I have the 2006 one (well, Corey has it), and I picked up the 2007 and 2008 versions in Corey’s birthday order for Tyler and/or Corey for Christmas. I know they also made it for 2009 - have they made it for any other years? Is Lionel still making them? Here’s the ones I know about:
- #25043 MACY’S 2006 PARADE BOXCAR
- #39297 MACY’S 2007 PARADE BOXCAR
- #39309 MACY’S 2008 PARADE BOXCAR
- #39325 MACY’S 2009 PARADE BOXCAR
I was trying to post pictures, but Google images keeps rebooting Firefox every time I search.
I believe Macy’s dropped Lionel last year, they had no Lionel product for sale last year. As far as I know there were 4 Lionel boxcars and 2 MTH boxcars.
So they aren’t still being made? That’s a real shame - I was hoping to have the kids eventually have a whole train of them. I especially like them because they were such colorful cars.
Macy’s, Target, and Wal-Mart all dropped the Lionel Trains for last year Holiday season. Maybe they will be reintroduced this year.
I doubt this will matter much to you, since you mention this is for your kids, but there is technically a 5th one, but it’s just a variation on the first 25043.
Due to the popularity of the 1st issue, Lionel cataloged the 25043 in the regular catalog the next year.
It had the same item number, but the slight difference was the year on the boxcar door (and perhaps the “BLT by Lionel” date, I forget that detail at the moment.
So for 25043, if you have one that says 2006 on the door, it’s a Macy’s in store special. If you have one with 2007 on the door, it’s the one sold through the normal dealer network later.
As far as I know, this was the only year this happened.
As much as they are nice, the inconsistent distribution took some of the fun out of it in later years. You can only run to every Macy’s in your area so many times before it gets really frustrating. The final year, I followed a lead on another discussion forum and found a store in another part of the country that was willing to ship a few. Probably cost me much less for the shipping than for gas/tolls to run all over the place locally.
Lionel should have made a Wanamaker’s train. This was a department store in Philly. They made a box car.