Who do you think will be around after all the lawsuits are settled?
1)K-Line and Lionel
2)Lionel and MTH
3)MTH and UP
Do you think that MTH will own Lionel/K-Line? Or do think some one else will own them?
Lee F.
There are still other suits in the pipeline. Baring the principal participants gettingstruck by a thunderbolt of sanity this crap will drag on for many years to come. I am begining to think there is a strong liklihood that some of the participants will expire before all of the legal wrangling ends.
Williams, RMT, Atlas and Weaver [:)]
There will be just four, with the parent company listed first:
LIONEL/K-LINE
ATLAS-O/WEAVER
RMT/WILLIAMS
QSI/MTH[:-^]
Jon [8D]
Well at this rate they will have all sued each other out of exsistance.
The only people who will make money are the lawyers.
Maybe when they are at there weakest and least expect it a company like Hornby will swoop in and buy them out like they have with several European model companys. More likely they will end up being owned by a bank[:(]
I think its time they burried the hatchet and got on with making trains.
Nick
Lionel/K-Line will be fine.
Atlas will remain independent, as will Weaver and Williams.
MTH will probably be fine, though I expect that the Lionel award will be significantly reduced on appeal. I recently sold an MTH dummy engine on eBay, so I suspect that they’ll soon sue me for a cut of those proceeds.
And anyone who didn’t realize that the previous statement was a joke, please don’t sue me.
Boy it’s darn good thing our little train world isn’t as popular or well known as let’s say the typical Hollywood celebrity. Those grocery store checkout tabloids would have a whole new load of enticing headlines:
“Lionel / K-Line Marriage Hits Derailment: Infidelity Charges Filed”"
“Weaver Gives Birth to MTH’s Alien Love Child”
“Jennifer Aniston Dates Lionel: Exclusive Hotel Photos Inside”
“Brad PItt and Williams: What’s In Their Future?”
“MTH / Lionel Triple X Honeymoon Video Causes Stir”
“Industrial Rail’s Private Tragedy Made Public”
[:D]
Peace and plenty will abound, the HOers and N scalers shall lie down with the tinplaters, Mike Wolf will give Richard Kughn a big hug, Maury Klein will buy AmeriTrains to get his hands on some Marx tooling to use to start over, and Bob Grubba will be given the exclusive rights to make any and all trains and road names with anyone’s command and sound systems, but only in TT gauge. [:o)]
Grit-powered Brios with cold-fussion Tonka toy accessories
I’d buy! I’ve always liked TT scale. Lionel already made those 1:120 scale display engines that TTers are motorizing . . . .
… and the circle is complete …
…and the circle is complete…
Is the definition of toy trains…regardless of lawsuits…
Well said, Roy. Thanks be to Bob…(Keller that is)
Everyone will be stuck using after market parts to standard gauge Bachmann On3 equiptment.
I guess I don’t really care anymore. I am begining to like the Atlas O stuff more and more. Truth is I find myself running late prewar stuff all the time so I may just get rid of some of the newer trains, mainly the ones that have stayed in the box for the last several years. If it doesn’t make my list of trains I want to run now, then it doesn’t need to be taking up space in my closet!
Bottom line is it all gets oldbut I guess its all bidness as they say.
Good summary, Bob Keller.
Lionel will always exist as long as trains are sold – if only as a tradename on somebody elses’ stuff. Williams will probably exist, although I want to see what they are going to do with their “Golden Memories” line when present stock is depleted. MTH will probably remain, but as a less robust entity.-- maybe by concentrating on their tinplate/standard gauge line. Atlas, Weaver, RMT may remain as small “niche” players, or not. That’s my opinion.
I’m finding myself drawn more and more to Standard Gauge (repros) and On30–two areas relatively unaffected by all the moaning and groaning, fussing and fuming, and downright angst that seems to be so much a part of the O gauge hobby these days. I have plenty of O gauge trains–more than I deserve to have–and will hold onto a lot of it, but for now I’m finding a whole lot more peace and tranquility in some other scales (including Large Scale, which will again become a major factor when I purchase a new home).
I would like to see all the manufacturers survive because they have given us an undreamed-of bounty of great toys over the past dozen or so years, but, frankly, couldn’t care less if any of them can’t make it in the years ahead. I wi***hem all well, but am not going to lose sleep worrying about the eventual fate of any of them. Life is too short, and this, after all, is just a hobby–supposedly a way to extend one’s days on this planet to a certain extent, all other things being equal.
STD Gauge IS fun.