage fleet announcement? They are completely re-tooling their Genesis HO SD70ACes to be completely accurate down to the last door. Now, to me, this seems to be a little strange, because at the same time, they announced that they won't be offering the ES44AC until late 2013. So, they have decided to offer all of the Heritage GEVO schemes painted on their RTR AC4400CW models. I guess either to try to make some extra money off of the heritage frenzy going on right now, or to satisfy some modelers' need to "have it right now". I personally think that this is a bad marketing decision, and it will backfire on Athearn. Any serious modeler will avoid this model; the only ones that will buy it are those who just don't care. I am a fan of Athearn, but why not WAIT and do it right! They already have the molds, and they are going to produce this model anyway. All they are doing is telling those of us that are serious modelers that they don't take us seriously. I have a feeling that more than a few people who were loyal to Athearn will be going to Intermountain for their GEVO's. Anybody else have any thoughts?

Athearn had a China factory go "belly up " on them a year or so back,still trying to reclaim the molds and tooling from the
Chinese Goverment that took control of that factory,some of the molds and tooling was released at last report.
Bachmann has basicly taken total control of the Sader-Kahn factory for their internal production needs.
The Brits and Europe seem to take up most of the production capacity in all scales at that factory at this point of time.
Have yet to see the Horizen announcement,the hobby shop here in town is shutting down due to death of the owner,and
urgent medical issues the son has.

I would take any new announcements of any models with a "grain of salt" untill production "issues" settle down!
I have seen the CMT "Industry Update" e-mail that covers some of the "Production Issues" that was sent out in late July.
Athearn/Horizen may have the molds and tooling ready,but no where to produce it.

Athearn got there molds back a few months ago and have found a new place to start work. This was posted on athearn's facebook from them.

All the info you need to know about what and why athearn is doing what they are doing is on there facebook page. The tower 55 tooling is early build gevo's, not what is being built now.

I think that I didn't explain my point very well. And, yes, I did see the facebook page and video. My point is; why go to all of the trouble to completely re-tool their SD70ACe in order to make it accurate down to the last rivet, but then apply NS' GEVO heritage schemes to 1.) the wrong locomotive, and 2.) a locomotive that NS never owned. Especially, when they announced that they would be producing the old T55 ES44's (early release) sometime next year. The late production ones will follow. Why not just wait and do it right? It just disappoints me that a company that prides itself on being so prototypically accurate with their Genesis line would stoop to doing something like this. I know that the AC4400CW is in their RTR line, but this sounds a lot like something that Tyco or Bachmann would do. I dunno. I guess that's my rant for now..

Ahtearn/Horizon may have been trying to beat Overland Models to the "Punch" on the NS "Heritage Fleet" announcement.
Just take a look at the Back Cover of the current (Sept'12) RMC for Overland's ad.
Models to be done in Brass in S. Korea(A-Train Model) for "O","HO", and "N" scales
AD states "Limited Production".

I'm Not sure If this has any relevance but:

Athearn (7 Hours Ago)

Just like M&Ms and Santa Claus, they do exist! Here are a few pictures of our upcoming early production ES44AC GEVO. Once we receive painted samples, we’ll make the official announcement with part numbers, pricing, and ETAs.

Disclaimer: This model was assembled from first test shots for initial evaluation in the R&D process. Production will have improved fit and appearance to meet Genesis standards. The test model does not represent a specific roadname.