Think they also ran headfirst into this as well with the Procor hoppers and Tropicana Reefers. They keep doing these big extravaganza launches that always tag. "Its a different model than those other guys's" Which seems to forget that the average Joe N scaler is sees two things on the shelf but one is $25 with 90% of the detail and the other is $50 with every rivet on the discharge modeled. Guess what he's probably going for when you launched the product a week after the former.
There hasn't been a ribbed jumbo covered hopper released in N scale since the Con-Cor model that dates to the 1970's(?), so the difference between the two new cars and the C-C is a little more than a rivet counting exercise. The supply of the C-C car is spotty since one can only find them on the used market, and the difference in MSRP of the new cars is $40 Rapido vs $37 ST. Yes, the detail is superior to C-C, however the new cars are also accurate to actual prototypes and have body mounted couplers. It was somewhat unfortunate that both new cars were released simultaneously, however since it's unlikely mfg's keep each other updated on their upcoming projects until officially announced, one can understand the desire to differentiate their product from the other guys. To me, that parallel release was just more of what I've been waiting years for (in my locale and era, the jumbo pellet cars are essential, and the Procor cars simply iconic in Canada)... I went from zero to my cup runneth over almost over night! While I bought examples of both, I have five times more of the Rapido vs ST.
The Atlas 5801 is a very different car visually.
