I don’t think Mr. Wolf will need to borrow any money to get the Lionel name. They already owe him 41 mil plus legal fees and damages. Wellspring will be glad to hand Lionel over to MTH to avoid anymore litigation.
Mr. Wolf’s legal verdict counts pretty much for zero in the purchase price of Lionel. None of Lionel’s owners are on the hook for this sum in any case. Wellspring does not own Lionel by the way, they manage the investment. Lionel is owned by the estate/family of Martin Davis, Neil Young and Richard Kughn. I wouldn’t take everything Tony Lash says about these issues as gospel. Sometimes he is just blowing smoke :).
In any case, the consolidation of Lionel and MTH may be Mr. Wolf’s fondest wish, but it would in all likelihood accelerate the already underway contraction of the three rail train hobby for all sorts of reasons. It would be the saddest day in the history Lionel since the sale of the original company to Roy Cohn’s people in the late 1960s, and have similar influence on the industry. So you’d better pray it never happens. If it does there are going to be a lot of dealers out of business over the next five years.
nblum,
I think it would be best that a guy with toy trains in his blood gets ownership of Lionel. Wellspring is nothing but a bunch of bean counters. Neil Young would have to play a lot of concerts and release a dozen albums to pay Mike off.
Neil Young will never owe Mike Wolf any money because Lionel is a corporate entity. Mr. Young is insulated from any claims Mike Wolf might make on him. On the other hand Mr. Young is probably distinctly peeved at Mr. Wolf for trying to take away his property with a lawsuit of dubious merit. In any case, Mr. Young, in my opinion, has contributed more importantly to the hobby than Mike Wolf ever will. He was the driving force behind bringing command control and high quality sound to three rail locomotives with his company Liontech. Mike Wolf’s company followed that with DCS, six years later, and benefiting from the presence of one of the members of the TMCC design team who went to work for him on DCS.
Well, why did CTT magazine name Mike Wolf as the most significant person in O gauge since JLC? I believe it was in CTT’s 15th anniversary issue. I believed every word I read and so did most open minded people. Even Jerry Williams will praise Mike.
The disscussion of how much money owed to MTH by Lionel still hasn’t really been decided has it. Didn’t Lionel appeal the verdict? If so nothing has really been decided until the appeals court hears the case and decides. And doesn’t this just lead to possibly another appeal and even longer time delays in settlement?
Neil Young isn’t a CTT advertiser and doesn’t call attention to himself, whereas Mike Wolf is an advertiser and does an excellent job getting his message across? I also believe Richard Kughn had as important or more important an impact on three rail O gauge in the last twenty years as Mike Wolf. Like Mike Wolf he doubled the size of the market, and reinvigorated the interest in three rail O gauge, pretty much saving Lionel from its doldrums in the mid-1980s. I’d rank Mike Wolf tied with Kughn or third after these two guys in terms of importance.
The appeal has been filed some time ago. I believe routine, mandatory court sanctioned attempts to settle the case before an actual hearing of the appeal are underway or about to get underway.
Well, *** Maddox left Lionel because he knew he couldn’t compete with MTH. He’s now at Atlas and he’s found out that Atlas O isn’t flying. MTH has them beat hands down.
There will be a settlement very soon with Mike Wolf getting control of Lionel. The Wellspring clients want a fast settlement without further litigation. They already owe 41 mil plus legal fees and damages.
Neil;
This is my point exactly. If Lionel or MTH doesn’t settle prior to the appeal, then a higher court hears it. They render a decision and boom, another appeal is made and the litigants are basically back to square one.No decision, no settlement, back to court one mo’ time! Which seems to me that we actually could be years away from a final decision one way or another.
No I am not a lawyer, and I don’t play one on TV either. With all apologies to our esteemed Mr. Kelly, it just seems that the only ones who will benefit in the long run are the law firms.
Neil is a well known Lionel apologist who will bash MTH whenever this issue comes up. He claims to have insider knowledge of the legal proceedings that are in question. Tony Lash is the one with the straight scoop. You can read the court transcripts on his website: www.tonylashexpress.com
Tony Lash isn’t exactly a disinterested party. He’s a close friend of Mike Wolf. I’m just an average everyday hobbyist :). At least Tony and I use our actual names, unlike some here who probably are MTH employees, dealers or Friends of Mike masquerading as hobbiests.
Just go here www.tonylashexpress.com and click on “News” on the left hand side. It’s public record. The court transcripts that Neil and his cronies at Lionel don’t want you to read.
So far…regardless of what have may have happened in the past, you are convincing me more and more that I won’t be buying any MTH in the future…one customer down…
i would take the dcs over tmcc any day.
Guitar world magazine once named Jimi Hendrix the most significant musician since Motzart. I agreed. Does it make Hendrix the most significant?
Amen brother… Let’s see… Do I want a Fisher Price looking toy that feels clunky and cheap (Aristo Crafts system is nicer IMO), or a highly refined control system with very cool features including the ability to operate locomotives designed to work with the Fisher Price system (and not the other way around)?
Yeah, that’s a really tough decision to make… [;)]
if you guys stop for one second and read the part where Mthrules says “Well, why did CTT magazine name Mike Wolf as the most significant person in O gauge since JLC? I believe it was in CTT’s 15th anniversary issue. I believed every word I read and so did most open minded people. Even Jerry Williams will praise Mike.” for 1 he believes every word he reads so he’s either retarded, senile, or worse. Secondly reading everything you read is not “being open minded” it’s well, see above.
If DCS is so superior to TMCC, why did OGRR Forum members prefer TMCC to DCS 4:1 in an informal survey three years or so after DCS’s introduction? Not a scientific poll, but a reasonable measure of the popularity of the two systems. Admittedly, TMCC has been around much longer, but the simple fact is that only those who insist on PS2 locos from MTH, which is less than 25% of the market, need DCS. For everyone else, it’s an unnecessary expense and, in any case, it’s not the best thing since sliced bread (unless you must have PS2 locos, in which case, it is :). HO and N folks will be staying with DCC is my almost certain conclusion. MTH’s bull in a china shop approach to the hobby and industry pretty much puts paid to any real chance they had for short term success in the smaller scales, IMO. That’s not anyone’s fault but their own, however much their employees using obscure screen names, trolls and partisans try to blame those like me, or other hobbiests who have protested their business practices for many years in the three rail world.