Hallmark Lionel ornaments for 2016

No mention of the collaborative venture between Hallmark and Lionel - the LionChief rtr Toymaker Santa Express set. It was offered last Christmas in limited quantity only to Hallmark Gold Crown stores. At that time Hallmark stated it would be reissued for Christmas 2016. While it did sell out at some stores others were forced to offer it at 50% off msrp during their after Christmas sales. Considering that situation I'm wondering whether Hallmark will reissue the set this year and if they do, could an add-on car for 2016 be in that set's future?

Thanks for the heads up.  Those Irvington cars will be popular to make a small train, I bet (sort of like when they did the Blue Comet a while back).

 Between the trains and Star Wars, I saw way too many things I wanted to get.  I'm really not sure I can see having the Death Star tree topper on my tree, though.

re: the Lionel train set connection/re-issue, if I recall, last year the set didn't appear as a picture/description in the Dream Book either, it was just a line item on the order sheet at first.

-Dave

     Hurrah! On the last page of the Wish List order form one of the last items shown is the Toymaker Santa Express set, listed under the "not shown" category. Still with the same msrp as last year. No mention of course whether this year Hallmark will release it to Kohls who traditionally has discounts on the Hallmark merchandise they sell during the holidays. (However, Amazon did feature it on their website with it dipping to a price of $329 a few weeks before Christmas 2015. Also will be interesting to see whether those Ebay listings which have hovered around and above the $399 msrp drop with it being reissued.)

     Now that there are videos of this set posted on You Tube by consumers showing what a terrific smoker it is and featuring the sound clips it has, it will hopefully become more popular with the general public.

     Alas though, unfortunately there's no listing or mention of an add-on car for the set this 2016 Holiday season. A cute Toymaker Santa Express ornament is however listed. It would be terrific if that ornament is small enough that I can place it inside the #6-25061 Lionel "Warm Wishes for the Holidays" 2008 Christmas boxcar I run with my set but I doubt it.

Perhaps instead, I'll get the Elf set Lionel has scheduled for release this year and run the boxcar with the doors open and those elves placed inside working on something such as decorating a small lighted tree. Time will tell.

ogaugeguy posted:

     Hurrah! On the last page of the Wish List order form one of the last items shown is the Toymaker Santa Express set, listed under the "not shown" category. .....................

............................... A cute Toymaker Santa Express ornament is however listed. It would be terrific if that ornament is small enough that I can place it inside the #6-25061 Lionel "Warm Wishes for the Holidays" 2008 Christmas boxcar I run with my set but I doubt it.

...............................

Glad you found the answer.  Feeling a little silly that I knew the path but didn't examine the item list myself (I was looking at the PDF, I didn't think to go back and notice the link to the list on the first page of the linked "flippy catalog".)

As to Toymaker Santa, he is too tall for inside a boxcar.  While they didn't put the dimensional details in either the PDF or the flippy catalog, if you hover over the items in the flippy catalog and choose item details, it gives the dimensions for each ornament on the ornament's dedicated web page.  For Toymaker Santa, they are 2.34" W x 3.9" H x 2.4" D. 

-Dave

Dave45681 posted:

 Between the trains and Star Wars, I saw way too many things I wanted to get.  I'm really not sure I can see having the Death Star tree topper on my tree, though.

-Dave

We've been collecting Hallmark ornaments for about 30 years (we have 2 of the very first USS Enterprise ornament).  We put up multiple Christmas trees, and we have a large collection of Star Wars and Star Trek ornaments.  So, one of our trees is a Star Wars-themed tree, and another is for Star Trek.  As soon as my wife saw the Death Star tree topper, she knew I would have to have it. 

We use the Hallmark tree topper from 2014 for our main tree.

Dave45681 posted:

........ Those Irvington cars will be popular to make a small train, I bet (sort of like when they did the Blue Comet a while back).

 ...................

I feel weird quoting myself, but after looking at the detailed picture of the passenger car, I hope they blacked out the windows for the actual production item.  Being that these probably are close to being "on the water", I'm not too optimistic.

It looks weird with the window areas colored the same as the main body of the car, IMO.  I'm sure I'll still be a sucker and buy one car to keep my collection complete, but if it's as pictured, I sure won't be buying multiples.

