LIONEL starter set items have been made available at retailers such as Hobby Lobby and Menard’s.
What other retailers have been selling LIONEL sets?
Will there be new LIONEL sets at Menard’s?
What about a Menard’s NASCAR Train Set?
Andrew
AND if you get the 40% off coupon from Hobby Lobby…such a deal!!!
Target will be selling them again this year.
After reading your post I went to towerhobbies and look up trains there. the only trains that came up were ho and g scale. no lionel yet.
This week the stockers at Menard’s in Portage, MI have stacked up the LIONEL.
Many boxes of FasTrack. There are 3 of the Chicago & North Western Freight Sets and 2 of the Wisconsin Central Passenger Sets out on the shelves. There is no room for more.
The Wisconsin Central Passenger Set is a “Soo Line” set done as if the Wisconsin Central had not been a hidden subsidiary between 1910 and 1960.
Andrew
I think either Linen’s & Things or Bloodbath & Beyond is selling Lionel too.
my local hobby lobby had a few Lionel sets when I was there a few weeks ago, they also had a couple diffrent Bachmann G (Big Haulers) sets and some HO with atleast 1 On30 set
For those in the North East and Mid-Atlantic regions, Boscov’s continues to sell K-Line By Lionel and Lionel. Their website lists some of their stock. Perhaps Lionel will start to make some exclusives for them the way K-Line used to.
Target has a number of sets (4) listed on their website, as well as Fastrack.
Last year Macy’s Herald Sqaure store set up a Specialty Toy Department on 8 (near Santa Land), and it featured Lionel sets and a small operating layout. Hopefully that will be repeated this year.
Speaking of Macy’s, in the State Street Chicago store, FAO Schwatz has opened a branch, I wonder if Trains are part of the mix ??
Does Sears still offer an annual MTH set ?
I have always preached that getting QUALITY train sets into mass-merchandisers is a essential part of expanding the hobby.
Ken
My Marards has finally stocked the North Western Freight and Wisconsin Central Passenger sets, as well as a bunch of Fastrack pieces.
Wes
BOSCOVs in PA, and Jersey have them.
laz57
To all,
I have seen sets at Menard’s, but I have been to two Targets in the area and have not seen any there. I have not checked out Linen’s and Things or Hobby Lobby, but I plan to do so this weekend.
Keep on training,
Mike C. from Indiana
Dillard’s has had them too. I have yet to see them this year, but I am sure they will. Last year, they had PE, Nascar and some G scale.
I saw two listed on the Brookstone site, Cascade Range, and Penn Flyer.
I did notice that on the Sears site, they have the Polar Express Set listed.
So I guess they are no longer working with MTH ?
Ken
I checked out the local Target near my client in Charlottesville, VA, and they did not have any Lionel sets on the shelves.
Last year, all of the Fortunoff stores in NY/NJ had a Lionel display up and running for Christmas.
To all,
I re-checked the Target website and they listed all the items as being available on-line only, not in stores. I wonder why Lionel agreed to this as this gets you zero exposure to the general public. Unless you are actively looking for sets online, you are not going to find them casually browsing the net. On the other hand, Lionel has less exposure to a returned goods cost.
Keep on training,
Mike C. from Indiana
Fortunoff has 4 sets listed on their website.
Considering that their larger stores (Westbury, Woodbridge and the like) have Christmas Departments that rival what legendary stores like JL Hudson used to do, I would think that Lionel is part of the mix.
Ken
Well, the store out by me, in Willowbrook Mall, has a huge Christmas display. They used to have their train/Dept56 layouts done by the Train Station in Mountain Lakes, but last year they had Ye Olde Standard Lionel Display Table - really was a big step down from the double/triple/quadruple layouts they had had in the past.
Now if Lionel could only get into Wal Mart… But I bet Wally World would want the sets for just a little over cost.
Getting back to Menards - the sets disappeared very quickly from my local Menards (NW Chicago Suburbs).