Since the news is out and the countdown clock has begun on the upcoming K-Line catalog from Lionel,what is everybody’s final opinion ?
Is Lionel going to add more quality to the K-Line brand products ?
Or is Lionel just going to jack the price up on the already quality designed K-Line items their going to offer ? [:)]
I think that the new Lionel-K-Line items will be of the same quality as the old K-Line products. Same manufacturer, just a different seller. I do think they will be more expensive.
Jim
That would be my take as well Jim. Same quality, higher price. You saw that in the recent vol 2 Lionel Catalog. My guess is you will see fewer and fewer low priced Lionel offerings as K-Line will become the low price Lionel brand.
The price will probably go up, though one would think that without having to pay anyone a royalty/licensing fee as K-Line did to Lionel that the price should come down at least that amount.
Never thought of the old licensing fee… maybe Lionel forgot that K-Line was doing this and they are now paying themselves a double licensing fee? [#dots]
Well boys, I guess that we’ll be findin out here in a about a week’s time.
A lot of people forget that K-Line was deeply discounted, often below
original wholesale, during the final year of production. There is
little chance that Lionel could justify the expense of producing new
product runs and sell them at those blow-out rates. My feeling is that
the price will be similar to where the original K-Line retail was at,
though the locomotives may become a little more expensive simply in
keeping with Lionel’s own pricing structure in scale items (ie Hudsons,
Mikados, etc). In the end, it will be interesting to see how Lionel
decides to ‘niche’ the various K-Line products among the broader
offerings in Lionel, Atlas, MTH, and Weaver lines.
I think we already have the answer. The K-Line offerings in the current Lionel catalog are significantly more expensive. It is worth noting that some of the K-Line items listed (the 4-6-2 engine, for example) ended up cancelled.
The other night I was packing up some of the Christmas train cars including a K-LINE Snowball Throwing Polar Bear Boxcar. I realized that this was one of the last cars made by K-LINE so I started just looking at it. It is really detailed. It has door locks on the sliding doors and air lines at the couplers. The magnetic coupler mechanism is also well disguised. The ladders were also detailed, too.
I hope we see this quality with the new K-LINE. [:)] BTW, the Polar Bears threw the snowballs without a flaw this Christmas, but low tunnels give then a headache. [(-D]
BUCKEYE, got the same car, really its the wifes, we love it too.
laz57
LAZ, my wife loves anything with the Polar Bears. We have the handcars, too. Keeping the spouse happy = more trains for me!!! [:D]
I can’t understand the thinking behind some of the initial offerings, particularly the now-cancelled 4-6-2 “K-Line By Lionel” engine referenced above. I just can’t fathom someone saying, now THAT color scheme is the one I want for the layout; just the ticket.
You can’t expect to hit a home run every time at bat. Lionel goofed. That’s all.
Jim
Apart from the trade secret deal, I think part of the reason K-Line folded into Lionel was they attempted to undercut their competition and lost their tails doing it.
I can go along with that. But heck, I am hardly the person to consult on marketing issues. I wouldn’t run one of those NASCAR sets if you paid me - and I’m a near lifelong resident of North Carolina.
As a long-time fan and buyer of K-Line from the very beginning, I suspect (asmuch as I admire what Calarbese is doing for Lionel) that they will miss the mark. I do hope I’m wrong on this account.
Lionel just doesn’t understand what made people choose K-Line products over their’s in the first place. It’s like letting the lion into the henhouse and expecting the lion to understand how the chicken’s did things. K-Line prices were always better than Lionel’s and the quality was reasonable given the lower price. K-Line did themselves in with too much expensive new tooling for new products entirely too quickly. I know the later K-Line products got lots of talk… but talk is cheap - new development and tooling isn’t. And in the end, many of those “desirable” new K-Line products sold to the one’s who say those products were the best, because they were blowouts.
And Lionel having some of the later K-Line folks aboard gives me little encouragement either. I remember Nick Ladd pointing out a new scale K-Line product to me saying “this is gonna be hot.” And my first reaction though I kept my mouth shut was “no it’s NOT gonna be hot.” Lo and behold that item became a blowout very fast and I was right. You can’t expect guys who do not run trains to understand what trains guys want who do actually run them.
The catalog will be out soon and we’ll then know if the lion actually managed to lay an egg. [:D]
Probably both.
Some time ago I purchased a K-Line PRR O scale 0-6-0 steam switcher with TMCC. It is a nicely detailed loco and runs well. It was not cheap. It was one of the higher end K-Line locos as I understand it. It seemed to me that K-Line came out with some really neat scale steam locos. The A5 0-4-0 PRR switcher and the USRA Mikado looked good and came with TMCC as an option. I doubt that Lionel would continue that type of offering now. As far as rolling stock, I bought 2 scale billboard reefers that were just detailed and nice as the atlas reefers, and in my opinion that is saying something. To bad K-Line did not make it, but if somebody was going to acquire them eventually, I think Lionel is probably best.
I think Lionel will lay an egg with their K-Line offerings. Who would want an overpriced 4-6-2 lettered K-Line by Lionel? Answer…Nobody! Offer that same engine at a reasonable price with a good variety of regional roadnames and I bet it would sell. Just like RMT does with their Beeps. As for Lionel being the best company to market former K-Line trains, I’m not so sure. High end scale trains maybe, low end 027 trains no way. I think RMT would have been the better choice.
Lions don’t cluck and chickens don’t roar…
I would be more interested to know if Lionel intends to continue producing K-Line opperating accessories and keep the resonably priced. My guess is they don’t, they pull them into the Lionel line and jack the price 50% so they can pay themselves royalties… if Lionel were truly smart they would reduce their prices, didn’t Calabrese say they wanted to eliminate blowo
I’d be willing to bet a dollar to a doughnut that the prices will be a bit higher, afterall that was one of the reasons behind K-Line’s demise. As to what will be sold that will be shown in a few days.