The licensed set battle

My in-laws wanted the Polar Express set after seeing the moive for their Xmas tree, which supports Big Boy position that its just an Xmas set. Being unable to find a set they ended up buying a Lionel’s Holiday set, and are very happy with it.

Considering you get a berk and coaches with the Polar Express and a dockside and freight cars with the Spongebod for nearly the same MSRP, I would have to say the Polar Express is the winner.

I feel the Ploar Express maddness will be short lived and the $400 prices will drop drastically. Especially as more sets are being shipped and even more sets will be produced.

I agree with you too Elliot, which is why it is sad that most of the starter sets aimed at beginners are made with items that have been around for decades in mostly roadnames that have also not been around for decades.

Other than MTH/Railking, no one has done any new tooling in the 027 arena. I’ve always thought Lionel missed the boat a decade ago by not tooling up some kind of modern looking Dash-8/9 - SD90MAC locomotive: a up-to-date modern equal to the beginner Alco FA of years ago.

Even if they had taken the basic 14inch GP frame and just put a new body on it. With a little thought into it and some time to make the proportioning look right. MTH Raiking is the only company to do some smaller modern locomotives, but even many of these suffer from what I call the “Shoebox” look… they just shortened the length without consideration to the height and the overall look of the engine. Of course, I know whay they made them as tall as they did: to have the capacity to take the additional electronics should they decide to add them at a later date. That and most of the older Railking cars were taller anyways. But those locos still tower above many of the Railking cars.

Well, well, well, some very interesting comments. As to the longevity of Sponge Bob, I ask where are the Smurfs and their obnoxious song. (if you liked that song, I would suggest that you will really like riding a Small, Small World at a Disney Theme Park. [:D][}:)]) It is about a 30% chance that Sponge Bob will have staying power. New characters in the past of been developed and just pulled the rug out from some really good children’s programming.

Every year for the past 12 years, our neighborhood Christmas party is at our house. We run the trains and do you know that most people who watch and run the trains don’t give a wit about which car is more prototypical than another, but they love to point out to others the sheriff/outlaw car, the aquarium car, the giraffe car, the submarine car, the elephant car, the chicken car, the roadrunner car and the satellite car. Now remember, these are people not into trains. They do comment on the quality of the engines based mostly on the sound of the horn or whistle and one gentlemen that is a publisher for a major book company always loves the absurd the best.

One of the most interesting comments someone said on this post is that the head of Lionel gave us Spiderman. Maybe he has a vision of keeping the Polar Express on the front burner during future holidays. We don’t know if Lionel has something going with Hallmark or not, but if I were the head of Lionel, I would give it strong consideration for the future.

The Polar Express madness will decrease. Guaranteed.

I still believe that Lionel missed the boat, the pier and the water with their lack of marketing savy. Every theater in every major city should have had a Polar Express running on a small layout in the lobby with a raffle to give the set away to a lucky movie patron on December 24th.

One thing that many of you don’t realize, but living with two teachers I get the full review about the book. The book has become a classic of sorts. It is a

I also think that the Polar Express movie just may end up being a classic that will be viewed by many every year. Let’s hope so! If that is true, the Polar Express will be very collectable on-going.

My vote is for the soon to be released “Beavis And Butthead Express”.[:D]

Can you imagine that with “Beavis and Butthead CrewTalk”?! Oh, the horror! [:0]

While The Polar Express may be a “holiday flash in the pan” for LIONEL, it also has the potential to be a perennial holiday flash in the pan for LIONEL.

EVERY Christmas Barnes & Noble and Waldenbooks and Borders has a Polar Express display. And every Christmas they sell more copies. You throw in DVD’s, Pay Per View, and television airings of the movie, along with the fact that IMAX theatres are already talking of seasonal re-releases of the movie, and you’ve got a big teneder full of coal and water to fuel future sales down the road. As of Thursday, the movie broke the 100 million dollar mark with no signs of slowing down.

And while it is a passenger set with no specific roadname, it has terrific “play value” with its metal roof pegs for the action figures, and flag-holders on the engine pilot to placing them as well.

My first set was a plastic 2-4-2 with no whistle and “LIONEL LINES” on the tender. It came with a Giraffe Car, Sheriff & Outlaw, and horse flat. Today I’m in the hobby. The way some of you talk, I shouldn’t be!

Jon [8D]

Jon, I was in Barnes and Noble tonight at the semi-famous Columbus’s Easton Mall. (They even have three LGB trains running in one of the court yards.) I saw the Polar Express display and I thought they had a similiar display last year as you described. When we entered the music section of the bookstore, the music from the Polar Express was displayed with the other top albums. To my surprise, the album is one of the top sellers this year. I can’t remember exactly what its ranking was, but I believe it was No. 5.

Since you are any the entertainment business, can you comment on the music side of the Polar Express. In my day a Top 40 anything was doing really good.

anybody see the New York Central Limited? that looks awesome.
its by Lionel

Buckeye,

The day of the “Top 40” album and Top 40 Singles chart is dead. Now everything is a “niche” of the music world. Now there’s the Top 40 CHR, Country, Hot Country, Rock, AAA, Dance CHR, AC, Hot AC yadda yadda yadda…

But the Barnes & Noble chart if memory serves, is based on their own sales, and therefore probably pretty accurate…unless they bought a ton of a loser, and are trying to “hype” the sales.

Still in all, it’s a pretty nice sound track, and I wouldn’t mind a copy myself!

Jon [8D]

Snell,

Yes, that’s the set with the FT Diesel and the three coaches. Good runner, GREAT sounds!

Jon [8D]

There is a large population now in the buying stages that has no recollection of Lionel.

Young parents of today are not the operators/fans of the 1950s Lionel. They don’t know about Lionel any more then they know about Kline, MTH , Weaver or Williams.

Polar Express will sell because of the movie, not Lionel. Sponge Bob would probably sell a lot better if the production run was higher and people were running them at the shows in Edison recently held. In the past our Club ran Thomas engines made from the DieCast Thomas Engines that were O scale size, (Thomas and Percy) over small
Lionel steam engine chassis. Parents wanted to buy them from us all the time…Kids loved them and screamed for them to run again, and again , and again.

Small kids will find the Sponge Bob sets and it will be like Thomas all over again.

Buy a Sponge Bob set for your club and the visiting families will love it.

Not quite true: they may not have had postwar trains themselves, but they do know the name. All the others are no-names to the general public. 100 years of history cannot be replicated by Sponge Bob (ESPECIALLY not by Sponge Bob).

I have been to a number of hobby shops in my area, and have not seen the Sponge Bob or the Elvis train sets. Are they Lionel?

It’s a world of laughter, a world of tears
It’s a world of hope, and a world of fears
There’s so much that we share
That it’s time we’re aware
It’s a small world after all.

(You asked for it!)

Actually they have never seen a lionel display set up in “Department Stores” until just after WW2 each year.

Actually where ARE the department stores these days? Super centers?? bleah.

I suspect that the Polar Express enjoys some popularity this season as to it’s strength in the coming years, well we will see.

Having experienced the famous “Cabbage Patch” madness during the late 80’s where people would fight, wrestle and bid for the last Patch Doll in the store… I will hope that the Hobby retains some “Class” each christmas.

I think that the sponge bob will just remain a toy. The Polar Express will be a real collectible!!

Polar Express will win easily because it is a train from a story about the train.

Or maybe i just hate spong bob. Just an awful cartoon.

Espee,

The SpongeBob set is made by MTH; the Elvis set by Lionel.