-Dave

VinceL posted:

We've been collecting Hallmark ornaments for about 30 years (we have 2 of the very first USS Enterprise ornament).  We put up multiple Christmas trees, and we have a large collection of Star Wars and Star Trek ornaments.  So, one of our trees is a Star Wars-themed tree, and another is for Star Trek.  As soon as my wife saw the Death Star tree topper, she knew I would have to have it. 

We use the Hallmark tree topper from 2014 for our main tree.

I'm about 10 years behind you.   I've got all the Lionel trains since 1996 I believe.  I had every Star Wars until last year (less items only sold at conventions or other non-Hallmark store distribution, I never did get into trying to hunt those down).  Last year I finally had some level of control and decided to skip anything Rebels related in my future collecting, so I passed on Zeb.

Regarding the Death Star, it does look like maybe it has a base that could sit as a static display if not on a tree, so we shall see.

Here's a link to a nice website showing photos of each Lionel ornament by year and with a little comment on each, if you click on the individual images.  

http://www.ornament-shop.com/Lionel-Trains-s95.html  

I have to check, but a few years ago I got tired of collecting the ornaments when it seemed they were simply plating old stock for the Gold Crown series and offering trains I was no longer interested in.  Now it's all fodder for the estate sale, I fear.  Maybe it time for that "hey, he's s till here" estate sale.  Found some really nice display cases for these ornaments before Hallmark got too greedy even for me.

That said...the pieces for this year look good enough to lure me back!

Richard Snipes

another couple of hundred bucks spent for somebody  to SAY " Unopen boxes folks, and still in plastic) " , we have 3 to 4  green plastic bins with red covers, take a look,  who wants to start bid !!!!!!!!!!!!!   hmmmm  what is the rationale behind this

Oh, since I dont understand , I have 2 complete sets,   cmon,  Hall mark  ,  STOP !!!!!!!!!!!

I realize it's a different Hudson, but I'm curious if there is anything to that.  The series started with the Hudson in 1996.

It will be interesting to see what the Colorway item is this year.  (repaint or plated Hudson, or something totally different than the main offering?  With the last 3 years just being a color variant of the main offering, who knows.  I hope they don't dig a year back and plate/repaint the Nutcracker Express. )

-Dave

arrsd90 posted:

another couple of hundred bucks spent for somebody  to SAY " Unopen boxes folks, and still in plastic) " , we have 3 to 4  green plastic bins with red covers, take a look,  who wants to start bid !!!!!!!!!!!!!   hmmmm  what is the rationale behind this

Oh, since I dont understand , I have 2 complete sets,   cmon,  Hall mark  ,  STOP !!!!!!!!!!!

 

Hallmark obviously knows how to capitalize on the collector mentality, not just for trains.

Note the Frosty Friends "see saw" thing to go along with the 2 huge items from last year.  I'm not a huge fan of that series, but I do have a few.  I'm sure there are Frosty Friends collectors buying those high ticket items because of wanting to have a complete FF collection (even if they are outside of the numbered series items).

-Dave

Dave45681 posted:

I realize it's a different Hudson, but I'm curious if there is anything to that.  The series started with the Hudson in 1996.

It will be interesting to see what the Colorway item is this year.  (repaint or plated Hudson, or something totally different than the main offering?  With the last 3 years just being a color variant of the main offering, who knows.  I hope they don't dig a year back and plate/repaint the Nutcracker Express. )

-Dave

It's a gold Hudson.

Grampstrains posted:

I too was hoping for an extra car and that may still happen.  The LCCA Christmas car for 2016 looks like it could go with this set rather nicely, so I'm going to get that car as an add on.

Grampstrains, please post a link for the LCCA Christmas car for 2016 you mentioned. When I searched the LCCA website they showed the 2015 Christmas boxcar but I found nothing about one offered for 2016. Thanks.

From the April Lion Roars...

Grampstrains posted:

Thanks Marty

Yes, thank you immensely!!

Does anyone know if there is a Lionel Colorway this year?  I haven't seen any word on one yet.

SAM

Yes, it is a gold version of the 773 Hudson Locomotive available as a limited ornament at Ornament Debut.

For those who don't wish to click...

Mill City posted:

For those who don't wish to click...

 

Reminds me of the Troop cars, post WWII, when they were converted into express box cars by plating up the windows!

I have them beginning with 1996 and ending somewhere around 2010, when I became bored with the new offerings.  Seeing the link the Richard posted, I need to go into the tote and see if I have the Torpedo set from 2014.  If not, its time to check eBay.  

Jim

Thanks Trestrainfan!

you're welcome