Other than they're not as easy to fimd these days there isn't anything to be jealous about. I've had them a very long time. Iwelcome the Hooben model like everyone else cause I can run it. The Imai (Ihave 3 of these soon to be worthless models) runs well enough but the track is a concern; weak links can be ( and have ) broken if the model is run in the wrong terrain. Hopefully Hooben will have ample spare parts and their track will be interchangeable with Imai's ( I wish). Iknow there's a outfit in Germany selling tracks that are supposed to be interchangable with Imai's but I have no experience with them.